I had a wonderful week & gained enormously as a musician from the experience. Kodaly believed that "Music should belong to everyone" (how very true) & that music literacy should be taught throughout schools from nusery through to teacher training & conservatoire levels. Also that the first musical instrument is the voice which is free & is for everyone, not just for the wealthy.
So was there a lot of singing - yes, everyday for much of the day in everything - common singing (warmups to start the day done as a large group), choir (I was in the SATB choir, there was also a female choir) , workshops - I went to the ones for the early years,solfege, conducting & more solfege. Can I sing? Well I was told as a child that I couldn't & have believed it ever since. Actually I found out I can sing &, not only that, but really enjoy it.
In solfege I was in the group for those with no previous knowledge of relative sol-fa. A mixed group from the incredibly brave lady from France who simply knew nothing about music & had literally never sung before, through people like me - who play instruments,read music,have taught themselves to sightsing a bit the hard way but who felt there were gaps in our musical ability that we couldn't find the answers to, to music teachers & really good singers.
Difficult to put into words what we learned & how it works - but at some point during the week I realised that I could now hear the music in my head, that relative solfa & the hand signs really do help me to see where the music is going & what it sounds like & that my feeling for rhythm & pulse (which I know has always been weak) was vastly improved. At the beginning of the week we were told that by the end of the week we would be singing 4 part canons & yes by the end of the week we could. In 10 minutes we learned a 4 phrase melody (dictated to us using hand signs). We then learned a variation on it & then were divided into groups of 2 or 3 & 2 groups sang the 1st version in canon while the other 2 groups sang the 2nd melody in canon against it - & it was brilliant
(well we thought so & I think Cyrilla did too)In the workshops for the early years we gained the knowledge of how to teach children so they learn by experiencing music 1st, absorbing musical elements unconsciously (feeling the pulse, rhythm, hearing phrasing, pitch,etc), building up a repertoire of songs so they are happy to sing because it is fun.
Voluntarily helping with music (violins) in the local primary school I have increasingly felt frustrated by a system which at 7y.o. identifies children as musical based on their ability to sing back a melody in tune; gives them a chance to learn to play an instrument if they "pass" the test & labels the others as nonmusical. Almost every child can learn to sing in tune with the right help, repertoire & practice. It's an enormous shame that in the area where I live they aren't given the opportunity.
When I arrived home yesterday, completely shattered, & trying to explain to my husband what I'd learned I thought it might be easier to demonstrate. My 6y.o came in so we started with 1 of the very simple tunes that we initially learned, put in some appropriate actions & within minutes my 8y.o son arrived wanting to join in, closely followed by the older 2. When our singing session ended they wanted to know when we could do more.
Interestingly enough later on yesterday & today I keep hearing them singing unprompted the songs they learned, also improvising their own words & actions & my 8y.o. came to me & said "Mummy, singing is really fun"...
So start saving your pennies for next year's summer school. You have nothing to lose & everything to gain. I don't dispute that there may be other means to achieve the same objectives but this has worked for me. I am determined to give my children that opportunity too & if I can find some way of working with the local school I would like the children there to also benefit from it.
