Kodaly Method

Prepared by: Verona Eloisa D. Ramada

Kodaly Method
• Itis a way of training children in
music, which is based on giving them
a through grounding in solfeggio.
Aimed at developing aural (hearing)
ability with emphasis on sight-
singing, dictation, reading, writing of
music. A progressive repertory of
songs and exercises based on
Hungarian folk music is used.
Zoltan Kodaly
(December 1882 – March 6 1967)
He was a Hungarian composer,
ethnomusicologist, pedagogue,
linguist, and Philosopher.
Zoltan Kodaly
• He was very interested in the
problems of music education methods.
• He also compose a large amount of
music for children.
• He developed the Hungarian music
education method in 1940’s and
became a basis for what we called
Kodaly Method of teaching.
Trivia about Kodaly
He met Bartok while they were both
students at the Franz Liszt Academy of
Music in Budapest.
He was also important as an educator, not
only of composers but also of teachers and
through his students, contributed heavily to
the spread of musical education in Hungary.
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
• Solfadates from Guido d’Arezzo in the
eleventh century. Hand signs were
borrowed from John Curwen’s work in
nineteenth-centrury England. Rhythm
syllables came from the nineteenth-
century French theoretician Emile
Cheve. The notion of relating
instruction to child development
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
Originated in the writings of
Pestalozzi, and may Kodaly’s teaching
techniques were borrowed from the
solfege texts of Jaques-Dalcroze.
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
It was not the techniques associated
with the Kodaly method that caused its
wide spread adoption. While these
were effective as combined in
Hungarian practice, it was the
philosophy underlying them that
caught the imagination of teachers
around the world.
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
The idea that music should exist at the
core of the curriculum, basic subject
along side math and language, that
music is essential to any complete
education, was one that spoke to
teachers everywhere.
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
The notion that musical literacy is as
universally possible as linguistic
literacy and that the development of
such literacy is an obligation of the
schools came as a breath of fresh air to
an environment in which music was
equated with entertainment and was
considered a frill in education.
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
The belief that instrument are not
necessary and, indeed, are
counterproductive in the musical
education of young children, that the
best possible instrument for
instruction is the child’s own
unaccompanied voice, is an astonishing
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
one, and one that made the possibly of
public musical education suddenly
more accessible.
The principle of beginning musical
education as early as possible, “nine
months before birth” came as an
abrupt awakening to some school
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
systems that had previously offered no
instruction in music at the elementary
level beyond that which could be
handled by musically ineffective
classroom teachers. The still all too
common practice of offering the first
music study to students when they
reach junior high school age was, at
least, shaken by this precept.
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
Finally, Kodaly’s insistence that the
quality of music used in teaching is of
paramount importance, that only
authentic folk music and great art
music are good enough for children,
has caused a general of teachers look
more critically at music series books
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
and other published teaching material.
They now know that only the best
music is good enough and that this
must, as well, suit the emotion,
musical and intellectual world of the
child.
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
Kodaly believed that only the well-trained
musician should teach music to even the
youngest children, that to teach any subject
well at the simplest levels, it is necessary to
understand it at the most complex level. He
never stopped working toward the
improvement of music education in Hungary,
and his philosophy and principles have
permitted music education at all levels around
the world.
Philosophy of Kodaly Method
It is the right of every citizen to be
taught the basic elements of music, to
be handed the key with which he can
enter the locked world of music. To
open the ears and hearts of the
millions to serious is a great thing.”
• “Thesinging of folksong must form a part of
every music lesson, not only to provide
practice in them for their own sake, but to
maintain continuity and also to awaken
develop, and maintain the sense of the
relationship between music and the
language. For these is no denying that it is
here, in the folk song, that the most perfect
relationship between music and language
can be found.”
• -Zoltan Kodaly
 “A well conducted lesson is not a
burden, but a recreation: the source of
joy and cheer.”
-Zoltan Kodaly
Kodaly Sequence
• Rhythm-
1. begins with a whole note
2. half note
3. and quarter note
Kodaly Sequence
• Melody-
1. Diatonic Major scale
Characteristic of developmental
sequence
1. The range in which a young child
can sing songs comfortably and
correctly is limited– usually
encompassing not more than five or six
tones, and these of whole steps or
larger intervals. Half steps are difficult
fot the young child to sing in tune.
Characteristic of developmental
sequence
2. Descending tones are easier for
children to learn and reproduce
accurately than ascending ones. This
indicates that the initial lesson on new
tonal patterns should be approach
through songs in which the interval
occurs in a descending melody line.
Characteristic of developmental
sequence
3. Small skip are easier for the young child
to sing in tune than small steps: G E is
easier than G F#. Wide skips, such as
sixth or an octave, are difficult.

4. In terms of range, one study has shown

that left to his own devices the young child
will most often pitch the upper note of the
Recognizing these principles as factors in
the melodic development of children,
Kodaly felt that the pentatonic– the five
tone scale– was the ideal vehicle for
teaching children musical skills. The
pentatonic is one of the basic scales of folk
music in Hungary and in most of the
world, although the pentatonic of
Hungarian music tends to be minor in
character, or la- centered, while the
usual American pentatonic song is
major or do-centered.
The melodic sequence that gradually
evolved in Hungary was:
1. The minor third (sol– mi)
2. La and its intervals with so and me
3. Do, the “home tone” in major
modes, and the interval it forms
with so, mi, and la.
4. Re, the last remaining tone of the
pentatonic.
After these five –tones, the octaves low
la, so, and high do are taught and, last
the half steps fa and ti, to complete the
diatonic major and minor scales.
The Tools of the Method
The first of the tools chosen for use in
the Kodaly method was the movable-
do system of solmization originated by
Guido d’Arezzo in the eleventh century.
In this system the home tone or tonal
center of a song is do in the major and
la in the minor modes, whatever the
key may be. The advantage of this for
The Tools of the Method
teaching of vocal sightreading should
be obvious. The basic tune of the minor
third so—mi is the same in any key.
Thus when a child knows only these
two notes he can already read them in
any placement of the staff. As his
sight-singing vocabulary increase to
the five tones of the pentatonic, he can
The Tools of the Method
read far from more than only three
lines and two spaces.
Kodaly first saw this system of
“movable-do” solfa when he visited
England and observed choral training
there. The method he saw in use was
essentially the one developed by
The Tools of the Method
Sarah Glover and refined by John
Curwen in the nineteenth century.
For teaching rhythm Kodaly and
teachers working with him chose the
syllable system similar to that used in
French solfege (ta) quarter note
The Tools of the Method
Syllabication
(Ta) quarter note
(Ti-Ti) eight note
(ti-ri-ti-ri) sixteenth note
(tri-o-la) triplets
(Syn-co-pa) eight- quarter- eight
The Tools of the Method
Only the stem are used initially for
rhythm reading. Except for half note.

Hand Sign is the last method.

Kodaly Hand signs
The Tools of the Method
1. Movable do
2. Syllabication
3. Hand signs
The Materials of the Method
Nothing about this sequence or these
tools is unique to the Kodaly Method.
Singly, each has been tried before, and
even in combination they may be found
in some methods used many years ago
in the United States and Europe.
The Materials of the Method
However, the one area in which the
Kodaly approach differs from its
predecessors and achieves what none
of the others has, is in the selection of
materials. Kodaly insisted that the
materials used for teaching music to
young children could come from only
three sources:
The Materials of the Method
1. Authentic children’s games,
nursery songs and chants
2. Authentic folk music
3. Good composed music, that is music
written by recognized composers.
Conclusion
The Kodaly Method is a
comprehensive, broadly based
approach to musical education the
draws on the best of the past
pedagogical practice. It is child
developmental, experimental and
highly sequential. Its primary goal is to
develop a love of music supported by
Conclusion
understanding and knowledge– musical
literacy in the most profound sense.
The tools used to implement the
Kodaly teaching/ learning process are
movable do solfa, rhythm duration
syllables, and hand signs, and the
materials used are folk song and the
music of recognized composers.
Conclusion
The philosophy expressed by Zoltan
Kodaly stressed the importance of
beginning music education early, of using
the child’s own voice as the instrument of
instruction of placing music at the core of
the curriculum, equal in importance with
science, math, and language, of using the
folk songs of the child’s native language
Conclusion
as the earliest teaching material and of
moving from these to the musical
masterworks of western civilization.
Throughout Kodaly’s writing there is
implicit the belief that man is not
complete without music.