Kodaly: Introducing a New Concept

Prepare
 Children learn new songs in which the unknown musical material, the rhythm or melodic
pattern to be introduced, is prominent.
 They learn these songs by rote, by listening to them sung by the teacher and by repeating
them after him.
 They engage in whatever musical activities suit the nature of each song: they may sing them
softer or louder, faster slower, step the beat, clap the ostinato, perform the song, play the
game etc.
 When the core of songs (few as eight or as many as 20) are known well, it is time to move to
the next stage in the teaching learning process.

Make Conscious
For Rhythm:

 On which beat…?
 How many sounds…?
 Are the sounds even or uneven…?
 Is it a longer or shorter sound…?
 How many beats go by while we sing….?
 How can we use the tie to…?

For Melody:

 Is the new note higher or lower than…?

When the questions have been accurately answered, the teacher names and shows notation for the
new rhythm or gives the solfa and hand sign for the new note, and shows its notation on staff. The
process then moves to the reinforce stage.

Reinforce
 At this stage, the children return to all the songs learnt in the Prepare stage and sicover the
new learning in each.
 They now see the notation and read from it using the rhythm syllables and solfa.
 They notate the songs or phrases of songs and they learn new songs containing the newly
learned material.
 When they are working confidently with the new rhythmic or melodic learning, the teacher
assess how effectively it has been taught or learnt.
 Assess
 At this stage children read new songs containing the new learning and use the new rhythmic
or melodic turn in improvising and composing.
 Repeat this four – stage process for each melodic and rhythmic learning.

Choosing Songs for Skill and Concept Acquisition

 The concept or skill is made conscious knowledge.
 Must not contain anything new other than new element.
 The child MUST find only one unknown in the entire example.
 The assessment songs must contain well – known melodic turns and rhythms with only one
new element, that is the learning to be assessed.
 The teacher must keep in mind:
o The frequency with which the new pattern occurs
o It’s position in the song
 It’s better if the pattern occurs in the first phrase of a song rather than the middle or end.
 Simple songs are generally best to “make conscious” process and assessing learning.