a well trained ear, intelligence, heart and hand

PEDAGOGICAL GUIDE| Contemporary Approaches

‘Tell me, I'll forget.

Show me, I may remember.
But involve me, and I'll understand’.
Chinese Proverb

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 PEDAGOGICAL GUIDE |Contemporary Approaches

Kodály’s Inspiration

Kodály developed a philosophy of music education based on the premise that it is every individual’s
right to be a musician. His inspiration has led to the development of some key pedagogical principles
enabling access to quality music education for all. There is no ‘one method’, rather, music educators
inspired by Kodály’ vision have worked together and in response to students’ needs and learning
styles to develop programs that integrate many of the best ideas, techniques, and approaches to
music education. To develop comprehensive musicianship based on the ability to ‘think in sound’ is
fundamental.

Audiation
a well trained ear, intelligence, heart and hand

AUDIATION (thinking in sound) is fundamental to all musicianship processes: performing, reading,

writing, analysing and creating.

Edwin Gordon (1999) has suggested that music intelligence is best determined by one’s ability to
think music – the better one is in hearing and creating music internally, the better developed is one’s
potential to succeed in real musical understanding and appreciation. Gordon coined the term
audiation- this is the ability to hear sounds or pitches in your head, without acoustic stimulation. In
other words, audiation is the ability to think sound.

Both, Edwin Gordon and Hungarian composer, Zoltan Kodály have emphasised the efficacy of the
voice as the initial tool for the internalisation of sound (audiation or inner hearing).

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 PEDAGOGICAL GUIDE |Contemporary Approaches

The Approach
‘Thinking in Sound’

*Excerpt from Australian Art Music: Jen Bergstrum and Rebecca Thomas

Musical knowledge is increasingly considered to be multidimensional in nature. Essential in the

development of skilled and independent musicians is the fostering of the ability to think in sound.
Traditionally, music education has reduced this ‘thinking in sound’ to abstract exercises of dictation
and notation, failing to systematically order classroom activities to promote this broader sense of
musicianship. Increasingly, musicianship is being seen as a developmental process, and, like the
acquisition of language, should be based on a process of experience before knowledge (Gordon 42).

The fundamental component of aural-based music education is audiation: the ability to think in sound.
The process of audiation involves the translation of sounds in order to create a context and add
meaning. Edwin Gordon states, ‘Audiation takes place when we hear and understand in our minds
a well trained ear, intelligence, heart and hand

music that we have just heard performed or have heard performed sometime in the past. When we
merely recognise or imitate what we have heard, or memorise what we intend to perform, we live in
the past. In audiation, the past lives in us.’ (42)

A number of pedagogues have placed value upon aural-based approaches to music education. The
significance of thinking in sound is evident in Gordon’s audiation, Kodály’s inner hearing, and Elliot’s
musicianship. Aural skills appear as an essential feature of most syllabus documents around the world,
further emphasizing the widespread practice of aural-based music teaching and learning. Also
important to aural-based music education is the intrinsic value of the human singing voice. The singing
voice is the fundamental mode of engaging every student in active music making. The singing
classroom is highly inclusive, as every student, regardless of their social or financial situation, has a
voice. By contributing their own unique sound, each student is able to freely participate in the
learning.

It is important that students be exposed to music that is culturally, historically and socially significant
to them. The repertoire used in an aural-based program should include folk music that is culturally
relevant to the students, as well as the folk music of other cultures. This is also true for Art Music, in
that composed music from a number of cultures, including their own, should be made accessible to
the students.
*Excerpt from Australian Art Music: Jen Bergstrum and Rebecca Thomas

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 PEDAGOGICAL GUIDE |Contemporary Approaches

Tools

Kodály’s philosophy inspired analysis and implementation of a suite of effective pedagogical practices
that guide students in developing comprehensive musicianship skills.

 Voice as the foundation for audiation (Gordon).

 Audiation is fundamental to the development of comprehensive musicianship (reading,

writing, performing, analysing and creating)

 Aural, visual, kinaesthetic modes of learning reinforce the development of abstract musical

thinking.

 Quality Material: Access to folksongs, Art Music and other quality composed music result in
a well trained ear, intelligence, heart and hand

deep understanding of musical forms.

 Rhythm mnemonics ( adapted from the French rhythm syllables) as a tool for memorisation

and literacy i.e. linking sound with symbol

 Physical pitch contouring (Curwen Handsigns) reinforce relationships spatially and thus

consolidate the understanding of aural relationships of pitch and support the transfer to

notation.

 Pitch labels (solfege / letter names) as a tool for labelling sound relationships in context

melodically and harmonically.

 Movement, Singing, Playing, Improvisation (Dalcroze, Orff)

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 PEDAGOGICAL GUIDE |Contemporary Approaches

Contemporary Educational Approaches

Maree Hennessy

Pedagogical practices for the effective acquisition of musicianship skills initially inspired by Kodály
have been refined and adapted throughout the years and across the world.

Reflective practice supports this process and certainly, many approaches for teaching and learning
have demonstrated effectiveness / timelessness across the years, aligning with contemporary
thinking about the way in which students learn.

 Access to quality music education: time, frequency, teacher quality, material

(John Hattie, John Fleming)

 Quality : ‘Only the best is good for the child.’

(Kodály)
a well trained ear, intelligence, heart and hand

 Student centred: ‘Student as musician’ .

(Kodály, Orff, Dalcroze, Constructivism)

 Comprehensive musicianship skills : Perform, Read, Write, Analyse, Evaluate and Create.
(David Elliott)

 Audiation as foundation for all strands of musicianship.

(Gordon)

 Engagement, fun, intellectual challenge.

(Erica McWilliam)

 Creativity arises in high feedback environments, with opportunities to practice and innovate
on studied forms to create original material.
(Sir Ken Robinson)

KODÁLY | CONSTRUCTIVISM
 Student centred.

 Knowledge is constructed through the lived experience.

(Vygotsky)

 Learning occurs at key developmental stages. Concrete learning precedes abstraction. (Piaget)


 ‘Student as Musician’: Students develop musicianship via musicianship practices.

(David Elliott)

 Procedural and propositional knowledge is evidenced in the ‘doing or practice’

(David Elliott)

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 PEDAGOGICAL GUIDE |Contemporary Approaches

Kodály and Contemporary Educational Approaches cont’d

KODÁLY | INQUIRY BASED LEARNING

 Community of Learners

 Collaboration

 Modelling

 Students as Questioners and students as Problem solvers

FURTHER READING: Sheila Scott, Associate Professor of Music Education, Brandon University,
Manitoba, Canada

KODÁLY | MASTERY via REFLECTION and FEEDBACK

 ‘Master teacher’ provides modeling and feedback to apprentice’. (David Elliott)

 ‘The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback’.

(John Hattie)
a well trained ear, intelligence, heart and hand

KODÁLY | EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION

 Explicit Instruction of Skills/Strategies.

 Modelling, feedback and checking for understanding leads to mastery.

 Mastery results in confidence to innovate.

 Scaffolding and activities structured to lead to mastery and independence.

 I do it, We do it, You do it (John Fleming)

KODÁLY | STRIVING AND ACCOMPLISHMENT (Seligman)

 ‘Serious fun’ is derived from working on complex problems well within student capabilities.
This builds resilience, a sense of accomplishment and motivation for learning.

 ‘Kids who experience the pleasure of the rigour of learning will always choose to learn’.
(Erica McWilliam)

 ‘Reaching beyond where you are is really important’. (Martin Seligman)

 Well-being is a combination of feeling good as well as actually having meaning, good

relationships and accomplishment. (Martin Seligman)

 ‘Teach music and singing at school in such a way that it is not a torture but a joy for the pupil;
instill a thirst for finer music in him, a thirst which will last for a lifetime’. (Kodály)

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 PEDAGOGICAL GUIDE |Contemporary Approaches

KODÁLY | HOLISTIC BENEFITS FOR LEARNING

 Build individual attitudes of attention, learning and sensitivity to the group, and capabilities for
working together (Martin F. Gardiner)

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT)

 Teachers can utilize a variety of ICT to enhance the teaching and learning process

 Musicianship is best learned via the active involvement in musicianship processes and
technologies can be used creatively to support this.

 With rapid change in the development of technologies, no particular type has been mentioned
in this resource.

 Teachers use professional discretion to select resources and technologies to best support the
learning of the students that they teach.
a well trained ear, intelligence, heart and hand

‘Technology is just a tool.

In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them,
the teacher is the most important’. (Bill Gates)

LISTED BELOW ARE COMMON TECHNOLOGY TYPES THAT TEACHERS AND STUDENTS ARE USING AT
THE TIME OF PUBLICATION OF THIS RESOURCE.

 Notation software e.g. Sibelius, Scorch, Finale

 Mobile technologies and applications e.g. online guitar and ukulele tuners; touchscreen piano
keyboards

 Interactive whiteboards and personal devices ‘It is the fate of science that each
successive age produces new results
 Online games e.g. ‘Staff Wars’
and usually modifies or completely
 Composition refutes the results obtained by the
preceding age…
 Recording and editing
But this is part and parcel of the
 Research development of science.
Science keeps on changing and
 Word processing
fluctuating’. (Kodály)

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 PEDAGOGICAL GUIDE |Contemporary Approaches

SUMMARY

 Procedural Knowledge: knowledge evidenced in the ‘doing’ (Schön, Elliott)

 Student-centred and constructivist approaches:(Piaget, Vygotsky)

 Literacy: (Cambourne)

 Inquiry Based Learning : IBL, PBL (Bianchi and Bell )

 Explicit Instruction : ‘I do, we do, you do’ (John Fleming, Dylan Wiliam)

 ‘Visible Learning’: developing a feedback culture (Hattie)

 ‘Striving’ (Martin Seligman)

 Higher Order, Creative and Critical Thinking (Bloom, Gardiner, de Bono, Sir Ken Robinson)
a well trained ear, intelligence, heart and hand

 ‘Personally Significant Learning’: (Erica McWilliam)

 Kids who experience the pleasure of the rigour of learning will always choose to learn (Erica
McWilliam)

 Teacher Quality: (QCT, AITSL) ‘Know thy Impact’ (Hattie)

 Technology: ‘Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and
motivating them, the teacher is the most important’. (Bill Gates)

‘It is much more important

who is the music teacher in Kisvárda (small village)

than who is the director of the opera house…’

(Kodály)

© DVD and accompanying materials produced by KMEIA Queensland 2013

MIDDLE YEARS MUSIC EDUCATION www.kmeiaqueensland.com.au