I’m covering a few weeks as we reach our second to last class for the term. In week 7 I was delighted to notice two of my students have transitioned to singing accurately, unsupported. These two joined the class before we moved venues, so have had some extra lessons. It’s so exciting when this transition occurs, and I am noticing others following the contour and starting to experiment more above their ‘speaking range’. We will need to do a lot more voice exploration to help lift their little voices.

One mistake a beginner Kodály teacher can make is to want to focus too much on materials that have a very specific learning purpose, forgetting that children need to sing a wide range of songs, and that music class needs to be really really fun. I think I was a bit guilty of that last week, so did a bit of a course correction this week and noticed that most of the children were energised and engaged throughout, although of course, there is so much going on in a young person’s life, it could be other factors.

Over the last few weeks we’ve continued to build on the students understanding of high and low, through Lucinda’s lovely ‘I had a little cake’ game, Loren Easterbrook’s ‘Up and Down/Simon says song/game, and ‘going up in steps and skips’ with the musical staircase.

Last week we introduced the five line staff, to learn about lines and spaces. We ran out of time to reinforce that this week, but next week will build on this to add the ‘hand staff’, using our own hand as a five line and space staff. I’ve decided to build understanding of the staff well before we formally name pitches. I just drew lines on to a long piece of canvas I had, so the children can stand on lines or spaces, or place objects on them.

We’ve been doing a lot of work on beat development and last week ‘presented’ the concept of beat because the children were keeping time accurately with their hands, although not always with their feet. I find it easier once they have the concept of beat, to ask them to ‘put the beat, in their feet’, hands etc. This week we used drum sticks to state the beat, and this was highly successful. I think the extra long sticks make this easier. We switched between beat keeping with sticks, and the ‘pattern of the words’ with our hands. All the students understand the distinction between the two, so we are ready to ‘present’ the concept of ‘rhythm’, which is ‘the pattern of the words’ (at this developmental stage).

This week I made the decision to really make use parents, so we played ‘Swing me over the water’ with parents helping to guide the changes in tempo, and a really fun game of ‘Sally Goes Round the Sun’ with a ball being directed around a parachute and lifted to the air on the final beat.

A parent told me that his son suggested they ‘clap the pattern of the words’ while reading their bedtime story. It reminds me how lucky these children are, that their parents are able to reinforce the learning that happens in music class.

If you want to know more about establishing foundation skills, check out this fantastic resource from the U.K.