WHAT HAPPENS IN GENERAL MUSIC?
The lower grade music class is a Kodály classroom. Our focus is on studying fundamental music concepts. These early years of music instruction are important because they provide the foundation of your child’s music making experience here at P.S. 261.
A typical lower-grade music class always includes the following:
-
Welcome/Hello Song
-
Vocal warm-up
-
Singing, including solfege
-
Rhythm/Beat work
-
Application of musical concepts through movement or a game
Throughout the year, we will expand on these concepts through:
-
Musical Literacy
-
Improvisation
-
Composition
-
Part work
-
Solo singing
WHAT IS KODÁLY?
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer and pedagogue most known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method. He sought to reform music education in the first half of the 20th century, writing a large amount of material on teaching methods and composing music intended for children's use. His work in Hungary's lower and middle schools resulted in the publications of several highly influential books and his methods and practices ae seen today in music classrooms around the globe.
To explain the Kodály method here in detail would be difficult. You'll just have to sit in on one of my music classes! If you can't do that, I can share with you the 6 basic principles of Kodály teaching. They hang in my classroom.
-
All people capable of linguistic literacy are capable of musical literacy, and it is the obligation of schools to provide for that literacy.
-
The human voice, the instrument with which everyone is born, is the best instrument for beginning musical instruction.
-
The folk music of one's own language and culture is the best music to use in teaching.
-
Only music of undisputed quality, whether folk music or composed music, should be used in teaching.
-
Music education, to be fully effective, must begin at a very early age
-
Music should occupy a central place in school curricula, equal to that of mathematics or language arts.