Here are five essential questions you need to ask yourself, before starting older students with the singing based Kodály approach.
Whether it’s in a piano or other instrumental lesson, a singing lesson or in a class setting, this topic crops up all the time during my coaching calls inside the Doremi Membership.
How old are they? Primary, tweens, teenagers, adults?
What level are they? Young beginner, older beginner, intermediate or advanced, transfer students
What are their strengths and weaknesses? Pulse, rhythm, pitch awareness, reading, musical phrasing, theory, key signatures, scales, aural exam preparation?
What is your goal? Why Kodály? You’ll have more success and add more value if you have a clear goal in mind.
How much time have you got? How long are lessons and what else do you need to cover in that time? Is there an upcoming performance or exam, or are they changing teacher soon?
Do you teach classroom music and private instrumental lessons using the Kodály approach? Here are my four top differences between these teaching settings.
Do you want or need to create a singing based curriculum for your school, class or club? Maybe you’ve done some Kodály training but have been left highly motivated but not quite knowing where to start.
So know you want to teach using solfa, and you know that throwing them into the full diatonic scale is not the best way. But which subset of the tones, or toneset, do you teach first? Get ready for some controversy!
Do you want to improve your students’ rhythm skills? Whether you’re a music teacher, instrumental or vocal teacher, Kodály musicianship teacher or a class teacher…
Do you memorise your lesson plans for piano lessons or music classes?
So many of us feel we need to memorise our lesson plans. Here are my reflections on my own journey, hang ups and misconceptions about memorisation.