Lavender’s Blue
We’re going to explore an English folk song and use it to help our students discover new elements.
Rocky Mountain: Perfect for Pentatonic
We’ll be using Rocky Mountain to:
• Practice the rhythms ta, titi and ta rest
• Practice do, mi, so and la
• Discover a new note! Re
Step Back Baby: Teaching ti-tika and tika-ti
My last few blog posts have been about more complicated rhythms and how we can guide our students to discover them using a Kodály inspired approach. The most important element of the Kodály approach is singing, using our voice. It really comes into it’s own with the rhythm that appears in the sone Step Back Baby.
Microsteps to Syncopa: as easy as uno, dos, tres, cuatro…
Microsteps to Syncopa: as easy as uno, dos, tres, cuatro…
Going beyond tika-tika: which rhythms to teach next?
I decided to write my next blog about which complex rhythms you could introduce after tika-tika. Of course, alongside preparing and presenting the next rhythm, our students need to practice tika-tika.
Roads to new rhythms: a Kodály approach to teaching tika-tika
In this blog I’ll tell you how I use this song and others to introduce more complex rhythms and why I think Down the Road, in the way I teach it, is such a great song for presenting one particular complex rhythm…
Going lo… teaching low so and la
I think Hi Lo Chikalo is great for presenting low so and low la. Below, I’ll show you how I do it and some ideas for practising low so and la with other songs.
Exploring Hi Lo Chikalo
We’ll explore Hi Lo Chikalo, a fun clapping game that is great for rhythm dictation and discovering something new about solfa!
Starlight: Simple to Complex
I just love taking really simple songs that we can use multiple times throughout the journey of students musical education and give them different learning opportunities from simple to complex and thus proving that the Kodály approach is not just for babies, it is can also really can provide very challenging activities for older children, teenagers and even adults!