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!
Doremi Connect
with Helen Russell
For music and piano teachers who are inspired by the Kodály Approach
🗝️ KODÁLY TREASURE CHEST, FREE
If you’re a music or piano teacher wanting to use the Kodály approach in your teaching, then my Kodály Treasure Chest is just what you need.
There’s no need to trawl my website looking for hidden treasure! I’ve put all of my best free teaching mini-courses and resources in one place, and I’ll send directions straight to your inbox!
You know you want to teach in a Kodály-inspired way but...
- You feel despondent! You've invested in books & training, yet still don’t have any actual lesson plans
- You know WHAT you want but you don’t have the time or brain capacity to figure out how, when and why
- You’re emotionally exhausted by students struggling to learn notation
- You value aural skills but feel bad when you can’t integrate them successfully
- You feel anxious and alone, wishing you had someone to bounce ideas off
- You feel like an imposter, so lack the confidence to defend your approach
Introducing Doremi Membership with Helen Russell
- Teach engaging, effective and stress-free piano and music lessons using the Kodály Approach, without becoming overwhelmed by planning
- Painlessly grow your students’ skills, understanding and confidence in a way that feels good to you
- Feel welcomed by our community of like-minded teachers and Kodály experts
- Feel supported with personal advice and coaching
- Develop your own musicianship to improve your skills and confidence
- Regain your energy and enthusiasm for teaching
- Advocate for yourself, and your approach, to parents and school leaders
Hi, I'm Helen!
I founded Doremi Connect to help teachers like you feel supported and confident integrating the Kodály approach into their teaching.
Many teachers are totally convinced by the benefits of the Kodály Approach. However, despite completing training and buying books, they still aren’t using it fully in their teaching.
I’m not surprised. It took me over a decade to fully integrate it into my piano and music teaching so that I was satisfied my students were getting all the benefits. A decade of studying with the best Kodály practitioners, innovating, trialling and refining my lesson plans with hundreds of students just like yours.
I created Doremi Connect so I can pass on all of that expertise to you. It’s time to start feeling supported and empowered. Find out more about me here.
DOREMI PIANO BOOKS
Explore the Doremi Piano books series taking you from the very first lesson all the way to Western Art Music and exam work. Including books that are suitable for teachers and students without a Kodály background.
ARTICLES & PODCASTS
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!
Destination: Middle C. A Kodály approach to Letter Names and Clefs… part two
Alongside the work on introducing do re mi on the white keys, we can introduce the musical alphabet which takes us down a path of learning landmark notes, tonics, clefs, the grand staff and our destination… middle C
Introducing Letter Names and Clefs… part one!
Your students have been singing in solfa beautifully and know their steps and skips on the keys and the stave… now it’s time to learn about letter names and clefs! What do you do?!
Preparing Pitch: How to prepare pitch and practical ideas
This blog will explore what it means to prepare our students aurally, physically and visually with practical suggestions for activities
High and Low: The widespread metaphor for pitch
I previously discussed what we can do to prepare children to sing and how to help children sing confidently, but we also need to understand
Empowering children to sing: achieving success with the cornerstone of the Kodály approach
In the last blog post (catch-up here), we talked about the qualities of speaking and singing and what the differences are. To help our students learn the difference between their speaking and singing voices they need to feel free and able to experiment with their voices. So how do we give them confidence and encouragement to experience their voice types?
Whether you’re a classroom teacher, visiting music teacher or 1:1 instrumental teacher, this blog will give you tips and ideas for experiencing voice types in a Kodály inspired way.
Preparing to Sing: The Beginnings of Pitch
I wanted the blog after beat and rhythm I wanted to discuss pitch, but the beginnings of pitch aren’t anything to do with so and mi or high and low; it’s about experiencing the voice and children determining whether something is singing or speaking. They need opportunity to play games and do activities to prepare voice types and to make them feel comfortable with using their voice in different ways.
Preparing Rhythm
To prepare rhythm, we need to go through the same steps we went through with beat but with rhythm!