Tis the season for music, and this season I am exploring options in preschool music education. My qualifications for a program? It has to be fun and instill a love of playing with music, not just playing music.
Our small local university has a great continuing education program, and one of the classes is Kodaly-Orff. This program introduces musical dynamics (loud and soft) and musical phrasing, which means that the children learn how to think about musical “sentences,” not just single notes. The children also learn about intervals and rhythm and progress towards reading and writing music. Generally, Kodaly-Orff classes are for children from one to seven years old. In some classes, Kodaly-Orff is paired with introductory Suzuki strings classes to get kids thinking more generally about the music that they are playing.
The Hungarian musician Kodaly believed in introducing good music to young children. The program focuses on folk music and classical music as well as some of Kodaly’s own teaching works. He also believed that musical instruction should follow the path of a child’s development, so children learn music through games and movement and gradually learn how to read and write music.
Carl Orff also developed a preschool-centered music curriculum, and sometimes programs combine these two approaches. Orff believed in integrating children of all musical interests and abilities into a program, and allowed children to explore music through improvisation. The approach complements Kodaly’s ideas about early learning in music.
What do you think? These music programs are structured, but within the structure they do allow the children to move and create their own music. My daughter doesn’t tend to do well with a lot of quiet sitting time, structure, or repetition, though, so we will see how it meshes with our family. We’re planning to try this type of musical instruction out in the New Year, and I’ll let you know how it goes!