January 18, 2013

We began our day by heading to the first of our two schools we had on our agenda. There we met the deputy principal of the Kodaly School. She gave us a little background of the Kodaly approach as well as some history of the school. She explained that the school began in 1950 here in Kecskemet and stressed that it is not a school for musicians but Kodaly began the school with the intentions of bringing music back into the general classroom as a way to reach all students, musically inclined or not. The music lessons begin as a part of the school day at the age of six with basic musical reading and writing. Here, as we saw in one of our observations, teachers use folk and childrens songs and games to get the students involved. Beginning in the 5th grade students are expected to participate in choirs that rehearse 2 hours at the end of the school day. The school provides both primary and secondary schooling. Along with their lessons students may also select an instrument to study. The most popular being the piano followed by the flute, cello, and percussion. The principal concluded by describing the admittance process, stating that the students need to audition. This features rhythmic games, nursery rhymes, and singing.

Following our introduction to the school we observed a first grade class during their music lesson. The teacher began the class with a song using solfege hand signs which assigns a motion to specific notes. There were a few similarities that I noticed between this class and some of the lessons we had previously observed in other schools. For example, this teacher used both movements and music to engage the students as well as teach them the lesson. I also found it interesting how many students were eager to volunteer to sing for the whole class as well as the large group of observers in the back. I remember being terrified in music classes that the teacher was going to make me sing alone. The class continued with the students putting their heads on the desk while the teacher sang different pitches and the students being able to raise their hands when they recognized a certain pitch.

Our class then went on to observe a 7th grade class that was very advanced. To be honest as a health science student I could not recognize much of what they were doing. Our professor told us that they were performing at the level of a sophomore music student and the majority of the 7th graders had no intention of pursuing music as a career. I was blown away by their ability to determine the chords the teacher was playing on the piano after just hearing it twice.

Our trip to the second school was a little bit shorter but filled with more history on Kodaly himself. We met with a professor at the Kodaly Institue which is meant to instruct future music teachers through the bachelor and masters programs. The professor explained that Kodaly (1882-1967) moved around a lot with his family growing up due to his fathers career. The numerous exposures to different musical styles lead to his wide range of interests. In 1900 he moved to Budapest to study music which lead to a partnership with Bella Bartock in 1905. Together they gathered Hungarian folk music which Kodaly used for his doctoral thesis. While teaching at the Academy of Music he was commissioned to write a piece for the 50th anniversary of the uniting of 3 Hungarian areas. The sound the women of the choir was not strong enough so he enlisted the help of a boys choir which in turn sparked his interest in childrens choirs. Kodaly then began the school in his hometown of Kesckemet that we first visited. Our class ended with the teacher putting a melody on the board for us to sing in solfege. Needless to say it was not the easiest for some of us but by the end we were starting to understand. I now have a greater respect for those students that are going into teaching music!