Many things have happened for our family lately- moving to California, moving into an RV, and now, in our effort to be location independent, I have been hard at work on my music website. Here are some of the free printables I have posted recently.
I have also purchased some video making software and learned in part how to use it. I'm excited about how this tool will help me make build more materials in the future. I made this Major Key Signature tutorial with full-sized printables.
I've also been making videos to accompany the Mother Play project I did a few years ago, making recordings from Froebel's original Kindergarten music.
But of all of the projects I've done, I am most excited about my new membership site. I've been wanting to build one for a long time, but it was cost prohibitive. The technology and software became available to me about a week ago, and I jumped for it. members.teaching-children-music.com is now live. All of the Mother Play videos I've made are on the site, as well as all of the materials from The Solfege Train and Beginning Rhythm, and I have great plans for this website. No longer do I have to wait until a large project is completed before releasing my work, I can add materials as I make them. Please consider joining. :) Better yet, once you are a member, you can join the affiliate program and make a 40% commission on any sales you refer. Membership access is only $30 per 6-month period. My goal is to provide deep value to many people at as an affordable price as I can and still earn a fair wage for my work, as my entrepreneurial Dad has taught me by example. I really hope I will be able to build a successful business that can support our family and allow me to make materials full-time. The more members, the more time I will be able to devote to the site.
So here's my little plea for action in my shameless plug allowed in places like a personal blog- please consider joining the membership site if these materials are useful to you. There's a lot there! But if it's not a good fit for you right now, maybe you know someone else that would like these materials. Homeschoolers, music teachers, and public school teachers who cover music, and really, anyone wanting to learn more about music, are my target audience. Any and all help with this website launch is greatly appreciated! Thank you. :)
Things have been crazy at our home lately. We are moving into our RV in 12 (TWELVE!) days! While I have dreamed about this move for a long time, now that it is at our doorstep, I'm starting to 2nd-guess myself, lol. No, this is a good thing for us, the kids are excited, and we'll make all the little hurdles happen.
In the meantime, my husband is still doing Solar, and that will continue to be our main source of income until we can work something else out. I am truly hopeful that it will be the dream expressed in our Kickstarter Campaign. It's great for homeschoolers, musicians, and anyone wanting to teach children music, and I really do think we are offering a lot of value. Please check it out if you feel inclined. Thank you. :)
His videos are also available on YouTube, like this one.
When I was a teenager, I remember asking my Dad, an entrepreneur, why he one of his products was so much less than his competitors. Why not charge the same and make more money? His answer was that he knows how much he himself loves to find a bargain, and how much bargains have helped him raise a large family. He said that whenever you can make something more affordable, you are doing a service to your customers. He told me he would rather serve 100 people to make $100 bucks than rake a couple of people over the coals for the same amount of money. Likewise, he likes to give his business to people who share that philosophy and are serving the community with their business. Yes, you do have to put food on the table, people understand that, but the wonderful thing about making something affordable is that you will attract more customers. You serve more people, and you still have your needs provided for. That lesson from my Dad has really stuck with me.
In the music education business, websites like freepianolessons4kids are a breath of fresh air. As a musician, I have been really surprised at the cost of many music materials. Math websites an resources are a dime a dozen. Same goes for reading, spelling, and writing. Why not music? I've been so shocked at the price tag of some of the music products I've come across in the past. When I first examined Joseph Hoffman's site, I immediately thought of what my dad had said and I loved it right away. He is a good man who sincerely wants to help more children learn the fundamentals of music and he has made it very affordable. This website is a real gem and a service to the online community. This is his business model:
The piano lessons are free. Completely, totally, 100% free on YouTube. They are the meat and potatoes, and they are designed so that you don't really need anything else to progress through the lessons. Isn't that wonderful? The lessons are fantastic too.
For sale is the e-book that has a printout for every lesson. Sometimes it's a cutting activity. Sometimes it's a coloring activity. Sometimes it's the music written on the staff so you can become more familiar with reading music. There's a rich variety from lesson to lesson. It's very well done. You can also purchase the videos on DVD. I love this business model.
So now that we know that it's affordable and I like his business model, it's time to look at why I love the piano lessons themselves.
First off, my kids love them. They really love Mr. Hoffman. My 4-year-old is so proud to tell people that she is taking piano lessons and Mr. Hoffman is her teacher. Every time we finish watching a video she waves at the screen and says "Goodbye, Mr. Hoffman!" She really loves him. My 5-year-old especially enjoys the movement incorporated into the lessons, and the Early Learning community will be happy to know that while my 2-year-old hasn't actually played the lessons on the piano, he is gaining a lot from the lessons as well. He is able to count the rhythms "ta, ta, ti-ti, ta", sing the songs, and overall has a good sense of accomplishment at the end of the lessons. He knows he is getting piano lessons too and he loves it. Mr. Hoffman is his music teacher too. I don't hesitate to recommend these videos to very young children, they don't have to practice on a piano to benefit. (although obviously for best results you would.) Concepts like low and high, fast and slow, steady beat, the music alphabet, and SOLFEGE are taught very well and thoroughly.
I think it's awesome that he teaches solfege. He teaches the ABCs and incorporates movable do (which I prefer over fixed do) into the lessons, so Do-Mi-So is synonymous with a I chord. By the end of the e-book you are playing simple melodies, like the frog song in my review video above, in the right hand, while accompanying with chords in the left hand. And they kids will understand the why behind the chord as well. I love the theory in the lessons, and the e-book reinforces it very well. By the way, it's a full-color e-book, I just printed it out in black and white to save ink.
I love the story he uses to teach where the C is on the piano (and all the other letters). It really stuck with my kids. We've been using a piano insert with the letter names and the kids have been reluctant to get rid of it. Well, shortly after watching these video clips, my 4 and 5-year-olds told me they didn't need it anymore. And they were right! So check out his videos for that perk alone.
The videos are short and sweet. This is great for short attention spans. You can move at your own pace. Since my children have already had some piano exposure, we've been going through about 3 lessons a week although we will need to slow down soon. If they don't "get" a topic, they can watch the video again. It's short enough they can watch it before practicing each day really. So go slow. Go fast. It's up to you. Mr. Hoffman is always encouraging. If the kid didn't practice for a week there's no awkward apologies necessary. Just pick up where you left off and work through it. I am finding that short video lessons with worksheets and other non-media reinforcement afterwards has been the best education model for my kids and our family. That's what we're doing with http://thehevproject.com/ too. It's a great way to learn.
I've hit on it already, but I love the kinesthetic reinforcement. Children stand up and move to demonstrate Do-Mi-So, proper posture, bad posture, and steady beat. Awesome.
I love the Kodaly elements that are in the lessons. I recognize that influence, and I think it's fantastic. Things like showing notes on a one-line staff, rhythm solfege, the rhythm and letter flashcards, and the kinesthetic elements are things I associate with the Kodaly/Orff teaching methods. The most powerful, life-changing music class I had in college wasn't one required for my vocal peformance degree. It was my Orff training I had one summer before I internshiped with the Cache Children's Choir. My piano-teaching approach dramatically changed after that class, for the better. My students were better able to understand and internalize music concepts with the tools I gained. And it's so much more fun! I wish every music teacher could benefit from this kind of training. I wish every music student, especially children, could gain from this kind of teaching approach. Well parents, Mr. Hoffman's got it and he's nailed it.
The other question is, does this replace piano lessons with a paid teacher? Well, that's up to you. Ultimately there's no replacement for real-life feedback. If you are uncomfortable with teaching piano, hiring a teacher is a great option. There's something to be said for a weekly commitment with a teacher. If you pay for something, you take it more seriously too- they say you get what you pay for, and it goes both ways- sometimes you get what you pay for because you expect to get it and put in the effort. But we're talking about the very basics of piano here. These videos will not prepare you for Solos and Ensembles or other like-music competitions by any means. But they will teach the basics, no matter what age you are. If you know nothing about piano, you can learn with your children. I wouldn't put an upper or lower age limit on these videos. You are where you are. If you are a beginner, you will benefit from watching these.
As an early learning advocate, I'll put in a special plug as well. It is hard, it can be nigh impossible, to find a teacher willing to take a 3 or 4 year-old for piano lessons. Usually it's not because young children can't learn to play piano, but because they lack the attention span for a 30 minute lesson, which seems to be the gold-standard length for children. Not only that, we seem to think young children HAVE to practice 30 minutes a day for it to be worth the money and effort to take them to lessons. Because of this barrier, many wait until their children are 7 or 8 to start. Even then, there's still the issue of jumping in and creating burnout. Even at 7 or 8, a beginning piano student needs to taste success and unless they are naturally inclined to music, they will reject the new 30 minute workload. 20+ years later we hear them regret that they quit piano when they had the opportunity as a child. I think these online piano lessons are the perfect bridge for preparing children for formal lessons with a teacher. A child who has gone through these lessons will have a good foundation and will be ready for that workload. Alternatively, these videos are an excellent tool for piano teachers to use with their beginning students. Let the videos and e-book be their homework, and an in-person teacher can reinforce what they have learned. Either way, you win. And the videos are on YouTube!
It's giveaway time!
www.www.freepianolessons4kids.com is hosting a giveaway for 3 (three!) copies of their e-book that accompanies lessons 1-41. Thank you so much! Good luck everybody. :)
Disclaimer: www.freepianolessons4kids.com gave me a free copy of the e-book for review. I was not otherwise compensated for the review, and my opinions shared are my own.
I'm hosting a giveaway of my own product, Beginning Rhythm, for two reasons. First because this blog recently reached 100,000 page views and I want to celebrate. :) But mostly because I have been asked to do a review and giveaway for another company, and since I haven't really done a give-away before, I wanted to test the waters and learn how to do one. I know, I'm behind the times, but better late than never, right?
Introduction to the course
As
a music major, one of the most useful classes that I took in college
was computer applications in music. It was one of the classes that you
tried to take as early on in your music program as possible so that you
would know how to more easily create music for your theory and form
classes, as well as transcribe solos and cadenzas, create music for your
students, and a whole slew of other things. It was a basic, simple
class, but it was so essential for everything else that we did.
We
primarily learned to use a program called Finale. While the program is
indeed fantastic, the $600 premium product available to us as students
at the computer lab is not a program that I can personally afford. I
have been simply satisfied with the $50 print-music program my husband
bought a few years ago until I found....drumroll....
As
an open source project, it is absolutely and completely free. No
advertisements, no e-mail sign-up (unless you want to join their forums,
which I have enjoyed), and no trial period. I can't tell you how happy
I am to have found this resource.
As I have been
learning and playing with this program, I have thought about how I wish
that I could have had something like this when I was a kid and wanted to
be a composer. I remembered how I spent HOURS painstakingly dragging
individual notes and dropping them into a poor program my high school
music teacher had to notate one of my early compositions.
I
would like to help the online community learn how to use this program.
Based on my college syllabus and adapted for children, the lessons and
assignments will be posted here and you could have your kids do them at
your convenience. I will provide instructions and sometimes
screen-videos to show how to do them.
Some side benefits for learning about computer music notation would be
1. Playback feature to see if what they "wrote" was what they want it to be- instant feedback!
2.
Solidify rhythmic notation- in a 4/4 measure, you can only put 4
counts, no more, and if you do less, the measure will fill up with
rests.
3. Encourage music composition
If
you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments section
and I will try to answer them. I would love your feedback!
Since I started teaching my little girl piano, she has begged and begged me to be able to play her very favorite song in the world, which is "I am a Child of God". To make this song accessible to her, I color coded it with solfege and she has taken off with it. I have decided to make these songs and more available to you. Check out the new page where they will be compiled. It's under the "pages" link on the right for quick and easy reference, or simply here: http://www.professional-mothering.com/p/blog-page.html
What is your child's favorite primary song? I'll take requests, not limited to LDS music as long as it is legal to use it for noncommercial home use. I'm hoping to create a nice library over the next few weeks.
I know that I have posted a lot about BrillKids lately, and I'm about to do it again. They are such an amazing company and I really love them. Today I'm going to tell you a bit about their charity arm.
I have been reading some of Glenn Doman's books again, and one of the things that struck me more this time around is how it is largely the middle class that is engaging in these programs. Why? Well, largely it is because the rich have a sense of security of knowing that their children will have an excellent education, so they don't think about things like early literacy as much. The middle class are the ones who can afford to look into these kinds of programs, have the time to devote to it, and a myriad of other factors.
But what about lower income families? The ones who often don't know where their next meal is coming from? Sadly, these are the children that often struggle in school, who don't have books in their homes, and are caught in the cycle of poverty. As I have learned more about early learning, my heart goes out to these children especially. They have as much potential for greatness as any other group of children, but the opportunities to get the education they need for that is often hindered. Sometimes the doors of opportunities are completely taken away.
Give a man a fish, and you give a man a meal. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime.
For this holiday season, instead of giving a poor child a doll or a toy train, what if you could give a small child the gift of early literacy? For less than the price of a candy bar, a state-of-the-art reading software program (in my opinion, the very best reading program out there), can go into the home of a small child in need. Parents of these children will be empowered to give their children so much more, and all they need to do is push play. Imagine what it could do for one of these children. Instead of entering school far behind their peers academically, they could start ahead, already knowing how to read. Imagine how they would embrace life's opportunities if they felt they were good at learning, instead of knowing they were behind and giving up.
I truly think that this is one of the best opportunities I have ever seen to lift a small child up and give them something truly delightful, something that can change their lives. I have been using this software with my own children, and I can attest that they love it. So many tantrums have melted into delight when I tell them that it's time for Little Reader. BrillKids has generously given this charity full rights to distribute the software to the Early Education for Every Child Foundation, who in turn are making a big difference as they distribute this much-needed software to the children who love it most.
I feel so passionate about this cause that, not only am I donating to it myself, but I am throwing in a little extra incentive for you as well. If you pledge $10 or more on their donation website, then I will give you a free copy of my "Beginning Rhythm" e-book.
Here is how it works:
1. Pledge at least $10 to this fantastic charity
2. Come back here and "purchase" the e-book through my online store. The product is free, and I'm going through the honor system. Please be honest and don't abuse the trust I have put in humanity in the name of helping these children out. I like to think that people are good. :) You will need to include your e-mail address. I don't have a newsletter, I'm not sure why there is a box for that.
3. In the event that the charity doesn't "tip" (but it will, I'm sure), you can either enjoy a free e-book for your efforts, donate to www.eeecf.org, or donate $10 to a charity of your choice. Do what feels right to you.
Here is a nice little documentary to tell you more about BrillKid's charity efforts in the United States.
I have been using Little Musician with my children for about a week now, and I wanted to give a full review since the product is on sale until September 2nd. You can read my full review on my other site here:
Every spare moment I have had on the computer lately has been spent creating a new product, "Beginning Rhythm." It's been a lot of fun, but I am so happy to have it completed. I have also really missed blogging, and I look forward to getting into it again. What better way than to host a giveaway? I've always wanted to do one. If you want a chance to win, just leave a comment. That's it! Winner will be announced September 20th.
I have been juggling domains and hosting around a lot lately, and learning a lot in the process. I had started another website, www.teaching-children-music.com, which I let expire, hosted the content on this blog, and then decided that the information I dream of creating for it just doesn't fit the scope of professional-mothering. I had already put a lot of SEO work into teaching-children-music, so I decided to host it with blogger's free hosting like I did with this blog. The conversion is complete!
I feel like this blog is "up and running" again, and that I am catching up on all of the things that I wanted to blog about but didn't have time for while we were moving and having a baby. Of course I will still be blogging here, but I'm going to slow down and use my precious writing time (ie, when the kids are still asleep in the morning!) to build up my other blog.
"Teaching Children Music" is a site that I'm building to keep myself fresh and up-to-date in the music side of things. I am a musician by trade. I have my degree in vocal performance, taught piano lessons for 14 years (wow, that's half of my life!), and have worked with several children's choirs. Besides being the church organist and singing and community functions, I don't do much with music anymore. I am semi-retired from teaching piano so that I can be a full-time mother. But I still have a lot to give, and this music site is my creative outlet to those ends.
Right now most of the content on the site is old, but in the near future I will be building it up and focusing my efforts there. Whereas "Professional Mothering" is more about preschool, "Teaching Children Music" is for all ages. I am excited about this new project.
First of all, is the violin for toddlers? A few years ago if you had told me that I would start my boy out on the violin while he was two, I probably wouldn't have believed it. But that was a few years ago. As I have studied early childhood development from authors such as Maria Montessori, Glenn Doman, and Sidney Ledson, however, I have adopted a different philosophy, one of creating a learning environment for my children. When I read "Nurtured with Love" by Shinichi Suzuki a year ago, I knew that I wanted the violin to be a part of my children's education.
What is Suzuki?
This was a question I had to ask myself and search out on my own to answer. Growing up there were many musicians whom I admired that wanted nothing to do with it, and openly admitted that they secretly cringe when they find out a new student was trained in the Suzuki method since many of them can't read music. Note to self: no Suzuki for my children. But then Glen Doman praised Suzuki and his methods in his books, and I recalled that I knew some VERY talented musicians who trained in Suzuki. Some of the best musicians on campus in college, where I was a music major, had their start with Suzuki. Suzuki can start children out very young, and having a diabolical plan to turn my children into the next Trapp Family Singers (mwahaha!), I decided to give Suzuki the benefit of a doubt and read his book.
The method, especially at first, relies a lot on the ear. I think a lot of the reason students fail with this method is because this method relies a LOT on parental involvement, with the mother taking lessons with her child and they learn the instrument together. It also involves creating an environment that encourages musical growth. Just as all Japanese children learn to speak Japanese, this approach teaches much by the environment of the child. I have decided that this is something I want to do with my own children, in conjunction with note reading via the Kodaly method, which can also start in the toddler years.
If you give a toddler a violin…
If you give a toddler a violin, a dump truck, a spoon, your cell phone, or any other item, be aware that to your child it will be a toy! It will be so tempting to tell your child to be more careful, to become tense and raise your voice as you see them continually drop their instrument, climb couches with it, drag it across the floor, and many other unspeakable horrors to a fine instrument you have invested in for your child. It makes no difference to a two year old. To them, it is a beautiful instrument just their size made just for them. It is a toy. Violins are not made of porcelain, they are made of wood. They are not terribly expensive to repair. If you are not prepared to allow your child to play with their violin (within reason! I drew the line when he hit his little sister with the bow…), then wait a few years. Peter's violin has survived a full week, and he has really grown to love it. We took a risk and bought our 1/32 violin on e-bay and we were very pleased with the results.
Preparing the Environment
To prepare Peter to be excited about his gift, I began pulling my violin out of its case and actually started practicing again. If you don't have a violin and have never played, that is okay, get one now and start learning. If you do not show a vested interest in the violin, your child probably will not either. I also bought the Suzuki 1 CD and started playing it, and playing with it. Sadly, my intonation is not what it was when I was in high school, and the CD has really helped me correct that. I am sold on the CD. Even if it was a bit pricey, it is music played beautifully, and it is fun to play with the CD. I did this regularly for about a month before we gave Peter his special gift. Now we play the CD together and march around the room to the "Twinkle, Twinkle" variations.
I am also very grateful to track 18, which says "Please tune your violin to the following tone." It is only because of this track that Peter will surrender his instrument long enough for me to tune it. "No, Mommy. It’s MY violin." Yes, Peter, it is indeed yours. In spite of some of the less-than-gentle treatment it receives, Peter is very careful and gentle with it his instrument when he puts it in it's case. It is so endearing to see my little boy love his gift so much.
In light of preparing the environment, I found an article about finger games for the violin for toddlers which may be helpful.
Sizing the instrument for your child
This is a picture of my full sized violin next to Peters. It looks so tiny, but in his hands it is easy to see that it is just the right size. Getting the right size is crucial to your child's enjoyment of the violin, and is fairly simple to do. Simply place the violin under your child's chin and see if they can comfortably curve their fingers around the scroll. The right size for your child is the largest size with which they can comfortably do this. We tried a 1/16 at our local music store and it was too large for Peter so we knew that we wanted a 1/32. We would have had to ask the store to special order it for him, or we could order one ourselves. If children are given a violin which is too large for them, it can be very uncomfortable to play, and being forced to play it could even turn them off to playing the violin forever. It is not worth it. But giving them the right tool for the right job with the right environment with proper encouragement is bound to bring good results, and a positive experience for your family.
The weather is warm, school is out, and summer vacation is here. With the warm weather come farmers markets, family reunions, county fairs, rodeos, festivals, and holidays to divide our time. It is a wonderful time of year for children, if you can beat the heat.
With all of these festivities and celebrations comes an outpouring of live music in child-friendly settings. Listening to recordings is wonderful for every-day use, but it should not replace live music.
Live Music Opportunities
Here are some of the avenues you may find free opportunities to listen, but you may have to do a little digging on your community calendar to find them.
Art in the Park. Depending on the size of your community, these may be nightly, weekly, or monthly, or unfortunately, not at all. Look into neighboring cities if your community doesn't offer something like this. Usually held in the evenings, you bring a blanket and young children play in the grass while being serenaded by beautiful music.
County Fairs There are often competitions held during county fairs, which gives children an opportunity to hear and see a large variety of talent in a short time. Come and go as you please.
Farmers Markets Farmers markets will often have live music to listen to as you shop for local produce and homemade items.
Community Performances For example, our city offers "noon music at the tabernacle". It gives local musicians an opportunity to share their talents and it gives the community a free opportunity to hear fresh talent. Churches will often be the buildings to host this, and it doesn't hurt to check and ask for a calendar of events.
Community Theater These may or may not be free, but they are worth looking into. There are usually more performances like this done in the summer.
ParadesThe marching band is a big hit for young children, even if they don't throw any candy.
Listening Tips
In light of all of these opportunities, there are a few things that you can do that will enhance your family's enjoyment of the music. Here are a few quick tips before we close:
Dress for the occasion. If the event is in the evening, dress warm. If it is in the heat of the day, wear sunscreen and bring water for the kids.
Watch your child's attention span. There is no shame in leaving a performance early. I recently took my children to hear the Presbyterian Church's beautiful bell choir. The children were enthralled, for the entire first song. During the second song they began to be really fidgety, and were distracting others in the audience. I left, and Peter talked about hearing the bell choir all day. If he had been forced to stay the entire hour, he may have been singing a different tune.
Learn about the instruments before you go to the performance. Show your child pictures of the marching band instruments and tell your child what they are. When they see the tuba go by during the parade, your child will be excited because they will recognize it.
If you are going to an orchestra and they have advertised the program, play recordings of the music at home in the background before you go to the symphony. Children and adults alike love to hear music that is familiar to them.
Eat before you go to the performance, or if appropriate, bring food. Children will listen to their stomachs before they listen to the music.
Express your own admiration for the performances. If you are obviously not enjoying the music, chances are your children will share your attitude. Fortunately the opposite is often true.
Closing Remarks
Summer is a great time to enjoy all of the cultural events with your family. Whether you simply cheer for the marching band as the walk past or design a schedule based on your community's events, your positive attitude toward the music you hear will make all the difference to your children. So enjoy the music! Be safe, and have a great summer.
I learned Autumn Leaves during my Orff 1 training course from a phenomenal early childhood music specialist, Saskia Beverloo, who translated it from the original Dutch.
I originally created this activity when I interned with the local children’s choir, but now it serves as a valuable part of our preschool collection. Local preschool groups have borrowed them, they’ve been brought out at family reunions, and my son plays with them regularly. Ultimately the $6.00 and 30 minute investment to make them has been very profitable for us. Step 1: Go to the dollar store or a craft store and purchase artificial autumn foliage. The more colorful, the better! Step 2: Using sharp scissors, trim off the leaves and discard the branches. Have a place to store your new treasure, because they will be bulky and will want to spread out. I store mine in a travel cosmetics bag. Step 3: Sing this song! Play! Have fun!
If you use the song as part of a unit study, you might be interested in the autumn leaves and harvest activities on this website.
Allow me to set the stage to illustrate what the Kodaly Method can do. Imagine entering a classroom and witnessing a group of students who have an amazingly balanced education in music. They can sing major, minor, and pentatonic scales, recognize all major, minor, and perfect intervals by sight and sound, are skilled in solfege and staff notation, can sight read in five different keys, are proficient in syncopated and dotted rhythms, and are adept at dictation to the level with which they can sing. They also have a firm grasp of basic musical form. They have learned about 80 songs during the course of the year, and they mutually delight in singing beautiful music. At first glance this classroom may appear to be a group of music majors at your local college, but the truth is, these students are much younger, and many of them have no special musical abilities. They are a group of 3rd graders at a typical Hungarian singing school.
His Story
After his work in the Hungarian schools, Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967) is probably best known for his work with Bela Bartok collecting and compiling thousands of Hungarian folk songs in their purest form. Bartok and Kodaly met while they were both students at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. They became lifelong friends. Both shared a love for the music of the Maygar, which was the native folk music of Hungary. In Hungary, especially at the beginning of the 20th Century, it was typical to be born, marry, and die in the same town of city, and the music of each province was truly unique. Both Bartok and Kodaly had traveled as children and both had a strong sense of the rich musical heritage Hungarians have, but were alarmed at the populations general ignorance of that heritage. The schools taught primarily in the Germanic style. Publications of the folk songs that were available were often Hungarian texts set to German music, were undistinguished from popular music, or were simplified or otherwise altered so as to bear little or no semblance to the original. (1)
In 1905, the two began the lifelong task of going to the Maygar people and recording the folk songs in their purest form. The recorded the music with the relatively new invention of Edison’s phonograph, which was a curious thing to the Maygar, but not as exciting as the cameras which the attending press brought. The wax rolls of the phonograph could only be played back in the laboratory, so its usefulness was dubious to the onlooker. Many of the peasants the composers interviewed doubted the authenticity of their mission. But despite the trials, the musicians collected thousands of folk songs and renewed interest and national pride in the true Hungarian folk song. Together, they were founding fathers in the field of ethnomusicology.
Both Bartók and Kodály began to incorporate elements of this music into their compositions. However, where Kodály would quote the Magyar melodies verbatim in his compositions, Bartók chose to assimilate the style of the Magyar. Bartok went on to become a famous composer, and Kodaly, a composer in his own right, revolutionized the music education in the public schools.
Applying the Kodaly Method
Why is this history important to parents? An understanding of Kodaly’s intense involvement in gathering these folk song anthologies tells us who the man was and why folk music was important to him. Kodaly chose folk music as the vehicle to educate children. He did this because he felt that it was the mother tongue of music for the child, and hence the easiest to learn. For Hungarians, this meant Hungarian folk music. In Kodaly’s studies, he found that Magyar music was based on pentatonic and modal scales, was monophonic (meaning only sounding one note at a time), and was rich in 2nds, 4ths, and 7ths. He also found that folk music was developmentally ideal for teaching children to sing in tune as well as providing a good base for learning other music theory skills. The Kodaly method draws strictly from three sources;
Authentic singing games and nursery songs
Authentic folk music
Good composed music by recognized composers (2)
This strict use of folk song is one of the elements which sets the Kodaly method apart from the others. Singing games are used throughout the curriculum to facilitate a joy in singing and a love for music. Nursery songs are primarily taught to the youngest children (many Hungarian children attend nursery schools beginning at age 3). Folk music is taught exclusively in the early grades and continues as composed music is introduced.
In Hungary, the students learn only Hungarian folk music in the first years, then the music of surrounding countries, and finally the folk music of the world. In America this is not as practical as our musical heritage, like everything else, is a “melting pot” of different cultures. Many of our folk songs have foreign melodies, or were adaptations of foreign folk songs to begin with. Much of American folk music is European in nature, although our African-American spirituals obviously have African roots. So in an America, the origin of the folk music is more laid back, the developmental sequence of the melodies being of primary concern.
In his studies with children’s choirs, Kodaly discovered (nearly simultaneously with other childhood music education specialists) a sequence of intervals that was especially effective in teaching children to sing in tune. The sequence is founded on primarily through child development. Kodaly touched on this briefly;
Music must not be approached from its intellectual, rational side, nor should it be conveyed to the child as a system of algebraic symbols, or as a secret writing of a language with which he has no connection. The way should be paved for direct intuition. (3)
Curwen Hand Signs
For teaching these intervals, the Kodaly method uses the Curwen hand signs.
In schools where the Kodaly method is used, solfege is used exclusively in the early grades, with absolute names of the notes being taught around 3rd grade when students begin studying an instrument. It is with instrumental music that the absolute names truly becomes necessary. For the singer, solfege is easier to learn and all that is necessary for music reading. Since the ultimate goal of the Kodaly is for everyone to obtain musical literacy, the voice is the primary instrument because it is most readily available. Also, by learning to sing first, the musician learns to associate the notes on the staff as pitches, and not the fingering on the instrument of choice.
In the Kodaly method (among others), Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti is shorthanded to DRMFSLT. Higher notes are written D'R'M' and the lower notes are written T, L, S, and so forth. Although other songs are taught by rote, music for the conscious study of music for reading is introduced with the following sequence;
SM
SML
SMD
LSMD
SMRD
LSMRD (in which the whole pentatonic scale is learned)
MRDL, (a minor mode)
MRDL,S,
D,LSMRD(4)
Fa and Ti are introduced later and as needed. This is because the minor 2nd (Fa to Mi and Ti to Do) is especially hard for the younger singers to sing. Also, universal to most cultures is the heavy use of the pentatonic scale in their folk songs, which goes back to the idea of teaching in the native musical tongue.
In Louis Choksy’s “The Kodaly Method”, there is a fantastic appendix of American-esque folk songs presented in this sequence. Many of the songs are singing games, and the book comes highly recommended if you choose to use the Kodaly method in your home.
Up until now I’ve made little mention of some of the tools Kodály teachers use. Understanding the difficulties that young children have with writing, the Kodaly method uses a series of manipulatives and techniques to teach music reading and dictation to their students.
Rhythm Sticks
For rhythm notation, students are given a bundle of sticks, often popsicle sticks, pencils, or toothpicks. Note heads are ignored for this exercise, and the sticks make a nice shorthand for simple rhythms. │ represents a quarter note, learned through the French rhythm solfege as "ta". If the teacher said "ta, ta, ta, ta", the student would dictate it with four sticks laid out as │ │ │ │. Eighth notes are learned as "ti-ti" and are notated as ∏. A quarter rest can be notated as a sideways W, or with a Z. For a half note, add a dash after a quarter note. Beyond that, the stick notation becomes difficult to use with sticks, but is still handy with the pen, with note heads written for half and whole notes, and dotted rhythms being used. Combined with the sol-fa solfege shorthand mentioned earlier, we have a very useful combination, when learned, for notating melodies without a staff. Follows is an example for "Rain, rain, go away."
Similar exercises to those used with rhythm sticks can be done with rhythm flash cards. Some of the common tools and aids in teaching are
There are few things more thrilling to young children than making homemade instruments and then playing them in a family orchestra. Virtually anything that can be hit, plucked, shaken, or blown can be turned into an instrument. There are too many articles and books written on musical instrument toys for this to be a comprehensive list, so I'm not going to even try and instead give you a few ideas to get you started.
Claves
Claves, or rhythm sticks, can be made with virtually any kind of stick that can be banged on each other. We have actually purchased a couple of sets, and they are my children's favorite. The claves pictured here are made of PVC pipe. They have used craft sticks, pieces of dowel, and kitchen utensils for this purpose as well.
Tuned Glasses
This one is my favorite. You will notice in the video that the glasses that have more water in them seem to resonate less. Goblets work best tuning purposes, and you have the added benefit of rubbing your fingers over the rim for a singing timbre. If you color the water, you may want to have a separate water bowl to moisten your fingers with. I colored the water to make it more attractive to my toddlers. The colors I chose were red, yellow, blue, orange, green, and purple. I chose these colors for their contrast, but any color combination would work.
Rain Sticks
These rain sticks were made with paper towel rolls, wheat, packaging tape, and blue paper. I traced the bottom of the paper towel roll on a blue index card, folded the paper in half, and cut it out. Then I placed clear packaging tape over the circle and placed the circle over the paper towel end. I put paper in between the tape and the open space inside the roll because I didn't want the wheat to stick to the tape. Then I poured wheat into the pipe and repeated the process on the other side. You can be done here, or you can have the kids decorate an 11" by 6" piece of paper and tape it to the paper towel roll (pictured on the right). Alternatively, you can have them decorate the paper towel roll with stickers. This part is optional, but my little boy loved it.
Coconut Halves
Reminiscent of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the coconut halves resemble the sound of a horse's gallop. To make ours, my husband drilled two holes in opposite sides of a coconut and drained the milk out. Then he used a saw and cut around the edges. He said that he only used the saw for the hard outer shell, and when he was done he hit the coconut on the cabinet and it broke cleanly. One of these days I may sand them, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. In Kids Make Music! Clapping & Tapping from Bach to Rock! , they suggest that you can buy a large balloon, cut off the mouth piece, and stretch it over a coconut half to make a bongo drum.
Metal Bowl
We have a set of metal mixing bowels in our kitchen and they make wonderful percussion instruments. Adding water is fun because the pitches change as the water level is changes, or the water is moved while the bowl vibrates. Try hitting the bowls with different kitchen utensils to see what kind of sounds they make. Does it sound better with a wooden spatula or a metal one? What about plastic? Does the size of the utensil matter? What happens when you tap on different parts of the bowl? Do you like the sound if you hit the bowl from under the water? Can you see the water vibrate when you hit the bowl? There are many extension activities you can do with metal pots and pans.
Jumping Coins
These were created with frozen juice lids I was saving for another purpose, but I discovered a nice ring when I flipped them like pogs on the carpet. Small metal pieces can make a lot of fun sounds. I think I'm going to drill holes in the coins and make a wind chime with them and some other metal knick knacks. That's a project for later this summer...
Stringed Instruments
This is the classic homemade instrument toy, and it can be made in a variety of different ways. I had a great sound when I used a smaller shoe box, but there were strong objections from my son so I used aluminum cans instead. I only recommend using cans if you have a can opener that will cut the can open smoothly, safety first! The important thing to have when you make stringed instruments is a sound box, strings, and a bridge of sorts so that the strings can vibrate freely. All of this is accomplished with a can and rubber bands. In the video I used two different sizes to show the contrasting sounds.
Shakers
These can be made with anything that will contain small objects and air. Egg shakers are probably the most popular. My example in the video was a vitamin bottle I partially filled with beads. That was easy...
Guiro
The guiro is an instrument whose sound is made by running a stick across an instrument with several notches, and the resulting sound is much like a ratchet. Our guiro was the same #10 can used in the stringed instrument shot, and our stick was nothing more than a craft stick. Aluminum cans often have several notches down the side, premade for your guiro enjoyment. (I'm sure that's why they put them there, right?)
Conclusions
Making homemade instruments is a fun activity for craft time, music time, and even science. Here is a video of all of these instruments to give you an idea of the sounds you might get if you make these instruments yourself. Enjoy!
Creating an environment of music for preschoolers is one of the best things you can do for your child in the early stages. Collect a variety of music, and then push the play button. Let them listen as they play. Encourage them to move to the music. Talk about what you are hearing. I love Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf for teaching the different instruments. This is especially appealing to children named Peter. As a vocal performance major, we studied everything in the original language, and I can honestly say that I picked up more foreign vocabulary from the music I memorized then from the German and French 1010 classes I took. If you want a good overview of opera in the original language, I recommend "Opera, a new way of listening" by Alexander Waugh. I also thought the book itself was very good. Some of the songs on the CD are the complete song, while others are samples, but since our little children have short attention spans, I find the samples are usually long enough. Having said that, opera was always written in the vernacular tongue and was meant to be understood. I don't think that it is necessarily detrimental to listen to it in English. After all, these operas are often performed in English. I think that's a personal preference, the important thing is exposing them to good quality music.
Teaching Singing
For singing, I have to recommend the Kodaly method. See my full essay on the Kodaly Method here. I actually got my degree in music and have had a lot of experience with children, and have been really impressed with it. It starts out for toddlers using authentic singing games and nursery songs. It teaches music reading through solfeggio (Do Re Mi, etc) before pitch names so the children can sight-sing music. It teaches in the sequence that is easiest for children to sing, beginning with Sol and Mi, gradually adding notes until they know the whole scale. They also teach rhythm using french rhythm solfege, which I have found to be particularly effective with my piano students. I highly recommend the book The Kodály Method: Comprehensive Music Education from Infant to Adult by Lois Choksy. It is full of great ideas for teaching music to children, including several songs great for teaching in the back. I use a lot of Kodaly in my studio.
Teaching Piano
Ideally toddlers would have a 5-15 minute lesson every day to fit their attention span, and I think this is the best time to start. I've been teaching piano for 10+ years now, but have been wondering how I'll teach my little boy. In my research, I found Piano for Preschoolers. I really liked the idea of color-coding for little kids, but this wasn't very practical for my studio, so I made my own color code chart to slip behind the keys on our piano. An octave is 6 1/2" on the piano, so I made a table in microsoft word with 7 columns and 7 rows, and made it 6 1/2" wide. I put the letters CDEFGAB in it and printed it out on cardstock. Then I colored all the C's pink, the D's yellow, E blue, F orange, G green, A purple, and B brown. I made this order up because it gave the best contrast, in my opinion. Putting red and orange next to each other gives more room for confusion. I cut these out and used clear boxing tape to laminate it and make one long strip to put behind they keys. You can also laminate them after you color, and then just use scotch tape to connect them, which was easier for me because I have a laminator. My youngest piano students are 6 and 7, and they were very excited when I gave them one. Then I had my students color the notes in their songs. This has been very helpful for a couple of my students who had become too dependant on finger numbers. One student told me it made her music pretty. For a toddler, I would color the notes for them.
Most piano teachers have a favorite method, and mine is the John Thompson course. It is a more classical approach then the newer methods, and I find my students progress with it more quickly. Although the music is still the same, they have updated their Teaching Little Fingers to Play book so that it is not such small print, and they have fun colored images for each song. It also has a lot of tips for the teacher. The method has been around long enough I have found this book at thrift stores, but it is only about $7 new. When I start my little boy on piano, I am going to use this method and use a color-code chart to make it easier for him.
My best advice is to follow your child's lead, and if he doesn't seem ready don't push it. I do know that in Suzuki they start kids as young as two, and one of the biggest ways they motivate their children is to have the parent also play. If you play already, great, do it! If you don't, the Suzuki method has you take lessons that your young child goes to for a few months before they get to take their first lesson, so they really want to do it. I don't think my son is quite ready yet. I do give him plenty of opportunity to tickle the ivories, but I have not given him formal lessons. I have a collection of percussion instruments I let him play with, and mostly right now I'm doing singing things with him. The suzuki method includes a lot of listening, not just the CD's of the songs they play, and they recommend you start that much younger, even at birth. I highly recommend "Nurtured by Love" by Suzuki to anyone who is interested in teaching their very young children music, even if you don't want to use the method. It's a short book, and was very inspirational.
A Note on Other Instruments
If you are going to purchase musical instruments, toys or otherwise, for your children, I offer a bit of wisdom I have learned through my own experiences. Please, please, please don't give them an instrument that won’t play in tune! Young children will sense that what they are playing doesn’t sound right, and they will become discouraged at their own ability to play that instrument well. Children are not likely to blame the instrument unless they have had experience with a better product. For example, when I was small and had shown quite an interest, my parents found a "bargain" and bought me a recorder. I was so excited to play it, but became discouraged because I couldn’t get it to sound right. I gave up on the recorder. This impression would have remained permanent if I had not had recorder lessons as part of an Orff course I took as a music major in college. They provided nice recorders as part of the tuition and talked of the importance of getting a good instrument. I quickly learned to play, and have had a lot of fun with my children with the recorder. On this note, avoid colorful xylophones at department stores. They don’t make them like they used to. I saw one the other day on sale for $15, and would have snatched it up it I hadn’t played the scale first. Yuck! When I told a neighbor that I could have bought junk on sale for $15, he told me that he gets junk for free in the mailbox every day. Heed his wisdom. A good plastic recorder costs about $5.00 USD at a music store. I have seen two recorders in a package at the dollar store. A bargain? Absolutely not!
I have seen unpitched percussion instruments at the dollar store. A bargain? Absolutely! The point of percussion instruments is to make noise, experiment with sounds, and ultimately develop a sense of rhythm. Percussion instruments are a fantastic investment for your children’s musical development.
One other note on instruments for children; make sure that the instrument is the right size for the child. I became discouraged taking much desired violin lessons because it hurt me to practice. My teacher said nothing about the size until my parents specifically asked her. It was much to big for me, and I took a four year break before I wanted to play again. My negative experience practicing with an instrument I desperately wanted to play created a mental block that was difficult for me to overcome. This lesson applies to every instrument that comes in children’s sizes. Find a musician that can help you find the right size. Ideally you would take your child with you to purchase the instrument. Rather than surprise your child with an instrument on their birthday, give them a coupon describing the gift and make a special shopping trip together. This extra step will be very rewarding for the whole family’s musical journey. Viva la Musica!
(Illinois: Mark Foster Music Company, 1977) 4-7 
(New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.), 22
