The Kodaly Method

Zoltan Kodaly

This is a brief overview of the curriculum I teach. It is written by the brilliant Dr. Jerry L. Jaccard of BYU. His curriculum is based in the teaching pedagogy of Zoltan Kodaly (pronounced "ko-dai"). Kodaly was a Hungarian music educator. If you want to read a lot about him and his philosophy on teaching, go ahead. If not, I'll tell my takeaway from it all is to base music learning in music the students already know.

In other words, students learn a song, then teachers can use that song as an example of a certain music principle they want to teach. Maybe someday I'll write that process out a bit more with a specific song. (Note to self...)

Dr. Jaccard has painstakingly put these concepts together in a chronological way, and paired them with over 450 songs. Each of the songs has a purpose in being sung whether it is to prepare the students for a concept, or to reinforce that concept. The songs in the curriculum are primarily folk songs from around the world.

If you are interested in learning more about the curriculum, check out Intermuse. It is a 3 summer program, 2 weeks at a time, to learn the curriculum and improve your own musicality 1000%. I went last summer and absolutely loved it.