An Approach to Music Education through the Kodály Method

Includes: extracts from statements and observations on music education made by Zoltán Kodály, historical roots of Hungarian music education in other European pedagogical systems, the role of singing and folk-song, arrangement by age-groups, the teaching of specific elements (form, harmony, transposition, writing), the Kodály method applied to the teaching of instruments.

The Kodály concept was inspired by the philosophies of the Hungarian composer and educator, Zoltan Kodály (1882 – 1967). Throughout Kodály’s writings are the notions that a person cannot be complete without music and that music serves to develop a person on all levels – emotionally, spiritually and intellectually.

Kodály believed that every person has musical aptitude and that, ideally, a music education should begin as early as possible in a person’s life – firstly at home and then later within the school curriculum. Kodály believed that singing should be the foundation of all music education.

The use of the voice is one of the most defining features of the Kodály approach. The voice is the most accessible of all instruments and this makes it most suitable for musical instruction and can lead to a highly developed musical ear. By focusing on learning through engaging with music, singing, playing, moving and enjoying, music becomes part of the natural learning process. Kodály believed that musical instruction should reflect the way that children learn naturally. Through singing games, fun and play the child discovers the musical elements as they are presented sequentially and has the opportunity to enter the world of music through the creative development of the ear and the eye.