f. My Solfa Recorder Book (86)

This method has its equivalent in a piano method (My Solfa Piano Book) and was published in 2008. This is another example of a teacher, trained in the Kodály approach at the British Kodály Academy, applying the Kodály concept in the teaching of a particular instrument and writing a method book.

In her introduction the author summarises the Kodály approach as “Musicianship through singing”. The method works from singing songs that were learned by rote towards playing them on the recorder, mostly reading the text with the solmisation syllables written above.

The book consists of eleven chapters, each called a lesson.

The lay out is child-friendly with coloured pictures, but the overall look is a little messy with pictures all over the place, boxed text, bolded fonts, and italic fonts.

Analysis from Kodály perspective

Skills and tools

Each lesson starts with singing, being an active experience of music. The teacher should model the songs and the pupil joins in when he knows the song. Before playing it on the recorder, the song has to be familiar. This aim is reached by performing the song in different ways: singing on text, singing on relative solmisation, singing combined with pulse or rhythm, or both.

The order of solmisation syllables offered is so-mi; new tone la; mi-re-do; do-re-mi-fa; do-re-mi-fa-so; adding low la, and so,. Also solo singing is encouraged in some of the singing games.

Beat and rhythm are dealt with in a way very similar to Kodály classroom-teaching. Lesson 1 starts with rhythm linked to text. The children are made aware of the difference in the pace of the syllables in the words. In lesson 2 the rhythm is connected to the beat, with references to ‘heartbeat’, symbolised by drawn heart-shaped figures. Special feature of this method is the ‘heart-chart’ at the back of the book. An A4-size paper with 16 hearts (4 x 4), to point at while singing. The difference between ‘ta’ en ‘tete’ is presented all at once: the rhythm syllables together with the notation symbols. The preparation for the symbols is a pictorial representation of two cherries for ‘tete’ and one for ‘ta’. There is a lot of practice with these rhythmic elements. Next elements added are ‘ta-a’ and 'ta-a-a'. There is not much preparation on metre on its own; in the first two chapters, time signature is vaguely presented by the spacing of the stick notation, and it is also shown in the grouping of the heartbeats. Bar lines and time signature are presented (explained) in lesson 3. Then the 2/4-metre and later 4/4 are explained. The 3/4-metre has a physical action to underpin its feel: knees-clap-clap. To me, this seems a good starting point to experience stronger and weaker beats in a bar.

Inner hearing is taught by singing on solmisation and handsigning, and exercises or games including ‘singing in your thinking voice’. This terminology is very close to Kodály-teaching.

Polyphony is prepared in the singing activities, by combining beat and singing, rhythm and singing, and playing circle games while singing. There are some assignments with ostinatos, working in pairs, mainly to be performed by clapping, but also by playing the recorder. These ostinato exercises are always called “rhythm work”. There are also 2- and 4-part canons included, first to be sung, in groups, then to be played.

In the appendix of the book the singing games are described: in some of them there is preparatory work on phrasing and form of a particular song. In the lessons there is reference to formal concepts, like the pupil has to decide on “different or the same?” in phrases. Some responsorial playing and echo playing help the student as well to experience form. I noticed that there are no breathing indications in this method, as I know from other recorder methods. This would also be a way to incorporate the feeling of phrasing. In some cases, the formal features are just given: for example, the form of a verse-and-chorus song is explained, and pointed out to the pupil: “every verse has the same melody shape, the rhythms change to fit the words.”

Concerning musical literacy, in the sense of reading and writing with understanding, this method follows the Kodály-methodology very closely. The first reading occurs while playing known songs from the solmisation syllables written above the words of the text. The method always asks for singing and clapping the songs before playing them, but it depends on the judgement of the teacher if the pupil really ‘owns’ the song well enough to be ready to read it. There still remains a strong possibility of purely technical reading. In the second lesson the pupil learns the symbols for the quarter note and two eighth notes, in relation to the beat, and with rhythm syllables linked to them.

The first ‘writing exercise’ is drawing heartbeats (hearts) above the words of a song, and on the next page drawing the symbols for quarter and eighth notes. From then the reading happens from stick notation: rhythm-symbols with solmisation syllables underneath. From lesson three on, there are bar lines and a time signature is added to the stick notation. There are also some composition exercises to assimilate the literacy skills. In the sixth lesson the stave is introduced. There is a lot of theoretical explanation involved, and there was no preparation of the visualisation of the contour of the notes on the stave, which could have been done easily with movement, or even with handsigns.

The stave has no clef in the beginning. Later on, there is a little do-clef sign (just the letter ‘d’, representing the position of the 'do' on the stave). All the staff-notation is in “the second position” (where the note G equals do). This seems quite fixed to me, also because in the first introduction of the stave there is a box with “do is on the second line, re is in the second space, mi is on the third line”. The author is also mixing up the ‘positions’ in this place, which I find quite confusing. Till the end of the book staff-notation stays combined with stick notation. It is worth mentioning that there are no absolute note names in this method at all. That is why I am a little afraid that the solmisation names might become too ‘absolute’ as ‘instrument names’, also because they are written next to the covered holes of the recorder.

The tool of relative solmisation is very dominant in this method. There are two ‘positions’ for ‘do’ in this book: respectively on f, and on g. In the first position the pupil learns only ‘so’, ‘mi’ and ‘la’, in the second position ‘do’, ‘re’, ‘mi’, ‘fa’, ‘so’, low ‘la’, low ‘so’.

Concerning rhythm syllables, the typical Kodály-syllables are used: ‘ta’, ‘tete’, ‘ta-a’, ‘ta-a-a’, ‘shhh’ for the quarter rest. Towards the end of the book the rhythm names are less frequently used, and mainly with the introduction of a new rhythmic element.

This method provides in circle games and thus includes the opportunity for physical movement. The use of movement is used for experiencing beat, phrasing and form, awareness of pitch, tempo, etcetera. Also broader learning goals, such as co-ordination, concentration and memory skills, are trained through the use of singing games.

Principles

This method is experience-based when used in the proper way: when all songs are well-learned before playing them on the recorder. The inclusion of singing games makes it even more likely that the children incorporate the music and use the music to learn new skills.

The repertoire consists of British rhymes and children’s songs, (many are familiar to me through the lessons and books of Lucinda Geoghegan, but that may be because they are just well-known British songs. I noticed that the author ‘recycles’ songs, but then with a different melody. The song ‘Pease Porridge’ for instance, appears firstly as a so-mi-song, later in the book it is given in the original version, a do-re-mi-fa-song. Some songs are borrowed from ‘With Music In Mind’. No arrangements of classical composers, or other composed music. There are no scales and other technical exercises in the book.

For the prepare-present-practice principle the pupil would have to have experienced the new concept (new rhythm, new note, etcetera) well enough before it is presented. In this method, and in many other methods, the chapters are organised by topic, and the new element just bluntly jumps in “Lesson 3 A new sound – la”, first thing on the page: “Here is the hand sign for a new sound LA”. And the sound is indeed completely new, not sung or listened to before. Although probably intended to be used otherwise, the book does not make this clear enough. This is not systematically according to the PPP-principle. Although some elements are prepared: for instance, the beat is clapped in a circle game before presenting beat. But there is no link to the experience in the circle game. So the student has to make this link himself. This can of course be solved by the teacher, who can ensure the conditions for PPP, while using the method.