Abstract
The principles of Hungarian music educator Zoltán Kodály can be particularly useful not only in teaching children how to read music notation but also in creating curiosity and enjoyment for reading music. Many of Kodály’s ideas pertaining to music literacy have been echoed by educators such as Jerome Bruner and Edwin Gordon, as well as current brain researchers. Specifically, Kodály’s emphasis on sound before sight, going from known to unknown, use of moveable do solfège, use of various learning modes, and the importance of providing adequate preparation of pitch concepts can all be useful in our approach to preparing students to read pitch on the music staff. Various vertical as well as vertical/horizontal “pre-staff” activities, including melodic contour, body signs, visual icons, and the solfa tone ladder help to build children’s understanding of pitch placement and create curiosity for seeing how familiar sounds will look on the staff.
Keywords
Hungarian music educator and ethnomusicologist Zoltán Kodály was one of the earliest and most articulate advocates of music literacy. Often referred to as a humanist, he believed in the goal of a literate society in Hungary for the common good and worked tirelessly toward realizing this goal for most of his life. In his lectures and writings, Kodály frequently expressed frustration on this topic, saying “millions are condemned to musical illiteracy” (Kodály, 1929/1974b, p. 119) and “So let’s get at it! Illiteracy to disappear in the next five years!” (Kodály, 1949/1974a, p. 164). In his own work as an ethnomusicologist with composer Béla Bartók, Kodály traveled throughout Eastern Europe and notated more than 10,000 folk songs beginning in 1905. Not only was the ability to read and write music part of a desired intelligence standard within Kodály’s society, but it was also a necessary tool to be able to preserve and perpetuate the customs and traditions of the people.
Kodály’s commitment to building a musically literate society in Hungary is evidenced by his continuous output of children’s music for study in the schools (Young, 1962-1963). In addition to composing music for children’s choirs, he also created vocal books containing nursery songs, sight-reading exercises (such as 333 Elementary Exercises in Sight-Singing), and graded pentatonic, two-part (such as Bicinia Hungarica vols. I-IV) and three-part (Tricinia) songs. Bartók’s pedagogical piano series, Mikrokosmos, which is also graded, is evidence of a shared vision with Kodály. Following six visits to England to learn more about the choral tradition there, Kodály continued to develop and strengthen textbooks and music materials to be used in Hungarian schools until his death (Sinor, 1986). By 1962, the Hungarian singing schools could not accept the number of students who wished to study and people in England voiced envy over Kodály’s “handsome dividends in the sphere of amateur choral singing” within Hungarian schools (Young, 1962-1963, p. 37).
Certainly, Kodály was not the only music pedagogue to include or even emphasize music literacy within his system of education; Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, Carl Orff, and more recently Edwin Gordon articulated the importance of literacy within their systems of music teaching. However, the central place of literacy within Kodály’s system of beliefs on teaching music can inspire us to make reading preparation a priority in our goal-setting, and to explore different types of approaches to reading on the staff. Together with our own sequential planning and creativity, we can stimulate our students’ curiosity about reading music. Although more than 75 years have passed since Zoltán Kodály’s educational movement began in Hungary, some of his most central teaching principles and the techniques derived from them are coincidently reflected in the work of music psychologists and brain researchers.
It was Kodály’s opinion that rote-learning is not enough to teach music to children; they should learn how to read and write music, for literacy leads to musical independence (Sinor, 1986). If we rely solely on rote-teaching in the early grades and do not begin to teach children to read staff notation, there are several reasons why we may be shortchanging our students. First, text reading studies have indicated that eye behavior (the “oculomotor system”) involved in reading is strongly linked to the cognitive processes of the brain. Although some differences exist in brain function between text reading and music reading, both types activate common cortical areas in the brain (Roux et al., 2007). According to Gromko’s (2004) study, there are four cognitive processes specific to music reading: (a) reading comprehension, (b) audiation, (c) spatial–temporal reasoning, and (d) visual perception of patterns or notes. The informational highway that exists between the eyes and brain underscores the importance of introducing visual components into instruction to enable students another distinct way of cognitively interpreting information.
A second reason has to do with the fact that music reading is a spatial process.
In contrast to text reading, the relevant information contained in music notation is derived . . . through analysis of the spatial location of the notes and of their relative height separation on the staff which is directly related to pitch intervals (Sergent, Zuck, Terriah, & MacDonald, 1992, p. 107).
Therefore, to read music, the eye must take in both horizontal and vertical information for the brain to interpret. We cannot assume that students who are able to read text will naturally be able to read music as well; we must teach them.
The third reason has to do with long-term memory. Although the brain can receive and memorize information learned by rote, it is quickly forgotten and unable to be transferred into the long-term memory. It is stored in remote areas of the brain and difficult to locate at later times because of the lack of pathways established through interaction with the information (Willis, 2006, chap. 1). Experienced music readers, on the other hand, can adeptly store and also retain the information they see displayed (Sloboda, 1984). Neurologists believe that the entry of information into the long-term memory is vital for future learning to take place (Willis, 2006, chap. 1).
Additional Research on the Role of Literacy in Music Learning
Music psychologists have echoed Kodály’s thoughts about literacy as a component of musical understanding since the mid-1980s, when John Sloboda (1984) equated music reading to “a genuine species of perception” (p. 235). A decade later, Thomas Goolsby (1994b) conducted a study in which he found music perception to be necessary for accurate and “musical” performance. When put into these terms, we are reminded of how nonnegotiable music reading is as a component of a music curriculum. Kodály’s statement in 1950 was emphatic: “no musical knowledge of any kind can be acquired without the reading of music” (Kodály, as cited in Winters, 1970, p. 18). With respect to Kodály, it is helpful to keep in mind the context of this time period when knowledge of Western European music was predominant. Today there is a greater awareness and value placed on world music traditions that are “acquired” effectively by rote or oral tradition.
Although research on music reading has been scarce compared with that of text reading, the number of studies has increased in recent years and researchers are trying to improve understanding as to what happens in the brain when we read music. Reading music is a skill we learn through experience. There are distinct characteristics which “skilled” music readers demonstrate. Among the traits found in skilled music readers, they
have a larger perceptual span than beginners (Burman & Booth, 2009),
are able to take in more information more efficiently with each fixation (pause 1 ; Goolsby, 1994a; Sloboda, 1984),
use patterns to guide their reading (Wolf, 1976),
“chunk” the information rather than reading note-by-note, can recognize groups of notes as patterns (Goolsby, 1994b; Sloboda, 1984),
read approximately one measure ahead (Goolsby, 1994b),
vary less in their music production while reading,
have greater storage capacity (Sloboda, 1984), and
use fewer and shorter fixations, with the exception of tonally complex stimuli (Goolsby, 1994a; Polanka, 1995; Waters & Underwood, 1998).
There are several types of music reading: (a) silent reading of a musical score, (b) reading a score while listening, and (c) reading a score while playing an instrument. Kodály believed music should be read “in the same way that an educated adult . . . reads a book: in silence, but imagining the sound” (Choksy, 1981, p. 8). Citing examples of a composer needing to hear and write down accurately the sounds within him, and a pianist who will “play it in a different way if he can hear the [harmony] along with his own even if he does not see them in writing,” Kodály (1941/1974d, p. 198) referred to this as internal hearing. Edwin Gordon coined the concept audiation and described it as equivalent to thinking in language. The process of audiating while reading or writing notation is specifically referred to by Gordon (1989a) as “notational audiation” (p. 8). He identifies eight types of audiation and six hierarchical stages, whereby one stage serves as readiness for the next 2 (The Gordon Institute of Music Learning, n.d.). Audiation is distinguished from other skills such as imitation, recognition, and memorization in that it requires true comprehension and is necessary for creativity and musical meaning (as opposed to strictly theoretical meaning; Gordon, 1989b).
Initially, music psychologists doubted whether someone’s ability to read a score in silence (and “hear” the sounds mentally) could be assessed (Sloboda, 1984). However, within the past 2 years, neurosurgeons have successfully identified and shown images of the precise regions of the brain where silent score reading is taking place, through surgical brain mapping of amateur musicians whom have suffered lesions (Roux et al., 2007). Kodály’s concept of internal hearing continues to be studied. Brodsky, Kessler, Rubinstein, Ginsborg, and Henki (2008) describe “phonatory-like” processes intimately involved in the music reading process, as well as “covert” excitation of the vocal folds. Gromko (2004) suggests that the music reading process is not one that is two-dimensional, but three-dimensional, with spatial, temporal, and sound represented in notation.
Strategies for Integrating Kodály Principles in Music Literacy Instruction
The following Kodály principles can be useful in teaching literacy:
Teach sound before sight (Choksy, 1981)
Start with the known and from there, go to the unknown
Use a medium such as solfa syllables to connect pitches or lyrics heard with absolute pitches seen on staff. Other systems are available, such as a numerical system, but when taught from a young age, movable do solfa works very well. It translates easily to scales used in Western music, can be used for any key, and the vowel sounds of the solfa syllables offer the child practice in developing a round vowel sound and beautiful, resonant singing tone.
Provide plenty of preparation leading up to actual reading of pitches on the staff (Eisen & Robertson, 2002).
Kodály’s writings on kindergarten provide insight into some of his beliefs about literacy and how it should be taught. He believed that a child’s musical education should begin as early as possible (Kodály, 1941/1974c). Although Kodály advocated that children should experience music first before they begin to read music notation, he also emphasized the teacher’s responsibility of sufficiently preparing new material in advance and on a gradual basis. It was his belief that kindergarten-aged children could learn in play “what would be too late to learn in the elementary school” (Kodály, 1941/1974c, p. 128). Songs and games the child plays in kindergarten become material for the same child to read and to begin to write in the first-grade year.
Kodály’s view aligns with constructivist Jerome Bruner’s (1960) philosophy about beginning instruction “as early as possible in a manner consistent with the child’s forms of thought” (p. 56). Through use of a “spiral curriculum,” Bruner argued that topics should be introduced at an early age, then developed and redeveloped in later grades or even later in life.
There are very few single or simple adult acts that cannot be performed by a young child. In short, any more highly skilled activity can be decomposed into simpler components, each of which can be carried out by a less skilled operator (Bruner, 1960, 1964).
Reading music can be considered one of these acts.
Although children are capable of beginning to understand symbols at a young age, understanding pitch on the staff can be challenging because pitch is initially heard—not seen. The following questions can be useful in determining whether it is an appropriate time to begin teaching pitch reading on the staff:
Can/do your students:
Sing in tune with a beautiful tone quality (head voice)? Sing a wide repertoire of age-appropriate songs? Demonstrate thorough understanding of high and low (both vertical and horizontal understanding)? High versus higher? Speak and understand some type of base vocabulary that can be transferred over to the staff (i.e., such as solfège, e.g., known pitches: sol, mi, and la)? Possess some degree of curiosity and/or desire about reading music?
Do you as a teacher:
Consider reading music to be important? Have some level of desire and confidence in your ability to teach your students how to read music?
By displaying different types of music staffs in your classroom beginning in the early grades, you can create awareness for reading among your students and stimulate their curiosity about reading music. Later, when you present a staff lesson, they will be likely to have some degree of comfort during the discussion. Many children, on seeing staffs of many different shapes, colors, and sizes in their surroundings, become inspired to draw their own and notation begins to take place naturally. Some examples available from retail music stores include:
a large staff white board that can be seen from the back of the room,
a smaller, portable staff white board, wipe-off student lap staffs (can be purchased in packs of five, some come with chips that can be used as note heads),
student staff pads (where pages can be torn off), and
a giant music staff carpet
The following are a few Kodály-inspired teaching techniques that can help prepare students to understand pitch placement on the staff. Bruner’s (1966) three “modes of representation,” rooted in the findings of Jean Piaget, are reflected throughout these examples: (a) enactive (learning through motor response), (b) iconic (images), and (c) symbolic (remote or arbitrary symbols). 3 Importantly, Bruner emphasizes the respective order of these modes because this is how they appear in a child’s life, despite the fact that the three modes remain intact throughout life. Significant emphasis is placed on the transition between the iconic mode and the symbolic mode, for which language serves as a vehicle.
“Pre-Staff” Preparation
Vertical Axis
By presenting pitch movement on a vertical axis in the beginning, students can master understanding of up and down before being asked to combine the vertical axis with left-to-right (horizontal) eye motion.
Show melodic contour using the hand or body
This kinesthetically prepares the student to observe and experience ascent or descent of pitch patterns on a vertical axis. Isolate one phrase from a song your class knows and demonstrate the melodic contour by moving your hand up or down vertically while keeping it in the same flat position (see Figure 1). Similar exercises can be performed using the body, with knee bends, or rises up onto tiptoes and even involvement of the arms. Creative variations of this technique might include following the motion of manipulatives, such as a streamer, scarf, piece of yarn, pipe cleaner, paper airplane, or even a ball.
Body signs
Kinesthetically prepare students to differentiate pitch levels on a vertical axis using their own body. You can determine a system whereby each known pitch has a body location. For example,
la = hands up above head
sol = head
mi = shoulders
re = arms crisscross against chest
do = hips
Body signs work well when using only four to five pitches, otherwise determining new body locations becomes tedious. Be aware that body signs are not precise enough to reflect interval steps and skips contained in the patterns, although they are helpful for a young child’s understanding of high versus low or high versus higher.
Solfa tone ladder
Visually prepares students to differentiate known pitch levels on a vertical axis (see Figure 2). Unlike body signs, the tone ladder is ideal for depicting interval steps and skips for pitches the students know from their song repertoire. Tone ladder activities might include:
Sing four-beat pitch patterns (from songs children know) while you point to pitches on the tone ladder; ask students to echo the pitch pattern using solfa hand signs (Choksy, 1981). 4
Ask students to sing pitches simultaneously as you point.
Point to four-beat pitch patterns (from known songs) without singing; ask students to sing pitches silently in their head, later singing them aloud.
When drawing the ladder, be mindful to space out intervals accurately so steps and skips are represented (and later, whole steps and half steps).
Vertical and Horizontal Axes
When your students have demonstrated mastery of high and low on a vertical axis, they are ready to experience this movement from left to right (as pitch is notated on the staff).
Melodic contour using hand
This kinesthetically prepares students to observe melodic contour both vertically and horizontally if the hand travels across space. The teacher must remember to move in mirror image if facing the class (from right to left).
Picture icons on board or poster
This visually prepares students to observe melodic contour without worrying about names of pitches. Point to the icons while your students sing words of the song phrase (see Figure 3).
After using words, invite students to place the solfa letter under each ball according to “how the song goes”.
Words of song on board or poster
This visually prepares students to observe melodic contour on both a vertical and horizontal axis. Isolating one phrase of the known song makes the activity brief and simple. For instance, see Figure 4.
Beginning Staff Preparation
When the class begins showing mastery of pre-staff activities over a period of time, they are ready to begin placing pitches on the staff.
The hand staff
This visually prepares your students to read pitch vertically. When turned sideways, the hand resembles a staff (see Figure 5). This technique is ideal for early grade levels to teach lines versus spaces, line and space numbers, as well as known pitch sequences such as sol-mi, and sol-la-sol-mi. Each new pitch learned on the staff builds student curiosity; one inquisitive student asked, “What other pitches ‘live’ on the staff?” In his Toward a Theory of Instruction, Bruner (1966) calls curiosity a “prototype of the intrinsic motive,” and suggests that student attention is naturally attracted to things that are “unclear, unfinished, or uncertain” (p. 114). He speaks of discovery as a powerful lure in learning: “Students should know what it feels like to be completely absorbed in a problem” (Bruner, 1960, p. 50).
Picture icons on staff
These icons visually prepare students to read pitch pattern vertically. Point to picture icons as students sing words to the song phrase (see Figure 6).
Invite students to place the dogs on the staff
Whole note pitches on staff
These visually isolate the pitch without students having to worry about the rhythm (see Figure 7). Point to the pitch being sung as students sing the words of the phrase. Remind them that in this song, “do” lives on the first space. What note lives on the second space? The third space? Then point to the notes as they sing the solfa names with hand signs. Inquisitive students will ask, “What does the rest of the song look like on the staff?”
Invite students to place the whole notes onto the staff
Conclusion
As we prepare our students to read, we must include an array of activities that engage them visually, aurally, and kinesthetically, through their senses. Barbe and Milone (1981), in their research on perceptual learning, state the most frequent modality strengths are visual strengths and a mixture of all three areas (with a mixture being more common in adults). While very young children’s strengths tend to be auditory, an important shift occurs between kindergarten and sixth grade when vision becomes their dominant modality (Barbe & Milone, 1981). Even more recent brain research reveals that learning is more effective when teachers use many different types of approaches and techniques because more memory pathways are built. The pathways connect related bits of data that become used more often, and therefore become stronger and easier to access or retrieve (Willis, 2006, chap. 1). This finding supports Howard Gardner’s “theory of multiple intelligences.”
Once students are able to read, we must continue to vary the ways in which we guide their practice reading. It is exciting to take a break from the actual score and engage children with interactive games that provide reading practice. To turn reading into a game, consider asking your students to
sing the song from the staff without the teacher’s help,
find the teacher’s mistake on the staff,
arrange the pitch pattern flashcards in the order the song “goes,”
sing the pitches of the song backward (from right to left),
change the way the song “goes” by rearranging two-pitch pattern flashcards,
make up a new ending to the song,
think of another song that sounds a little bit like this one,
figure out the form of the song using symbols (i.e., geometric shapes or fruit),
sing the song from the staff while clapping a rhythmic ostinato, and
sing the song from the staff in a two-part round.
Through these types of games, reading practice can become an extension into improvisation, composition, or even part-work.
Teaching young students to read music can feel like an intimidating task because it is challenging to be able to break down this process into logical steps for young students. However, by starting the preparation process early enough for the learning process to be gradual, by creating an environment in which reading “songs” is natural, and by cultivating a desire to read, we can lay groundwork for student success in future years.
Footnotes
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.