The Kodály method explained for parents: singing first, then reading music

The Kodály method teaches music through singing. Children sing folk songs and play singing games. From those songs they learn to keep a beat, sing in tune, and read and write music. There is no instrument to buy, because the voice is the instrument. Most children meet Kodály teaching in a school music class or a children’s choir.

Teachers who use it often call it the Kodály concept or the Kodály approach. This guide explains where it came from, what a class looks like, and how to use its ideas at home.

Where it came from

Zoltán Kodály (say “KOH-dye”) was a Hungarian composer who lived from 1882 to 1967. As a young man he traveled through villages with his friend Béla Bartók and wrote down the folk songs people sang.

Kodály came to believe that music belongs to everyone, not only to trained musicians. He wanted every child in Hungary to be able to read music the way they read words. He and the teachers around him worked out how to do that in ordinary schools.

He also believed in starting early. Asked when music education should begin, he joked that it should start nine months before the mother is born.

The main ideas

The Organization of American Kodály Educators, the group for Kodály teachers in the United States, describes the approach. These are the parts a parent will notice.

Singing comes first. Everyone has a voice. A child who can sing a tune in their head can later read it, write it, and play it. Kodály teachers hold that children should sing and read simple music before they take on the technical work of an instrument.

Folk songs are the textbook. Children start with the songs and games of their own culture. The tunes are short, the range is small, and the words are easy to remember. The songs lead on to music by great composers.

Sound before sign. Children sing and play a pattern many times before anyone shows them how it looks on paper. By the time the symbol appears, the child already knows the sound.

Small steps in order. Each new idea is prepared with songs, then named, then practiced. Teachers call these three stages prepare, present, and practice.

Only good music. Kodály wanted children to learn from real folk music and from fine composed music, not from tunes written only to teach a point.

The tools: solfège, hand signs, and rhythm names

Three tools show up in almost every Kodály class.

Solfège. These are the note names do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti. Kodály classes use “movable do.” That means do is the home note of whatever song is being sung. The names show how the notes relate to each other, so a child learns the shape of a tune.

Hand signs. Each note of the scale has its own hand shape. Do is a closed fist. Mi is a flat hand, palm down. The hand moves higher for higher notes and lower for lower ones. The signs let a child see and feel the pitch as they sing it.

Rhythm names. Instead of counting, children say short sounds. One sound on a beat is “ta.” Two quick sounds on a beat are “ti-ti.” A class can read a line of rhythm out loud before they know the words “quarter note.”

Young children start with just two or three notes. Many first songs use only sol and mi, the falling pair that children sing when they call “Yoo-hoo” across a playground. Teachers then add la, then do and re. These five notes make a pentatonic scale, which is common in children’s folk songs around the world.

What a class looks like

A Kodály class for young children is active. The children sit in a circle and sing a hello song. They play a game that goes with a song, such as passing a beanbag on the beat. They walk the beat with their feet and clap the rhythm of the words with their hands.

The teacher may sing a short pattern and have the class sing it back. Later the same pattern appears on the board as simple stick notes, and the class reads it. The children are reading music, and to them it feels like one more game.

Older children sing in two parts, sing rounds, write down short tunes they hear, and read new songs at sight.

Who it suits

Kodály suits a child who loves to sing and play group games. It suits a family that wants strong ears and solid reading before an instrument, or alongside one. There is no instrument to rent or buy.

It is a classroom approach. You are more likely to find it in a school, a choir, or a community music class than in a private studio. If your child’s school music teacher has Kodály training, your child may already be learning this way.

For string players, a method called Colourstrings builds on Kodály’s ideas. It was developed in Finland.

How to use the ideas at home

No training is needed for these.

Sing every day. Sing in the car, in the bath, and at bedtime. Short folk songs and nursery songs are the right size for a young voice. A parent’s own voice is enough.

Play echo. Sing two or three notes on “loo” and have your child sing them back. Take turns being the leader.

Walk the beat. Put on a song and march to it. Then stand still and clap the rhythm of the words. Beat and rhythm are different things, and this game lets a child feel the difference.

Say “ta” and “ti-ti.” Clap a short pattern and say it: ta, ta, ti-ti, ta. Have your child copy. Then let your child make one up.

Show high and low. As you sing, move a hand up when the tune goes up and down when it goes down. Invite your child to copy you.

Questions to ask a teacher or a choir

• Do you have Kodály training, and from where?
• How much of the class is singing?
• When do children start to read and write music?
• Do the children perform, and how often?

To see Kodály beside the other approaches, read music teaching methods for kids compared. Our music method quiz suggests a starting point in seven questions. When your child starts to write notes, the big staff paper for kids has room for large ones.