Methodologies for the Modern Day Music Classroom

Ryan Moos

Differing approaches to teaching an elementary musical curriculum have been pioneered

since the beginning of the 20th century by reformers such as Kodaly, Orff, Dalcroze, and
Gordon. These methodologies provide students with a variety of ways to develop their individual
musicianship and musical sensitivity through movement, improvisation, creativity, and
collaboration. Each methodology has its own unique main goals and processes to achieve student
learning but some of these methods share common concepts and overlap ideas. This means our
modern day music teachers can borrow and use a multitude of ideas in the classroom from these
different methods. This article will explore each unique method and its implementation in the
modern day classroom.
The Kodaly method evolved during the mid 20th century in Hungarian schools under the
careful eye of Zoltan Kodaly. Kodalys main goals are to develop music literacy, impart a sense
of cultural identity and encourage student performance abilities. These goals are achieved
through a multitude of different musical functions found in each lesson. Some of these musical
functions are singing in unison and parts, musical reading/ writing, ear training, recognition of
musical forms, and improvisation and composition. In the classroom teachers serve as purposeful
demonstrators and guides using little to no explanation unless it is to give simple directions or
offer help. Teachers are able to do this through a four part learning process they use to introduce
each new skill and concept. First teachers prepare the students for the new concept to be learned
by introducing it to them without them knowing. Second, students are made conscious of what
this new concept exactly is by questioning from the teacher and then shown in notation. Next, the
teacher goes through a reinforcement stage by analyzing all of the songs they sang in the
preparation stage and together identifying the new concept. Lastly, the teacher assesses whether
or not the students can accurately identify and perform the new concept.
The methodology of Carl Orff began in the 1920s when he and Dorothee Gunter opened
a school in Munich Germany that allowed singers and dancers to collaborate their arts. Carl Orff
wanted this school to explore his philosophy of intertwining music and movement through
exploration, improvisation, creation, and imitation. In modern day public and private schools this
method translates to the classroom through creative discoveries that are initiated by the students
and guided by the teacher. Students are encouraged to improvise their own movements and
melodies within the guidelines or parameters set by the teacher. This specific creative process
allows students to develop a comfort zone until they are more confident in their creative abilities.
The Orff-Schulwerk method is also a group orientated creative process. The students are
encouraged to initiate and create new patterns of rhythm, melody, or movement and contribute to
a group activity with their ideas.
Dalcroze developed ear training exercises to develop his students aural abilities after
being frightened that his students only learned about music by looking at it on a piece of paper
and not through listening and movement experiences. Dalcroze came up with the idea of
developing a students ear through the use of movement which he called Eurhythmics. Through
this approach students can explore more difficult music concepts without having to learn the
musical notation first. When this method is brought to a classroom students first explore
movement concepts that are guided by the teacher and in the students comfort zone. As the class
progresses the teacher will begin to introduce new musical concepts through movement. Through
this approach students will learn musical concepts such as phrasing, stress, and accents that are
not typically introduced until much later in the students musical curricula. Through the Dalcroze
method students are able to develop their musicianship and musical sensitivity from day one.
World Music Pedagogy began formally developing in the 2000s by Patricia Shehan-
Campbell an ethnomusicologist who based her theory on the globalization and diversification of
todays students. In this methodology she wanted students to understand how music functions in
each culture and can also be a way of life. Her method accomplishes this through listening to
musical examples or learning a piece of music and then experimenting with the style of music
found in that culture through creative improvisation. Students are also given the chance to learn
about multiple notational systems or even none at all if the culture does not use one. In this
method the goal is to develop the students musicianship and educate them about a new way of
life. Music educators may use any story, video, pictures, or musical examples that help students
to learn about this new culture.
Gordon developed his theory of how children learn music in the 1950s on into the
1970s with his theory still being developed today. Gordons main goal was to help students
develop their auditory skills through the use of musical schemas as well as classroom and
learning sequence activities. His sequence of activities intentionally matches the way a child first
learns and experiences a language. When a child is first learning a language they begin to
associate a multitude of sounds and develop a schema for how they would best fit together.
Gordon uses this prior experience to match the way a student begins learning and associating
tones. A teacher would follow Gordons theory by first beginning their class period with a
learning activity that develops either their rhythm or tonal skills. This activity then initiates into a
full classroom activity where students experience musical concepts through listening, singing,
chanting, moving, and playing instruments.
As stated earlier a teacher does not have to pick just one method to use in her/his
classroom because they all aim towards the same goal of developing a students musical abilities.
All five methods incorporate movement in some shape or form to help a student develop their
aural skills through recognition of pitch, tempo, rhythm, or form. While some methods like
Dalcroze base their entire method off of movement through the use of Eurhythmics, other
approaches use movement in a culmination with other techniques. In Kodalys method, hand
signs are used to help students with pitch recognition, Gordon uses movements for rhythm work,
and Orff uses movement for some improvisation exercises. In world music pedagogy movement
is not specified but would be used if it helps students to learn more about a new culture. All five
methods also allow the student to experience a new musical concept before seeing it in written
notation through preparation, schemas or improvisation exercises.
 The Kodaly method specifically preps a student in the first stage of the learning sequence
for the new musical concept to be presented in the next stage of learning. A student will hear and
experience this new concept in a song or rhythm exercise and will not be shown the written
notation until they can correctly perform the concept. Through the use of Eurhythmics in the
Dalcroze method a student can demonstrate their knowledge of rhythm, tempo, phrasing, and
dynamics. A teacher may accomplish one of these tasks by asking the students to walk around to
the beat of the music and stomp on the downbeat or show with their bodies how they would
phrase the music being played. Gordons method follows the way a child learns a new language
by allowing them to hear it first and then see it on paper. World Music Pedagogy allows students
to experiment in the style of music without having to look at the notation through creative
improvisation and learning by rote. Lastly, Orff allows students to create their own material
within specified parameter so students can play with their own melodic and rhythmic ideas.
While each of these methods share common practices there are certain characteristics that can be
found in one method and not in others.
Dalcroze uses fixed do whereas Kodaly uses moveable do. Both methods have
equally important arguments for using their specified method. Dalcroze argues that fixed do,
rather than moveable do develops a better sense of relative and perfect pitch. Kodaly uses
moveable do so students can identify the tonic center and surrounding pitch relationships in any
key. Gordon and Dalcroze both have an ending goal for students to develop their aural skills, but
have two different ways of going about it. Dalcroze uses movement to increase a students aural
skills, and Gordon uses musical schemas. The Dalcroze method achieves this by having students
portray different musical elements with their bodies. A teacher using the Dalcroze method may
ask the students to accent the downbeat in some way with their body, portray the dynamics with
their upper body, or show the movement of the melodic line. This makes the student tune their
ear into different aspects of the music. With Gordons approach he follows the way a child learns
a language. This means allowing the student to be exposed to many different tones and sounds in
varying combinations before seeing the written notation. The beginning steps in World Music
Pedagogy will differ from other approaches because the music used in this method is not from
the western culture. Teachers may begin with giving a historical background of the piece or show
several musical examples from the culture they will be learning about. However, no matter how
different the approach all of these methods work independently and together to develop a childs
creative abilities, aural skills, musicianship, and expression of ideas through movement.
In my personal opinion, a hybrid of all five methodologies would be ideal for the modern
day music classroom. Each method provides different avenues for learning that would cater
towards the different types of student learning found in each classroom. You could even begin
teaching a unit with one method and then carry the unit forward by taking elements from various
methodologies as long as the lesson or unit plan is cohesive and comprehensive. To begin a
single lesson I would start with the Kodaly and Gordon methodology by allowing the students to
hear and interact with this new musical concept before seeing it in written notation. After I
presented the new musical concept to the students I would use the Dalcroze approach and have
the students interact with the musical concept through movement. Through this methodology I
could better assess who is understanding this new concept. After the students had explored the
music through movement I would use some of Orffs methodology and have the students
incorporate the new concept into an improvisation activity. If I was introducing a new rhythm I
might have the students improvise with body percussion and give them small limitations so they
do not feel overwhelmed. If it is a new note I would have the students use movement to depict
pitch height, or instruments that allow them to play the new note with others. Lastly, I would pull
from the World Music Pedagogy method and make sure the students knew the origin or
background of the song I have chosen. I think a students musicianship significantly improves
when they understand the context of the song they are interacting with.
These methods are work as complete independent entities but also work well together in a
lesson plan. A teacher may cater more towards one method than the other because of their
preferred teaching style or the students they are interacting with. A music educator may enjoy
using just one of these methods or a multitude in their classroom. There is an abundance of
materials and resources available to teachers who may wish to begin using of these methods in
their classroom. No method is more right than the other and all of these methods allow students
to love and appreciate the music they are making because they are knowledgeable about music.
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