A Drink With Jam And Bread
Developing Musical Understanding Through Solfege
was introduced to solfege in the
early stages of my teaching career
when I met Edwin Gordon, a
renowned music education schol
ar, teacher and author. I remem
ber that he spoke so powerfully
about how children learn and realized,
as a well-intentioned teacher, I some
times forget about this crucial part of
the education process. In my effort to
focus intently on how I am teaching, I
sometimes forget about the childrens
experience.
After pondering this aspect of how
children learn, I began to reflect much
more carefully upon how I intro
duce music and piano to beginning
students. In many ways, these first
M id o r i K o g a
serves as associate
p ro fe s s o r o f p iano,
p ia n o p e d a g o g y
a n d associate
dean o f G rad ua te
E d uca tio n a t
th e U niversity o f
T oro nto . She has been a fe a tu re d
c h a m b e r m usician th ro u g h o u t
th e U n ite d States, Canada, Spain,
A u stria a n d Taiwan.
By M idori Koga
experiences with music making are the
most valuable of their lives. This is our
opportunity to guide them to discover
the myriad ways music can resonate
through their voices, bodies and ears in
these very first lessons. Virginia Hoge
Mead writes, All initial learning is
through the senses. Thus, an approach
which integrates the kinesthetic, tac
tile, aural and visual senses.. .becomes
a strong and viable catalyst for learn
ing . 1 As such, singing, movement and
listening activities have always been
important components in my piano
lessons and classes at the beginning
level. As I incorporated more solfege
into these experiences, I began to see
how solfege itself, could provide the
powerful link between whole body
learning and musical understanding.
S o lfe g e A p p ro a c h e s
There are many different schools of
solfege and arguments can be made
for the validity of each. The primary
approaches, are the fixed D O system
(in which the tone C is always DO
regardless of key) and the moveable
D O system (in which D O is the
tonic of each major key). While there
are powerful reasons for the use of
either approach, I have chosen the
moveable D O system to explore, as
I believe the aspects of developing a
sense of harmonic and tonal context
are more important to me than pitch
recognition. W ithin the moveable
D O approach, I have also chosen
the LA based minor in which the
relationship between the major scale
and its relative minor is highlighted.
Gordon writes, The movable do
system with a Ta based minor offers
advantages over all other tonal systems
because it emphasizes the audiation
of tonality regardless of key. 2 Within
this approach, the LA based natural
minor scale would be LA TI DO RE
MI FA SOL LA, with the SOL raised
to SI for harmonic minor, and so
forth. The beauty of this approach is
that introducing new modes becomes
a natural next step. Dorian is simply
RE MI FA SOL LA TI DO RE and
the children are able to sing the scale
starting on the RE syllable without
an explanation of the theory. I was
already an adult when I was learning
these scales for the first time, and I
found it extremely helpful when it was
pointed out to me that the syllables
ending with I (pronounced ee) such
as MI and TI are always followed by a
half step. All other intervals are whole
APRIL/MAY 2016
 ''y-"
H
steps. Knowing this, I was able to sing almost any of the
modes relatively quickly without having to remember where
and when the half steps occur within each scale.
Solfege And Play
For some of us, solfege may be considered somewhat
analytical and theoretical for early music learning. However,
as a teacher, once we make the decisions about which
approach to use and why, the use of solfege within the
piano class environment becomes an organic, natural and
playful experience. It is a matter of how solfege is intro
duced and presented to the children. Similar to the way
children learn their native language, we introduce folk
songs with solfege through singing and movement with
the invitation for the children to join in when ready. By
incorporating games inspired by the teachings of Orff,
Dalcroze, Laban and Gordon, the beginning lessons are
transformed into play. Goodkin in Play, Sing and Dance:
An Introduction to OrjfSchulwerk, writes, By honoring
the wisdom of playing games, we speak to the child in the
child.3 The children absorb the material through musical
play and deep internal learning occurs, laying the founda
tion for further musical understanding.
Right A t The Beginning
During my days as a graduate student piano teacher, I
had the opportunity to observe and experience the com
bination of group classes and private piano lessons in the
Piano Pedagogy Laboratory Program of the University of
Michigan under the direction of Professor Joanne Smith
and Kelley Benson. I found there to be many benefits to
working with children in small groups. The social environ
ment, singing and moving together, performance, group
improvisation, ensemble experiences, and the opportunities
the children had to learn from one another were invaluable
in the learning process. Following this example, children
in our program at the University of Toronto attend both a
private lesson and a group class each week. From the first
class, without any prior explanation, we sing traditional
folksongs such as Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb
and Starlight Starbright using solfege syllables, and the chil
dren begin to play the simplest melodies on the piano.
Mary Had a Little Lamb
H with his whole being.6 There are two types of movement
* r ; t r r
Mi Re Do Re Mi Mi Mi Re Re Re
Hot Cross Buns
Mi Re Do Mi Re Do Do Do Do Do Re Re Re Re Mi Re Do
AMERICAN MUSIC TEACHER
Ti, APrink With And dread
Even those who may be shy at first, eventually join in with
their classmates when they are ready. Children have the
opportunity to explore different tempi, articulation (short,
light, detached, heavy, elongated) and characters in the rep
ertoire, and they often are eager to suggest different ways of
singing and moving to each of the songs. When I initially
started this approach, I was heartened to realize how quick
ly and joyfully the children absorb the syllables and join in
when they are comfortable.
Zoltan Kodaly states:
Teach music and singing at school in such a way that
it is not a torture but a joy for the pupil; instill a thirst for
finer music in him, a thirst which will last for a lifetime.
Music must not be approached from its intellectual, ratio
nal side, nor should it be conveyed to the child as a system
of algebraic symbols, or as the secret writing of a language
with which he has no connection. The way should be
paved for direct intuition. Often a single experience will
open the young soul to music for a whole lifetime.4
Repertoire
For the first three months in our program, the children
are immersed in the folksongs of North America as well
as other countries. When we have a Korean, Iranian or
Hungarian child in the class, we elicit the help of the par
ents to find traditional songs of their homeland. The value
of these melodies is that not only have they withstood the
test of time, they are intended to be sung by children and
fit naturally into the vocal range. Kodaly writes, To write a
folksong is as much beyond the bounds of possibility as to
write a proverb. Just as proverbs condense centuries of pop
ular wisdom and observation, so, in traditional songs, the
emotions of centuries are immortalized in a form polished
to perfection.1 In our program, these wonderful artistic
melodies also become the early playing repertoire for the
piano students, during these first few months of study.
Movement And Singing
As we sing the folk melodies, we encourage continuous
movement using the space throughout the room. Dalcroze
writes, It is not enough to teach children to interpret
music with their fingers.. .the important thing is that the
child should learn to feel music not only with his ear but
j that are explored.
Mi So So First and most importantly, is free-flowing movement
influenced by the teachings of Rudolf Laban (1879-1958),
which allows the children to feel the length, character and
motion of each phrase. Again, we arent defining any of
these terms, but just by singing Mary Had a Little Lamb
(with solfege) and swimming (arms moving fluidly in a
9
breast stroke, front stroke or free motion) around the room,
the children begin to feel the ebb and flow and direction
of the phrase. At the end of each phrase, the group takes a
deep breath together and changes direction of motion to
show the start of the next phrase. We explore different lev
els of resistance in the motion from bound (swimming at
the bottom of the ocean and feeling the heavy resistance of
the water) to free (floating as light as a feather), which are
the first steps toward developing an understanding of how
to sustain the long line of a phrase. Creating a Rainbow
Phrase by allowing the arm to arc slowly through the air
from one side to the other is another effective Dalcroze
technique. Children are challenged to make the arc last as
long as possible until they breathe to prepare the next
phrase. MI RE DO MI RE D O (breathe and change of
direction of arm in rainbow arc) DO DO DO DO RE RE
RE RE MI RE D O (breath).
A second type of movement helps clarify pitch and
direction of pitch. To keep things very simple at these first
lessons, we use arm motions to show the placement of pitch
either in the air, or initially tapping parts of the entire body
starting from the head and moving downward then back up
while siging, another Dalcroze technique:7
DO (top of head)
TI (wiggle ears)
LA (shoulders)
SOL (waist)
FA (middle of thigh)
MI (knees)
RE (middle of shin)
DO (toes)
on the piano. We dont spend a lot of time with note names
at the piano, especially in the first few weeks or so. The start
ing pitch might be on this side of the three black keys, or
on that side of the two black keys. From that point, they
sing the solfege as they play and begin to connect the direc
tion of the pitches in their singing voice to how it feels at the
piano. The children are encouraged to sing all of the time, in
group class, in private lessons and at home in their practice.
It is particularly rewarding when a child performs in the
weekly class recitals for his classmates and sings solfege aloud
while he plays, without any sense of self-consciousness. When
started at an early age, singing and playing become integrated
into the musical process.
From Playing To Reading
Solfege is the link from singing, through playing, to read
ing. While aural and kinesthetic experiences come first, we
also realize the importance of entering reading experiences
without too much delay. However, these reading experi
ences have now been fully prepared through movement
and solfege, so when the child first encounters a symbol,
they are able to bring meaning to what they see. One of
my favorite introductory reading activities is to outline a
five-line staff on the floor using masking tape. (See Photo
1.) The lines are spaced far enough apart that a childs foot

We may sing a pattern from the song (MI RE DO) and

ask the children to sing back the pattern and tap the pitch
es on their body. The children also enjoy taking turns to
choose patterns for the rest of us. When the children begin to
internalize the sound, direction and the kinesthetic sense of
the stepwise pattern of MI RE DO and other such patterns,
they are ready to play these melodies on the piano and have
already started the process leading toward reading compre
hension.

From Singing To Playing

We do not begin reading symbols until after three months
of lessons. Elowever, in the earliest playing experiences
(before reading) it is also important to note we are not having
the children simply copy us as we play. If they have sung the
solfege of the melody and understand the direction of pitch,
all we need to do is find the starting key on the piano, and
the children will be able to discover how the melody (that
P h o to 1
they have felt, heard and sung previously) can now be played

10 APRIL/MAY 2016
will fit into the space between two lines. At this point there
are no clefs, but we are exploring steps, skips and direction.
After a brief discussion about how we can stand either on
a LINE or in a SPACE, and we can either step up with
DO RE MI or down with MI RE DO, we can begin. For
example, we may all stand on the lowest line and decide
that today we are going to call this line, D O , and we sing
D O together. Next, we take a tiny step up into the next
space and sing RE together and so forth all the way up
P hoto 2
the scale and then back down the scale. (See Photo 2.) After
becoming comfortable singing and stepping up and down
through specific three or four note melodic patterns, we
might step off and pull out the large black oval cards (note-
heads cut to fit the large-scale staff on the floor). Initially I
may place the first card on the lowest line and sing D O .
At first with parameters of moving up and down only by
steps, the children take turns placing note-heads on the
giant staff. As each choice is made, we sing the next syllable
together. I love it when, on occasion, a child will change
his mind once he has heard the pitch sung. A great look of,
well, no, thats not what I m eant... crosses his face, as
he moves to change his note choice. Once we are finished,
we step back, survey our creation and then sing the entire
pattern with solfege. Requiring very little explanation, the
children begin the process of reading with solfege, but in
actuality, the process had begun the moment they sang a
D O in the first class. Using other props such as magnet
boards and large cardboard sheets on the wall with staff
lines, we continue to fine-tune reading comfort so the pri
vate teachers can begin to show scores to the children in
their lessons and, together, make the connection between
the symbols and the music they have already been singing
and playing. (See Photo 3.)
AMERICAN MUSIC TEACHER
Solfege And Listening Awareness
As the children continue to develop in their musical stud
ies, we find that singing solfege can also create an awareness
of intervallic relationship and develop early sensitivity to the
expressive qualities between the tones of a second, a third
or a sixth. One of my favorite quotes of Artur Schnabel is,
The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the
pauses between the notes, ah, that is where the art resides.8
In these earliest lessons, we can introduce this listening
awareness of the feeling of stretch and nuance between the
intervals of the phrase as they sing.
In an example such as Snake Charmer LA TI DO TI
LA LA TI DO MI TI DO LA, we can explore the musical
stretch between TI and DO, and perhaps between MI TI
and DO in our voices.
Snake Charmer
u n i \ n
W I F ' ' 1 ---------------- 1
La Ti Do Ti La La Ti Do Mi Ti Do La
Here, the choice of how we may feel the intervals will vary
from child to child, but the most important thing is that they
have the opportunity to develop sensitivity towards the listen
ing possibilities. How wonderful it is when the child begins
to sing the phrase with a sense of line and resistance they feel,
instead of being told to crescendo here and slow down there.
Another benefit of solfege singing is the children learn to
sing and hear the harmonic relationships between tonic and
dominant right from the beginning. In another game intro
duced to me at a Gordon Music Learning Theory work
shop,9 children learn that the tones DO MI and SOL are
part of the TO N IC family. If I sing MI DO SOL, children
yell TO N IC. If I sing SOL DO MI, children yell TONIC.
If I sing FA RE TI, children immediately recognize this
pattern is different and initially we have them yell NO!
Gradually the children learn that the SOL FA RE TI group
is a different family called DOM INANT. There is always
one inquisitive child who will raise their hand and wonder
why SOL is in both the T O N IC and the DOM INANT
families. We talk about how SOL is part of both families,
and while she is a member of the T O N IC family, she also
likes to visit her cousins, the D O M INANT family. The
children learn when we hear or sing a SOL tone, we must
also listen to the other tones in the pattern to help us decide
whether she is at home in the TO N IC family or visiting
with the D O M INANT cousin family. The beauty of sing
ing groups of tones in patterns is the children learn to listen
for the context of the harmony, instead of hearing them as
individual notes. Through these activities they are already
developing the ability to hear harmonic relationships and
progression.
11
 77, ADrink
Photo 3
Audiati on
Ultimately the goal of music learning is to develop audi-
ation (internal listening) awareness within each student.
Through singing, solfege, movement and aural engagement,
musical understanding is triggered through the various
senses so making music at the piano (or any instrument) is
a fully integrated whole-body experience. Beginning with
the simplest of folksongs, a child may start to develop sen
sitivity to phrasing, shape, tone color and character at the
deepest internal levels, and hopefully set the stage for the
rest of their musical lives. By starting this process of solfege
singing and internal listening from the earliest moments of
study, the children hone an appreciation for music and this
spark of understanding will guide their long-term journey
through the music learning process.
Notes
1. Mead, Virginia Hoge, Eurhythmies in Todays
Classroom, (Schott Music Corporation, New York, NY,
1994).
2. Gordon, Edwin, Learning Sequences in Music: Skill,
Content and Pattern A Music Learning Theory, (GIA
Publications, Chicago, IL, 1997).
3. Goodkin, Doug, Play, Sing and Dance: An Introduction
to OrffSchuliverk, (Schott Publications, Miami, 2004).
4. Kodaly, Zoltan, The Selected Writings ofZoltdn Koddly.
Trans. Lily Halapy and Fred Macnicol. (London: Boosey &
Hawkes, 1974).
5. Kodaly, Zoltan, The Selected Writings ofZoltdn Koddly.
Trans. Lily Halapy and Fred Macnicol. (London: Boosey &
Hawkes, 1974).
12
With Jam And Dread
6. Jaques-Dalcroze, Emile, The Eurhythmies ofjaques-
Dalcroze, (Constable and Company, Ltd., London,
England, 1912).
7. Bachman, Marie-Laure; translated by David Parlett,
Dalcroze today: An Education through and into Music,
(Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
England, 1994).
8. Schnabel, Artur, M y Life and Music, (Mineola, NY,
Dover publications, reprinted, 1988).
9. Gordon Institute of Music Learning Theory
Professional Development Workshop: Michigan State
University, 2000.
Bibliography
Bachman, Marie-Laure; translated by David Parlett,
Dalcroze today: An Education through and into Music,
(Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
England, 1994).
Coleman, Satis N., Your Childs Music, (Van Rees Press,
New York, NY, 1939).
Clements, Ann C. editor, Alternative Approaches in Music
Education, (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., New
York, NY, 2010).
Fonder, Mark editor, The Grandmaster Series: Collected
Thoughts o f Leaders in Twentieth Century Music
Education, (MENC: The National Association for Music
Education, 2003).
Goodkin, Doug, Play, Sing and Dance: An Introduction to
O rff Schulwerk, (Schott Publications, Miami, 2004).
Gordon, Edwin, Learning Sequences in Music: Skill,
Content and Pattern A Music Learning Theory, (GIA
Publications, Chicago, IL, 1997).
Jaques-Dalcroze, Emile, The Eurhythmies o f Jaques-Dalcroze,
(Constable and Company, Ltd., London, England,
1912).
Jordan, James, Evoking Sound: The Choral Warm-Up, (GIA
Publications, Chicago, IL, 2003).
Kodaly, Zoltan, The Selected Writings ofZoltdn Koddly.
Trans. Lily Halapy and Fred Macnicol. (London: Boosey
& Hawkes, 1974).
Leonhard, Charles, A Song Approach to Music Reading,
(Silver Burdett Company, Morristown, NJ, 1968).
Mead, Virginia Hoge, Eurhythmies in Todays Classroom,
(Schott Music Corporation, New York, NY, 1994).
Schnabel, Artur, M y Life and Music, (Mineola, NY, Dover
publications, reprinted, 1988).
AMT
APRIL/MAY 2016
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