Kodály Philosophy of Music Education


The goal of Kodály philosophy is to lead children to love of great music by vigorous exposure to authentic folk music and parallel instruction in musical literacy.

music lessonZoltan Kodály (1882-1967) was a Hungarian composer, performer, ethnomusicologist, and music educator.  In the 1930s he inspired and guided his collaborators to develop a comprehensive system of music education from childhood to adulthood in Hungarian schools.  An innovation of his work was the opening of a music primary school in Kecskemet, Hungary (Kodály’s birthplace) in 1950.  Here, for the first time, children received daily music lessons.  In the decade following, the method was refined and developed as it spread from the nursery school level to the university and the most advanced classes of the famed Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.  Today there are more than 130 singing primary schools in Hungary, and the method has spread all over the world including Japan, Australia, and many countries of Europe and North and South America.

Key points of the Kodály Philosophy

  • Music is the core of the curriculum.  Ancient Greeks believed that music was one of two centers of all learning  - gymnastics and music.  Music was the natural synthesis of the emotions and the intellect.
  • The body – singing voice, body idiophones, and movement – is the best medium for making music.  The body and the voice are custom made for every individual.  Song and movement are united in folk games and dances.
  • Folk music leading to other music is the best material for learning Western music.  Everyone has a mother tongue – the language spoken at home.  The folk music of that language should be the song source from which the facts and concepts of music literacy are drawn.  In a complex culture, such as that in the United States, any music of a cultural group or subcultural group should be considered.  In Kodály practice of the repertory of materials should take five directions:  preservation, exploration, observation and inclusion.
  • Music literacy is like language literacy.  Everyone has the ability to hear, speak, read, and write a language.  Therefore, everyone has the ability to hear, sing, read, and write music.  Music literacy is something that everyone can and has the right to enjoy.
  • Quality music is the best material for teaching.  Kodály believed that only the best music by the greatest composers and folk music most representative of the culture are good enough for children.  In this discussion it is important not to confuse culture, style, and quality.  There is quality music of every culture and style, including American “popular music”.
  • Experiencing music – hearing, developing skills, preparing to derive concepts – cannot start too early.  Kodály once said music training should begin “nine months before the birth of the mother.”

drummingGoals of Kodály Music Training

  • Create an enjoyment of singing and movement through the use of carefully selected authentic folk materials.
  • Develop inner hearing, music creativity, and improvisation and the ability to recognize music elements in composition.
  • Promote of fluency in reading and writing music.
  • Prepare students to make critical judgments of the qualities of the various styles of world music.

Characteristics of the Kodály Concept

  • Kodály music training helps develop the whole child by aiding in the development of his/her intellectual capacity through the enlargement of vocabulary, increase of memory span, logical thinking, imagination, clarity of speech, and recitation skills.  Children develop security and a positive self-image.
  • Kodály music training emphasizes left to right orientation and acquisition of good listening skills, both of which contribute to the development of language reading skills.
  • Kodály music training is child developmental in its learning sequence – it builds on the way which young children progress naturally in music as shown in research.  Of course it is desirable for all musician-educators to keep in touch with research in music perception and transmission (teaching) of music.  It is also important for the musician-educator to be sensitive to the cultural setting of a teaching situation.
  •  Kodály music training generally begins with a total experience and progress to the symbolization of that experience.
  • Kodály music training is deductive – going from the known to the unknown.
  • Kodály music training follows the same learning process as language:
  1. aural
  2. written
  3. read
  • Kodály music training is accomplished through a natural pedagogical sequence of music elements by their frequency of occurrence in a specific body of folk songs and other folk materials.
  • Kodály music training features the derivation of music elements by a process in which one or more elements are:
  1. prepared
  2. made conscious
  3. reinforced
  4. assessed