For me, the Kodály approach is like taking a hammer to traditional music, and then building it back up again in pieces. When class teachers – especially non-specialist teachers – see those pieces, they begin to open their eyes and think: maybe I can do this.'
That might be quite a violent image. But Lucinda Geoghegan's description undoubtedly captures the radical effect that an encounter with Hungarian composer and educationalist Zoltán Kodály's teaching methods can have. ‘On our courses, we inevitably have lots of music teachers who come up to us and ask: why wasn't I taught like this? Because now I'm hearing music in a totally different way.’
Geoghegan is clearly a passionate advocate for Kodály's methods. And, despite learning to use sol-fa herself, she's long been immersed in Kodály education, as one of Britain's most experienced and influential teachers of the method. She's a driving force behind the wide-ranging successes of the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS), where she's Creative Learning Director, and as well as being an International Kodály Society board member, is one of the key figures behind the Europe-wide Kodály Hub – which we'll return to shortly.
The essence of Kodály's approach
But let's go back to basics. How would she encapsulate the thinking behind what's known as the Kodály method? ‘Well, when Kodály himself was asked to sum up his approach,’ she smiles, ‘he said: I can do it in one word – singing.’ The human voice lies at the heart of the method, she continues, as the natural musical resource from which all else flows. ‘Everything comes from the music, and goes back to the music. So it's essentially teaching music in a musical way through sound, rather than in an intellectual way through fact. Rather than trying to explain something or write it, we try it by singing it.’ For primary teachers and early learners especially, that means a particular focus on singing games. ‘And show me the child who doesn't like playing games! Children thrive on play – it's how they learn best – so, pedagogically, it's a very child-friendly approach.’
Kodály at NYCOS
At NYCOS, Kodály methods are embedded in not only choral teaching (where they've been credited with playing an important role in the Choir's exceptional standards), but also in the organisation's outward-facing creative learning. ‘All our Choir members are involved in Kodály-inspired musicianship, but creative learning is a much broader thing, including training music teachers.’
One of NYCOS's principal platforms for teacher teaching is its annual summer school. ‘We have an interesting mix of participants,’ Geoghegan explains, ‘from people who are just there to sing, to trained music teachers, and also some non-specialist class teachers.’ In the latter category, she identifies one central challenge. ‘For general class teachers, it's about giving them the confidence to sing. So many people have been told they can't sing, and it leaves such a negative feeling. I remember a training day I did years ago where a nursery teacher was sitting petrified in a corner, and her head teacher told me she hadn't slept the previous night because she was so worried about the training. But by the end of the day, she was thanking me and telling me it hadn't been that bad at all, because I'd chosen really easy songs. So I reminded her that the songs weren't chosen for the participants, but for the children they'd be teaching, so that the children would be able to sing them.’
NYCOS has recently brought much of its Kodály thinking and material into a single project, Sounds Musical, which has been rolled out across a clutch of Scottish schools. ‘It's really a support package for non-specialist teachers,’ Geoghegan explains. ‘There are videos they can use for singing, rhythm, melody – the idea is to give class teachers some skills, rather than dumb things down for the children.’
Lucinda Geoghegan leads a group in the Kodály method at the NYCOS summer school
Kodály Hub
NYCOS's significant Kodály achievements were clearly recognised, since the organisation was invited by Hungary's Liszt Academy – widely considered a world centre for Kodály education – to be a partner in a large-scale project funded by EU education and training programme Erasmus. The resulting Kodály Hub is an ever-growing online resource, essentially a one-stop repository for information, resources, songs, and guidance on Kodály teaching. ‘I think the biggest thing on the site is the song bank – if you're looking for Kodály-based material to use in teaching, you'll be sure to find something there,’ explains Geoghegan. ‘It's sitting at something like 900 songs at the moment. But there are also handbooks and videos, resources to support teachers' understanding of certain topics, even some background on Kodály himself – his own words and thoughts.’
The Kodály Hub's three original partners were Hungary's Liszt Academy, NYCOS, and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, and each institution involved students in developing the material it contributed, thereby further extending engagement with Kodály ideas and methods. In the case of NYCOS – a choir rather than an educational institution – that meant a further collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. ‘The students created some of the games, and went to visit the other partners to see how Kodály methods are applied in Hungary and the Netherlands. It was such an eye-opening experience for them.’
And it revealed fundamental contrasts between the different cultures, Geoghegan explains. ‘I remember when our students went to Hungary and saw the standard of musical ability; they were just blown away – there were ten-year-olds doing things [our students] had never been taught how to do themselves. But we're talking about a specialist music school with a daily input of music education. When the Hungarian group came to Scotland, they were equally blown away by some of the deprivation they saw – some of the children we were working with hadn't had breakfast, some were living in poverty. It was a completely different situation compared with working with children in specialist schools. But I think one of the reasons we were invited to be part of the project was because the Liszt Academy was particularly interested in our inclusive approach. Here in Scotland, that's one of the most important questions, and we're not excluding any child from this musical journey.’
For specialist and non-specialists
That inclusivity stretches to teachers, Geoghegan says. The 900-item song bank is the Kodály Hub's most valuable resource, but it doesn't require specialist training to use those songs, she explains. ‘If teachers want a song, they can go online and find one, and just use it. People sometimes ask me: does simply singing a song and doing nothing else still count as a Kodály activity? Well, Kodály would have said it was, so people with no specialist training in the methodology can certainly just use the songs.’ That goes for specialist music teachers and non-specialists alike, she says. ‘If class teachers want to use the material – just to play some singing games, for example – then the benefits can still be enormous.’
Extending the Hub
The original Kodály Hub was followed by a second project – also Erasmus-funded – called Presto, heavily influenced by the demands and necessities of the Covid pandemic. ‘It brought in additional partners from Finland and Ireland, and the purpose was to extend the Hub with the main theme of online learning,’ Geoghegan continues. ‘During the pandemic, it was obviously a case of what musical games we could do in our own homes – God forbid we're in that position again, but actually some children struggle with contact at any time. Some children with autism find games difficult when they're being asked to look someone else in the face, for example, so there are games there that they can play by themselves.’
In terms of uptake of the Kodály Hub's resources, it's been widespread globally, though as Geoghegan notes, ‘how teachers are using a song from the song bank, for example, is hard to tell. Are they just singing it, or using it to support broader Kodály teaching? We've had verbal feedback and plenty of positive emails, but the specifics of the project's reach are really difficult to know.’
The irony, of course, is that the UK's more distant post-Brexit relationship with Europe means continuing to be involved in an Erasmus-funded project isn't feasible. ‘I think we just about made it by the skin of our teeth when the Presto project was set up, but we were still allowed to complete it,’ Geoghegan explains. ‘But, sadly, I think our Erasmus partnership will have now gone.’ Nonetheless, her ambitions for NYCOS's own Kodály activities remain undiminished – she'd love to roll out the Sounds Musical project across every Scottish local authority, and expand the Choir's BSL work with deaf children, something that's already been a marked success. With the results that NYCOS has already achieved, and such passion behind the projects – both nationally and internationally – it only looks set to grow.
