Review

Sheet music reviews: First We Sing! 101 Songs & Games

Some people, like perennially grouchy Grinches, are trying to reduce play in primary schools. These people are a) wrong; b) probably not much fun at a party; c) don't understand how children or other mammals develop; and d) have clearly never seen children play a Kodály game and then be able to notate the song as a result of this.

Play is fundamental to the Kodály approach. When children play a classroom singing game, their focus is on the game, rather than the singing. They sing without self-consciousness and want to play the games – i.e. practise – again, and again, and again. I devoured Lucinda Geoghegan's Singing Games and Rhymes, which skilfully encode elements such as notational knowledge into fun and joyful games. This is how I think primary music lessons should be, and Carl Orff's words have become a mantra for my career in primary classroom music teaching: ‘Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play, and they will find that what they have mastered is child's play.’

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