Teaching music skills to children through singing

Introducing
Jolly Music

For non-specialist teachers…
Well sequenced lesson plans
No need to sing - all tracks on supporting CDs
No music reading needed
Make music part of everyday classroom life
Jolly Music has been developed to bring the best and most effective music teaching within the reach of any teacher – even those without any musical experience

…and for specialist music teachers
Lesson plans based on Kodály principles
Resources section allows flexible use of materials
Music notation provided
Music specialists will find Jolly Music a flexible and powerful resource, full of ideas and activities, all with clear goals in terms of the children’s skills.

The best music teaching
The lessons are carefully sequenced and progressive.
The programme builds key musical skills right from the start.
The children acquire an excellent foundation for instrumental learning.

Beginners’ Level (ages 4-7)
available now
144 pages
6 CDs

Level 1 (ages 5-8)
available now
192 pages
7 CDs

Level 2 (ages 6–9)
available now
208 pages
7 CDs

Level 3 (ages 7–10)
Available Autumn 2011
208 pages
7 CDs

A complete primary music curriculum
Each level provides a complete, well-planned music curriculum for one year.
The finished programme will have seven levels, one for each year of primary school
The suggested starting age is 4–5 years (Reception), but the programme may be started as late as age 7 (Year 3).

Praise for Jolly Music
‘My school is positively revelling in it. The Headmaster loves what is happening and so does the Director of Music, not to mention parents and other teachers.’
Martin Lijinsky, Music Teacher,
Cheam Prep School, Newbury
‘Fun and easy to use, both by specialist and non-specialist teachers … No school should be without it!’
John Pryce-Jones, Director, Halifax Choral Society, and Artistic director, Northern Orchestral Enterprises
‘The songs are so catchy that the playground, the dining hall and even the toilets resound with them’
Marj Newbury, Reception Teacher, Byron Primary School, Bradford
‘The lesson plans are beautifully crafted… Lucky the children who are brought through this process.’
Elspeth Compton, British Kodály Academy

Inside The Music Handbook
30 detailed lesson plans
CDs with teaching and performance tracks for all material
Puppet and activity templates
Resources section with songs, rhymes, actions and games
Pupil assessment record

Inside the Jolly Music Big Book
All the rhymes and songs in a large easy-to-read format
Pulse marks to guide the children in performance
Pictures showing the appropriate actions or games

The Kodály approach

Music is for everyone
Every child can be taught musical skills
All children taught in this way can develop their ability to pitch accurately
No child should ever be told that he or she cannot sing
“Every sound child with good eyes and ears is able to learn music and should learn music.”
Zoltán Kodály

Begin early
Between 3 and 7 years is the ideal age to start.
Jolly Music can be used in primary schools from Reception year (age 4–5) onward.
The approach is child-centred and developmental.

Teach music skills through singing
Singing is a joyful and sociable activity.
Everyone has a voice, and it’s free.
It is the most direct way of making a musical response.
Singing is an internal skill; playing an instrument is external.
Singing engages the inner hearing.

Sound before symbol
Training the ear comes before the children learn to read and write music.
The aim is for them to be able to hear what is written, and write what they hear.
They start with simple visual representations of pitch and rhythm.

Use only the best material
Kodály recommended folk music as the most suitable musical material.
Jolly Music uses playground rhymes and songs - the folk music of childhood.

Choose singable songs
The rhymes and songs in Jolly Music used are chosen for their small range and simple rhythms.
Most are based on the interval so-mi – the natural and familiar sound of calls like ‘Mum-my’ or ‘co-ee’.

From the known to the unknown
Learning takes place in three stages:
Unconscious experience
(preparation)
Example: The children sing a song many
times and clap the pulse when they sing it.
Making conscious
(presentation)
Example: The children learn the word ‘heartbeat’
or ‘pulse’ to describe what they have been clapping.
Reinforcement
(practice)
Example: The children listen to a new song and
try to clap the pulse.

Kodály teaching tools

Relative solfa
The children learn to use solfa names:
do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti.
Any note can be do. This helps the children to understand the patterns of music and how notes relate to one another.

Rhythm names
Rhythm names such as ta and ti-ti actually convey the rhythms that they describe.
They can be used without the complication of numbers and equivalences (such as ‘two crotchets equals one minim’).
They are taught first in relation to known musical sounds and patterns, and later as symbols

Handsigns
Handsigns help the children to visualise pitch; they provide a kinaesthetic link to the sound

Movement
Children learn best about pulse and rhythm through movement.
As well as clapping, they perform the pulse through a variety of movements including walking.
Through the many games they learn to co-ordinate their movements with the music.

Musical skills

Musical memory
Examples of activities:
Learning and recalling rhymes and songs
Recognising a rhyme or song from its hummed melody or tapped rhythm
Identifying the same rhythm in different rhymes and songs.

Pitch awareness
Examples of activities:
Showing pitch with hand movements, puppets, actions and handsigns
Identifying high and low pitches
Matching another person’s pitch in call-and-response work.

Inner hearing
Examples of activities:
Using the ‘thinking voice’ - children tap rhythm while ‘singing’ in their head
Identifying a song from its rhythm alone
Performing rhythm of question-and-answer songs in groups or pairs.

A sense of pulse
Examples of activities:
Performing the pulse (the ‘heartbeat’) of songs with learned or improvised actions
Using puppets to show the pulse
Walking or clapping the pulse as part of a game.

Understanding rhythm
Examples of activities:
Performing rhythm by tapping, clapping or other actions
Relating rhythm to pulse
Creating ‘rhythm pictures’
Learning the rhythm syllables ‘ta’ and ‘ti-ti’.

Listening
Examples of activities:
Responding to musical instructions without words
Guessing games
Observing and discussing classmates’ performance
Listening to and discussing new songs.

Ensemble work
It takes mutual awareness and teamwork to perform together.
Examples of activities:
Question and answer songs
Performing in separate groups or as duets
Taking turns to perform a line or verse of a song
Co-ordinating actions

Jolly Music in the classroom

Singing games
The combination of singing and rhythmic movement provides a ideal unconscious learning experience
Children love these games and are happy to repeat them endlessly
They make their own of the games, taking them from the classroom into the playground

The ‘singing chair’
An ordinary chair, decorated and perhaps labelled, can give the children confidence in solo singing. Tell the children that it will help them to sing really well when they sit on it and sing on their own.
‘Our children all speak English as a second language. They can also be shy and sometimes withdrawn. What a difference Jolly Music makes. Everyone wanted a turn on the chair.’’
Marj Newbury, Reception Teacher, Byron Primary School, Bradford

Solo performance
It builds the children’s confidence.
It allows you to assess each child individually.
It makes the children listen; they perform better as a group after listening to a soloist perform.

Music and behaviour management
Musical instructions and
games can be helpful in
managing the children:
to focus their
attention quickly
to get them working
together
to calm them down.

Make singing as natural as speaking
Sung greetings (‘Hello everyone’, ‘Goodbye, everyone’) and instructions (‘Stand up!’, ‘Sit down’ etc.) are used throughout Jolly Music.
They can be used in any classroom situation and are easily adapted to other words.

Music every day
Many of the Jolly Music activities can easily be used daily by the class teacher, even where the regular music lesson is given by a music specialist.
The CDs make it easy for the teachers to share material.

Music and learning

Music and achievement
Children at a Glasgow nursery who received Kodály-based music lessons were 12 months ahead of their chronological age in literacy by the end of primary 1 (age 5).1
First-grade children at a US school who received intensive Kodály training performed more effectively than a control group on temporal and spatial tasks and on reading tests. 2
Six-year-olds receiving either Kodály or keyboard lessons showed ‘modest but widespread intellectual benefits’, in areas including concentration, processing speed, reading and maths skills, perceptual organisation and overall IQ. 3
Myant, M., Armstrong, W. & Healy, N. (2008). Can music make a difference? A small scale longitudinal study into the effects of music instruction in nursery on later reading ability. Educational & Child Psychology, 25 (3), 79–96
Gardiner, M.F., Fox, A., Knowles, F. & Jeffrey, D. (1996). Learning improved by arts training. Nature, 381, 284.
Glenn Schellenberg, E. (2004). Music Lessons Enhance IQ. Psychological Science, 15, 511.