Our music lessons are fun!
We not only want our students to learn how to play songs. We also want them to understand the concepts of music theory which make it easier to transfer to other instruments. Many of our students have started at the keyboard and then added other instruments like ukulele, guitar, recorder, flute and lap dulcimer to name a few.
In our Musicolor Method® curriculum, around the 3rd or 4th lesson, we introduce solfeggio, which was invented over 1000 years ago in Italy! How crazy amazing is that? Somehow, the French word Solfége has become more widely used. Most people just know of it from the movie the Sound of Music where Julie Andrews teaches the children to sing using do – re – mi – fa – so, etc.
In our lessons we use the syllables, along with hand signs invented in the 1800’s by John Curwen along with the positions created by Zoltan Kodaly in the last century. If you’ve never heard of them, it doesn’t matter, but they are iconic figures in music education.
Each student begins to use the solfege along with the hand signs to learn every new song going forward. It helps to internalize the music through multiple modes: visual, aural and kinesthetic. And…it’s fun!
And they each go home with a fun poster to help them remember this along with some fun facts.
Here’s Lilah learning the first phrase of the old folk song Lightly Row.
