If You Can Talk, You Can Sing

“If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing.” – A Zimbabwean proverb

Just as this ancient African proverb reminds us, as long as one has the vocal mechanisms and breadth support to articulate sounds and words, one is capable of singing a song. In fact babies in Kindermusik Village classes sing all the time! They spontaneously coo, babble or vocalize the “resting tone” which is typically the last note of the song they’ve just heard. Sometimes, these babies will sing one of the “resting tone chords,” (the third or fifth note from the resting tone) which means they are already harmonizing with us!

In Kindermusik, we nurture children's musical aptitude first and foremost by singing to and with our children. In fact, we specifically sing many songs a cappella (without instrumental or recording accompaniment). This practice is taken from the famous Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly’s strong belief that singing needs to be an integral component of a child’s early music education. He believed that in this way children can better internalize music while developing their musical ear, audiation (the ability to hear a song in one’s mind even when there’s no music playing), and tonal awareness which are essential components of music study and vocal training. After all, the human voice is the most natural, personal and accessible instrument as it provides a pure model for children to develop their own musical voice.

Here are Kodaly's basic philosophies taken from Kodaly (1882-1967):

1.All people capable of lingual literacy are also capable of musical literacy

2.Singing is the best foundation for musicianship

3.Music education to be most effective must begin with the very young child

4.The folk songs of a child’s own linguistic heritage constitute a musical mother tongue and should therefore be the vehicle for all early instruction

5.Only music of the highest artistic value, both folk and composed, should be used in teaching

6.Music should be at the heart of the curriculum, a core subject used as a basis for education

According to Kodaly himself, “it is the richness of both the musical experiences themselves and the memory of them that makes a good musician. Individual singing plus listening to music”… “develops the ear to such an extent that one understands music one has heard with much clarity as though one were looking at a score; if necessary—and if time permits—one should be able to reproduce such a score.” From Preface to Erzsebet Szony, Musical Reading and Writing (New York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1954), p. 8

Happy singing!

Musically, Miss Sunny
www.musikandmotion.com