MORNING SESSIONS  

MUSICIANSHIP (Solfège) Mornings 09:40 – 12.05 (includes coffee break) 

 These daily compulsory classes will give all participants support for their own personal musicianship training. When music is learned using Kodály’s approach, skills vital to advanced music making such as “inner hearing”, rhythmic coordination and harmonic hearing are strongly developed from the beginning.  The approach is therefore relevant for instrumental teachers as well as class music teachers, specialists, and non-specialists alike. By the end of the course, participants will achieve full musicianship certification at an agreed level with their tutor which can be used towards full British Kodály Certification.  

Level One/Two

Helen Blackmore
 

This is aimed at those with no or very little previous experience in music OR in using relative solfa. The class will include some of the following:  

• Working with pentatonic scales 
• Intervals found in the pentatonic scales 
• Rhythm names 
• Handsigns 
• Coordination exercises  
• Simple Diatonic work 

Level Three

Lynne Clark  

This course is suitable for students who have completed Level 1- 2 Kodály Musicianship training OR those who have some musical knowledge but are new to working with relative solfa. 

After a brief revision of the pentatonic scales the focus of this course will be the complete diatonic major and natural minor tonalities.  The course is designed to improve your personal ability to sight sing without the aid of an instrument.  Singing will use solfa and absolute letter names, incorporating unison and two-part work. 

Musical understanding will be reinforced through listening extracts and practical activities. 

Level Four

Lucinda Geoghegan

This course is suitable for students who have a strong musical background (diploma/degree in music) but who are new to the relative solfa system.  

After a brief introduction to benefits of working with relative solfa the students will be engaged in practical music making to improve ability in unaccompanied sight singing. Practical examples will include unison work, two-part exercises, canons and technical work.
 

Level Five

Christopher Andrews

This level will move on from simple diatonic work and include some of the following:

• More challenging diatonic work
• Modes
• Modulation
• Harmonic work
• Coordination exercises

Level Six

Areti Lymperopoulou  

This level will move on from simple diatonic work and include some of the following: 

• More challenging diatonic work 
• Modes 
• Modulation 
• Harmonic work 
• Coordination exercises 

Level Seven/Eight

James Cuskelly

This class will focus on some of the following:

• Further consolidation and intensive practice of pentatonic and diatonic work
• Chord progressions – root position and inversions
• Coordination exercises
• Memory work
• Dictation
• Modal musical material

Level Nine/Ten

Arpad Toth 

This class will work at a more advanced level. Special emphasis is placed on the development of stylistic awareness through the study of harmony and form of selected works from the art music repertory from Renaissance to Modern and Contemporary music  

It may also include the following:
 

• Kodály’s pedagogical compositions
  Pentatonic material with metric and melodic challenges
• Counterpoint, imitation, fugue 

During the course we will be studying tonal material with enhanced chromaticism chosen mainly from the 19th-century Western classical repertory. Uncustomary use of chromatic harmonies and key relations will be identified in the context of late 19th-century repertory that gradually led to the disintegration of functional tonality. Kodály’s pedagogical compositions will be used to develop a fine perception of the tonal language of romantic repertory.