Category Archives: Summer School
Kodály Summer School – August 2015
Summer is coming and with it brings the 33rd International Kodály Summer School. If this is your first BKA Residential then you are entitled to an £80 discount. Discounts are also available for full time students and BKA members who attended the last Summer or Spring Residential.
If you want to spread the cost of the course then do get in touch about setting up a payment plan. Any questions about the course should be directed to the course administrator Judy Hildesley on judyhildesley@btinternet.com.
Book now to reserve your place or take a look at the wonderful range of activities available this year.
Musical Listening – James Cuskelly
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
3.00 – 4.15 pm or 4.45 – 6.00 pm
James Cuskelly
James Cuskelly‘s Musical Listening workshops are being run on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons as optional classes on the Kodály Summer School. Students beginning this course on Monday will be expected to attend all three sessions and the Friday afternoon session will be Singing Games with Lucinda Geoghegan. Each workshop will be offered twice: first in Session Two with a repetition of the material in Session Three each day.
Monday
In this session participants will look at a range of activities based around listening to the Afro-American spiritual “Sinner, please doan let this harvest pass”. Essential characteristics of the genre will be explored through a range of song materials and singing games. The ongoing sequential development of aural musicianship skills will be embedded in the overall outline and guided listening segments will be incorporated. The activities in this session would be suitable for upper primary or lower secondary students.
Tuesday
Listening activities within the Kodály approach are usually centred on a piece of Art Music, taken from the historical academy. In this session participants will look at a range of activities based around listening to the music taken from the 1993 movie, “Schindler’s List”. In the modern world, many composers consider film score writing as both a practical means of earning a living as well as a platform to push compositional boundaries. The ongoing sequential development of aural musicianship skills will be embedded in the overall outline and guided listening segments will be incorporated. The activities in this session would be suitable for secondary students.
Thursday
While this session is a follow on from the ideas canvassed in the Session 2, this is also a stand-alone session and all are welcome to attend. This session will focus on the second movement of the Gorecki “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” and will consider the musical materials in the historical context as well as exploring the specific compositional devices relevant to the piece. The ongoing sequential development of aural musicianship skills will be embedded in the overall outline and guided listening segments will be incorporated. The activities in this session would be suitable for more advanced secondary students.
Holger Aston
Holger is a pianist and cellist, having completed his musical studies at the Guildhall School of Music. In 2010 he spent a year in Kecskemet, Hungary where he completed a Master’s in Kodaly Pedagogy, graduating with Distinction. Holger teaches piano at Notting Hill and Ealing High School, musicianship and choir at Colourstrings Music School, and delivers a wide-range of music courses to adults at the Mary Ward Centre, Holborn.
Summer School Session Three Options
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 4.45 – 6.00 pm
In Session Three students may choose one of the following three options:
- Ethnic Jewish Songs and Dance with Esther Hargittai
- Repertoire & Pedagogy with Susan Brumfield
- Musical Listening with James Cuskelly & Singing Games with Lucinda Geoghegan
Ethnic Jewish Songs and Dance
Esther Hargittai
A new course drawing on Esther’s research into folk material from the Middle East will provide new repertoire and opportunities for movement through dances linked to the musical material. This workshop is designed to provide teachers and other group leaders with interesting and challenging additions to their music curriculum/repertoire. A variety of children’s songs, folk songs, and songs for Jewish holidays will be introduced and learnt and will include activities to improve your group’s musical skills. The songs will provide new material for multicultural activities; for enhancing religious studies or simply for enjoying something new and different!
All the musical activities and games are structured according to the Kodály philosophy. Each song will be studied in depth with an analysis of its tone set, tonality and phrasing and will provide suitable material for practicing singing in solfa. Where songs are associated with original and simple dances, the dances will also be taught. All the material will be presented with ideas for teaching or reinforcing musical elements as well as ideas for activities, games and/or dances. The ideas will be presented on three levels (beginners, intermediate, advanced) – to appeal to a wide range of ages and abilities from 5 year olds to adults, from primary to secondary students.
Repertoire & Pedagogy
Susan Brumfield
Four consecutive classes will be offered twice: first in Session Two with a repetition of the material in Session Three each day to enable those wishing to do conducting to also include Susan’s class in their programme. Susan’s sessions will draw from her series, First We Sing! Participants will explore songs and games from songbooks one and two, and discover ways to incorporate them into a Kodály literacy sequence, as well as delve deeply into their use in developing other musical skills. Susan will also demonstrate activities for practice in all skill areas, drawing from the First, We Sing Activity Card pack. Materials in the series will be available for purchase.
Musical Listening
James Cuskelly (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday)
Three consecutive classes will be offered twice: first in Session Two with a repetition of the material in Session Three each day to enable those wishing to do conducting to include James’s classes in their programme. Details tbc.
Singing Games
Lucinda Geoghegan (Friday)
This will be a “hands on” session during which participants will experience a range of Singing Games suitable for the Primary classroom and beyond. A variety of different games will be explored including clapping games, ball games, passing games and more. This class is a repeat of the session in Session Two.
Summer School Session Two Options
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 3.00 – 4.15 pm
In Session Two students may choose one of the following three options:
- Conducting 1 – 4
- Repertoire & Pedagogy with Susan Brumfield
- Musical Listening with James Cuskelly & Singing Games with Lucinda Geoghegan
Conducting 1 – 4
Esther Hargittai, Árpád Tóth, David Vinden, László Nemes
Conducting classes are offered at four levels as required and will be taught over four days. Students beginning this course on Monday will be expected to attend all four sessions. Details of each level are provided here.
Repertoire & Pedagogy
Susan Brumfield
Four consecutive classes will be offered twice: first in Session Two with a repetition of the material in Session Three each day to enable those wishing to do conducting to also include Susan’s class in their programme. Susan’s sessions will draw from her series, First We Sing! Participants will explore songs and games from songbooks one and two, and discover ways to incorporate them into a Kodály literacy sequence, as well as delve deeply into their use in developing other musical skills. Susan will also demonstrate activities for practice in all skill areas, drawing from the First, We Sing Activity Card pack. Materials in the series will be available for purchase.
Musical Listening
James Cuskelly (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday)
Three consecutive classes will be offered twice: first in Session Two with a repetition of the material in Session Three each day to enable those wishing to do conducting to include James’s classes in their programme.
Singing Games
Lucinda Geoghegan (Friday)
This will be a “hands on” session during which participants will experience a range of Singing Games suitable for the Primary classroom and beyond. A variety of different games will be explored including clapping games, ball games, passing games and more. This class will be repeated in Session Three.
Summer School Session One Options
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 1.30 – 2.45 pm
In Session One students may choose one of the following six options:
- Methodologies 1 – 4 for Teachers and Practitioners
- Methodology 5 for More Experienced Practitioners
- Choral Music Workshop
Methodology 1 – 4 for Teachers and Practitioners
Students attending these sessions as part of the Kodály Certificate programme will have an additional session on Saturday morning from 10.30 – 12.00 pm.
Methodology 1 for Early Years Teachers and Practitioners
Lucinda Geoghegan (Monday); Zoe Greenhalgh (Tuesday, Thursday & Friday)
The Early Years Methodology course will present musical materials and explore age-appropriate and playful musical activities to enhance early childhood development in many ways: social, emotional, cognitive, physical – and musical responsiveness and skills. During the week participants will have the chance to work with the basic principles and objectives of music education for the young child, learning about the general sequence of musical interest and development in young children. Participants will learn and play rhymes, children songs and games for babies, toddlers, and preschool children from 3-7 years of age.
Methodology 2 for Primary Years Teachers and Practitioners
Sally Leeming
This course is for those teachers with either no experience of teaching in a Kodály way or those with a small amount of experience.
- Reception and Key Stage 1 will be covered in the first three sessions. Students will learn how to introduce the concepts of pulse, rhythm, pitch and tempo, firstly through unconscious experience. Ways of making this experience conscious and ways to practise and reinforce concepts once that stage has been reached will be included and lead to the introduction of solfa, handsigns, rhythm names and notation.
- Key Stage 2 work will be demonstrated in the second half of the week. This will cover the development of musical literacy and how new rhythm and pitch elements can be taught and reinforced. Once the musical literacy stage has been reached more ways of teaching a song are possible and some of these will be demonstrated. Ways to start teaching older (Y5 and Y6) beginners will also be discussed.
Methodology 3 for Secondary Teachers and Practitioners
James Cuskelly and Alan Murdock
This course will cover Issues of teaching older beginners: Motivation; Materials; Managing the changing voices; Methodology as well as reviewing, teaching and/or developing:
- The use of the voice to teach musicianship
- Pulse/metre
- Rhythm
- Pitch (pentatonic scales/intervals; diatonic scales/intervals; modes ancient and modern)
- Inner hearing/memory
- Simple harmony (I IV V VI)
- Two-part + hearing + co-ordination work
- Form and design in music
- Improvisation/creative work
- Listening skill development; oral and written analysis
- Musical reading and writing
- Music of other cultures and styles (Bali, India, Africa, serial, minimalist)
- Specific requirements for GCSE music
Methodology 4 for Instrumental Teachers and Practitioners
Sally Leeming (Monday); Holger Aston (Tuesday, Thursday & Friday)
Those electing this series will be expected to attend the Primary Methodology session on Monday with Sally Leeming before working with Holger Aston, who will provide an instrumental focus for the rest of the week. These three will be practical sessions which will explore how to choose and support teaching material developing solfa and letter names concurrently as well as general musicianship skills, including composition and improvisation. These sessions are useful for both individual and group teaching and will employ standard Kodály tools as well as iPad/computer applications.
Choral Music Workshop
In these sessions with Árpad Tóth, students will look at a variety of materials in a themed programme over the four days. The choral music of Kodály and other Hungarian composers will be included in this survey. Participants will listen to examples of music from the different periods and will have opportunities to sing a selection of samples appropriate to the group.
Sally Leeming
Sally is a singer and musicianship teacher living in Bingley, West Yorkshire. For many years she was a class teacher and KS2 Maths Co-ordinator.
Whilst teaching in the middle school she set up a project, working with a group of children from the local special school, and their teacher – Judith Brindle. The project involved singing and playing musical games together and was Sally’s first ‘proper’ introduction to the Kodály Concept of Music Education.
One of the aims of the project was to encourage Sally to incorporate her singing skills into the classroom. After the birth of her son, Sally attended courses run by Judith and The Voices Foundation. After hearing about the wonderful summer school from circa 1990 onwards, Sally finally made it to Leicester in 2003 and has attended the majority of summer schools since then, becoming a BKA tutor in 2014.
For the last few years Sally has worked on projects, incorporating Kodály musicianship, for the Northern Orchestral Enterprise Ltd (NOEL) in Halifax and the Sing Up Outreach Project for Bradford Cathedral and, in 2017 Sally presented a series of workshops at the Bradford Music Education Conference.
Sally teaches privately as well as singing as a soloist and in a variety of choirs. Since 2011 she has taught Kodály Musicianship in a state primary school in Queensbury, Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Zoe Greenhalgh
Zoe is a Kodály trained Early Childhood Music Specialist with a wealth of experience of working in a wide range of Early Childhood settings. She also provides bespoke training workshops for early childhood education and music practitioners and is an Associate Tutor in Early Years and Primary Education at Edge Hill University. A former BKA Trustee, Zoe is an active musician playing the viola.
Her qualifications include MA Education, Early Years; PDC (Early Childhood Music, Kodaly); PGCE; BA(Hons); RGN.
Summer School Private Lessons
For Singers at the Summer School
Individual Singing Lessons are offered in rotation during the afternoons for those wishing to acquire or enhance their vocal skills through individual attention in half hour or hourly sessions with Allan Wright or Janos Klézli. Every attempt will be made to minimise the time missed from any one class. There is a supplement of £110 for four half hour lessons or £135 for five half hour lessons. The fifth lesson, if chosen, will be timetabled on the free afternoon. If choosing hour long lessons, applicants are asked to provide details of their experience as lessons of this length are not suitable for beginners. Four hour long lessons will require a supplement of £220 or £270 for five hour long lessons. NB: Timetabling singing lessons for Certificate course students will be very limited as these will have to be taken at a fixed time each day and not during class time. It will be possible to timetable 4 x 30 minute lessons for no more than two certificate students with Allan Wright and two certificate students with János Klézli.
Singers at the Summer School will also have an opportunity to develop personal musicianship skills in daily Musicianship with Relative Solfa classes. Opportunities for additional singing will be found in the Choral Music Workshop; the Level 3 and 4 Conducting classes and the Jewish Songs and Dance workshops. Rooms for individual practice will be available during the preparation time and in the evening.
Singers attending the summer school with an accompanist may also be interested in chamber music coaching with the gifted pedagogue, Orsolya Szabó. There is a supplement of £180 for three one hour sessions. The cost may be shared by the individuals in the group. A duo requesting coaching will need to provide information in advance of the repertoire to be studied and to bring multiple copies of the music to the course.
For Pianists at the Summer School
Individual Piano Lessons
Pianists seeking to improve their skills will have an opportunity to work individually in sessions lasting three-quarters of an hour with the gifted pedagogue, Orsolya Szabó. The individual lessons will be timetabled in rotation throughout the afternoon sessions with a possibility of some morning sessions. There is a supplement for individual tuition of £180.00 for four lessons, each lasting 45 minutes. Rooms for individual practice will be available during the preparation time and in the evening. NB timetabling piano lessons for Certificate students will be very limited as these will have to be taken at a fixed time each day and not during class time. It would be possible for one person on the Certificate course to have 4 x 45″ piano lessons.
Pianists may also be interested in chamber music coaching as part of a duo or trio. There is a supplement of £180 for three one hour sessions. The cost may be shared by the individuals in the group. Groups requesting coaching will need to provide information in advance of the repertoire to be studied and to bring multiple copies of the music to the course.
Chamber Music Coaching
For Vocal Duos, Piano Duos and or Instrumental Duos/Trios etc
Chamber Music Coaching sessions with Orsolya Szabó will be timetabled in rotation throughout the afternoon and will be available in a series of three one hour sessions. The cost of the coaching sessions may be shared between the participants. In these sessions complete harmony between the participants combined with a complete and deep understanding of the music will be the goal under the inspired direction of this gifted musician. According to the Kodály philosophy, starting from the whole, dismantling the elements, and building up the whole again will lead to a greater understanding of the music and a consequent enriching of the performance.
A chamber group may consist of two or more musicians in any combination, e.g singer and piano, instrument and piano, piano trio, string trio, wind duo etc. Each chamber group will be required to bring their own music stands and copies of the music that they will have chosen and prepared in advance of the course. Rooms for practice will be available during the preparation period and in the evening.
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