Tag Archives: choral

Choral Musicianship – 26th September 2015

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Leeds, Yorkshire

Tutor: Nicky Woods

A day for Youth Choirs and Singing Leaders. Suitable for Secondary age singers and leaders of all types of choirs.

Fun and engaging activities to develop musical skills and awareness, including:-

  • inner hearing
  • tuning
  • memory work
  • musical literacy
  • expression
  • phrasing

Venue: Wheeler Hall, Leeds Cathedral, Cathedral House, Great George Street, LEEDS LS2 8BE
Please note – there is no on-site parking. There are a number of municipal car parks in the area

Date: Saturday 26th September 2015 10:00am – 3:30pm

Fees: (Includes drinks & biscuits in breaks. Lunch not provided.)
£30 – Adult leaders, teachers & observers
£25 – ABCD & BKA Adult members
£8   – Under 18s
For group tickets please email Susan Hollingworth at susan.hollingworth@tesco.net

To apply please download and print this application form and send to Sue Hollingworth
ABCD BKA Choral Musicianship Workshop 2015 Flyer and Application Form

Nicky Woods graduated from Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music and trained as a teacher at the University of Reading. She worked as a teacher and cellist in Manchester before joining the music department of The Queen’s School, Chester, then taught in Rome for a short time, at St. George’s English School and, as Director of Music, at The Junior English School.

Nicky returned to England to work as a cello teacher in North Yorkshire and, inspired by an introduction to the philosophy and approach of Zoltán Kodály, decided to train as a Kodály teacher, attending courses in the UK and Hungary and gaining a Certificate of Kodály Music Education.

She currently runs singing-based workshops, courses and musicianship sessions for young people of all ages and for adults and is a tutor for the British Kodály Academy and an Advisory Teacher and Course Leader for The Voices Foundation. She enjoys directing a community choir in Ripon and serves as a trustee of the BKA and on the Yorkshire regional committee of ABCD – and still finds time to teach and play the cello!

Summer School Session One Options

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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.