To Hear, or Not to Hear: That is the Question

Up until 15 years ago, I had been teaching some sort of combination of Suzuki approach and traditional (Isn’t that interesting that there are mainly those two categories which are recognized out there). But, I wasn’t satisfied with the results I was getting. Technically, my students did OK, but I lacked a system for real literacy and musicianship. I wanted to create musicians, not just technicians. In order to do that, they needed educated ears, ears that could guide their fingers. They needed skills that I didn’t learn until college, but would have been useful to me if I had known them all along. I would have understood the music, not just fingerings and bowings. My musicianship would have been more complete.

"Bad musicians cannot hear what they are playing; mediocre one could hear it, but they don’t listen; average musicians hear what they just played; only good musicians hear what they are going to play." -Edgar Willems (1890-1978) Belgian music psychologist and pedagogue

I was relieved to know I was not alone when I read this from Lyman Bodman, retired professor of string pedagogy at Michigan State University, in his Essays on Violin Pedagogy:
"No one, but no one, who cannot hear melodic intervals can play a violin in tune...This is another string teacher responsibility, and a way must be found to fill this need...There was once an almost golden age of training when those privileged few in Europe were given, at a very early age, a thorough training in solfege. There was also a time in our own country when in many elementary schools solfege was in the curriculum. We might wish that present day music education in America could learn from that era and do more to establish fundamental musicianship for our children. As it stands at this time, the violin teacher must teach much more than the violin. It may be true that our country is now leading the world in training instrumentalists, yet there is a glaring shortcoming, namely teaching children music fundamentals and sight-singing." (2002, p. 21)Fortunately, I discovered how to teach these musical basics when I encountered the teaching principles and practices of Zoltán Kodály. He and his associates researched and put together a national music curriculum which brought about the music literacy of an entire people. It was so good, that music educators around the world took notice and began to apply the principles. His concept of the educated ear as a tool for achieving true musicianship was the piece of the puzzle that had been missing from my own music education and my teaching.

One basic premise of Kodály’s philosophy is that the voice is the first instrument, and you cultivate musical sensibilities at first through singing. You find most Kodály programs being conducted in elementary school general music classes and also in choir programs. There are not many string instrument applications, with the notable exception of Colourstrings developed by Geza Silvay, a very fine Finnish string educator. (See Helsinki strings, etc.)

Another premise is that folk songs from the cultural heritage of the student should be used as first study material. Therefore, a more authentic and useful program for American students would include music from North American and English speaking cultures, as opposed to Hungarian and Finnish folk music. For well over a decade, I have been involved with developing a string curriculum which uses this material and which integrates with typical Kodály-based singing musicianship classes that are being used in the elementary school.