You may have heard of the Kodály method...but do you know about pBuzz, the groundbreaking beginner music tool? Find out about how pBuzz can play a part in delivering elementary music within the Kodály method.
What is the Kodály music method?
The Kodály method is an approach to music education rooted in the idea that music should be a social and cultural experience. This approach to teaching music asserts that musical concepts, creativity, and collaboration are best taught in group music lessons, particularly for young children.
According to the method, music teachers should emphasize musical material connected to their students' background and heritage.
Kodály believed that musicianship training should be comprehensive and develop all dimensions of what it means to be a musical human being. If we are to develop children’s self-knowledge, self-awareness, and emotions through music, we need to educate them to be:
- Stewards of their musical and cultural heritage
- Performers (singing tunefully, playing instruments musically and moving artfully)
- Critical thinkers (reading and writing music)
- Creative human beings (improvisation and composition)
Teachers of this method will find that many of the Kodály lessons can be easily incorporated when using pBuzz, the innovative elementary music learning tool. Allowing your students to play the pBuzz is an exciting and rewarding adventure!
Utilizing pBuzz with the Kodály Approach
When Kodály spoke about aiming to develop their critical thinking, creative approach, and performance skills, he could have been talking about teaching with pBuzz!
The qualities of learning basic music skills with pBuzz reflect this methodology. The pBuzz Journey method book and teacher’s guide are designed with creativity, improvisation, and performance in mind, while the pBuzz itself provides the musical and ensemble requirements represented in the Kodály method.
Students become active learners: not only by learning about musical concepts but by developing their unique learning styles. Among the basic music skills that children learn with pBuzz are the ability to read and write music, as well as how to improvise in a group setting. The pBuzz and the pBuzz Journey method book provide an organized model for artfully teaching music literacy and provide teachers with an effective pedagogical compass.
How to use pBuzz in the Elementary Classroom
Learning to play pBuzz is a very natural process. As with learning to sing, using air correctly creates a better sound, more focus, and greater endurance. Controlling and focusing the air stream becomes a more obvious activity with noticeable results.
Instead of using the voice box, the pBuzz player has another more visible tool – the lips. Buzzing and the muscle development it provides is easier on the pBuzz than on traditional brass instruments, especially for younger children. The mouthpiece is designed for smaller lips: not too big, and not too small, with a rim that conforms to children’s faces more appropriately.
pBuzz itself is a joy to play. Learning the instrument incorporates listening, singing, movement, and active music-making – setting the stage for both music playing and improvising. Students learn by watching and listening to both the teacher and other students.
This peer-to-peer element is often missing with smaller instruments and singing, as visual clues are generally missing. pBuzz presents students with notes by name, color, and by number. These visual aids exist to help the teacher and for students to observe each other. These cues are a great indicator for others, but pBuzz allows the student to focus on developing their listening skills, adjusting appropriately, and developing their understanding of pitch in the process.
Before pBuzz, it was generally thought that learning to play an instrument was too time-consuming in the general music education classroom. Learning to buzz was considered a difficult adventure. The pBuzz has completely broken that model.
Using simple tasks, learning to buzz on the “just-right” pBuzz mouthpiece quickly translates into pitches, notes, and songs that anyone can play. Even teachers with no previous instrument experience can learn to teach with pBuzz.
Kodály teaches children to play instruments using “a sound to symbol” orientation. Students need to be able to internalize the repertoire they are going to play on their instruments. Listening, watching and singing allows students to internalize the sounds of music before they play them – perfect for playing pBuzz.
What are the five principles of the Kodály method?
As Kodály developed his teaching methods, he settled on a social, kinesthetic approach to music that could work in the elementary classroom including these five principles:
- Learning by singing: According to Kodály, the human voice is the fundamental instrument, and it should be central to musical training. With pBuzz, if you can sing it, you can play it with just a few simple instructions.
- Hand signs: Solfège and sight-singing can be supplemented by hand signs. pBuzz relies on hand movement. By watching the teacher play pBuzz, students can see how a longer instrument produces lower notes and a shorter instrument, higher notes. Lessons learned are innate and relevant.
- Rhythmic proficiency: The sight-reading of rhythmic patterns (including whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, etc.) is a natural part of playing the pBuzz.
- Collaboration: Kodály believed that creativity and collaboration are essential to musical education and can be brought out in group music lessons. pBuzz is an excellent classroom ensemble instrument. Improvisational exercises help reinforce other principles.
- Cultural connections: Music instructors should emphasize folk music (even pop songs) in a student's mother tongue to create a visceral connection to music. There are many such songs in the pBuzz Journey method book for this purpose.
The goal of Kodály music education is to give students a first-hand connection to music and to never make it seem like a dry academic exercise. The natural kinesthetic and gross motor skill movements with pBuzz create a natural excitement with which learning and teaching music is a joyful and beneficial experience.
Looking for more information about pBuzz? Check out these articles:
- Want to learn more about the pBuzz Journey method book? Read our guide to how you can deliver pBuzz in the classroom with the pBuzz Journey!
- Dorothy Pino gives her feedback on pBuzz in the classroom in The Impact of pBuzz: A Teacher's Perspective.
- pBuzz is also a great fit for STEM classes. To find out more, read the STEM and the pBuzz Lab article.
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