Give your child the tools to participate in music ensembles in their teen years (and for life!) with this musicianship focused singing class.   This eight week music course introduces students to solfege and hand signs for "do, re, mi, sol, and la," starting with intervals most natural to children and then moving through the rest of the scale.   They will sing "call and response" phrases and learn to recognize each pitch in relation to one another.  This ear training will be balanced with reading notes on the staff and weekly interactive games. Students will be introduced to the concept of "belly breathing" and “head register,” will march to learn about beat and observe tempo, and will practice rhythms involving quarter and eight notes using “ta, ti” solemnization.   Students will learn to dictate simple melodies and rhythms.  Students will learn to sing folk songs built on the pentatonic scale and use hand signs while they sing.  We will reinforce pitch concepts and accompany our singing with an inexpensive xylophone (around $14, to be purchased separately). 

I have been thrilled with Outschool as a teaching platform for this method because students can always hear the teacher and always hear themselves.  My Outschool students make faster progress than live group classes I've taught in the past.  My unit two students are already beginning to sight-sing!  The Kodaly method not only exposes children to music and teaches them music symbols, but helps students internalize the sounds of pitches so eyes and ears work together when creating music.  

This is the first unit of a series of 8 involving the Kodály method (four units each school year). 

****Class one: Students will learn the sound of and hand signs for “sol & mi,” will sing with hand signs, play on xylo and dictate “She Sells Seashells,” will learn the difference between tempo and beat and learn about quarter notes and rests, and will learn and sing “Frog in the Middle.”
****Class two: Students will practice head voice and pitch matching, will review the sound of and hand signs for “sol & mi,” will sing with hand signs, play on xylo and dictate  “Fall is Here,” will learn the difference between quarter notes and eighth notes, and will sing “Old Mother Witch.”
****Class Three: Students will practice diaphragmatic breathing, will learn the sound of and hand signs for “la,” will read one measure patterns with quarter and eighth notes and learn about simple meter, will sing with hand signs, and dictate (pitch and rhythm) “Bounce High, Bounce Low,” and will learn and sing “Icka Backa.”
****Class Four: Students will review the sound of and hand signs for “sol, mi, la,” will review eighth and quarter note patterns, will sing with hand signs, play on xylo and dictate  “Engine, Engine,” and will learn and sing “Lucy Locket.”
****Class Five: Students will learn the sound of and hand signs for “do,” will read and dictate rhythms, will sing with hand signs, play on xylo and dictate (pitch only) “Fuzzy Wuzzy,” and will learn and sing “Mouse, Mousie.”
****Class Six: Students will learn the sound of and hand signs for “re,” will sing and dictate “Hot Cross Buns” with hand signs, will dictate rhythms, and will learn and sing “Go Round the Mountain.”
****Class Seven: Students will review the sound of and hand signs for “sol, mi, la, do,” will review eighth and quarter note patterns extended to two measures, will sing with hand signs, play on xylo and dictate (pitch and rhythm) “Rain Come Wet Me,” and will learn and sing “Here comes a Bluebird.”
****Class Eight:  Students will learn the sound and hand signs for “sol, mi, la, re, do,” will sing and dictate “Frosty Weather,”
will review eighth and quarter note patterns extended to two measures, will learn and sing “Great Big House” and will be evaluated on which notes and rhythms they have mastered.