A bit of background and… Why Kodaly?
When I was a child I sang all the time, inside, outside, in the car, in the bath, to my toys, to the dog…. My mother told me I sang before I spoke. I started to learn the piano when I was 6 years old and began singing lessons when I was 9. I carried on through school, university and music college. I loved it all, and enjoyed singing all types of music, but looking back something was missing from my singing lessons. No one ever taught me how to read or understand music through singing. I learnt all of that through playing the piano.
As an adult I started to hear about the work of Zoltan Kodaly, a composer and music educator who worked in Hungary in the early to mid twentieth century. He collected all the best ideas in music education together from around the world and used them to teach children how to become fantastic musicians through singing. His work was being rediscovered and developed by music educators in several countries using games, songs, rhymes and lots of fun stuff. Teachers were starting to report having great success using it, and lots of educational benefits were emerging which went beyond the music classroom. I moved to one of these countries in 2007, and started to train in and teach Kodaly musicianship with The National Youth Choir of Scotland.
Now Kodaly musicianship is a part of all my music lessons from baby and early years to primary, secondary and adult learners. It is lots of fun to learn and work with. Singers can become great musicians and music readers through doing what they like best, singing. Pianists have fun learning to sing and play, and enjoy the games and musical brain teasers vocally and on the piano. It helps young and adult learners to develop confidence as musicians and to have fun.
A bit of biog…
I studied music at Durham University and vocal studies at the RNCM. I left music college and worked as a chorister at Glyndebourne, Opera North and The Royal Opera House. I also worked as a concert soloist and taught singing and piano from home and in schools. I was a peripatetic singing teacher for several London boroughs and in the private education sector I worked as a singing teacher at St Mary’s School Ascot, St Benedict’s Ealing and Norfolk House School.
I moved to Scotland in 2007 and trained in Kodaly Musicianship with The National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCoS). I am trained to teach musicianship from Early Years to Gold level. I have worked as a musicianship tutor at the NYCoS Edinburgh Area Choir and I have also led NYCoS Mini Music Maker classes for babies, toddlers and parents in Edinburgh.
I currently work on the Scottish Government Youth Music Innitiative programme, delivering outreach lessons to primary schools from The National Youth Choir of Scotland. I also work for The Portobello Music School, and teach singing, piano, musicianship and music theory to children and adults from my studio in Edinburgh.