The Two Syllable Method is the only method which instills the 'relatedness' of pitch in both the ear and the eye.
It begins from birth with special lullabies.
Around age two, the child is introduced to two-note melodies which encourage pitch-matching.
At age three, the parent reads to the child a story with similar two-note phrases. Everytime the parent gets to these 'balloned' musical captions in the story, the parent points and sings- "Hi, Lo, Hi!", introducing the child to reading music.
At age four, two minor third 'sets' are shown with two hand signs moved up and down.
At age five, in Kindergarten, the teacher points at short melodies which were previously heard in the home as nursery rhymes. Now, they read the notes. The white notes are "da" and the black notes are "di".
In first grade, the children read melodies with two notes, then three notes, and then four notes. Later material is previewed by rote, phrase by phrase. Some funny little songs with 'concrete solfege' "Stand, Middle, Sit" ("5, 3-3, 1", "Da, di-di, da",) are heard at home and sometimes sung in class.
In second grade, pentatonic (five note)melodies are read.
In third grade, six and seven note melodies are read.
In later grades, regular music is read- folk songs, world music, and early music. An occasional Renaissance styled "Da-di Magrigal" is read. With occassional use of advanced two-syllable material a sophisticated singing ear continues to develop into adulthood.
If the stylization of these songs seems to be a 'crutch', consider that instrumental study pushed on children is often a 'crutch' of a different sort. Solfege is still another 'crutch'. Solfege and instrumental study do not always ensure a good tuning sense. Solfege verbalizes pitch perception, and instrumental study 'fingerizes', 'motorizes' and 'rhythmizes' it. Both solfege and instruments tend to preoccupy the 'left-brain'. For many, this leaves them with a poor right-brain pitch sense as an adult. Stylized songs, on the other hand, will train the ear progressively and organically, in a very intuitive right-brain fashion. There are many left brain 'handles' that codify what both the left and the right brain has percieved, of course, but these are rapidly understood, intuitively related, and concretely meaningful and appropriate for the progressive stages in the child's development. If the limitation of using two and three-note melodies seems too severe, consider that these pitch structures are natural to early childhood pitch development; they are 'skeletal' to other material the child is hearing elsewhere, or that you are free to teach if you wish. The child will internally absorb other more advanced material better while being exposed to this simple teaching along the way. Just keep coming back to this simple material, and the other songs will improve.
First grade is too early to introduce the National Anthem for most children, although this may change if my two-syllable songs can be recorded and printed and made available to parents of infants. If children are introduced to this music early, before grade school, more of them may be able to sing the National Anthem at a young age.
I have a problem with the short term approach so often used in children's choirs, community choirs, schools and churches. The choir director is pushed to get the children ready for some program coming up. Rote learning is employed exclusively. Note reading falls by the wayside. Advanced material is pushed on to the children, causing the delicate step by step pitch development process to be hampered. The chest voice is encouraged rather than the more pitch-sensitive head-voice. Loudness and cuteness, not real musical beauty and precision, are emphasised. The politics of short term impressing and performing hinders the long term results of real education, and the result is mediocrity down the line. If children were taught vocal music reading and singing in tune, the result down the line would be a rebirth of every aspect of culture, a more noble and intelligent cultural mind. Not only would there be musical excellence, and greater prosperity, but most importantly, greater integrity in all the many spheres of our shared cultural life. Public Schools
catalogue in progress invest now while the iron is hot The 'Vivaldi Effect' Language Development Groovin' Music Babble Calm Music for Preschool Improves Memory Speeds Healing singing IN TUNE More about what I am trying to do Why Da-di songs will work Post comments here
