More on the Colourstrings' Philosophy

Colourstrings is a music education programme that starts from pregnancy and is a continuous developmental process. Although Szilvay divides his methodology into separate teaching phases, he did not want the process to be felt by children as separate but rather as one continuous process. If children felt it to be split into phases, the new phase would be difficult to start and would have to be related back to the previous phase, but if continuous, the child would just grow into the new phase seamlessly. He envisaged a programme where instrumental tuition would be a follow-on from the kindergarten programme. The kindergarten programme directly connects to instrumental teaching.


After the kindergarten programme, once the child starts school, s/he would go to a Colourstrings instrumental teacher and start an instrument from the beginning but have an enhanced level of understanding of the basics and elements of music. Also, the children should know 50 to 70 children’s songs by the time they start instrumental tuition and some of them they would learn to play on their instruments. This he called subconscious education. He believed that instrumental music would be made easier, and the teacher would go through the process so much more quickly, if the kindergarten teachers did their job well.  Szilvay went as far as to say that kindergarten teachers could change the life of instrumental teachers if they did their job well. This is because the same ideas and material should be followed throughout: that is that the material initially introduced to the child is also used as the introduction to each successive phase and because of its familiarity, it can be easily assimilated by the child.

Secondly, Szilvay wanted to develop a philosophy that was for the average child and not only the talented child. He felt that most instrumental teaching philosophies were written for the talented and musical child. The average child fell by the musical wayside. ‘The Colourstrings approach acknowledges that there are born talents or natural abilities but also takes into consideration the extreme importance of the environment or surroundings for the development of the child. Colourstrings creates an environment for the child where toys, fairy tales, singing and instruments live side by side serving the happiness of the child. Such a music land which is an integral part of the child’s play world should be available to everyone’ (Vainio 196:50).

By Zelda Martin (extract from a Master's thesis - University of Pretoria)

New research highlights value of Kodaly-based fraction programme

A brand new study by researchers at the San Francisco State University has confirmed previous research that children who learn fractions using rhythm outperform students taught in a traditional method, and this programme has a basis in the Kodaly method.

Assistant Professor Sue Courey developed the programme in conjunction with a music teacher. "They borrowed aspects from the Kodaly method, a Hungarian approach to music education that includes movement, songs and nicknames for musical notes, such as "ta-ah" for a half note.
The curriculum helps children connect the value of musical notes, such as half notes and eighth notes, to their equivalent fraction size. By clapping and drumming rhythms and chanting each note's Kodaly names, students learn the time value of musical notes. Students learn to add and subtract fractions by completing work sheets, in which they draw musical notes on sheet music, ensuring the notes add up to four beats in each bar or measure."

Of specific interest in South Africa is that the music-based method is especially valuable in a situation where those who are not first language English speakers are being instructed in English, as music provides a way to learn fractions that is not intensively language-based.

Fractionally in Rhythm

coloring one half, a photo by jimmiehomeschoolmom on Flickr.

Second & third grade students who were taught fractions through musical rhythms scored 100% higher on fractions tests than those who learned in the conventional manner.—“Rhythm Students Learn Fractions More Easily,” Neurological Research, March 15, 1999.

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