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)

A short overview of Colourstrings Music Methodology

1. Introduction

Colourstrings was established in Finland over thirty years ago, and spread to the rest of the world in the early 1990s. Colourstrings is a child-friendly system that was created by Hungarian Géza Szilvay, and aims to teach a child not only to eventually play an instrument, but also to improve his or her musical audio-perception and mental capacity.

Colourstrings introduces children to music in an enjoyable way through inner ear training, developing musical sense, social skills and co-ordination. Szilvay uses the rhythm, melody, movement and improvisational experiences of Kodály for his methodology.  Although Colourstrings is not the first Kodály-inspired music education methodology, it is unique in that it is intended for very young beginners with no prior formal music training required. Kodaly was an Hungarian music education philosopher who created a child friendly methodology that utilized all the children’s senses in order to teach musical concepts.

2. The Colourstrings philosophy

Colourstrings is a music education programme that ideally starts with children of eighteen months 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. He envisaged a programme where instrumental tuition would be a follow on from the kindergarten programme. 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 the songs they would learn to play on their chosen 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.

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.

Finally, Szilvay’s approach is one that develops not only the fingers, but the ear, the intellect and the emotions. He does not see the methodology as a quick fix method with fast results, but rather a slow step-by-step approach where a deep foundation is built in a child-friendly, stimulating way.

By Zelda Martin

Musically trained or talented

When my children play at a concert I usually have two comments, the first is something like “so you have five children”. The second is “you are so lucky they are all musically talented.”

Now nothing would please me more to believe that some great genetic deposit of musical genius flows through my veins. But the truth is much more prosaic.

About three years ago a friend who asked us to join her family to make up a small musical theory class introduced me to Zelda Martin.

I was expecting textbooks and reading music but very soon we were learning a very different kind of musical theory as Zelda would flash a little coloured card and children would then suddenly start marching around the room. Then another two cards and they would be stamping out a beat with their feet and then clapping a different rhythm.

Then even more impressively they would have to clap out the rhythm beat from a card they had just been shown while another card was already being displayed.

Shortly after that they would be singing while they made strange hand gestures. Hares, swallows, dollies and witches were all involved.

Zelda made it quite clear that musical theory was not just theoretical but was practical and hands on , perhaps I should say hands, feet and body on or a full bodied development of musicality. Zelda was less impressed by a child who could grasp theoretical rules in a book than by one who could keep a rhythm

What was immediately apparent to me was that the children were learning to see a note, make the sound of a note and make a physical movement that they could identify with the note. What they were getting was multiple sensory inputs for each and every musical concept they were introduced to.

But most importantly they were having to listen to each other. What impressed me is that they were doing this right from the beginning of there musical education. They didn’t have to master an instrument before they could be involved in ensemble work.

These songs moved quickly from being sung to be played on glokenspeillen and then instruments. Four of them went on to study piano using the colourkeys programme and my daughter doing guitar.

Even though my daughter was no longer following a colourstrings approach for her instrumental work she was benefitting from her colourstrings foundation. Within a few short months my daughter was performing at pretty much the same level as students who had been doing guitar for many years more than she had.

While she does practice consistently her ability to play musically and with attention to the rhythm of a piece can be attributed to even the limited formation she got from colourstrings.

What makes this story quite remarkable is that they all started music relatively late. My daughter at 15, her older brother at 13 and even my youngest daughter at 5.

While in general that would be quite old for colourstrings they have all benefitted from the initial colourstrings teaching they have had.

Although some, let us say, innovative lyrics have been developed for songs that are aimed at younger children. Especially by boys, the basic musicality they were learning has given them a good foundation.

Also once they were playing an instrument they were able very quickly to move on to playing more difficult pieces and that kept there interest in music going until they could actually play pieces that they enjoyed.

Now even though one or two say that they would like to be musicians one day I am pleased by the fact that they can make and enjoy music.