Solfa can be such a useful tool for any musician and can open up a whole new level of musicianship and understanding for your students.

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Delilah McLaughlin
5 years ago
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2 Overview This But-the-Pieces lesson plan is designed to make solfa really accessible to your and your students, even if you ve never taken any Kodály training or don t consider yourself much of a singer. Solfa can be such a useful tool for any musician and can open up a whole new level of musicianship and understanding for your students. Take this 6 week journey and by the end your students will be comfortable singing, aurally identifying, notating and reading the pentatonic scale. Taking the time to become really secure with the pentatonic scale will mean that your students are much more secure when you do introduce fa and ti to create the major scale. This foundational work is worth it to establish that base. But-the-Pieces Plans cover aspects other than repertoire. These plans will work well one on one with a student, or in partner, buddy, overlapping or small group lessons. Wherever there would be a modification for working with multiple students, this has been noted. All other activities will work with multiple students sitting side by side at one piano or at separate keyboard without much alteration. Quick Look Lesson Plan WEEK FOCUS ACTIVITY NOTES: Week 1 do-re-mi Solfa warmups do-re-mi I.D. Week 2 do-re-mi-so Solfa warmups do-re-mi -so I.D. Week 3 do-re-mi-so Solfa warmups do-re-mi -so I.D. Week 4 do-re-mi-so-la Solfa warmups do-re-mi -so-la I.D. Week 5 do-re-mi-so-la Solfa warmups Floor notation Week 6 do-re-mi-so-la Solfa warmups Notation Sidestep Solfa cards Floor notation Floor notation Folk songs Sidestep Solfa Folk songs Floor notation Folk songs Sidestep Solfa Pentatonic singback Pentatonic singback Sidestep Solfa

3 Week 1 5 min Solfa warmups Sing the following warmups with your student. It s best to do these without the piano, but if you need to play along with your singing to get you started feel free. Demonstrate first and then ask them to join in and sing with you. When they get comfortable with so-mi try do-la. Add the hand signs when your student is ready. Note that this is written in E major as it will be the most comfortable for most young students to sing in, feel free to change the key if your student is more comfortable in a different range. 5 min Do-re-mi I.D. Tell your student that if they hears do they must sit down, if they hear re she should kneel, and for mi they should stand. Play do, re, mi on the piano while singing. Then play do, re or mi. Your student should sit, kneel or stand to match the note. Repeat this all over the piano, in different keys, high and low. 5 min Sidestep Solfa cards 5 min Floor notation do-re-mi Take out the first level of cards from the Sidestep Solfa game (the ones with red leaves). Today we re just going to use these to practice sight singing, rather than use the full game. Practice singing a few cards with your student. Play the tonic chord and then the starting note each time before you sing together. E major will probably be the most comfortable key for most young students. If your student is doing well and seems confident, have them try some cards on their own. Put a rope, ribbon or tape on the floor to represent a single line staff. Place a foam circle, cuddly toy or anything else that could represent a note just below the line and tell your student that this is do. Play a short phrase (start very simply) on the piano starting on do and ask your student to create the phrase on the floor. Help them as much as they need.

4 Week 2 2 min Solfa warmups Repeat the solfa warmups from last week, this time jumping right in using the handsigns. Switch between the so-mi and do-la versions a few times. 5 min Do-re-mi-so I.D. Repeat the do, re, mi version that we introduced last week. Now expand this to include so. When your student hears so they should stand with their hands on their head. Repeat this all over the piano, in different keys, high and low. 5 min Floor notation do-re-mi Put a rope, ribbon or tape on the floor to represent a single line staff. This time do not tell your student what the starting note will be. Play the tonic chord (in any key) followed by a short phrase using only do-re-mi. Can your student recreate it on the staff? Give them clues and play the phrase several times as they need. 8 min Folk songs Pick a folk song your student will know well but has not played (or at least won t remember how to play from memory) such as Mary Had a Little Lamb, Hot Cross Buns, Baa Baa Black Sheep or Twinkle Twinkle. Sing the song together. Tell them to pick any starting note in the middle of the piano. Work with them to figure out how the song goes starting from that note. Sing with them and ask guiding questions such as: Do you think the note I m singing is higher or lower than the one you re playing? Is it a lot higher or just a little? Once they have worked out the complete song, ask them what they think it might be in solfa. Figure out what each notes would be and then sing it together in solfa a few times. If a something comes up that they haven t encountered yet don t worry. Just give a simple explanation. For example if fa comes up, explain to them that we haven t met this note yet, but it lives in between mi and so.

5 Week 3 2 min Solfa warmups Repeat the solfa warmups with handsigns. At some point during the singing switch from using handsigns to tapping the beat (patsch). Switch back and forth and see how well your student can follow you. 3 min Do-re-mi-so I.D. Repeat the do-re-mi-so version that we introduced last week. Your student might be getting pretty confident with this by now, and you might be able to try it rapidfire style. 8 min Sidestep Solfa Give your student the do, re and mi cards from the Sidestep Solfa game. Ask them to lay these out on the floor. You can then follow the instructions in the game and have your student direct you (and your other student(s) if you are doing this in a group) with what to sing by stepping side to side. Start with the first level of the cards and move on to the second level (including so) when they re ready. If you re working with more than one student make sure they all get a chance to be the sidestepper. 7 min Folk songs Sing the song you learnt last week in solfa. Try singing it with handsigns and without the piano. Go back to the piano and ask your student to play it again in the key they learnt it in last week. Now ask them to pick a new starting key and figure out how to play it from there. Sing along in solfa to help them find the correct notes. Try a few more keys if you have time so that they can experience how useful solfa is for transposing. If you are working with two students on any activity like this you can easily adapt it by having one student pick the starting note and them both work it out in different octaves on the piano, singing and working together to find the correct pattern.

6 Week 4 2 min Solfa warmups Repeat the solfa warmups with handsigns. At some point during the singing switch from using handsigns to tapping the beat (patsch). Switch back and forth and see how well your student can follow you. 5 min Do-re-mi-so-la I.D. 5 min Floor notation do-re-mi-so Repeat the do-re-mi-so version before introducing la. Play the pentatonic scale, do-re-mi-so-la, and tell your student if they heas la they should stand up and reach their hands up towards the sky. Having five notes to choose from is quite a step up. You may find you need to slow things down again and guide your student with more singing at this stage. Put a rope, ribbon or tape on the floor to represent a single line staff. Play the tonic chord (in any key) followed by a short phrase using only do-re-mi. Can your student recreate it on the staff? Give them clues and play the phrase several times as they need. If they re doing well, introduce a second line to your staff. Show them where so lives (on top of this second line, a skip up from mi) and try some short phrases using do-re-mi-so. 8 min Folk songs Pick another folk song that your student that your student knows. Sing it together and then help them to work it out by ear. Figure out what it is in solfa and sing it together. Try to help them less this time, see how much they can do independently. They might surprise you! If you have some time left, experiment with transposing this into other keys.

7 Week 5 2 min Solfa warmups Repeat the solfa warmups with handsigns and patsch. During the exercise, drop out and stop singing but continue doing the handsigns. If your student doesn t continue singing first gesture with your other hand for them to do so, and only explain verbally if really necessary. 5 min Floor notation do-re-mi-so-la Put two ropes, ribbons or lines of tape on the floor to represent a two line staff. Play the tonic chord (in any key) followed by a short phrase using only do-re-mi-so. Can your student recreate it on the staff? Give them clues and play the phrase several times as they need. If they re doing well, introduce a third line to your staff. Show them where la lives (on top of the third line, a step up from so) and try some short phrases using do-re-mi-so-la. 8 min Sidestep Solfa Give your student the do, re, mi and so cards from the Sidestep Solfa game. Ask them to lay these out on the floor in a row. You can then follow the instructions in the game and have your student direct you (and your other student(s) if you are doing this in a group) with what to sing by stepping side to side. Start with the second level of the cards (yellowish leaves) and move on to the third level (brown leaves) and add the la card when your students are ready. If you re working with more than one student make sure they all get a chance to be the sidestepper. 5 min Do-re-mi-so-la I.D. and singback Repeat this activity as you did it last week, and add a twist. This time play the pentatonic scale and then a three note phrase. Your student should still sit, stand, etc. to show which was the starting note but should then try to sing back the complete phrase. For example, you would play do-re-mi-so-la and then mi-so-mi and your student should stand to indicate that mi was the starting note, and then sing back mi so mi.

8 Week 6 2 min Solfa warmups Repeat the solfa warmups with handsigns and patsch. During the exercise, drop out and stop singing but continue doing the handsigns. If your student doesn t continue singing first gesture with your other hand for them to do so, and only explain verbally if really necessary. 8 min Notation do-re-mi-so-la 5 min Do-re-mi-so-la I.D. and singback Put three ropes, ribbons or lines of tape on the floor to represent a three line staff and repeat the floor notation exercise from last week using the full pentatonic scale. Now give your student the transcription exercise page (overleaf). Play the tonic chord (in any key) and then a short phrase using the pentatonic scale. Repeat the phrase three times and then ask your student to try to write it down using the dot on the staff as the first note. The staves are clefless so it does not matter where you begin and where the starting dot is position on the staff, the idea is to get the correct pattern. Don t feel you need to do 10 of these exercises in one session! I only included this many to give you space for your students to make some mistakes, and scope for doing extra if you like. Repeat this activity as you did it last week using three note phrases. Expand to four note phrases if your student is finding this too easy. 5 min Sidestep Solfa Give your student the do, re, mi, so and la cards from the Sidestep Solfa game. Ask her to lay these out on the floor in a row. You can then follow the instructions in the game and have your student direct you (and your other student(s) if you are doing this in a group) with what to sing by stepping side-to-side. Use the third level of cards (brown leaves) this week. Congratulate your student on being able to sight sing the full pentatonic scale!

9 Transcription Exercise

Duple/triple taps Animal movement. Finger Twister Dogs and Gates + D. Tapbacks Loud/soft actions. Tippy Taps This little hedgehog

Duple/triple taps Animal movement. Finger Twister Dogs and Gates + D. Tapbacks Loud/soft actions. Tippy Taps This little hedgehog Overview This But-the-Pieces lesson plan will take you through theory games, creative activities for the first year with a new student. It is especially designed for young beginners, 5 years and under,