Articles about Dalcroze pedagogy organized by age.
Early Childhood:
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Is my child gifted?
There is one comment that I often hear from parents that still catches me off guard: “He really responds to music!” The sentiment is usually expressed with a mix of surprise and awe, but seeing children respond to music with delight, enthusiasm, passion, abandon, inventiveness and curiosity would likely surprise few teachers of young…
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Drawing Music
For the past few weeks, you may have noticed your children leaving the classes clutching drawings. In the spring of the year, I usually begin to focus the children’s attention on ways that musical events and phenomenon can be visually represented. However, the longer I teach, the more I find myself delaying the introduction of…
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Infrequently Asked Questions About Early Childhood Dalcroze Classes
Aside from one or two perennials, I don’t get asked too many questions during my Dalcroze classes for young children. With busy toddlers demanding attention, there just isn’t a lot of time for chatting. (There are one or two questions I am commonly asked. See if you can guess what they are – I’ll include…
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A Class for 5-6 Year-olds
So many things can happen over the course of a Dalcroze semester that you can often get a better idea of what a class has been doing by simply describing a single class in detail. Here’s a description of a recent class of exceptional 5-6 year-old girls that I am fortunate enough to see every week.…
Early elementary:
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7-9 Year-Olds: September
Welcome parents and family members of the new Dalcroze class for 7 to 9-year-olds at the Lucy Moses School. I am pleased we were able to expand our program to include older children this year! Because it is sometimes difficult – even for adult Dalcroze students – to be able to articulate just what happened…
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7-9 Year-olds: 9/27/16
The 4:45 group (7-9 year-olds) had their best session yet. Here’s what we did: Explore ways to walk (heels, toes, sideways, large steps, small steps, through molasses, without picking up your feet, etc.) Sometimes at this age, creativity can take a back seat for a while as skill mastery moves to the fore. In this…
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7-9 Year-olds: 11/2/16
We had a long break (4 weeks) after only a few classes. It was as if we had just seen each other last week, though. Here’s what we did: Warm-up: A group of children stand throughout the room. They cannot move unless they have the magic ball. The ball only retains its power if it…
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7-9 Year-olds: 11/8/16
Here’s what we did this week… Move to the music; when the music stops, stop and clap 4 times. I had to tweak the directions to this until the music felt right to me. In the past, I have made it work with a signal (usually a high accented note from the piano). It ended…
Late elementary:
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It’s All a Charade
The Classic Party Game as Music and Movement Portal for 3rd-5th Graders Last week, I came across a passage in a book by Elizabeth Vanderspar that stopped me in my tracks. (The book was originally published as “Principles and Guidelines for Teaching Eurhythmics” and is now available as Dalcroze Handbook: Teaching Rhythmics.) She suggested playing…
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It’s All a Charade (Part 2)
Even revolutionary approaches can become rigid. Here’s part 2 of the story of a 3rd-5th grade class which encouraged me to think outside of a box that was already outside of the box.
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Freedom and Control
When I work with Dalcroze teachers-in-training, the most frequent question I ask them is, “What are you teaching?” It’s easy to confuse what we are teaching (music) with how we are teaching it (Dalcroze teaching strategies). For most teaching situations, the goal of the class shouldn’t be Dalcroze teaching techniques like follows or quick reactions,…
Adult
note: during the pandemic, when we were looking for ways to keep ourselves moving, I made some posts for adults to practice their eurhythmics skills. For more about teaching Dalcroze to adults, view ‘by subject‘.
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Changing meter: Reaction game
Read more: Changing meter: Reaction gameNote: This part of a series of posts for adults interesting in practicing eurhythmics on their own. The following is a known as “Reaction Game” in Dalcroze parlance. In a reaction game, a signal (auditory (musical or non-musical), visual, verbal or tactile) tells the participants what to do to explore a given musical subject. In…
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Patterns with 4 beats and 1 rest: Inhibition Game
Read more: Patterns with 4 beats and 1 rest: Inhibition GameStep and clap the patterns that you hear. At the signal “hands”, stop the hands and move only the feet. When you hear “hands” again, restart the hands. Same with “feet”. Having trouble following? Use the piano: the left hand is associated with your feet, the right hand with your hands. This is known as…
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Expanding and Contracting Beats in Duple Meter
Read more: Expanding and Contracting Beats in Duple MeterIn a measure of two beats, the length of beat can change from as low as two divisions (e.g. two eighths with a quarter note beat) to 6 divisions (e.g. 6 eighths with a dotted half note beat). I call the number of divisions right before each change. You could: Simply step, gesture or conduct…
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Changing Beat
Read more: Changing BeatHere we play with beats of 2, 3 and 4 divisions. I start with 3, which I am playing with a swing feel on the recording. At “hip” I take a way a division (e.g. 3 divisions becomes 2), at “hop” I add one (e.g. 3 divisions becomes 4). I am playing in a measure…
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Beat, division and multiple: an inhibition game
Read more: Beat, division and multiple: an inhibition gameHere is a classic Dalcroze “Inhibition” game. Step and gesture or lightly clap simultaneously. At “feet” stop the feet. When you hear “feet” again, start the feet. Likewise with the signal “hands”. You might try improvising this without the recording at first, calling your own starts and stops. You can simply move the beat, or…