Kodály Today is essential reading for music teachers seeking an approach that will provide their students with lifelong musical literacy and musicianship, while nurturing their love for music. This book offers a powerful, layered approach to the developmentally appropriate teaching of music by presenting the Kodály method in a way that is usable and understandable by music teachers. Houlahan and Tacka render Kodály more relevant than ever by presenting vivid practical models for classroom teachers supported by research on cognition and learning. Teachers of music and the university professors who prepare them for their craft should find this book extremely valuable.
Eileen M. Coppola, Center for Education, Rice University
An extremely valuable source for elementary music instructors, pre-service teachers, and methods teachers at the collegiate level. To say that Kodály Today is a thorough text would be an understatement. There are few Kodály-based resources that provide such a thorough overview of the philosophy behind the approach, a conceptual frame-work for teachers wishing to apply this philosophy, and detailed strategies for repertoire selection, curriculum development, and implementation.
General Music Today
The authors have developed a text that incorporates appropriate musical material and sound teaching strategies for presenting this material to students. Grade level goals, objectives, and strategies are outlined in great detail, and these materials would prove extremely valuable to a music teacher. I also appreciate the inclusion of learning theorists from the education community at large. All in all, this is a very practical text.
Brent M. Gault, Ph. D., Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Kodály music training has shown that most if not all children entering elementary school can begin to learn immediately how to sing musically and with developing skill. Research is showing that such musical training can also stimulate and contribute to broader cognitive and emotional growth. This important detailed, scholarly and thoughtful examination and presentation of Kodály method now proposes further development to align with recent work in music pedagogy and cognitive learning.
Martin F. Gardiner, Center for the Study of Human Development, Brown University
A mammoth undertaking and a welcome addition to the body of literature on the Kodály concept of music education...This is a book worthy of thorough study and use as a text...A valuable teaching resource that is highly recommended!
Laurdella Foulkes-Levy, Kodály Envoy
This is an extremely comprehensive and exhaustive text which fills a gap in the current Kodály music teaching literature. It has enough information for an experienced teacher to improve their teaching and rethink their current teaching practices but at the same time manages to give the basic and necessary elementary knowledge a beginning Kodály teacher would need in their first venture into this type of music teaching. The relevance of the research undertaken by Houlahan and Tacka and the linking to current educational requirements and standards helps to bring this exceedingly valuable and successful method of music teaching into the 21st century.
Australian Journal of Music Education
This thorough, intensive and above all, elegantly practical approach to understanding and applying [the Kodály method's] tried-and-tested tenets will prove a boon to teachers and students alike...A clearly-signposted volume that succeeds in validating the self-enabling claims of Kodály's Method as an essential tool for teachers and their pupils. The inclusion of 140 pages of exhaustively detailed song lists and lesson and monthly plans is a reason in itself to buy this invaluable book.
Music Teacher