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Dalcroze Method: Teaching Music in Elementary Grades

The document discusses the Dalcroze method of teaching music developed by Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. The key points of the method are that it uses bodily movements to represent musical rhythms, believing this develops a better sense of music. Dalcroze applied this to elementary school children in the early 1900s. The goals of the method are to make music a key part of the curriculum and allow children to intuitively develop music skills through playful, whole-body experiences with rhythm, melody and harmony. Lessons actively engage students' movements in response to teacher-led improvised music.

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Merrenisa Balatō
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685 views

Dalcroze Method: Teaching Music in Elementary Grades

The document discusses the Dalcroze method of teaching music developed by Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. The key points of the method are that it uses bodily movements to represent musical rhythms, believing this develops a better sense of music. Dalcroze applied this to elementary school children in the early 1900s. The goals of the method are to make music a key part of the curriculum and allow children to intuitively develop music skills through playful, whole-body experiences with rhythm, melody and harmony. Lessons actively engage students' movements in response to teacher-led improvised music.

Uploaded by

Merrenisa Balatō
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Dalcroze

Method
Teaching Music in Elementary Grades
Emile Jacques-Dalcroze
A Swiss music teacher and
composer who originated the
eurythmics system of musical
instruction.
Born: July 6, 1865,
Died: July 1, 1950
Emile Jacques-Dalcroze
Convinced that current methods of trainiing professional musicians need reform, he
revised the teaching of harmony and developed his system of rhythmic education, in
which bodily movements are used to represent musical rhythms.
About 1905 he applied eurythmics to elementary school children and later
demonstrated his controversial methods in England and on the European continent.
In 1910, he founded the first school for eurythmic instruction at Hellerau, Germany,
and in 1914 established a central school in Geneva, which he headed until his death.
“Music acts on the whole of the
organism like a magic force which
suppresses the understanding and
irresistibility takes possession of the
entire being. To insist on analyzing
force is to—destroy its very essence. ”
Emile Jacques-Dalcorze
Philosophy and Goals of Dalcroze
Method
Philosophy:
The link between music and body movement is the primary premise of
Dalcroze's method.
Students who are taught to appreciate music via physicality, Dalcroze
believes, will develop a better sense of rhythm, harmony, and melody.
The Dalcroze technique takes a multi-faceted approach to teaching young
kids.
Philosophy and Goals of Dalcroze
Goals:
Method
 Aims to be a key part of the curriculum.
 It is so intuitive from an early age children in Dalcroze classes develop
critical listening, motor and social skills even without knowing they’re
learning.
 Experience musical concepts in a playful manner and use the entire
body as a musical instrument.
Methodology
In a Dalcroze Eurhythmics class,
students are moving in some
way: in traveling around the
room, or in gestures with hands,
arms, heads, or upper bodies.
Their movements are responsive
to the music in the room.
The teacher is probably improvising this
music at the piano or on another instrument.
The task is typically to move in space using
certain guidelines, specific to the musical
piece. For example the teacher may ask the
students to walk around the room, stepping
the beat. Then, when the students hear a
specific cue, they should clap the beat
instead. The game continues, with the
students challenged to find new ways to
express the beat with their body.
The teacher shapes the music not only
to the rules of the task, but to what they
observe the students doing. The
students, in turn, shape their
accomplishment of the task to the
nature of the music-its tempo, dynamics,
texture, phrase structure, and style.
Change is constant in each lesson.
Three Main Categories
1 2
Eurhythmics engage the body in Solfege develops internal melody and harmony,
rhythmic movement and active listening along with a holistic response to musical
notation

3
Improvisation brings out the creative spirit
with the voice, an instrument or the body

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