The Nyíregyháza Model: The Teaching of Teaching Music / of Making Music

Abstract

"The Music Pedagogy Workshop working within the Institute of Music at the University of Nyíregyháza has initiated several programmes related to music methodology, financed by EU funds. Within the framework of subproject entitled “Renewing the practice of teaching music in public education based on folk traditions,” digital handbooks and teachers’ books have been designed for the Grades 1 to 4 of primary schools. The present paper introduces the novel features of the material designed for Grades 1 and 2. It touches upon the issues of the relevant points in curricular regulations, the possibilities of the innovative methods of score notation and score reading, tailored to the age characteristics of students, and the new approach to teaching the musical elements connected to a selected song corpus. The basic concept in designing the material of the first two grades was the amalgamation of folk culture, including folk tales and children’s game songs, and the world around children. The elements of the knowledge of the present and the past appear side by side in the individual thematic units. Interdisciplinarity also gets emphasised. The generative and creative music activities, the tasks aimed at developing receptive competences, games, and the application of graphic notation, targeting the development of fine motor skills and music literacy, have been designed to broaden the toolkit of music pedagogy for junior schools. Keywords: digital education material, folk music, children’s songs, graphic notation, generativity"