Monday, September 23, 2024
New Longy School of Music faculty member and music teacher Katie Bach was recently interviewed on WGBH’s The Culture Show, a daily radio program exploring the creative process through local and national artist profiles.
On the show, Bach discussed her experience using the Kodály method of music education as a teacher at the Peabody School in Cambridge, in what she calls a “music teacher’s dream job.”
Introduced in 2002, the Peabody School’s high-frequency Kodály music education program brings K-2 students into Bach’s classroom four times a week for 30-minute classes.
Following the Kodály method, Peabody School students engage with the music of various mother tongues through singing, hand signs, and exercises, something Bach is happy to let students take an active role in while she serves as a facilitator.
Katie Bach
“I’m not trying to teach [a student] to become a professional musician. I just want [them] to know this is something [they] can do.”
More than just listening to or learning to interpret music, students discover a love for the subject and strength in practicing it. To Bach, the biggest measure of the program’s resonance is that students carry what they learn in her classroom to other parts of their lives.
“You’ll hear them singing in the halls, you’ll hear them singing on the playground, I’ll hear teachers say to me, ‘They won’t stop singing while they’re working.’…I always say the measure to success to me is when parents come up to me and say, ‘Oh my goodness, my child is singing at home all the time!’”
Bach’s students are also young enough to be unafraid to sing in front of a group. She uses that fact to uplift students and foster their artistic growth, reinforcing that singing is both normal and cherished in and out of school.
“I can use my voice, I can sing, and I can make beautiful music as a part of this group,” Bach says, is what she hopes to impress upon her students, particularly as they grow older and advance in their music education.
Bach’s course at Longy this semester, “Creative Approaches to Music Education,” includes a unit on the Kodály method. While Bach will focus equally on the “big five” creative approaches, she is excited to teach the one that’s proven most fruitful for her—and has inspired a meaningful 11-year-long career at the Peabody School.
“For me, Kodály was a type of learning that I sort of fell into. It was not my intention, but I walked into a classroom and saw magic happen.”
Listen to Katie Bach’s full interview on The Culture Show here.
Learn more about in-person and online music teacher education at Longy here.