Reply To: Conversational Solfege

[nafmeadmin]

I took Feierabend’s week-long course on First Steps and Conversational Solfege and my district implemented these as the basis for our music education curriculum.

First, Feierabend said that 2/3 of the time spent on each unit should be in the conversational part – steps 1-4. Once the students have the patterns in their “ear”, they will quickly learn to read and write them.

The majority of your students (90%) should have each step mastered before moving on the next. I always review from the steps before the current one we’re working on. We only have music once a week for 45 minutes and it takes me about one semester per unit to complete.

Feierabend said to work on CS about 10 minutes per class. He also advocated NOT teaching two different rhythm units simultaneously (2/4 and 6/8) but that it is fine to do a rhythm unit and a tonal unit together.

I would highly recommend you take a class with Feierabend. It is inspiring, refreshing and exciting! Good luck, and if you have any other questions, I’d be glad to help.