The Efficiency of the Folk Song on the Musical Development of Early Childhood Student
by Andy Manurung, Music Teacher
Why teach folk songs?
A child’s music education should begin with the folk music and rhymes of her own culture. According to David Elliot:
It is through the indigenous music of their culture that children receive the stories of their people, those that ancestors pass down from generation to generation and others that are contemporary and reflect new customs. Folk music is the treasure trove of children’s values, beliefs, cultures, knowledge, games and stories. The music of children’s own cultures must be given respect and status in the classroom, indirectly giving children a sense of their own values and status. Receptivity toward the music of other cultures can be developed from this point of reference, thereby fostering cultural awareness, tolerance and respect.
We use folk music because it belongs to the oral tradition and it “draws on the power of repetition and the human urge to generate and create.” In the best of folk songs there is a unity between the rhythm and melody; word and musical accents fall together logically. According to Lily Chen-Hafteck and Esther Mang, “The Kodály approach uses gamessongs that are highly repetitive and melodically simple to help ‘inner hearing’ (aural) skills and accurate singing (oral) skills. Those music activities could be valuable to the development of social skills and self-confidence in the children, including those children with special needs, whereby language experience, aural sensitivity and discrimination, and motor skills are cultivated in enjoyable and purposeful music game settings.
Source: Kodaly in the Kindergarten Classroom: Developing the Creative Brain in the 21st Century, Oxford University Press, 2015
