In this lesson I wanted to teach you the basics of the Kodaly hand gestures but I could not bring myself to do it when the gentleman in this video has made such a great lesson. Watch this first.

If you’re a beginner, then just practicing the major scale with Do Re Me Fa Sol La Ti Do, is a great exercise.

Zoltan Kodaly and his associates developed a method of musical pedagogy that led to the widespread use of coupling the Movable-do system with hand gestures.

The physical act of hand gestures helps us to internalise the distances between pitches, as well as the stability and function of these pitches.

Here’s how the gestures relate to function:

• Hand position ascends from waist height to overhead to show the rise in pitch
• The notes of the major chord(Tonic triad – Do Me So) are stable notes and have no bend in the wrist
• Notes not stable (outside the tonic triad) have flexed wrists
• Notes with a strong pull have a point towards the pulled pitch, eg thumb pointing down on fa, or finger pointing up on ti

This lesson will use solfege, I strongly recommend learning the basics of solfege first, I strongly suggest YouTubing sofege basics, but here is a reference-

Major Scale as Solfege = Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do

Notes of the chromatic scale (simplified) = Di Ra Re Me Mi Fa Fi Sol Si La Te Ti Do

Before we get into the advanced stuff here is some patterns to practice singing : These can be done over drones/sustained pitches, an app like shruti box or a keyboard app would help.

• The scale up and down with gestures
• The scale in groups of three ; Do Re Mi, Re Mi Fa, Mi Fa Sol, Fa Sol La, Sol La Ti, La Ti Do, Ti Do RE, Do
• The scale from the root progressively ; Do Re, Do Re Mi, Do Re Mi Fa, Do Re Mi Fa Sol etc
• The root to every interval ascending ; Do Re, Do Mi, Do Fa, Do Sol, Do La, Do Ti, Do Do
• Descending variations of the above
• The scale in thirds ; Do Mi, Re Fa, Mi Sol, Fa La, Sol Ti, La DO, Ti Re, Do
• The scale in triads (Compounded thirds) ; Do Mi Sol, Re Fa La, Mi Sol Ti, Fa La Do, Sol Ti Re, La Do Mi, Ti Re Fa.
• Any other ideas you have. This could be bass lines from songs or children melodies for example.

Now watch the video and practice the chromatic exercises below…

• Sing the chromatic scale up and down Di Ra Re Me Mi Fa Fi Sol Si La Te Ti Do
• Sing the natural minor scale Do Re Me Fa Sol Le(Si) Te Do
• Practice adding chromatics to any of the patterns you practiced in the previous section.
• Sing Major (Do Mi Sol), Minor (Do Me Sol) , Augmented (Do Mi Si), and Diminished triads (Do Me Fi).
• Be creative…

Looking for further practice?

Search any of the following on youtube for more ideas; Sight singing, solfege exercises, Kodaly rhythmic syllables,