When I started teaching orchestra, I noticed that students were excited and made great progress up until I started to introduce note reading. Immediately, progress came to a screeching halt. Half of them caught on quickly and the other half struggled. Learning to read music in the traditional sense is a lot like learning to read one’s native language. It comes easier to some than others. As I returned to college to get my education degree, I had the opportunity to work with Cynthia Richards, the founder of Kodaly Strings. She had been teaching a blend of Suzuki method with traditional methods and discovered that although students could play technically correct, they lacked general musicality.
Read more about Cynthia's story here
This lack of musicality explains why many string players struggle with improvisation or the motivation to continue playing when they are no longer part of an orchestra or taking lessons. This is exactly what happened to me for several years after my high school graduation. You will notice that players of such instruments as the piano, guitar and ukulele take joy in playing without needing to be a part of an ensemble while other instrumentalists tend to quit playing.
The Kodaly method is primarily known for its use in general music education and choirs. The idea is to teach music literacy through familiar folk songs, the voice as the first instrument and syllables like do, re, mi for pitch and ta-ta for rhythm. I incorporate Cynthia Richards’s Complete Musician books with other learning tools to help students to have a more enriching experience with their instrument.