This course will run June 5, 6, 9 & June 12-16 9:00am to 1:00pm CST. This is a completely synchronous course with a live moderator and daily class discussions. Attendance is required for all sessions.

Conversational Solfege ™ is a pedagogical method to be used with children who have already developed tuneful, beautiful, and artful skills and are ready to develop a deeper understanding of rhythm and melody. Created by leading music educator, Dr. John Feierabend, Conversational Solfege develops the comprehension of music through the use of rhythm and solfege syllables aurally, at a conversational level, then gradually evolves into written music notation. Through carefully sequenced activities, Conversational Solfege enables students to joyfully assimilate the skills and content necessary to be musically literate. Through various techniques, Conversational Solfege allows the acquisition of musical reading and writing, dictation, improvisation, and composition in an intuitive manner. This course is applicable to general music, choral, and instrumental teachers.

Dr. John Feierabend

Dr. John Feierabend is considered one of the leading authorities on music and movement development in childhood. He is a Professor Emeritus of Music Education at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford and is a past President of the Organization of American Kodály Educators. He has given presentations in all 50 states and many other countries. He is the author of over 70 books, recordings, and DVDs, several of which served as the inspiration for the award winning PBS children’s television series Lomax: The Hound of Music.

Dr. Feierabend has been honored as a Lowell Mason Fellow by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME); named University Educator of the Year by the Connecticut Music Educators Association; received the outstanding alumni award from Wayne State University; received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Organization of American Kodály Educators, the James Bent Award for outstanding achievement in scholarship and creativity from the University of Hartford, and was the first U.S. recipient of the LEGO Prize, an international award given annually to “an individual who has made a distinctive contribution to the betterment of children.”

Dr. Feierabend continues to be committed to collecting, preserving and teaching the diverse folk music of our country and using that folk music as a bridge to help children understand and enjoy classical music. Dr. Feierabend’s creativity and research has resulted in two music methods; First Steps in Music, a music and movement program for infants through elementary-aged children and Conversational Solfege, a music literacy method suitable for elementary through college-aged student.

Dr. Feierabend’s teaching has provided thousands of teachers and their students with the materials and techniques to help build community through music by evoking enthusiastic participation of all people. To that end his approach strives for all people to become tuneful, beatful and artful through research based and developmentally appropriate pedagogies while promoting the use of quality literature. In the summer of 2012 a group of dedicated and like-minded educators honored Dr. Feierabend’s 40 plus years of teaching and research with the formation of the Feierabend Association for Music Education. For more information go to: www.feierabendmusic.org and www.giamusic.com/feierabend.

The full list of Dr. Feierabend’s publications is available through his publisher, GIA Publications.