1. Kodály under the microscope
When many people think of research, they think of sitting in a library reading lots
of books in order to write a paper. Whether or not, you enjoyed this experience, this is
only one type of intellectual inquiry. This most familiar type of research is called
historical. There are several other types of research methodologies used to answer
questions, to describe what is, and to point out problems and prominent ideas
(philosophies) within a given discipline. In this article, I report on a couple
methodologies researchers have used to study the effectiveness of the Kodály philosophy.
After reading many articles and dissertation abstracts, I found several studies that
fall into one of three research methodologies. The first is historical research. Historical
research is a truthful integrated account of the relationships between persons, events,
times, and places. The next is descriptive research. Descriptive research addresses
relationships between variables, tests hypotheses, and develops generalizations,
principles, or theories that have universal validity. Quasi-experimental is the third type. It
is a variation on the quintessential idea of a science experiment where the researcher
begins with a sample population that is randomly assigned into two groups. These groups
should be essentially the same in the area of concern. The study begins when the
researcher exposes one group (experimental/treatment) to a specific agent while the other
group (control) is left alone. After a predetermined length of time, the researcher
compares the two groups to determine if there is a significant mathematical difference
between the groups. If there is, then the researcher can conclude that the “treatment” was
effective at bringing about a change. What makes quasi-experimental research different is
that it does not use randomization. This is often the case with studies involving public

2. schools. In this issue’s column, I focus on the descriptive and quasi-experimental
research on the Kodály method. I will now share with you what researchers found when
they looked at Kodály under the microscope.
Research on the Kodály method began in the 1960s. One study by, three
Hungarian researchers, Kokas, Enyedi, and Eiben’s work (1969) suggests a direct
correlation between the Kodály method of teaching and the movement, personality, and
observation/focus capacities of children. The purpose of this study was to explore the
psychological effect of transfer from music learning to academic learning. The
researchers noted that trained music students were better at spelling, had increased
auditory and visual skills, and possessed a better sense of equilibrium. Further, they
explained that the elements of music (repetition, patterns and groupings, and associations
of known elements) were shown to contribute to transfer of learning. The sequential
process of music teaching addressing different modalities of learning was presented as
contributing to generalizations and transfer in non-musical areas. There are many other
studies performed by Hungarians, but I only list a couple due to space constraints.
In the 1970s, researchers Maria Sági and Iván Vitányi (1971) were pursuing a
new approach to research on Hungarian music sociology and psychology. Their work
explored cognition and the elements of musical structures and devices that might affect
personality. Their data show positive correlations between music and personality
formation. Also, during this decade, Zoltán Laczó investigated the effect of musical
training on intelligence and musical ability. His findings show a positive correlation
between music training and academic performance.
In 1975, the Journal of Learning Disabilities published an article by Hurwitz,

3. Wolff, Bortnick, and Kokas that explored the nonmusical effects of the Kodály music
curriculum in primary grade children. The study compared the performances of two
matched groups of primary grade children on tasks of temporal and spatial abilities. One
group (10 boys and 10 girls) with no academic difficulty were selected from a first grade
group in a middle class suburban school system where the Kodály instruction program
had been provided for approximately seven months at the time the comparisons were
made. This was the experimental group. Students received Kodály instruction five days a
week for approximately forty minutes per session and were taught by an experienced
music teacher. The second group (10 boys and 10 girls) were selected from a suburban
first grade in another middle class school district with academic standards and student
population similar to those from which the experimental sample was drawn. This group
was the control and did not receive Kodály instruction. Both groups were tested on their
sensory-motor sequencing and verbal perceptual sequencing. Two measures of general
verbal intelligence were included: the Comprehension and Vocabulary subtests of the
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). Results showed that students who
received Kodály instruction performed more effectively on reading tests than comparable
groups of first graders not receiving Kodály instruction.
In the 1981, Laczó used the Seashore Tests of Musical Ability to investigate the
development and psychological aspects of improvisation in music. Participants in this
project were primary and secondary Hungarian students who improvised melodies based
on poetry and a short musical example. Data show that musical creativity was influenced
mostly by music education and experience, with a lesser effect of age. Qualitative
differences were found to reflect musical skill and thinking. The Kodály method provides

4. students with opportunities to efficiently develop musical skills and showed the efficacy
of the study of personality development.
During the 1970s and 1980s in the US, several doctoral students conducted
comparative studies for their dissertations. Palmer (1974) compared the effectiveness of
the Richards and Gordon approaches to rhythmic reading among fourth-graders. Stephens
(1974) compared the Threshold to Music approach to music reading with a traditional
approach, including pre- and post-testing to determine the effectiveness of the
approaches. Belmain (1980) examined the effectiveness of three researcher-designed
approaches to listening on the music achievement among fifth-graders. Hensley (1981)
compared music achievement scores of students taught from the Orff/Kodály-based
Memphis City Curriculum Guide to the Exploring Music series. Significant differences in
achievement scores were observed on major-minor mode discrimination at the fifth-grade
level. Burtenshaw (1983) attempted to measure the non-performance musical learning of
upper elementary students taught a Kodály curriculum with a researcher-developed
criterion-referenced music test addressing rhythm, pitch, form, and timbre. Results
showed positive correlations between musical outcomes and the curriculum. Hudgens
(1987) examined four approaches to teaching first-graders to sing on pitch, echo rhythms,
and audiate tonal and rhythmic patterns. Hudgens reported that the approach to music
teaching resulted in significant differences between the approaches and music
achievement.
More research was conducted in the 1990s. Fridley (1993) and Hickey (1995)
compared curricular issues. Fridley compared two methods for teaching guitar to fifth-
and sixth-graders. The first was a traditional note learning sequence and the second was

5. the Kodály tonal learning sequence. No significant differences on scores or attitude
ratings by group, sex, grade, or years of experience were observed. Hickey compared
Gordon’s Music Learning Theory and Kodály methodologies on the intonation accuracy
among first-through eighth-graders. Melodic patterns of familiar and unfamiliar music in
ascending and descending forms in major and pentatonic tonalities were tested in
combinations by gender and by grade level. Data analysis revealed significant differences
in the intonation accuracy of various combinations of test patterns with pentatonic
patterns showing greater accuracy of intonation than diatonic patterns in all cases.
Recently, researchers have been interested in exploring non-musical effects of
Kodály instruction. Two ongoing studies were reported at the OAKE 200 National
conference in Seattle, WA. Faith Knowles and Martin Gardiner designed the Pawtucket,
Maryland Project. Preliminary findings were reported in Nature (1996). Standardized test
scores are being compared before and after a traditional musical treatment and a Kodály-
based treatment. This study examines non-musical standardized test results of
elementary-aged children in a bi-weekly Kodály curriculum that included an additional
hour of music per week. The study also includes an examination of aspects of each
subject’s social behavior as evaluated by the classroom teacher and researcher.
Although many studies examining the effects of Kodály instruction on student
music and non-music achievement have been conducted, there is a paucity of peer-
reviewed published research. Many of the studies reported here remain doctoral
dissertations. I encourage the authors of these studies to submit articles to peer-reviewed
journals. While the results from these studies are exciting, caution must be exercised
when making generalizations to the entire population. Research never proves anything

6. because there is always the possibility for human error. Further studies that replicate
these and explore new directions are needed to better understand how the Kodály method
affects both music and non-music learning.

7. References
Belmain, C. (1980). The effectiveness of three listening packets on musical achievement
of fifth grade students (Doctoral dissertation, Temple University, 1980)
Dissertation Abstracts International, 41/05, 1997.
Burtenshaw, L. (1983). The construction and validation of a criterion-referenced test to
measure the musical outcomes of the upper elementary schools pupils instructed
in the Kodály method in the U.S. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado at
Boulder, 1983) Dissertation Abstracts International, 44/05, 1368.
Fridley, M. (1983). A comparison of the effects of two learning sequences on the
acquisition of music reading skills for the guitar: Traditional versus Kodály based,
University of the Pacific, Stockton, California.
Hensley, S. (1981). A student of the musical achievement of elementary students taught
by the Memphis city curriculum guide and students taught by the traditional
approach (Doctoral dissertation, Louisiana State University and Agriculture &
Mechanical College, 1981) Dissertation Abstracts International, 42/115, 4757.
Hickey, K., (1995). Intonation accuracy in the singing of elementary school children
(Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, 1995) Dissertation
Abstracts International, 57/02, 505.
Hickey, K. (Summer, 2000). Kodály methodology/pedagogy: State of the research 2000.
Kodály Envoy, 17-20, 30.
Hudgens, C. (1987). A study of the Kodály approach to music teaching and an
investigation of four approaches to the teaching of selected skills in first grade
music classes (Doctoral dissertation, University of North Texas, 1987)

8. Dissertation Abstracts International, 48/03, 556.
Huriwitz, I., Wolff, P. H., Bortnick, B. D., and Kokas, K., (1975). Nonmusical effects of
the Kodály music curriculum in primary grade children. Journal of Learning
Disabilities 8(3), 45-52.
Kokas, K., Enyedi, S., and Eiben, O. (1969). Psychological testing in Hungarian music
education. Journal of Research in Music Education 17(1), 125-134.
Laczó, Z. (1981). A psychological investigation of improvisation abilities in the lower
and higher classes of the elementary school. Bulletin of the Council for Research
in Music Education 66-67, 39-45.
Palmer, M. (1974). The relative effectiveness of the Richards and the Gordon approaches
to rhythm reading for fourth grade children (Doctoral dissertation, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1974) Dissertation Abstracts International, 35/12,
7702.
Sági, M., and Vitányi, I. (1971). Psycho-sociological experiments with music in Hungary.
Studia Musicological 13(1-4), 95-121.
Stephens, R. (1974). A comparative study of two instructional methods in music reading
at the Grade V and Grade VI level (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon,
1974) Dissertation Abstracts International, 35/06, 3801.