Improvisation Dice Game
Ever feel stuck in an ‘improvisation rut’? We all depend on well-learned chord progressions and patterns, but sometimes Dalcrozians (and improvising musicians in general) need a little inspiration to find their way to something new. One remedy is by listening to others play. One of the great benefits of the recent National Conference (January 13–15,…
Read MoreIntroducing: “Dalcroze Education for Youth”
Designed for New Dalcroze Teachers Have you ever taught a Dalcroze class to children ages 4-6? Or perhaps you are working on the pedagogy requirements towards Dalcroze certification and plan to do your practice teaching with this age group? Maybe you are thinking of creating a new course for 4-6 year olds in the near…
Read MoreCanons in the Dalcroze Classroom
When I was 8 or 9 years old, my mother had me listen to Franck’s Violin and Piano Sonata – she had just bought the LP and she thought I’d be interested in the 4th movement. We were the sort of family that was always singing rounds, but this was the first time I’d heard a…
Read MoreMusical Explorations into Meter
Part of a series of posts on the ‘musical subjects‘ I am working with in my classrooms and thinking about as a musician and teacher. You can find more of my writing on music and teaching from a Dalcroze perspective on my blog at https://joviala.com. I often turn to Walter Piston when I want some…
Read MoreUsing Recorded Music in a Dalcroze Class
Today’s Dalcroze teacher has easy access to a world of recorded sound that would have been unfathomable to M. Jaques. How do we take advantage of this rich resource and still retain the essence of eurhythmics? Louise Mathieu helps us sort through the issues in this reprint from the American Dalcroze Journal (Vol. 23, No.…
Read MoreLooking at the Differently-Abled
In my last blog entry, I wrote about our recent online discussion on Dalcroze Eurhythmics with differently-abled bodies, and shared a couple of personal stories that arose, some from the perspective of a student with a disability, some from the perspective of a teacher working with students with disabilities. I also related my own story…
Read MoreMeet 2023 Keynote Speaker Mary Dobrea-Grindahl
The 2023 Conference is just around the corner and early registration is now open! If you know Mary and have seen her teach, you know how lucky we are to be welcoming her as our Keynote Speaker. Mary Dobrea-Grindahl, Diplôme Supérieur, Professor Emerita at Baldwin Wallace University, where she enjoyed a multi-faceted teaching and performing career for over 30…
Read MoreExecutive Director’s Letter
What’s next? As we move out of these last few years of pandemic restrictions, this is a question I often ask myself. As the executive director, one of my roles (in concert with the board of trustees) is to listen, reflect, and envision our future. Where are we—as the Dalcroze USA community—now? How did we…
Read MoreGuest Editor’s Letter
Participating in a good eurhythmics class can be a bit like watching a great movie. The director’s filmmaking technique, when it is masterful, disappears once you are swept up in the flow of the movie. It’s only when we emerge from the film that we can marvel at the way it was put together: the…
Read MoreHow Dalcroze Eurhythmics Has Transformed my Solfège and Ear Training Teaching
For twenty years I have been teaching the ear training class, also called musical language or solfège, at the Escuela Superior de Música of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura in Mexico City. When I first began to teach these classes, I did so in the same traditional way in which I had…
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