Singing and Playing - A Kodály Approach to Cello Playing

Alice Andreani

Alice Andreani - Classical Cello Research Supervisor: Daniel Salbert Research Title: "Singing and Playing - A Kodály Approach to Cello Playing". Research Question: “What are the effects that the practicing of exercises involving singing and playing has on cello playing? The objective of my research is to draw attention to the importance of developing and training musicianship skills; in this paper I will argue on why musicianship training should receive as much importance as studying the technique of an instrument. I will specifically focus on the effects that practicing exercises involving singing and playing on the cello, has on the development of a good inner hearing and musicianship skills over time, as well as how singing is proven to be an helpful tool in combination with playing, when approaching a piece from the cello chamber or orchestral repertoire. This research is based on literature research and practice based research. It includes a series of 40 exercises for cello and voice written by me as well as guidelines on how to practice singing and playing. Biography: Alice Andreani is a cellist, now pursuing her master degree at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, in the class of Michel Strauss and Jan-Ype Nota.  In 2021 she was awarded the Andrea Elkenbracht prize. In the season 2021/2022 she was an intern in the Noord Nederlands Orkest. Alice has been playing with the Kamerorkest van het Noorden and has taken part in different chamber music festivals. Her interest for music goes beyond playing as she is very passionate about teaching; she is enrolled in the year 2022-2023 in the teaching training course Muziek als Vak.

Description of the Exercises

Inspired by the powerful impact that singing and playing has on the development of musicianship skills, and motivated by the fact that not enough specific material is out there to practice consistently singing and playing on the cello, I decided to write myself a series of 40 exercises for singing and playing on the cello.

I aim to use these exercises in my own practice as well as in my teaching practice, and I hope they will be found inspiring by fellow cellists: teachers, students and colleagues.

The book contains 40 exercises for voice and cello written and arranged with the objective of developing a profound coordination and control in playing by means of singing while playing a second part on the cello.

The book is divided in 6 parts, the first 5 parts featuring exercises with different grades of complexity based on different melodic tonesets. Every new toneset is introduced first with melodies written combining sol-fa syllables with a rhythmic line without the use of the staff. The last part of the book contains examples of music taken from the repertoire, where singing and playing can be practiced together.

All melodies in this book can be sung using the solmisation system. The syllables do, re, mi, sol, la, are abbreviated in: d r m s l.

The different melodic sets are introduced as follows in the table below.

Writing Approach

The following are the aspects I have taken in consideration when writing the exercises as derived from the literature and in accordance to the Kodály concept.

Singing should be in solmisation.
Different tonesets should be introduced gradually, to reach the final pentatonic toneset.
Notation can be introduced gradually (reading from sol-fa notation, to staff notation).
Canonic material is of meaningful value.
The singing should fit the vocal range of the student.
Exercises should have space for variation: different cello techniques are featured (different bow strokes, natural harmonics, shifting, thumb position, different dynamics).

Part 6 of the exercises consists of singing and playing exercises taken from the cello repertoire including cello sonatas, chamber music and orchestral parts; I have found that in my own practice, when approaching a new chamber music piece or orchestral part, I find very useful to sing the other voices to provide a clearer picture and put the role of the cello into musical context. I will expose the benefits that singing and playing grants in relation to preparing a piece of repertoire in the next chapter.

1.	s m	m s	s s	m m

2.	s m l	s l m	m s l	m l s	l m s	l s m

3.	s m d	s d m	d m s	d s m	m d s	m s d

4.	m r d	m d r	d r m	d m r	r d m	r m d

5.	l s m r d	l s m d r	d r m s l	d r m l s	m l s r d	m l s d r
	s m d r l	s m d l r	m r d s l	m r d l s	l m s d r	l m s r d
	s d m l r	s d m r l	m s l d r	m s l r d	d s m r l	d s m l r
	s l m r d	s l m d r	r m d s l	r m d l s	m d r s l	m d r l s
	s m l d r	s m l r d	m s d r l	m s d l r	d m r s l	d m r l s
	d m s l r	d m s r l	m d s l r	m d s r l	r d m s l	r d m l s

CHAPTER V - WRITING SINGING AND PLAYING EXERCISES ON THE CELLO

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