Elucidating Feierabend’s Conversational Solfège: Its Practical Application of 12 Steps to Teaching Folk Songs

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to capture both practical and applicable lesson ideas to teach American folk music using the Feierabend’s Conversational Solfège. Direct instruction on the folk songs exclusively employed the 12 Steps of Conversational Solfège (CS) designed by John M. Feierabend. Ultimately, this article unpacked the 12 steps of the CS curriculum, with an emphasis to what types of activities can be included in these 12 steps of the Feierabend approach to music learning and teaching. Theoretical and practical implications from this study were also discussed as follows: (a) enhancement of tonal/rhythm accuracy through inner-hearing and inferential skills, (b) effectiveness of sequential and repetitive learning in reinforcing musical concepts, (c) integration of unconscious comprehension from singing games into cognitive processes, and (d) recommendation of F major as a suitable starting key in the general music classroom. The application of the CS to teaching children’s songs would be a cornerstone for Korean music practitioners to make educated decisions when exploring other traditional piece of music within the systematic pedagogical framework.