Applying Conversational Solfege to Collegiate Aural Skills Instruction

Abstract

Conversational Solfege (“CS”) is a sound-before-sight elementary music methodology developed by John Feierabend in 1995 that teaches music literacy through a twelve-step program modeled largely as a hybrid between the Kodály method and Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory. Despite CS’s intended audience of music educators working with children, it applies remarkably well to the typical goals of collegiate aural skills instruction, corroborating many contemporary best practices while also offering new insights. In this article, I provide a conceptual and historical overview of the Conversational Solfege methodology and discuss its modified application to collegiate aural skills instruction, situating the methodology alongside contemporary collegiate pedagogical literature and providing applications of CS to typical collegiate aural skills topics via activities appropriate for each of the twelve steps. An appendix detailing a more thorough list of compatible activities categorized by step is included for reference.