Colourstrings is a fully integrated approach to music education for young children,
which was developed by the Hungarian-born violinist and pedagogue Dr Géza Szilvay.
Based on Kodály principles, this approach starts in Music Kindergarten and takes
the young child on a wonderful adventure through musicland where their sense of pitch
and rhythm is developed alongside the training of the inner ear. Basic music concepts
such as high/low, loud/soft, fast/slow are introduced but always within the framework
of age-appropriate games and activities. Music Kindergarten classes are suitable
for children from seventeen months upwards to six and a half years of age: children
under three years are accompanied by an adult. There are special baby groups for
age 3-16 months.
The instrumental training, for violin, viola, cello, guitar, piano and flute, builds
on the foundations already laid in Music Kindergarten and through the use of Kodály
ear training exercises and a colour-coded system of notation simplifies considerably
the process of learning to read music. Correct technical foundations are carefully
laid alongside the continuous development of the child´s musical intelligence. Most
importantly, a Colourstrings-trained child learns to hear inwardly what they are
reading and therefore plays with a much deeper sense of understanding and musicality.
Instrumental tuition begins when the child is 5 to 7 years old. Entry to our Colourstrings
instrumental training is by open enrolment of children who will normally have completed
at least two years of our Music Kindergarten training.
