Kodály hand signs

What it means

The Kodály hand signs are hand shapes assigned to the degrees of solmization. Every syllable has its own shape, and the hand is led at the height that corresponds to the pitch — lower degrees below, higher ones above. Thereby a melody becomes visible in space, and its movement can be shown before it is written or read.

Musical use

The signs go back to an older English teaching practice and were adopted and spread in the context of the music education inspired by Zoltán Kodály in Hungary. There they belong to a procedure that starts with singing: first one hears and sings, then shows, only afterward reads and writes.

Their effectiveness rests on the fact that they connect three channels of perception — hearing, seeing, movement. Especially vivid are the signs for the semitone places: the hand shape for the leading tone points upward and makes the push toward the root physically perceptible. The signs presuppose movable Do, for they designate degrees, not absolute pitches.

In group teaching they can also be used as a means of conducting: the leader shows a sequence, the group sings it; with two hands, two voices can be led at once and improvised two-part textures formed.

The hand signs go back to the English clergyman John Curwen, who developed them in the nineteenth century together with the Tonic Sol-fa method. Zoltán Kodály and his colleagues adopted them and made them part of Hungarian music education. Every degree receives a shape of its own, and the height of the hand indicates the pitch. The signs allow melodies to be shown without notes, intervals to be practised, and two-part work to be done with both hands.

Performance practice

Use the signs while singing, not as a substitute for it — they help when they accompany a sounding conception. Show the height consistently along with it, for the spatial reference is an essential part of the procedure. And begin with a few degrees, for instance so, mi, and la, before the whole scale is added.