Editing Zoltán Kodály (section)

==Kodály methodology of musical education==
{{main|Kodály method}}
{{unreferenced section|date=December 2015}}
Throughout his adult life, Kodály was very interested in the problems of many types of music education, and he wrote a large amount of material on teaching methods as well as composing plenty of music intended for children's use. Beginning in 1935, along with his colleague [[Jenő Ádám]] (14 years his junior), he embarked on a long-term project to reform music teaching in Hungary's lower and middle schools. His work resulted in the publication of several highly influential books.

The goals of the Kodály method can summarized into the following points:<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Kodály Concept – Organization of American Kodaly Educators |url=https://www.oake.org/about-us/the-kodaly-concept/ |access-date=2023-02-07 |website=www.oake.org}}</ref> 

* Music is for everyone. 
* Music teaching should be sequential and begin with the child in mind. 
* Children should be taught music from an early age. 
* The sequence should be logical and follow the same process children learn language. 
* Music classes should be enjoyable and engaging. 
* Singing is the first and most valuable tool for learning musical concepts. 
* Teachers should pull from quality folk song materials in the "mother tongue" of the students. 

The Hungarian music education program that developed in the 1940s became the basis for the [[Kodály Method]]. Although Kodály himself did not write down a comprehensive method, he did establish a set of principles to follow in music education, and these principles were widely taken up by pedagogues (above all in Hungary, but also in many other countries) after [[World War II]]. His practices also have evolved [[Kodály Method#Hand signs|Kodály hand signs]].

In the motion picture ''[[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]]'', a visual learning aid distributed to members of a conference of [[Ufology|ufologists]] was named the Kodály Method and referenced musical notes as hand signals.