| Music education |
|---|
| Major methodologies |
| Kodály Method Orff Schulwerk Dalcroze Eurhythmics Suzuki method |
| Instructional settings |
| School band Choir Concert band Marching band Orchestra |
| International organizations |
| Int. Society for Music Education Int. Association for Jazz Education Organization of Kodály Educators International Kodály Society |
| US national organizations |
| MENC: The National Association for Music Education Music Teachers National Association American Choral Directors Association American String Teachers Association |
Dalcroze Eurhythmics, also known as the Dalcroze Method or simply Eurhythmics, is one of several developmental approaches including the Kodaly Method, Orff Schulwerk, Simply Music and Suzuki Method used to teach music education to students. Eurhythmics was developed in the early 20th century by Swiss musician and educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. Dalcroze Eurhythmics teaches concepts of rhythm, structure, and musical expression using movement, and is the concept for which Dalcroze is best known. It focuses on allowing the student to gain physical awareness and experience of music through training that takes place through all of the senses, particularly kinesthetic.
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Before taking a post teaching theory, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze spent a year as a conductor in Algiers, where he was exposed to a rhythmic complexity that helped influence him to pay special attention to rhythmic aspects of music.
Jaques-Dalcroze also had an important friendship with Édouard Claparède, the renowned psychologist. In particular, this collaboration resulted in Eurhythmics often employing games of change and quick reaction in order to focus attention and increase learning.
A group of 72 pre-school children were tested on their rhythmic ability; half of the children had free-play (35-40 min.) twice a week for a 10-week period while the other half had rhythmic movement classes for the same amount of time. The group that had classes (experimental group) did significantly better than the group that just had free-play (control group). The experiment group scored four or more points better in every area tested than the control group in the final test. This shows that eurhythmic classes can benefit a child’s sense of rhythm (Zachopoulou, Evridiki).
It is hard to find empirical data on Eurhythmics, never mind compare it, since the styles that teachers use differ greatly.