What is Colourstrings?

Discovering a Kodály-inspired approach to early years music education

Early Years Music Scotland is delivering a year-long programme of free, high-quality, creative and inspiring continuous professional learning and development for musicians working with children in the early years across Scotland, supported by Creative Scotland's Youth Music Initiative.

This workshop is free-of-charge to musicians who are resident in Scotland and working with children in the early years (0-5yrs). Non-Scottish residents and non-musicians may purchase a ticket.

This workshop will be recorded and available to view for one month following the event. The recording will be sent to all ticket holders within 48 hours of the event.

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Colourstrings is an internationally recognised approach to music education which was developed in the 1970s by the Hungarian brothers Géza and Csaba Szilvay, who are well known to string players and educators the world over. Colourstrings Music Kindergarten is an approach to early years music education from babyhood to early primary school. Based on the Kodály concept, Colourstrings gives children the opportunity to enjoy music from the earliest possible age. In this workshop, you will learn more about the Colourstrings approach to music education for children from babyhood to school age.

This workshop will be delivered by Naheed Shimala and Yvonne Wyroslawska of Colourstrings Scotland CIC.

Naheed trained as a Colourstrings Music Kindergarten teacher in 2000 and runs her own classes (babies to 6 year olds) in the West End of Glasgow. Prior to this, she worked for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on education and learning projects throughout Scotland. She delivers CPD sessions for musicians and teachers using Kodàly-based principles and her work regularly takes her to India, South Africa, Italy and Ireland. Since 2009 she has been training teachers at the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation in Mumbai.

Yvonne has an MA (Hons) Music from the University of Glasgow, a Licentiate in Music Teaching (LRSL) with distinction and a Masters of Education (Learning & Teaching in the Performing Arts) from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Her postgraduate studies in Kodàly pedagogy have taken her to Hungary, London, New York, and California, where she completed the Organisation of American Kodàly Educators Specialist Certificate at Holy Names University. Yvonne began her Colourstrings training in 2006 and has run Colourstrings Music Kindergarten classes since 2007. Yvonne was responsible for developing Gaelic Colourstrings.