Using repertoire to build music literacy while honouring culture, place, and identity.

In a Kodály-inspired classroom, repertoire is never neutral. The songs we choose shape students’ musical understanding, sense of belonging, and connection to place.

Culturally responsive repertoire supports strong music literacy outcomes while valuing students’ identities and the cultures embedded in the music itself.

Below are practical ways teachers can select and use repertoire — including Australian First Nations material — to develop music literacy respectfully and effectively.

1: Start with the Principle: Music Literacy Grows from Meaningful Sound

Kodály pedagogy emphasises learning music through singing, using repertoire that is aurally rich, memorable, and pedagogically sequenced. When repertoire also reflects students’ cultural worlds — or the place in which they live — literacy learning becomes deeper and more authentic.

When students connect emotionally and culturally with repertoire, they listen more carefully, sing more accurately, and internalise musical structures more deeply. Prioritise repertoire that lends itself naturally to literacy skills: steady beat, clear phrase structure, tonal clarity, and rhythmic integrity. Use cultural context to deepen engagement before introducing notation.

2: Engage with First Nations Music Respectfully and Responsibly

In Australia, integrating First Nations material is an opportunity to honour Country, community, and living cultures — but it must be done appropriately.

Cultural safety and respect come first. When handled well, First Nations repertoire can support rhythmic awareness, listening skills, and musical memory without compromising cultural integrity. Explore songs through call-and-response, movement, and rhythmic speech. Discuss where the song comes from, whose Country it belongs to, and its purpose. This extract, taken from the Kodály Vic Seminar: Including First Nations perspectives in the classroom, November 2020, has inspirational ideas and support for our own classrooms: The power of song: sharing First Nations languages through music.

3: Use Kodály Folk Song Repertoire to Celebrate Place and Community

Much Kodály repertoire originates from European folk traditions, but it can still be taught in culturally responsive ways when teachers are intentional.

We can aim to frame folk songs as stories from specific places and times, not generic “children’s songs”. Compare folk songs from different cultures to explore similarities in form, function, and musical structure. Encourage students to reflect on how songs relate (or don’t relate) to their own experiences and environment.

Use folk songs with clear pentatonic or modal structures for pitch literacy, or select rhythmically strong repertoire for beat, metre, and rhythmic pattern work. Then, build reading and writing tasks directly from sung material.

4: Sequence Repertoire with Both Pedagogy and Culture in Mind

Strong music literacy depends on well-chosen repertoire that introduces concepts gradually and aurally.

When planning your repertoire selection, consider these questions:

• Does this song clearly demonstrate the rhythmic or melodic concept I’m teaching?
• Is the song developmentally appropriate for my students’ voices?
• Have I provided enough cultural context for students to engage respectfully?

5: Invite Students into Repertoire Selection and Creation

Culturally responsive classrooms are dialogic — students are participants, not just recipients.

Invite students to share songs meaningful to their families or communities (with appropriate boundaries). Explore how these (and other) songs function, for example, lullabies, work songs, celebrations, games. Encourage simple composition inspired by studied repertoire — rhythm patterns, melodic contours, or form.

6: Reflect on Whose Voices Are Heard

Culturally responsive teaching is a journey. Regular reflection ensures repertoire choices remain inclusive, respectful, and musically purposeful.

Music education shapes students’ understanding of the world. Repertoire that honours culture and place supports not only music literacy, but empathy, identity, and respect. So, for reflection, ask yourself:

• Whose music appears most often in my program?
• How am I contextualising repertoire for my students?
• Am I teaching about culture, or engaging with it meaningfully?