Learning The Musical Elements from an Early Age Through the Use of Traditional Folk and Popular Tunes in The Mother Tongue and A Compendium of Music Resources in Spanish for General Music Classes

This document intends to fulfill three primary purposes. One is to explore the principal characteristics of early music education methods regarding teaching and learning music from an early age through the mother tongue, also known as their native language. These methods may suggest other strategies such as: playing and singing children's games, singing traditional folk tunes, improvisation, dancing, or playing instruments for the general music classroom. The second purpose is to provide music educators with a compilation of various music resources written in Spanish, such as pedagogical books, workbooks, and online interactive musical platforms that can be used in the development of music lessons for their students. Lastly, this research project strives to introduce some renowned teaching methodologies to music educator living in underprivileged countries, such as Honduras, that are in need of accessible music resources and instructional methods that promote better music education experience for students, a love for teaching music, music culture and traditions, and the development of musical language in their students. The document is presented in five chapters. Chapter I is an introduction that presents my personal experience and motives for conducting this research. Chapter II presents a general overview of the shortcomings of the Honduran Educational System and Music Curriculum, as well as a series of positive events that are happening in the music field of the country. This is to provide a panorama and context of the educational system in Honduras, and the need for a research document like this. Chapter III presents a brief biographic description and a literature summary of books that have been written or transcribed in Spanish regarding the music teaching philosophies and methodologies of worldwide renowned pedagogues such as Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998), Edgar Willems (1890-1978), Carl Orff (1895-1982), and Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967). These methods explore early music pedagogy under the concept of the mother tongue and the use of traditional folk music as a medium for learning the musical language. Chapter IV contains a list of resources written or translated into Spanish that include pedagogical books and other materials that may be used in the general music classroom, such as instruction books, workbooks, and online interactive music platforms. Lastly, Chapter V presents the conclusion of the documents. This research has made information available through the exploration and study of books concerning early music pedagogy, dissertations, websites, online articles, reports, and dictionaries. I hope that readers who may be unfamiliar with such methods, pedagogical characters, and resources will find this research helpful and serve their music classroom needs.