Extracts of Article taken from http://www.allianceamm.

org/resources

The Approach of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze by R. J. David Frego, Ph.D.

The Dalcroze Eurhythmics approach to music education was developed in Switzerland in the early
Twentieth Century by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. While the approach was initially intended for
conservatory students, Eurhythmics soon expanded to the training of musicians, dancers, and actors
of all ages, as well as to therapeutic applications.

Philosophy
The philosophy of Eurhythmics centers on the concept that the synthesis of the mind, body, and
resulting emotions is fundamental to all meaningful learning. Plato said in this Laws: Education has
two branches, one of gymnastics, which is concerned with the body, and the other of music, which is
designed for the improvement of the soul (Pennington, 1925, p. 9). Emile Jaques-Dalcroze believed
that every musician should strive to be sensitive and expressive, and to express music through
purposeful movement, sound, thought, feeling, and creativity.

Mead (1994) cites four basic premises that encapsulate the philosophy of Eurhythmics:

1. Eurhythmics awakens the physical, aural, and visual images of music in the mind.

2. Solfège (sight-singing and ear-training), improvisation, and purposeful movement together work
to improve expressive musicality and enhance intellectual understanding.

3. Music may be experienced through speech, gesture, and movement. These can likewise be
experienced in time, space, and energy.

4. Humans learn best when learning through multiple senses. Music should be taught through
tactile, the kinesthetic, the aural, and the visual senses.

Jaques-Dalcroze wanted to create an approach to music education in which sensory and

intellectual experiences are fused into one neuromuscular experience—reinforcing the body’s
response to music (Caldwell, 1995). He felt that this would lead to performance at high levels
beyond expectation (Carder, 1990). Dalcroze believed that music education should center on
active involvement in musical experience. Technique and intellectual understanding are
important, but active experience must come first. Today‘s music education is based on the
―sound before the symbol‖ philosophy, a legacy of Jaques-Dalcroze and Pestalozzi before him.
Jaques-Dalcroze felt that students could practice and learn musical expression through the
active discovery of time, space, and energy. He believed that as music moves, so should
musicians; therefore, rhythm is elemental to this philosophy. Jaques-Dalcroze taught that
through rhythmic movement, musicians could experience symmetry, form, tension, and
relaxation, phrasing, melody, and harmony. Experience should teach the musical elements
(Martin, 1965).

Jaques-Dalcroze intended for his approach to develop musical understanding through eurhythmics
and to help students develop immediate physical responsiveness to rhythmic stimuli. Developing
musical rhythms and nervous sensibility would ultimately lead to the capacity to discriminate even
slight gradations of duration, time, intensity, and phrasing. Through rhythmic movement, students
would begin to think and express themselves more musically. Initially, Jaques-Dalcroze‘s conception
of eurhythmics was designed for the education of conservatory musicians, but soon expanded to the
early musical education of children, and to those with special needs. His philosophy grew to include
the belief in the development of a more musical society through rhythmic training in the schools
(Campbell, 1991).
Components

The Dalroze approach, often identified as Eurhythmics, consists of three related components. The
first is Rhythmic Solfège, or ear training. Jaques-Dalcroze believed that students must learn
sophisticated listening skills and develop ―inner hearing.‖ Musicians should be able to hear what they
write and write what they hear. Music notation is meaningless unless realized in real performance or
in the imagination. Solfège is taught using the fixed-do approach, based on the French system.
Students develop sensitivity to pitches, their relation to each other, and to the tonal framework. What
makes Rhythmic Solfège unique is that it is always combined with rhythm and movement, both
locomotor and non-locomotor.

The second component of this approach is improvisation. Improvisation skills are developed
sequentially and used in many settings. An instructor may play the piano while students improvise
movement, react spontaneously to verbal instructions, or change in musical character or nuance. In
the reverse, a student might improvise movement while another student accompanies with a drum, at
the piano or vocally. Students soon develop skills to be able to improvise musically and expressively
on t heir own instruments. These spontaneous performance activities are designed to communicate
musical intent and to improve response time, also known as temps perdu (Mead, 1994).

The third component is the eurhythmics itself. Often considered the core of the approach,
eurhythmics was actually the last part to be developed. It is of equal importance with rhythmic solfège
and improvisation, but not more. The term eurhythmics is from the Greek ―eu,‖ meaning good, and
―rhythmy,‖ meaning rhythm, proportion, and symmetry. This idea embodies Jaques-Dalcroze‘s
philosophy in two ways. First, human beings can experience symmetry, balance, and rhythmic
accuracy in music through symmetry, balance, and rhythmic accuracy in movement. Second,
the three components of the Dalcroze approach (rhythmic solfège, improvisation, and eurhythmics)
are interdependent and must be taught together. The three complement and reinforce each other,
providing a complete and balanced musical education. Modern music educators and music therapists
often identify the approach as Eurhythmics, although all three facets are implied.

Robert Abramson (1980) describes a sequence of embodiment that the learner experiences:

Hearing to moving
Moving to feeling
Feeling to sensing
Sensing to analyzing
Analyzing to reading
Reading to writing
Writing to improvising
Improvising to performing

While participants do not experience all of these actions in one lesson, during a eurhythmics class
they are moving through various levels of this sequence.

Lessons
A typical introductory eurhythmics lesson involves activities or games that require total mental and
kinesthetic awareness. The lesson is presented in a somatic approach that allows the participant to
hear and react physically to the musical stimulus, which produces body awareness and sensations.
These physical sensations are transmitted back to the brain as emotions and a more developed
comprehension of the experience. It is common to begin a eurhythmics lesson with walking to
improvised music and responding to changes in tempo, dynamics, and phrase in quick reaction
games. Through these activities, the students begin to understand how physical adjustments, such as
energy and flow of the body weight, need to occur in order to physicalize the music. Through these
basic introductions, the teacher can address musical elements such as pulse, beat, subdivision,
meter, rhythm, phrase, and form.

Intermediate eurhythmics lessons can address polymeters, polyrhythms, canon, tension and
relaxation, breathing, conducting, counterpoint, and the interactions of anacrusis, crusis, and
metacrusis. Creativity is pervasive throughout the lesson. All classes are in a group setting where the
participants interact with partners or small groups to develop the nonverbal communication skills and
creativity necessary in music and movement.

Plastique animée, or more often referred to as plastique, is often seen as the culminating experience
or performance in a eurhythmics class. A plastique combines the skills addressed throughout the
class and from previous rhythmic experiences into an expressive embodiment of the music through
individual or group movements (Frego, 2009). The participants are provided with the basic musical
elements and are asked to spontaneously create an interactive composition with the music. Someone
stepping into a eurhythmics studio to observe a plastique would be seeing music in motion and might
not be aware that the movement is a spontaneous creation.

[R. J. David Frego, received a B. M. from Brandon University in Canada, an M.M., M.M.Ed. and a Ph.D. from Florida State University.
In 1998 he established the Dalcroze Research Center at the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute at The Ohio State
University. He regularly presents workshops in Dalcroze Eurhythmics throughout the globe. Dr. Frego is President of the American
Eurhythmics Society and is Chair of the Department of Music and Dance at the University of Texas at San Antonio.]

http://www.musicstaff.com/teaching-methods-kodaly-method/
Teaching Methods: The Kodaly Method
This week’s article is on: Teaching Methods The Kodaly Method
by: MusicStaff.com Teacher Lounge Editor, Deborah Jeter

Have you been looking for a method to focus on your student‘s singing voice?

If the answer to the question above is yes, then the Kodaly Method is for you. Zoltan Kodaly
developed a way of educating young children through the singing of the native mother tongue folk
songs. Doesn‘t sound too different with just that being said, but the differences lie within the internal
workings. The Kodaly Method uses a sequence for teaching music, that is child developmental. More
on that later.
Right now… allow me to introduce you to Zoltan Kodaly.

Kodaly (born on December 16, 1882, in Kecskemét, Hungary and died, March 6, 1967, in Budapest),
was a prominent composer and authority on Hungarian folk music. He was also important as an
educator, not only of composers but also of teachers and, through his students, contributed heavily to
the spread of musical education in Hungary. He was a chorister in his youth at Nagyszombat (now
Trnava), Czech., where he wrote his first compositions. In 1902, he studied composition in Budapest.
He toured his country in his first quest for folk-song sources in the year before his graduation from
Budapest University with a thesis (1906) on the structure of Hungarian folk song. After studying for a
short time in Paris with the composer-organist Charles Widor, he became teacher of theory and
composition at the Budapest Academy of Music (1907-41).
First off, let me say that in order to give a complete overview of the Kodaly Method would take more than just
this article to accomplish. I hope to give you enough information on the advantages of using the Kodaly Method
for teaching music, so that you will continue your learning through the resource books that I listed at the bottom
of this article. Here are some of the key elements used in the Kodaly method.

Hand signals are used to show tonal relationships.

Hand signs are used in order for the singer to ―visualize‖ what the note or tone is doing. Is it going
up? Is it going down? You see, when we play instruments, it is quite evident what pitches we are
playing because we can see what our fingers are doing. We have this advantage because the
instrument is outside of out body. However, with the singer, the instrument is inside. So, the use of
hand signs, as shown below, can be very advantageous, especially to the ―beginner‖. NOTE: These
hand signs were not invented by Kodaly, but rather incorporated by him because of the validity of
their use.

The moveable “do” is practiced.

The moveable ―do‖ system is utilized through the use of the ―do‖ clef. The ―do‖ clef is simply a sign
that is placed wherever the tonic of each scale is. In other words, the beginning student need not be
concerned that ―g‖ is the starting pitch in G Major, until they are ―ready‖ to have that information. It
keeps things simpler for the beginner. G in G Major is simply be called ―do‖. Using a fixed ―do‖ system
is always called middle C, ―do‖.

The musical material emphasized is the mother-tongue folksong. 1. Aural – oral – kinesthetic
The mother tongue songs are the songs that are concentrated first. 2. Written – pictoral – abstract
Mother tongue meaning,the child‘s native music or the music (folk songs) 3. Read – recognized
of his or her country.

The Kodaly Method breaks down the learning of music into a series of concepts (or components);
Then applies a sequential learning process to each one. This sequential learning process follows the
natural developmental pattern used in learning a language, which is, aural, written, and then read.

The First Concept:

Steady beat is the first concept taught in level one. Notice that I say ―level‖ and not grade. Kodaly is a
concept that is non-graded. This makes the teaching of the most fundamental concepts applicable
even to ―beginners‖ of music education in high school and beyond. The sequence of the concepts
stay the same, but the material used to teach these concepts are age appropriate and left up to the
discretion of the teacher.

A great deal of emphasis is placed on using the pentatonic scale in the beginning. One of the great
advantages of using the pentatonic scale is that the notes represent all of the intervals that are
needed in singing in an extended range as the voice develops but will not put unnecessary strain on
the inexperienced singer. Another wonderful advantage of singing pentatonic songs are because
instruments are easily incorporated for improvisational purposes. Any tone played in a pentatonic
scale will blend (or sound ―right‖) with the singer‘s pentatonic song.
A great site with a huge selection of pentatonic songs is located at: Beth’s Music Notes

Eventually, from the use of Kodaly sequencing, the student will be familiar with all musical forms of
song, such as the aria, madrigal songs, cantatas, symphonic and operas.
 The Melodic Sequence:

Here is an example of the melodic sequences for teaching

sightreading.
NOTE: The first interval taught using the Kodaly Method, is
the falling minor third. (derivative from many children‘s
songs, such as ‗tattle-tail‘, and ‗rain, rain, go away‘)

This example demonstrates the use of pictures and hand

signals which help the student better understand the
overall concept of sight reading.

Solfege or “Curwen” handsigns are used as a way to

visualize the pitches being sung

The Kodaly Method was not invented by Kodaly, but is

a system of music education which was evolved in the
Hungarian schools under his inspiration and guidance

The Musical Objectives of Kodaly musical training may be listed as to develop the ability of all
children to:

 Sing, play, and move from memory, a large number of traditional folksongs of the mother
tongue.
 Perform, listen to, and analyze the great art music of the world.
 Achieve mastery of musical skills, such as musical reading and writing, singing and part-
singing.
 Improvise and compose, using their known musical vocabulary at each developmental level.
Related Internet Links Zoltán Kodály Wiki Page Information about Kodály. Includes a list of his compositions, an
essay about his impact on musical education, and links to institutions, organizations, and a bibliography devoted to
Kodály.
Additional Links Kodaly Institute American Kodaly Institute Kodaly Music Institute
Resource Books on Kodaly Kodaly Today: A Cognitive Approach to Elementary Music Education
the Kodaly Method I: Comprehensive Music Education
___________________________________
Extracts of Article taken from http://www.allianceamm.org/resources

THE KODÁLY APPROACH by Jill Trinka, Ph.D.

Kodály Philosophy
The Kodály philosophy of music education is based upon a vision of the role of music in the
intellectual, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual development of every child. A central tenet of
the Kodály approach is that music belongs to everyone - that an education in music is the right of
every human being and cannot be left to chance.

Jenö Adám, an early and prominent colleague of Kodály stated, ―The most important thing is to
actualize the instinctive love of the child for singing and playing, to realize the changing of his moods
through the songs, his feelings, his experiences. . . in other words, to bring about the miracle of
music.‖ (Adám, in The Kodály Concept, 1966, p.2)

Kodály believed that the future of a nation‘s music is determined in their schools. Consequently, the
Kodály approach places music as a core curriculum subject in the school setting.
Main Goals of the Kodály Approach
Fundamentally, a main goal of this approach is to develop, to the fullest extent possible, the innate
musicality present in all human beings. Thus, music experience and instruction must begin in a
child‘s life as early as possible. In fact, Kodály advocated that a child‘s musical education should
begin nine months before the birth of his mother.
Further, the aim is to instill within each child a love of music based on knowledge and understanding,
stemming from first-hand, active music-making experiences, beginning with lullabies, childhood
chants, folk songs, and singing games.

Kodály insisted that the musical materials to be used must be of the highest artistic caliber….Children
should be led to masterpieces by means of masterpieces. In the grand scheme, Kodály hoped to use
schools to change society and transform culture by concentrating on the individual, providing the
humanizing emphasis in an increasingly technological society that, for many pupils, may not be
experienced elsewhere.

Principles of the Kodály Approach

In a word, the essence of the Kodály approach is singing. The human voice, the most accessible
musical instrument, is the foundation of musical development. ―A deeper musical education can at all
times develop only where singing forms its basis. Instruments are for the privileged few. Only the
human voice – accessible to all, free of charge, yet the most beautiful of all instrumentscan be the
fertile soil of a musical culture extending to all.‖ (Kodály, in Eosze, 1982, p. 19)

Kodály believed that the folk music of a people contains all of the basic characteristics needed to
teach the foundations of music and to develop a love of music to last a lifetime. Accordingly, the daily
singing of folk songs of the students‘ own musical heritage is the bedrock from which music of other
ethnic backgrounds and art musics of the world are introduced, compared, and contrasted.

Inherent in the Kodály approach is Kodály‘s belief that the path from musical illiteracy to musical
culture is through writing and reading music, and that acquisition of musical culture by the masses is
possible only through the use of moveable - do tonic solfa. Specific musical content and experiences
are arranged according to developmentally appropriate practices, and much experience with music
with music -- at the subliminal level – precedes naming and symbolization. In general, ―doing‖
(experiencing) leads to thinking, which leads to understanding.

Materials of the Kodály Approach

Authentic children‘s musical literature: nursery rhymes and songs; counting out rhymes; jump-rope
game songs and chants; ring games; and singing games.
 Authentic music of the child‘s culture (reflecting the ethnic backgrounds in a given community),
e.g., folk songs; singing games; play parties; ballads; lullabies and folk dances.
 Authentic folk music of other cultures.
 Reading examples and exercises based on music of oral/aural traditions.
 The best art music written by master composers.

Methodological Tools

Moveable-do tonic solfa. Originating in the eleventh century, based on Latin chant, the syllables
(do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti) are more easily and reliably memorized than letters and numbers, especially
at an early age. Through aural memorization of intervals, the sense of tonal function is developed.

Curwen/Glover Handsigns. Drawn from the tradition of chironomy (100-600 B.C. Vedas, ancient
Hindu sacred books; 8th-c. Byzantine sources; and 10th-c. Gregorian Chant manuscripts), &
developed by John Curwen (19th-c. England) as an augmentation of Sara Glover‘s work, the
handsigns are a tool for individualizing, visualizing, and physically representing solfa syllables, giving
each tone a distinct personality in relation to the tonic. By providing a visualization of relative spatial
relationships of pitches, the handsigns aid aural memory of pitch patterns and interval relationships
while allowing for music making without the encumbrances of standard notation.

Rhythm syllables. Adapted from Emile-Joseph Chevés‘ rhythmic syllables (mid 19th-c. France), a
set of verbal syllables are used during initial stages of rhythmic training. The syllables – meant to be
voiced and not written as words -- are used as a tool for reading and writing rhythms. Typically, ―ta‖ is
used to indicate a quarter note; ―ti-ti‖ paired eighths; ―ti-bi-ti-bi‖ for four sixteenths, etc.

“Stick” or Solfa Notation. Used as a short cut to standard staff notation, solfa notation (a
combination of rhythmic stick figures and solfa) enables children to read and write music using a
relative, rather than fixed system of notation, thus developing in their ears a firm grasp of intervals
and tonal and rhythmic patterns.

Kodály Pedagogy
Instruction progresses from sound to sight, from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the
more complex, and from the concrete to the abstract. Learning occurs through problem-solving,
comparison & guided question-and-answer. The general order of instruction is hearing, singing,
showing, verbalizing, deriving, writing, reading, and creating.
Musical content domains are: rhythm, melody, form, harmony, expression, style (historical and
emergent), and terminology and symbols.
Musical skill domains to be developed are singing and vocal development, listening, movement,
memory, inner hearing, writing/dictation, reading/sight-reading, part-work, improvisation, composition,
conducting, and instrumental work.

The teacher leads students to discover musical elements (content domains) and develop their
musical skills (skill domains) through a five-phase instructional sequence: Prepare, Make
Conscious, Reinforce, Practice, and Create. Assessment of student achievement is embedded
within the activities present in each phase.

 Prepare phase: Students experience the new element or concept mainly through listening,
moving, singing by ear, inner hearing, and part work. The teacher then uses group aural
analysis to guide students to identify the presence of a new element and articulate its critical
attributes.
 Make Conscious phase: Students name the element, revisit its aural context, and show its
visual representation.
 Reinforcement phase: Students write & read the specific pattern used to name the new
element, and then explore -- through listening, singing, moving, inner hearing, writing &
reading, etc.- the new element as it exists in familiar patterns extracted from song repertoire
presented in the Prepare phase.
 Practice phase: Students explore the new element or concept in familiar and unfamiliar
patterns in unfamiliar materials such as songs, exercises, reading pieces, and listening
examples. All skill domains are then plumbed, relative to the new element, in myriad musical
settings. Additionally, the new element is applied in familiar settings to instruments such as
the recorder, barred instruments, rhythm sticks, etc.
 Create phase: Students apply their knowledge by engaging in higher level improvisation,
composition, and performance on instruments, thereby demonstrating mastery of the musical
element or concept.

Finally, music instruction in the Kodály-based music classroom is based on Kodály‘s guiding
principle: ―A thorough knowledge of the material must precede everything, for anything else can be
built only upon this knowledge. Any efforts to achieve aesthetic results which either precede or
discard knowledge are equivalent to building castles in Spain.‖ (Kodály, in Eösze, p. 18)
ORFF Theory and Practice

Carl Orff stated "Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand."
Long, Amanda, "Involve Me: Using the Orff Approach within the Elementary Classroom" (2013). 2013 Awards for
Excellence inStudent Research & Creative Activity - Documents. Paper 4. http://thekeep.eiu.edu/lib_awards_2013_docs/4

Carl Orff's philosophy of music education focuses on providing the opportunity for all
students to be successful. The Orff Approach contains a series of steps that may be completed
in any order. ….Lessons using Orff techniques and methods provide early creative experiences and
activities involving active music making. The incorporation of these experiences into the elementary
music classroom is important and necessary for the development of creative skills in the student as
an individual. Musical independence and improvisation are an important part of a young child's
musical experience and learning process, and the use of the Orff Approach can be a successful way
of allowing students to develop these techniques.

Biography and Background

Carl Orff was a German composer, teacher, and music philosopher. He was born in Munich
July 10, 1895 and died March 29, 1982. He was a composer known internationally for his operas and
dramatic works, but he was most known for his innovations in music education in his homeland of
Germany. Carl Orff's education and career was always centered on the importance of music. Orff
studied with German composer Heinrich Kaminski at the Munich Academy of Music. It was in Munich
in 1924, with the help of gymnast Dorothee Gunther that he founded the Gunther School of for
Gymnastics, Dance, and Music. Orff was also known for his conducting abilities, and he conducted
ensembles in Munich, Darmstadt, and Mannheim. His Schulwerk, a manual describing his method of
conducting, was first published in 1930. As a composer, he is best known for his popular secular
oratorio CarminaBurana, written in 1937. His other compositions were mainly inspired by Greek
theater and medieval mystery plays (Britannica, 2011).

Carl Orff's system for music education for children is largely based on the goal of developing a
sense of rhythm and musical independence through movement, dance, exploration, improvisation,
composition, and performance. Many of these are done with percussion instruments and Orff
instruments. The method has been widely adopted, especially in his home country of Germany and in
the Unites States of America. His methodology, known most commonly as the Orff-Schulwerk
Approach, is broadly accepted as a way of teaching music, especially general music at the
elementary level. It allows students to explore musical experiences in a way where the student is not
inhibited by the fear of failing. In order to create a less stressful atmosphere, teachers use what are
known as Orff Instruments (Orff Instrumentarium). These instruments, developed by Orff himself,
include miniature xylophones,marimbas, glockenspiels, and metallophones; all instruments have
removable bars.
Orff's methodology seeks to develop a process which encourages musicality and creativity in
young children.

The Approach
The Orff Approach is a progression of experiences that do not follow a particular order, but may be
implemented in an order if desired. This order can be fully or partially developed within a lesson, unit,
or even a full term. Although there is no prescribed repertoire of pieces that teachers must follow, the
process is very specific in the steps of teaching.

• Observation: The student must observe the teacher, music, videos, other students, or any other
form of watching someone actively lido" something.
* Imitation: "Students work on developing basic skills in rhythmic speech, singing, body percussion,
playing instruments, and movement by following the teacher's example. You can find imitation
happening simultaneously, delayed (echo), or overlapping/continuously delayed (canon)" (South
Florida).

• Exploration/Experimentation: "Students can discover and explore the possibilities available to

them in both sound and movement. This helps students feel their own personal musicianship rather
than copy a teacher's musicianship" (South Florida).

• Improvisation/Creation: "Extending the skill as to the point where the children can initiate their own
patterns spontaneously" (South Florida).

• Independence: Students find the ability to improvise, analyze, and communicate on their own.

• Literacy: "Learning to read and write what they have created" (South Florida).

In a traditional Orff Classroom, students begin with observation, learn how to imitate, and then begin
to explore musical opportunities. Students will begin by using body percussion, chanting, singing, and
dancing. The key to this approach is active participation by the student within the different stages of
learning process, as "children need to be challenged to think in different ways" {South Florida). After the
first few stages are complete and the students have mastered the techniques, introduction of
the pitched or non-pitched instruments occurs and students can start exploration & creation
within the musical process. Gary Jensen (2010) states in his lecture handout reviewing Orff Approach.

Pentatonic scales are used and bars (notes} removed from the instruments so improvisation is always
satisfactory sounding and encourages freedom from the fear of making mistakes. With this method,
children are involved in exploration of space, sound, and form and progress from imitation to creation.
The goal is for children to experience success and appreciate the aesthetic in music almost
immediately, rather than having to learn notes and rhythms before anything satisfying is
accomplished. Notes will come later, after they have developed a love for music.

The idea is for music to come naturally rather than being forced with specific rules and musical
traditions or conventions that are forced among musicians. As stated before, Orff activities can be
incorporated into entire lessons, units, or part of lessons. In the example activity ―Accompaniments‖,
the term "bordun" is used. A bordun is an open 5th, generally played on Orff instruments on the first
and fifth degree of the scale of the piece. This particular activity is from a Holt Music publication. The
students would learn and sing the melody to the song "Ring Around the Rosy," and then students
arrange an accompaniment to the song with Orff instruments. (see extract on next page)

Educational Philosophy

Orff's ideas about music education are a reflection of his educational philosophy. Carl Orff's idealist
views are magnified in the part of his approach when the "bad" or "wrong" keys or notes are removed
from a situation so the student will experience success, immediately be musically unsuccessful, and
play ear pleasing melodies from the very start. Because the offending notes are removed, Orff brings
to life the ideal musical situation.
Exploration of sound is also an important part of the Orff process. Lois Choksy states in The Orff
Approach section of Teaching Music in the 21st Century that children start as passive listeners with
common sounds such as "a dog barking, a door slamming, a plane passing overhead, an object
dropping. It moves then to organized sounds: patterns of drumbeats, sticks tapped together" (Choksy,
107). By exploring sounds as elements of music, Orff teaches children that anything can be music if
they choose to hear it that way.
Carl Orff was very focused on the student as an individual. His educational process emphasizes the
students' actual participation within the activities by using clapping, chanting, dancing, or playing
instruments. Orff also believed in the "primitive" language of music. Lois Choksy states in "The
elemental style of Orff's teaching begins with primal music-with the drum and the fundamental beat,
man's earliest musical experiences" (Choksy 104). He felt that music should be natural and
should come from the basic human instinct. This is why many of his teaching methods involve
chanting, clapping, stomping, and percussive elements. Choksy also states "it was important to Orff
and Gunther from the very start that the students physically experience beat, meter, tempo, and
rhythm, that they express these elements and through instruments, doing rather than learning about.

Incorporation into the Music Classroom

Educators can incorporate the Orff Approach into the elementary classroom through individual
lessons, parts of lessons, or even entire units. Included in this research are two examples of original
lesson plans, written specifically for this research project, that incorporate the Orff Approach of
teaching. Examples of extensions to these lesson plans are given within the actual lesson. All three
classroom activities could serve as a central and effective part within an improvisation unit.

Depending on the musical level and ability of the class, the lesson may need to be shortened.
Teachers should always ensure that the students understand the material completely and are able to
actually participate before moving on and adding more information.
 Orff Lesson Plans
―One Bottle 0' Pop‖ Created by Amanda Long Age: 4-6 Grades
Topic: Rhythms, singing in parts within a round, encouraging musical independence
Materials: Words for round displayed on the board

Learning Objective:
a. The students will sing in a three part round while keeping the beat accurate by clapping, tapping,
and patting.
Anticipatory Set: Chant and clap rhythms "my turn your turn" using names of fruit. The teacher will
point to names and pictures of fruit on the board and the students will say the words while clapping
the correct beats using ¾ time signature.

Quarter note: Orange Eighth Notes: Apple Sixteenth Notes: Watermelon

Procedure:
• In pairs, students will perform the simple triple meter beat patterns and count the beats.
• Lead students in performing combinations of the triple meter patterns.

Use claps and/or stomps to demonstrate strong beats and weak beats.

Play combinations of the patterns as students listen to the teacher speak the words to One Bottle 0'
Pop. The words will be displayed on the board.
One Bottle 0' Pop 3-Part Round Lyrics
One bottle o' pop.
Two bottle o' pop.
Three bottle o' pop.
Four bottle o' pop.
Five bottle o' pop.
Six bottle o' pop.
Seven bottle o' pop.
POP!
Don't throw your trash in my backyard.
My backyard.
My backyard.
Don't throw your trash in my backyard.
My backyard's full.

Fish,and chips and vinegar, vinegar, vinegar.

Fish, and chips and vinegar.
Pepper, pepper, pepper salt

• Sing "One Bottle 0' Pop." Teach each verse, echoing by phrases. Play piano with the students while
singing if needed.
• Sing the song as a round with three groups of students.
• Once familiar with the song, students may sing it while performing the three beat patterns with
partners.

Closing: Tell the students they were great and if they keep practicing, they will be able to improvise their own
rhythms. Explain they will continue to chant, sing, and use instruments; and they will be able to compose their
own rhythms and music in the upcoming unit.
Possible Lesson Extension: Improvisation and Composition Unit. To further reinforce duple meter use
rhythmic exercises. Students perform the rhythms first using body percussion, then transfer to un-pitched
percussion and finally to barred instrument improvisation. After students are secure, they will compose their
own duple meter rhythm pieces.

Assessment: An in-class participation/performance rubric will be used to evaluate the students

during class. Most important question to ask: Can each student perform the rhythms successfully?

Age: 5-8 Grades

Black Bats Orff Lesson Plan
Created by Amanda Long

Topic: Rhythms, chanting, audiating, separating rhythms from text while understanding how they fit
together.
Materials: Chant displayed on board, rhythmic instruments such as shakers or sticks
Learning Objective: The students will chant a poem while using body percussion. The students
will chant a poem while using rhythmic instruments. The students will audiate the chant while still
playing the rhythms.

Anticipatory Set: Chant and clap rhythms "my turn your turn" using names of fruit. The teacher will
point to names and pictures of fruit on the board and the students will say those words while clapping
the correct beats using 4/4 time signature.

Quarter note: Orange Eighth Notes: Apple Sixteenth Notes: Watermelon

Procedure: • The teacher will model the poem for the students.

Black bats in the air (snap)

Flying under bridges flapping over ridges (pat)
Eating insects on their way (stamp)
Heading home at the break of day (clap)

Rhythm for poem:

Ta Ta Ta-de Ta
TikaTika Ta-de, TikaTika Ta-de
Ta-de Ta-de Ta-de Ta
Ta-de Ta-Tika Ta-de Ta

(Ta= Ta-de=  Tika-Tika=  Ta-Tika=  )

• The teacher will model the poem while using body percussion. The rhythms should match the
words.
• Teach the poem by rote. First use my turn, your turn with just the chant, then add the body
percussion.
• Divide class into 4 groups.
• Assign one line to each group.
• The students will practice their chant and rhythms together.
• Perform the chant with speech and body percussion as a class, while each group completes one
line to equal the entire chant.
• The teacher will model audiation while still using rhythms for the students.
• The students will audiate the text and perform body percussion only.
• After the groups can perform the rhythms with body percussion, add contrasting non pitched
percussion to the chant as well.
• Perform chant and rhythms together as a class with percussion instruments.
Closing: Clean up all of the instruments. The teacher will tell the students they can practice their rhythms at
home with body percussion. Next class will consist of more rhythms and instruments using the same chant.

Possible Lesson Extension: Improvisation and Composition Unit. Add pitched Orff instruments, such as
metallaphones, to the chant. As a class, set the chant/poem to music. Try a few different melodies. Put the
class into groups and have each of them practice and perform the new original compositions using voices,
body percussion, pitched and non-pitched Orff instruments.
Assessment: An in-class performance rubric will be used for each student's evaluation. Can the
students demonstrate the rhythms alone and during the chant?

{South Florida} refers to a music education blog written about the Orff approach.
http//southfloridaorff.wordpress.com

NB in her teaching this lesson she writes “I explained strong beat and weak beat, and that in a 4/4 time
signature, beats 1 and 3 are the strong beats, while 2 and 4 are the weak beats. After a few minutes of
practice, all students were able to: clap on all beats, stomp on the strong beats (1 and 3," clap and vocalize the
names of the fruit with correct rhythms and complete all activities together in time and on beat.

Additional information taken from

THE ORFF-SCHULWERK APPROACH by Mary Shamrock, Ph.D.

Philosophy
The impetus for Orff Schulwerk lies in children's natural group play behavior, utilizing various of its
components (see Activity Components below) to awaken and begin development of the potential
musicality inherent in all human beings. The tonal and topical content is to come from the child's
surrounding folk tradition. Rhythm drawn from the child's native language forms the foundation. The
Schulwerk approach provides a pedagogical model, or framework, that enables hands-on music
making by participants of whatever age or experience level. The task of the teacher is to design and
facilitate activities appropriate to the participants that will enable success, satisfaction, and—very
important—joy and delight in the experience. There is opportunity for individuals of greater talent to
utilize these abilities, but the emphasis is cooperative group effort.

Activity Components Schulwerk lessons will explore& develop skills through the following means:

Speech. Children's play frequently involves little sayings and rhymes, with or without specific
meaning, often accompanying a game in some way. The following example is one of many that can
be used for choosing "it" for a game to follow:
Acka backa soda cracker, acka backa boo -
Acka backa soda cracker, out goes YOU.

This would be said rhythmically, with a feeling of steady beat; activities surrounding it can be
expanded to stabilize sensitivity to beat and develop the sense of pattern. Later, more complex
rhythmic/metric elements can be introduced with appropriate speech examples. A well-chosen word
pattern in the mother tongue very naturally establishes the "feeling" needed to identify and execute
the rhythm as a separate entity.

Singing. Children's group play involves simple little songs, often with accompanying games, that
provide a basis for 1) strengthening the ability to sing, and 2) developing the sense of tonal
relationships. Using appropriate song material drawn from folk sources, the relationships begin with
the falling minor third, proceed to the "childhood chant" pattern (so mi-la so mi) found in children's
group play songs from many cultures, then expand to the anhemitonic pentatonic scales, and finally
to the diatonic scales - major, minor, and the church modes. The musical tradition of a particular
culture may indicate the need for adjusting or changing this sequence.
Movement. In the early stages, time is spent in developing a vocabulary of stationary and locomotor
movements that can be used in countless combinations and situations. Simple game forms provide
many opportunities - for example, in a circle game children develop a sense for spatial relationships
between themselves and others, for coordinating their steps to a steady beat, and for regulating step
length to the group's pace.

Playing Instruments. This category tends to be particularly identified with the Schulwerk approach:

1. Body Percussion. The four basic sound motions (or gestures) are clapping, snapping fingers,
slapping thighs (often called "patching," from the German term), and stamping feet; others can
be added as invented and desired. These sound motions are combined in patterns and
phrases, used alone and in combined layers, as accompaniment for speech or singing, and
incorporated into instrumental ensembles .
2. Unpitched hand percussion. This includes the many small instruments often found in a
music classroom; however, each must be of a quality that will produce an interesting and
satisfying sound. Examples are: maracas, claves, tone block, triangle, jingles, finger cymbals,
suspended cymbal, tambourine, cowbell, and various sizes of hand drum. This list may be
expanded with special items such as vibraslap, ratchet, wind chime, etc.
3. Orff Instruments. These special pitched percussion instruments were designed to be of a size
readily accessible by children and to produce a satisfying musical sound with a minimum of
technical facility. They include 3 sizes of xylophone (bass, alto, soprano), the same of
metallophone …,two sizes of glockenspiel. These can be supplemented by timpani and/or
bass bars. The recorder is added as contrasting melody instrument to this percussion
ensemble. Pitched instruments provide a means for tonal exploration, for playing and inventing
melodies, for providing songs with drone and ostinato accompaniments, and for improvisation.

Cultural Perspective
The Schulwerk approach developed in a predominantly homogeneous cultural environment; the
"traditional" folk material of the area was readily identified. In the classrooms of today in the U.S.A.
and many other parts of the world, the cultural mix of students can be from somewhat to very diverse.
Identification of any one tradition as dominant would be unrealistic and unfair to many. Schulwerk
teachers nowadays often draw upon materials from a variety of cultures that will introduce the
elements needed to structure the projected growth in music/movement understanding and skills. This
plan also serves as a springboard for introducing various cultures; lessons are coordinated with the
classroom teacher so that many aspects of a particular culture can be explored.

The musical system introduced by the original Schulwerk model is the West European or "western"
model, using tempered tuning, major/minor/modal scales, functional (albeit simple) harmonies, and
specific metered rhythms. Nowadays the Schulwerk resources - exploration, imitation, and particularly
the instruments—make the approach attractive for developing hands-on introductions to examples of
musical traditions outside the western system. This activity can be very effective in helping
participants listen to recorded or live examples with some understanding of its structure. The
development of competence and confidence in using another musical system, however, takes a
careful restructuring of processes and goals, possible only for someone thoroughly "musical" in that
system.
“Teaching Children Music” Newman 4th Ed
Musical Futures 2nd Edition Teacher Resource Pack
Guide to Classroom Workshopping
Project 1; Groove, Head and Solos PART 1 ONLY :0)