Music Education through Orff Schulwerk

Music Education through Orff Schulwerk
ORFF SCHULWERK MUSIC EDUCATION: LISTEN. CREATE. PERFORM. ANALYSE

Orff Schulwerk is a unique approach to music education created by composer Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman. Orff and Keetman's collaboration began in the 1930s and the dynamic approach to music education continues to develop today and is used in many leading music education programmes around the world.
The approach makes connections with the way children naturally play using songs, dances, rhymes, stories, clapping, and other active music making activities. Language and movement underpin the instrument work.

It is a music education for all ages and abilities. The music programme is carefully structured to allow children to work at different levels of challenge within the same lesson with success for all.

The approach provides a strong foundation for any further musical study as well as encouraging children to make music part of their lives outside of and beyond their primary school years.

As Sofia Lopez-Ibor, (Orff Schulwerk educator at the San Francisco School), says: the aim of an Orff Schulwerk music programme is for children to leave primary school with the same enthusiasm and excitement about their musicality as when they entered as five year olds and for them to be happy and willing to make music wherever they may be.

Here is Doug Goodkin, world leading Orff Schulwerk music educator at San Francisco School, doing a TED talk about the importance of a music education for all, "everyone is a musical being...."

Everyone is a musical being: Doug Goodkin TED talk

Welcome!

Kia Ora and Welcome to my Teaching Blog.


This year I am joining Angela Campbell at Eastern Hutt School as an Orff Schulwerk music teacher. Eastern Hutt School is unique in the Wellington region to have a well established Orff Schulwerk specialist music programme, established and developed by Angela over the last 10 years. Angela has a wealth of experience in Orff Schulwerk, she has studied with Doug Goodkin in Salzburg and she completed her level 1 Orff training at the San Francisco school. I first began working with Angela 8 years ago when I was a general classroom teacher at Eastern Hutt School. I have since had three children of my own and have worked closely with Angela to develop my own Orff Schulwerk teaching as well as completing my own Orff Schulwerk training and study at postgraduate level. Music is a big part of my family life and I have used the Orff Schulwerk approach as part of my children's own music education. I will use this blog to share information and resources with teachers and parents and to share some of the students' music making. Thank you for taking the time to visit.

Marimba Playing

Marimba Playing
Drawing by Charlotte Prebble

Friday 22 May 2015

Tuesday 19 May 2015

Hari Coo Coo

https://soundcloud.com/nycos/hari-coo-coo

We are learning this lullaby from Nepal at the moment as we think about the earthquakes that have affected so many people.  We have been singing and sending all our love and hope to the people in Nepal helping and being helped.

Monday 18 May 2015

Year Two students playing some Jon Madin pieces





We have been having lots of fun with Jon Madin's pieces for marimba.  We have been learning how to hold our mallets and use both mallets when we are playing.  We have also been learning about what an "octave" is by playing some scale songs including "Can You Click Your Sticks", and "Pudding on the Hill" by Jon Madin and "C is for Crocodile" (By C-Change).

Year Fives working on "Yay" by Fraser Bruce





We have been working on this piece for only three weeks and there are some tricky rhythms we are mastering!



This piece is going to be performed by Auckland students as part of the Auckland Marimba Festival later this year.  We are going to perform this piece with 'Mimosa', a professional chamber music group, as part of a NZ Chamber Music Residency programme at Eastern Hutt next term, very exciting.

Junior students having an "improvising conversation", creating question and answer melodies on the pentatonic scale.  We have been talking about how we can communicate with each other using gesture and watching each other closely to know when it is our turn to "speak".  We have also been talking about how when we create an answering melody we work our way back to the home note so the phrase sounds complete.