2: Approaches to Music Education

Philosophy

Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play; they will find that what they have mastered is child’s play.

—Carl Orff

The Orff Schulwerk method is the only approach that is not a systematic “method” per se, although it does entail fostering creative thinking through improvisational experiences. Rather than a system, Schulwerk combines instruments, singing, movement, and speech to develop children’s innate musical abilities. There are four stages of teaching:

• Imitation
• Exploration
• Improvisation
• Composition

Schulwerk is rooted in arts and subject integration. In the early 20th century, Carl Orff met gymnastics and dance educator Dorothée Gunther and established an innovative school for children based on the idea that all human beings are musical by nature. Their approach was to combine movement (gymnastics), music, and dance. Orff developed the concept of elemental music based on the synthesis of the arts of the Greek Muses, which combined tone, dance, poetry, image, design, and theatrical gesture. Gunther and Orff’s approach was to create a comfortable environment that approximates the child’s natural world of play, thus allowing children to be introduced to a range of musical skills in a relaxed and stress-free setting.

Carl Orff’s definition of elemental music is based on small-scale musical patterns (e.g., ostinato, drone) familiar to the students.

What then is elemental music? Elemental music is never music alone but forms a unity with movement, dance and speech. It is music that one makes oneself, in which one takes part not as a listener, but as a participant. It is unsophisticated, employs no big forms and no big architectural structures, and it uses small sequence forms, ostinato and rondo. Elemental music is near the earth, natural, physical, within the range of everyone to learn it and experience it and suitable for the child… (1963)

Orff Schulwerk utilizes children’s natural behaviors of play—experimenting, improvising—to access children’s innate musicality. Schulwerk uses the native language, sounds, timbres, rhythms, melodies, and tonal material surrounding the child, particularly in its folk music repertoire. Similar to many of the other methods, the Orff Schulwerk emphasizes that children should experience first and then analyze or intellectualize about music afterwards, and encourages hands-on music-making regardless of skill level.

The Orff Instrumentarium

In early 20th century Germany, there were few instruments accessible to children. Orff began by buying recorders, which were rare at the time. Since no one knew how to play them, Dorothée Gunther created instructional books to teach recorder to children. No one knew how to play them, so Dorothée Gunther created instructional books to teach them. Carl Orff came across an African xylophone, and developed a way to transform the xylophone into an instrument for the children at the school to play. He then developed the metal-barred metallophones from the idea of the Indonesian gamelan orchestra and the German glockenspiels, which were small metal-plated instruments found in Germany. Thus the instrumentarium was born—the complete set of which includes bass bars, bass, alto/tenor, and soprano metallophones, xylophones and alto and soprano glockenspiels. While each instrument is limited in range to fewer than two octaves, all together, from bass bars to soprano glockenspiel, the ensemble covers six octaves, creating an entire orchestra!

Soprano Glockenspiel Range (C7–A9)

Soprano Xylophone–Soprano Metallophone–Alto Glockenspiel Range (C5–A7)

Alto Xylophone–Alto Metallophone Range (C4 [Middle C]–A6)

Bass Xylophone–Bass Metallophone (C3–A5)

Contra Bass Bar Range (C2–C3)

“Instrumentarium Orff-Schulwerk” By Société Studio 49 CC BY-SA 4.0

The Orff Instrumentarium

Patterned accompaniments

Orff believed that one of the easiest ways to encourage student participation in music while also contributing to beautiful music-making is to have them play a simple accompaniment on a xylophone. By second grade, most students will be able to keep a steady beat, with a fair number able to do so by first grade. Below are some basic accompaniment patterns on the xylophone or metallophone that students should be able to perform easily.

Bordun/Chord Bordun: An open 5th, containing the 1st and 5th degrees of the chord. The 3rd is not played. For example, a bordun in C will include the two pitches C and G; in F, the F and C; in G the G and D; in d minor the d and a, etc. A chord bordun means that the 1st and 5th degrees are played simultaneously.

Example of Bass Bordun With Introduction and Simple Pentatonic Melody

Broken Bordun: The notes of the bordun are played separately.

Moving/Broken Chord Bordun

Example of Moving Chord Bordun With “Lil’ Liza Jane” Melody

Level Bordun: The bordun plays in different octaves.

Crossover Bordun: The mallets cross over to play the pattern.

Drone: A note or chord continuously sounding without change. A bordun functions as a type of drone.

Ostinato: Motif or phrase that repeats.

Orff as arts integration

One of Orff Schulwerk’s major contributions is its emphasis on arts integration. Orff includes language (stories, poetry, rhythmic speech), movement (dance, improvisation), and drama as well as music.

The Orff process

The American adaptation of Orff Schulwerk utilizes four stages to organize the process of teaching music: imitation, exploration, improvisation, and composition. These four stages establish the fundamental building blocks for children to develop musical literacy. They are similar to Bloom’s taxonomy, in that they begin by introducing a very basic skill set and then gradually move on to more complex activities such as composition, which is represented in the upper phases of the taxonomy.

Source: Bloom’s Cognitive Domain by user:Nesbit, PD.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Step 1: Preparation for instrument playing

Before playing instruments, Schulwerk requires that all sounds be internalized, or practiced on and in the body. The voice is primary, and singing songs and speaking and creating poems should be mastered before playing an instrument, which is seen as an activity that extends the body. Before playing a bordun on an instrument, the musician should be able to simultaneously sing a melody and patsch (literally means “smack” in German, but refers to patting legs with an open hand) or clap a separate part such as a bordun as body percussion.

The Orff method makes use of nursery rhymes, folktales, folksongs, folkdances, and authentic, classical compositions—all music and literature of primary importance and quality.

Step 2: Body percussion

Orff also made use of body percussion—i.e. use of snap, clap, patsch, and stamping. The use of body percussion is not only a helpful stage towards externalizing rhythm before instrument playing, but when coupled with singing or rhythmic speaking, it allows practice towards the type of multitasking required to perform multiple parts, e.g., harmony, polyphony, and so forth.

Body percussion is usually written in a four-line staff, which includes (ST = stamp, P = patsch, CL = clap, and FN or SN for snap).

Patsching, which is done on the lap, and snapping can have markings indicating which hand should be used, right or left. For patsching or snapping, if there is no R or L indicated, both hands play simultaneously.

Major Pentatonic (C Major)

Major Pentatonic (F Major)

This is an example of F Major Pentatonic in the folk song “Great Big House.”

Lydian Mode

This is an example of Lydian mode in the “Simpson’s Theme Song” by Danny Elfman.

Kodály’s Philosophy

The Kodály philosophy of music education supports music’s role 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.

Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) was an ethnomusicologist and composer from Hungary. He was appalled by children’s poor singing quality, and began to create teaching methods to improve it. His approach was highly sequential. He began with sight-reading and mastering basic rhythms and pitches that gradually increased step by step to become more complex, sometimes by adding only one new note or rhythmic value at a time.

Kodály was also appalled at the type of songs and repertoire children were learning in school, and began to focus on utilizing authentic folk music and composed music of excellent quality through which to teach children.

“Curwen Hand Signs” from The Standard Course of Lessons and Exercises by John Curwen. PD-US.

Depiction of Curwen’s Solfege hand signs. This version includes the tonal tendencies and interesting titles for each tone.

Figure 5. Kodály Hand signs adopted from Curwen

Kodály hand signs

Although he did not invent the hand signs, Kodály did make alterations based on two previously established hand sign systems—Sarah Glover’s Norwich sol-fa (1845) and John Curwen’s tonic sol-fa (1858). The hand signs are very much associated with the Kodály method, which uses the hand signs to help children visualize the spatial relationship between notes. This aids in proper and correct on-pitch singing as well as sight reading and ear training.

Solfege in Kodály

Although solfege singing was around long before Kodály, he became known for it as he used it extensively in his sight-singing system exercises and throughout his method. Solfege corresponds to the notes of the major scale, using the syllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Ti. These words are often abbreviated to D, R, M, F, S, L, T, and D.

In terms of notation, Kodály’s exercises do not have to use the regular musical staff. Instead, exercises and even songs can be written out using just the D, R, and M, etc., with the rhythm notated about it.

For example, the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb” would look like this.

Use of the solfege is a highly effective way to teach children that music or notes are separate entities from lyrics. Teaching a song using solfege rather than the lyrics helps the listener hear patterns and intervals, and even understand phrases and form that otherwise might be obscured by lyrics.

Solfege teaching sequence

Kodály singing technique begins with the child practicing only a few pitches and mastering them before moving on to another note; e.g., beginning with only a minor 3rd interval of Sol and Mi, and gradually adding the La after the Sol and Mi are mastered. Gradually, the child will expand the number of pitches learned to include the major pentatonic scale (Do, Re, Mi, Sol, La), and minor pentatonic scale (La, Do, Re, Mi, S).

Philosophy

According to Gordon, we are each born with music aptitude. As with other human learning potentials, there is a wide range of music aptitude levels distributed among the human population. Moreover, both music aptitude and music achievement are dependent on audiation; i.e., our music learning potentials and our music learning achievements are based on our music thinking. Most importantly, music thinking goes beyond mere imitation and leads to music comprehension (2007).

Gordon’s Skill Learning Sequence is based on two main categories of learning: Discrimination and Inference. Discrimination learning occurs by rote, and occurs when a teacher teaches the basic building blocks of music—vocabulary and aural and rhythmic patterns. Inference learning occurs conceptually, where the student is able to identify, create, and improvise with musical materials already learned. The student at this point is discovering music on his or her own.

Rhythmic learning concerns understanding three basic concepts: the macrobeat, the microbeat, and melodic rhythm. Macrobeats are those we feel as main beats or longer beats such as when we’re dancing. In 4/4 or 2/4 time, for example, the macrobeat is represented by quarter notes, while in 3/4 time it is represented by the dotted half.

Examples of Macrobeats

Microbeats are shorter than macrobeats and represent the equal division of the macrobeat. In 4/4 or 2/4 time, microbeats would be represented by the eighth notes, while in 3/4 time microbeats would be represented by the quarter notes.

Examples of Microbeats

Melodic rhythm refers to any rhythmic patterns in a piece. Rhythms can relate to the melody or text from a piece of music. Similar to Kodály, Gordon also used two types of solfege—tonal solfege (do, re, mi, etc.) for the pitches and rhythm solfege for rhythm (du de, du de, etc. to represent duple meter, and du da di, du da di to represent triple).

His approach begins on a holistic level, where the student experiences the whole song, piece, and so forth; applies analysis; and then re-experiences the whole again but now through the lens of having analyzed the inner workings in detail.

Similar to other sequenced learning approaches, such as Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development or scaffolding, Gordon’s approach relies on a gradual increase in skill level difficulty as the student progresses. For example, because improvising music is far more complex than imitating basic patterns, the latter is required in order to perform the former. This “Whole-Part-Whole” process recommends first engaging in generalized activities to “experience the whole,” then progressing to “Study the parts,” finally returning again to the entire piece of music (Valerio, n.d.)

read more The Gordon Approach

Philosophy

The Dalcroze philosophy centers on the concept that the synthesis of the mind, body, and resulting emotions is fundamental to all meaningful learning. Plato said in his 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 Dalcroze philosophy:

1. Eurhythmics awakens the physical, aural, and visual images of music in the mind.
2. Solfege (sight singing and ear training), improvisation, and eurhythmics together work to improve expressive musicality and enhance intellectual understanding.
3. Music may be experienced through speech, gesture, and movement.
4. These can likewise be experienced in time, space, and energy. Humans learn best when learning through multiple senses. Music should be taught through the tactile, kinesthetic, aural, and visual senses.

The Dalcroze approach is based on eurhythmics, which teaches rhythm, structure, and musical expression through music. Eurhythmics begins with ear training, or solfege, to develop the inner musical ear. This differs from Kodály’s use of solfege in that it is always combined with movement. Another component of the method concerns improvisation, which helps students sharpen their spontaneous reactions and physical responses to music.

Types of movement

Each movement involves time, space, and force, and all three should be taken into account when moving, paying close attention to the musical attributes of the movement.Time: Tempo (rate of speed) and duration (fast, moderate, slow)

• Space: Direction, distance covered, level, dimension (large, small), path (straight, twisted), and focus
• Force: Energy or power expended, quality of the movement, and any adjectives to describe the movement (e.g., heavy, light, sharp, energetic, gentle)

Movement that stays stationary is called non-locomotor, while movement that moves through space is locomotor.

• Non-locomotor (movement in place):
  • Stretch, curl, clap, snap, patsch, tap, stomp, twist, turn, conduct, sway, jump, bend, speak, stretch, swing, reach
• Locomotor (movement through space):
  • Walk, slide, skip, run, leap, gallop, hop, jump, slither, creep, roll, jog

Regardless of the type, movements should above all be musical. Movements should also be focused and thoughtful; i.e. preparation should occur before each movement; the movement should take into account the full length of the beat; and the movement should return back to pre-preparation status. It is essential that the movement coordinate with the beat of the music, the rhythm, and the phrasing (depending on the exercise).

Dalcroze’s exercises are always sequential, beginning with the simplest and becoming more complex as students master and develop their skills. Children are introduced to key musical elements such as meter, dynamics, rhythms, tempo, duration, melody, form, phrase, and pitch.

Types of eurhythmics

There are four types of basic eurhythmic exercises:

1. Follow
2. Quick reaction
3. Interrupted canon
4. Canon

1. A follow exercise is a basic music-movement response exercise. Students physically respond to the sounds they hear.

   Examples:

   Students walk to the beat of music (piano, drum, etc.) and respond to changes of tempo (speeding up or slowing down), rhythms (walking on quarter notes, running on eighth notes, skipping on dotted rhythms), etc.

2. A quick reaction exercise requires students to respond to verbal signals or cues.

   Examples:

   Students move while the music is playing and freeze when the music stops or the teacher yells out a command. Students also can change their movements on a given signal, such as switching from a loco-motor to a non-loco-motor when they hear a drum beat or chime or when the music stops.

3. An interrupted canon is similar to an “echo” where students imitate or echo a beat, pattern, etc. The interrupted canon is a preparatory exercise for the canon.

   Examples:

   Students hear a rhythm and then echo it back on their body (lap, clap, etc.).

4. A canon requires students to echo back a pattern, but one measure later. While they are performing their pattern, they are simultaneously listening and memorizing the new pattern.

Examples:

The teacher claps patterns. Students respond one measure later while continually absorbing the pattern currently being performed. Pass the pattern: A more challenging version of this is to have students form two straight lines. The teacher stands in front and “passes” a pattern to the first student in one of the lines. That student then “passes” it to their partner across the aisle, who then passes it across the aisle, etc. All the while, new patterns are being formed and passed.

Dalcroze movement requires that children listen and respond simultaneously. The music mirrors the physical motions expected. For example, music for walking or marching is in duple meter and uses steady quarter notes, running music contains eighth notes, skipping music uses dotted rhythms, jumping music contains large interval leaps, and so forth.

Examples of music for Dalcroze movement exploration

watch this Dalcroze Videos