Season Three
Episode 83
Singing Within the Orff Approach
When you think of Orff Schulwerk, what comes to mind? For many of us it might be barred instruments. Or movement. Or improvisation. Even speech. Yet singing is sometimes not viewed as something done within the Schulwerk, even though it is! But what I've found and been challenged by in my own classroom is that singing might be the means to an end. I've taught a folk song only to have it lead into learning the melody on recorders. Or singing the melody of a barred piece and then transferring it only to be played on the instruments. We've sung canons in class, but then transferred it to rhythmic pieces like body percussion or unhitched percussion. By the time the piece has gone through several stages, the final result looks very different from it's inception and what an audience sees in a sharing or performance involves speech, percussion, recorders, and barred instruments with potentially very little singing.
Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman not only incorporated singing with their students, but found it to be an important element to music making. Many of the pieces in the volumes include text. Recordings of their students show them singing, moving, singing, and playing instruments. During levels training you spend time singing songs amidst the movement, recorders, and instruments.
In the book Elementaria on page 64, Keetman said, "Pay attention to the soft playing of accompaniments so that the singing can come through more strongly." On page 144 of Music for Children Volume I, Orff said, "The melody should, when possible, also be sung. For further practice the singer should accompany himself. This can be done by soloists."
Here are 7 ideas for how to include singing in your classroom as an Orff-inspired teacher:
1. Sing what you play
* Create text to melodies of instrumental pieces
*Sing melodies on neutral syllables
2. Use solfege
*Incorporate solfege
*Laurdella Bodolay wrote an article called 'Why Solfege?' for the Orff Echo and shared why she believed that solfege syllables have proven to be an excellent tool for developing musical skills. (I read a portion of the text found in the book: Orff Reechoes Part III.
*We can use the imitate-explore-create model of the Schulwerk where students echo solfege patterns,explore familiar patterns through singing, and then create their own ostinato patterns singing solfege in improvisations or even original compositions
3. Sing pieces from octavos
*Incorporate movement and body percussion within the songs
4. Sing folk songs and accompany with rhythmic ostinatos or accompaniment
*Use simple songs with younger students while they play a steady beat bordun on tonic and dominant
*Using folk songs of the cultures of your students - 1/2 class sings and 1/2 class plays and then trading parts
*Allowing students to create additional sections or simple melodies
5. Sing canons
* Creating movements for phrases
*Then perform rhythms with body percussion or hand drums as a variation
6. Sing for the pure joy of singing
*Share your favorite songs with students
*Perform songs for them - hearing beautiful literature is just as important as teaching it
*Sing songs as a class because of their beauty, meaningful text, or fun and joyful spirit
*Orff said, "Experience first, then intellectualize"
7. Find ways to share the process of learning within performances/sharings
*If students are playing a barred piece, begin with only the bass lines and students can sing as an ensemble or as soloists
*Incorporate singing throughout by sharing folk songs, adding movement, or demonstrating the melody through singing, rhythm with instruments, and body percussion
Singing is the most accessible instrument that we have and a beautiful one that is important to develop and use. If you're singing with students already, keep doing it! If you're not as comfortable with your own singing voice, be brave and start small. Choose one song and one class. And allow students to be vocal models if you have students who are strong leaders in this area. Just keep singing!
Episode 83
Singing Within the Orff Approach
When you think of Orff Schulwerk, what comes to mind? For many of us it might be barred instruments. Or movement. Or improvisation. Even speech. Yet singing is sometimes not viewed as something done within the Schulwerk, even though it is! But what I've found and been challenged by in my own classroom is that singing might be the means to an end. I've taught a folk song only to have it lead into learning the melody on recorders. Or singing the melody of a barred piece and then transferring it only to be played on the instruments. We've sung canons in class, but then transferred it to rhythmic pieces like body percussion or unhitched percussion. By the time the piece has gone through several stages, the final result looks very different from it's inception and what an audience sees in a sharing or performance involves speech, percussion, recorders, and barred instruments with potentially very little singing.
Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman not only incorporated singing with their students, but found it to be an important element to music making. Many of the pieces in the volumes include text. Recordings of their students show them singing, moving, singing, and playing instruments. During levels training you spend time singing songs amidst the movement, recorders, and instruments.
In the book Elementaria on page 64, Keetman said, "Pay attention to the soft playing of accompaniments so that the singing can come through more strongly." On page 144 of Music for Children Volume I, Orff said, "The melody should, when possible, also be sung. For further practice the singer should accompany himself. This can be done by soloists."
Here are 7 ideas for how to include singing in your classroom as an Orff-inspired teacher:
1. Sing what you play
* Create text to melodies of instrumental pieces
*Sing melodies on neutral syllables
2. Use solfege
*Incorporate solfege
*Laurdella Bodolay wrote an article called 'Why Solfege?' for the Orff Echo and shared why she believed that solfege syllables have proven to be an excellent tool for developing musical skills. (I read a portion of the text found in the book: Orff Reechoes Part III.
*We can use the imitate-explore-create model of the Schulwerk where students echo solfege patterns,explore familiar patterns through singing, and then create their own ostinato patterns singing solfege in improvisations or even original compositions
3. Sing pieces from octavos
*Incorporate movement and body percussion within the songs
4. Sing folk songs and accompany with rhythmic ostinatos or accompaniment
*Use simple songs with younger students while they play a steady beat bordun on tonic and dominant
*Using folk songs of the cultures of your students - 1/2 class sings and 1/2 class plays and then trading parts
*Allowing students to create additional sections or simple melodies
5. Sing canons
* Creating movements for phrases
*Then perform rhythms with body percussion or hand drums as a variation
6. Sing for the pure joy of singing
*Share your favorite songs with students
*Perform songs for them - hearing beautiful literature is just as important as teaching it
*Sing songs as a class because of their beauty, meaningful text, or fun and joyful spirit
*Orff said, "Experience first, then intellectualize"
7. Find ways to share the process of learning within performances/sharings
*If students are playing a barred piece, begin with only the bass lines and students can sing as an ensemble or as soloists
*Incorporate singing throughout by sharing folk songs, adding movement, or demonstrating the melody through singing, rhythm with instruments, and body percussion
Singing is the most accessible instrument that we have and a beautiful one that is important to develop and use. If you're singing with students already, keep doing it! If you're not as comfortable with your own singing voice, be brave and start small. Choose one song and one class. And allow students to be vocal models if you have students who are strong leaders in this area. Just keep singing!
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