Orff of Course!
Jean Hersey and Cynthia Seputis, Clinicians
[email protected]
[email protected]
What is Orff? How does Orff fit in with current expectations, i.e., NCAS,
Danielson, Inquiry Based Learning, and other trends? In this session,
experience four primary general music lessons in the Orff style, and
discover how Orff can work for you!
Orff is an active approach to general music making that starts with
what children can already do- speech, movement and play, and
transfers it to active music making- singing, dancing, and playing
instruments. It uses imitation, exploration, improvisation and
visualization (music literacy) as pathways to learning. Great emphasis
is placed on student choice, collaboration and critical thinking, all of
which are valued in the current educational climate.
Jean and Cynthia founded the Orff program at Chicago’s VanderCook
College of Music in 2004, Since then it has grown considerably,
offering Levels I, II and III, Master Class, and Orff Curriculum and
Design. Pick up a flyer today or check out the offerings on the
VanderCook website: www. Vandercook.edu/continuing-education/
Next up: Intro to Orff, March 4-5, 2017. Enrollment is now open!
The following pages include lesson plans and assessments in the
areas of melody and rhythm for lower and upper elementary students.
We encourage you to actively take part in these activities in order to
remember the process.
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Activity I: Rhythm, Lower Elementary: Exploring Beat vs. Rhythm
“Double Double This This”
Double double ​this​ ​this​,
Double double ​that​ ​that​.
Double ​this​, ​double that
Double double ​this​ ​that​!
Double = Partners bump bottom of fists together
This​ = Partners clap hands
That​ = Partners clap hands backwards
Process:
Grade 1: Exploration
- Demonstrate adapted version of hand-clapping game. Can students identify what
happened on “this” and on “that”?
- Students join in on “this” and “that” motions (and then words) when ready
- Add motion for “double”, ask students to identify and then perform
- Demonstrate full hand-clapping game with a student partner
- Pair up students and have them practice
- Once students have mastered the game, can they come up with new two-syllable
words to substitute for “this” and “that”?
Grade 2:
Day 1: Exploration
- Review hand-clapping game and have students demonstrate mastery in pairs
- Distribute one hand drum to each pair of students; show students how to hold the drum
between them with their left hands. Transfer hand-clapping game motions to
drum-game motions:
​Double = Partners tap top of drum with right hands
This​ = Partners clap right hands above the drum
That​ = Partners clap right hands below the drum
- Students internalize words (say them in their head) as they perform
Day 2: Discovery, Aural and Visual Identification
- Show beat strip of 4 steady beats; ask students to determine how many syllables are
spoken on each beat
- Notate the syllables for the first line of the poem as follows:
2
- Notate the syllables for the third line of the poem in the same fashion
- Transfer to traditional notation
- Perform using body percussion or unpitched percussion instruments
Day 3: Visualization, Composition
- Distribute packets of manipulatives containing beat strips and pairs of eighth notes and
quarter notes; students use manipulatives to write rhythm of “Double double this this” one
phrase at a time
- Students use known rhythm syllables to read rhythm of poem
- Students play rhythm of poem on unpitched percussion instruments
- Perform with half class playing steady beat on hand drums (Day 1 activity) and half class
playing rhythm of poem on unpitched percussion (Day 2 activity)
- Take notation for four phrases of the poem and rearrange them: half the students play
the rhythm as half play the steady beat on hand drums
- Have students use known rhythms to compose a four-beat rhythm to substitute for one
of the phrases of the poem; students perform
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Activity II: Melody, Lower Elementary: Discovering MRD
Process:
Day 1: Exploration
- Read story to class
- Students join in on song when ready, patting pulse
- Transfer pulse to BX/BM
- Sing melody with snaps for SG/AG, transfer
- Sing melody and clap wood block part, transfer
- Optional: when students know melody well, sing in canon,
with teacher singing against the class
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Day 2: Discovery, Aural and Visual Identification
- Sing MRD on neutral syllable, ask students if it sounds familiar. Does it go up or down?
What songs do they know with that melody? When does it occur in “Tracks?” How many
times? Do the notes sound close together or far apart? Can students sound out melody
on the instruments? (Limit choice to only AGF). Can they play each time it occurs?
Day 3: Exploration, Improvisation, Visualization
- Ask students to improvise on MRD on instruments to the rhythm of the words “Tracks in
the Snow”. Put with accompaniment
- Ask students to identify with solfege the patterns you play.
- Ask students to sound out familiar MRD songs (Hot Cross Buns, Pease Porridge Hot, Old
Ark’s A-Moverin’, etc.)
- Using iconic notation ( a mitten or a footprint would work), ask students to notate MRD
on 3 line staff
Activity III: Rhythm, Upper Elementary: Exploring 6/8
Welcome In The Spring - Morris & Sword Dances For Children ​by Paul Kerlee
World Music Press/Plank Road Publishing
“North Skelton Sword Dance”
The directions, recording and visual for this activity can be found in the above publication,
available from West Music or online.
Process:
Day 1: Exploration
- Listen to the music and tap the macrobeat (dotted quarter). Move beat to feet, walk 8
steps and change direction
- Hand out swords and stand in large circle. March in place following directions of dance
for first four rounds of dance.
- Review above in small circles of 5 or 6.
- Demo round 5 with one circle, all circles attempt to copy. Problem solve as needed.
Day 2: Identification, Visualization
- Listen to recording and ask students to characterize the rhythm (galloping, uneven, etc).
- Identify rhythms as “donkey” (quarter/eighth), “galloping” (three eighths), “horse” (dotted
quarter). Can they discover the rhythm of the first phrase? (Galloping, donkey, donkey,
donkey, galloping, donkey, donkey, horse)
- Identify meter as 6/8
- Notate rhythms on the board. Discuss differences between 6/8 and 3 /4. . Explain dots
as needed
5
- Can students clap and say rhythms using above text?
Day 3: Identification, Exploration
- Explain to students that they have been using 6/8 since they were little kids. Sing or
speak nursery rhymes and songs and ask students to identify which are in 6/8 and which
are not. How do they know?
- Transfer rhythm of nursery rhymes to drums
- What are the challenges of playing in 6/8?
Day 4: Improvisation, Composition
- Ask students to pick a familiar nursery rhyme in 6/8 and arrange it for unpitched
percussion, with at least 2 ostinati and an accent part. Perform
- Improvise melodically in pentatonic on barred instruments using the rhythm of the
nursery rhyme text
Activity IV: Melody, Upper Elementary: Exploring Pentatonic
Orff-Schulwerk Music for Children Vol. I by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman, English
Version Adapted by Margaret Murray
Schott Edition
Canon Exercise #1 (page 91)
Process:
Day 1: Exploration, identification, visualization
- Students read and sing short melodic patterns (DRM SL D​1​) from flashcards as a
warm-up
- Refine flashcards to show melody of Canon Exercise #1; students sing melody
- Students move to barred instruments; if told that C=Do, can they discover which bars
represent the other pitches of the C pentatonic scale?
- Students sing melody with letter names and transfer to barred instruments
- Divide students into two groups and have students perform as a canon at two beats
Day 2: Exploration, Improvisation
- Seated at barred instruments, students echo-play short melodic patterns (DRM SL D​1​)
- Divide students into two groups and have each group improvise for eight beats in C
pentatonic, encouraging a rest on beat eight
- Students review melody of Canon Exercise #1 and perform on barred instruments, using
the canon as an “A” section and the improvisation as a “B” section
- Use class input to devise a form for performance (number of repetitions, unison vs.
canon, sing only/sing and play/play only, etc.)
- Students perform
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