What is The Orff Process?

In order to give you a full account of the Orff Process, I would need much more time and space than is allowed in this forum. My main goal is to provide you with an overview which will stimulate your desire to pursue a more in-depth investigation on your own.

A second objective of this article is to provide you with some teaching tools that you can use with your own students. I encourage those of you who already use the Orff Process to offer suggestions and tips at the bottom of this page. Your input will help make this a thorough resource for students, parents and teachers who would like to learn how the Orff Process can enrich their musical experiences.

Carl Orff, (b. 1895, d. 1982)

Who is Carl Orff and what is the Orff Process?

Carl Orff was a German composer and educator. Orff viewed rhythm as the basic element inherent in music, dance, and speech and created 'one language' based on this common element. Improvisation and creation were at the center of his teaching. A number of his students had not had previous musical training, therefore, he emphasized body sounds and gestures for rhythm, and he used the voice as the first and most natural of instruments. He gave great importance to the drum in all its variations of size, shape, and sound. He also made the ostinato (a repeated rhythmic, spoken or sung pattern) serve as the form-giving element in all improvisations.

Between 1950 and 1954, Orff and Keetman wrote down the pedagogical concepts that had grown out of their work with children. When they had finished, they had written five volumes: Schulwerk, in its re-creation and transformation, had become Music for Children.

At the core of Carl Orff's work is a kind of musical expression that is able to speak to children without the loss of musical integrity. Therein lies its great significance and its genius.

Chronology of Orff Schulwerk "To understand what Schulwerk is and what its aims are, we should perhaps see how it came into being." -- Carl Orff

The Philosophy

Orff Schulwerk is an approach to music education that includes all facets of music expression. Children learn in an active way, where imitation and exploration lead to improvisation and music literacy. Speech, song, movement and instruments are the vehicles used to teach rhythm, melody, form, harmony and timbre. It is built on the idea that a child must be able to feel and make rhythms and melodies before being called on to read and write music. In the same way a child learns to speak before learning to read and write, he or she must have a musical language in which to feel at home before technical knowledge is introduced. The Orff Process, is child-developmental. Orff believed that a child internalized and developed ownership of a concept by experiencing the concept first. "Experience first, intellectualize second." (or put the experience in words after the whole body has experienced the concept)

Through tuned and non-tuned percussion instruments, movement, games, singing, rhythmic exploration and drama, the child learns of his own innate musical talents in a way that is immediately successful and rewarding. Orff for the very young child is an excellent preparation for private lessons. It is beneficial for all ages for developing musicianship. Orff is a tremendous supplement to private lessons for all students of elementary age.

Orff instruments not only reinforce the child's aural perception and skill but can also reinforce the visual relationship of intervals.

• In using percussion instruments for the beginner, bordun patterns are used to reinforce beat.
  
• Readiness for melodic playing usually corresponds with the introduction of the solfege syllable, 'RE', which is generally introduced around the second grade.
  
• Songs are memorized using solfege and hand signs.
  
• The teacher sings a melodic pattern and the student plays what they hear. This continues until the student knows how to play every note throughout the song.