One of my goals as an educator is for my students to feel empowered to create and interact with music outside of my classroom. For this to happen, students need developed aural skills and comfortability with creativity. Rock musicians (Green, 2016) and hip-hop artists (Kruse, 2018) generally learn and create through an informal music learning approach. Informal music learning can feel unnatural for teachers who were educated in conservatory style music teacher preparation programs. Acknowledging this unfamiliarity, many Orff Schulwerk teachers surveyed expressed interest in learning how to incorporate informal music learning with Orff Schulwerk in their classrooms (Dockan, 2020). In this blog post, I will share how I reach and inspire students using popular music through informal music learning (Green, 2016; Wiggins, 2015; Kruse, 2018; Vasil, 2019) and Orff Schulwerk (Orff, 1995; Keetman, 1974; Goodkin, 2013).
Informal music learning mirrors the process that popular musicians use to learn and create music. According to Green (2016), informal music learning involves music that is selected by students, learned by ear, and in friendship groups co-constructing musical content. This process requires time engaged in self- and peer-study (Green, 2016; Vasil, 2019). It should be noted that there are differences with the informal music learning that hip-hop artists work through: solitary practice and focus on creation rather than replication (Kruse, 2018). In her book, Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy, Green suggests students go “into the deep end” and work to recreate the music they know on their instruments with little to no guidance. After being in the deep end, the students come back together as a class where the teacher plays stems, individual instrument tracks from a song and students imitate them. This process trains students’ ears to hear individual instruments from the mixed audio track. After students have imitated these tracks as a group, they return to their friendship groups to work on a song of their choice. Once students have explored recreating music, they are invited to compose and create their own music. Green’s (2016) informal music learning process involves exploration, imitation, return to exploration, and then creation.
Orff Schulwerk is an approach to music education where students actively make music through speaking, singing, dancing, and playing. The overarching approach of Orff Schulwerk is for students to imitate, explore, and create (Goodkin, 2013). Orff Schulwerk’s exploratory learning process begins with imitating a stimulus (poem, song, game, dance, etc.). Students explore different methods of interacting with the stimulus through speaking, singing, dancing, and playing. Through the exploration of the music, elements of the music are taken and used to create accompaniments, improvisations, forms, etc. The Schulwerk is an organic approach where the teacher is being responsive to how students interact with the music. Orff (1995) wanted to use stimuli that were already familiar to students to promote quick and meaningful musical acquisition and participation.
Both approaches to music education—informal music learning and Orff Schulwerk—develop aural skills and creativity through imitation, exploration, and creation. The combining of these two approaches also provides students with musical exploration, co-constructing musical knowledge, aural learning, peer learning and self-study, through learner selected music. This union of approaches also creates an inclusive environment for social emotional growth where student preferred music is validated (Vasil, 2019). Traditional staff notation is not focused on in either of these approaches. This allows students to interact with the music aurally, similar to the way that popular musicians learn and create music. The culmination of both approaches involves creativity with students composing their own songs or using the elements of the stimulus to create a composition.
While informal music learning and Orff Schulwerk are not normally put into the same elementary music class, the two approaches certainly complement each other. An example of both in practice begins with a teacher’s familiarity with the preferred music of students. Then, using a song as a stimulus, students are invited to interact with the music in different ways (games, movement, etc.). Teachers must remember that the whole song does not need to be used. Just using the chorus or most memorable part of the song is allowed! Teachers can isolate the different instrument stems and have students imitate and perform them. I like to start with the drums or bass line because they tend to be repetitive and easier to catch aurally. Once the students have those parts, teachers can add in the vocals or other instrumental parts. Then, teachers can simply ask the students for what else they hear, what they could create with those parts, what movements to add, or just “What’s Next?” The possibilities are endless!
Below are two videos of the realization of this process using the song “Happier” by Mashmello. Listening to the song, participants mirrored body percussion and improvised body percussion in response to the song. Playing the chorus melody stem, participants first sang the melody and performed the melody by patting the words on their knees. The melody was easily performed because of their previous familiarity with the song. The bassline stem was played, and participants followed the sound with their bodies to hear the chord changes. This was followed by participants producing the sound through humming or singing. Participants were then asked “What’s Next?” In the two videos below, you can see the two very different interpretations.
Popular Music and Orff Schulwerk course at University of Kentucky:
Pennsylvania Music Educators Association: Research to Practice Workshop
Using student preferred music through informal music learning and Orff Schulwerk approaches gives students more opportunities for creativity and aural skill development. Using student preferred music validates musical tastes and increases student attention and buy-in. While traditional staff notation has an important role in current K–12 music education, learning, performing, and creating popular music authentically involves an informal and aural process. Informal music learning and Orff Schulwerk emphasize aural skill development through exploration, imitation, and creation. When students have developed aural skills and opportunities to be creative, they become more confident musicians and are more likely to continue their interactions with music in the school and on their own.
David Dockan is a PhD student in Music Education at the University of Kentucky where he teaches undergraduate education majors, supervises music education student teachers, and works with the community music group, New Horizons. Before coming to Kentucky, David taught band, choir, and general music for five years in Prince George, VA. David received his bachelors degree in music education from West Virginia University, Masters in Music Education from Kent State University and is a Certified Orff Schulwerk teacher from the Eastman School of Music. David has presented at state and national conferences on Hip-Hop, popular music, and Orff Schulwerk.
References
Dockan, D. (2020). Informal music learning, Orff Schulwerk, and creativity: A Mixed methods study. The Orff Echo 52(4), 46–51.
Kruse, A. J. (2018). ‘Hip-Hop wasn’t something a teacher ever gave me’: exploring hip-hop musical learning. Music Education Research 20(3), 317–329. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2018.1445210
Goodkin, D. (2002). Play, sing, & dance. Schott and Company Ltd.
Green, L. (2016). Music, informal learning and the school: A New classroom pedagogy. Routledge.
Keetman, G. (1974). Elementaria. Schott and Company Ltd.
Orff, C. (1995). Orff Schulwerk: Past and future. The Orff echo 27(4), 8–11. (Original work published 1963)
Vasil, M. (2019). Nonformal teaching and informal learning: Popular music education and Orff Schulwerk. In Z. Moir, B. Powell & G. D. Smith (Eds.) The Bloomsbury handbook of popular music education: Perspectives and practices (pp. 249–262). Bloomsbury Publishing.
Wiggins, J. (2015). Teaching for musical understanding (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.