Orff I go to learn!

A few years ago, one of my young colleagues - a bright-eyed fresh teacher - left Singapore after his two years stint in our school, looking for new adventures. After another teaching stint he returned back to the university to pursue his Masters. Good opportunities coming his way, open-mindedness and a risk-taking attitude took him to unfamiliar places and every now and then I saw his videos of music experiences in places like Africa and Colombia!

 

Eugene credits me for introducing him to Bollywood dancing and helping him experience the audience adulation for dancers. After two years of Diwali dances, he moved on to Salsa dancing in front of much larger audiences and happily shared his videos with me. I enjoyed watching his repertoire of dance moves and music knowledge grow.

 

Recently Eugene was given a grant to go to Colombia and teach music for social change. He worked in three places - Bogota, Santa Marta, and Manizales - where he conducted a range of workshops for children, parents and teachers on the Orff process. I followed his project on facebook including his videos.

 

Then came the fun! Eugene knows my passion for any teaching that leads to social change and he happily shared his project report with me hoping that I would read it. The only problem - I am not a musician and technical words many times go above my head!  However, I read the report (twice before I could make meaning!) and it reflected the passion as well as the complete surprise that this teacher has experienced with this project. In fact it was so compelling that I dedicated the next half hour to googling Orff and learning about it, so I could understand Eugene's report better.

 

I don't claim to understand Orff - certainly not after half an hour of google search and Wikipedia lessons. However, I am starting to make connections with what my other music teaching colleagues have talked about, what I observe in their lessons and what I have read about Orff.

 

Orff is a methodology whereby learners learn music in the most natural way combining music, movement, drama and speech. Developed in Germany and built upon with other influences I have seen teachers use clapping, tapping, stamping, clicking, moving etc to get a sense of music and rhythm in the learners. It is a very learner-centric approach and allows learners to build on, scaffold music in a very interesting, non-threatening way, and combines personal with group skills. I shall not regurgitate Wikipedia here but I can make connections much better now that I have a slight idea of the Orff process. My aha moment of this learning - that Orff can be especially useful in helping some of the special needs students.

 

As with every learning more questions seep in.  I wonder, how would this relate to Hofstede's dimensions of individualism versus collectivism? How this would fit in a typical Indian Classical Music training. (Why does it need to fit in? .... but that's another question!)  What are the comparisons and contrast to the Indian system of training for Classical music? In fact, when I think deeper, the contrast between the Indian Classical music and the Orff method seems to reflect some interesting ideas related to the societal structures, the values and the overall positioning of music in the  different cultures. I remember having done some classical music training and sitting for long periods at stretch with the Tanpura. My guru used to talk about music as 'sadhna' or meditation, something that required concentration, practice and dedication. It brought about a sense of deep satisfaction and happiness but more often than not classical music was not equated to 'fun'. (In fact the concept of 'Fun' in any stream of education might have even been equated to being frivolous!) Orff, in contrast teaches music in a way most natural to a child's way of learning and therefore easier, particularly in the early phases of music learning, and it is fun.

 

I left music and ventured off to classical dance early on. However, I do wish there was more of the Orff approach when I was in primary school. Perhaps it would've spurred on my musical talents a bit more!

 

So this is my learning for the day. Thank you Eugene for the lessons on Orff - directly and through inspiration!

 

Orff I go... day two over!