Flying Out

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The time has arrived to travel to the US for the Orff training course @sforff.org,  and waiting to board the first of two flights seems like a good time to start blogging about this experience.  After spending a year researching the theories and experimenting with ideas based on these, I now get to experience it in a practical setting.  While hoping to learn lots from the course leaders and the other participants, I also have loads of questions and have recently been thinking about how all this might be implemented into a C21st STEM curriculum.  A couple of these include:


  • As a lot of the pieces are based around pedals and ostinato can this be used with apps such as GarageBand or websites such as Youtube?  
    • This can facilitate kids practicing and composing in environments beyond the classroom group before coming together to perform.
  • Can the ideas be extended to work with Arabic songs?
  • Movement - how can this be taught in classes with pupils for whom dance is prohibited?
  • Art and music - although I have undertaken this before, it has always felt like an add on or cop out; how does this fit into the Orff pedagogy and can we develop this as a cross curricular activity so it does not 'take away' from the practical music making?

So many thoughts and questions!  Hopefully the next couple of weeks will answer these.

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