Reverberations: Teachers Teaching Teachers is a weekly, online publication available to members that publishes models of best practice from Orff Schulwerk classrooms in the form of lesson ideas, student-tested teaching strategies, articles related to classroom applications, and more.
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List of Reverberations Articles
Waiter Water
PDF only – A fun 3-part canon that challenges young singers to accurately sing half- and whole-step descending intervals.
Transitions are Teachable Moments
PDF only – Young children and special needs students often find transitions to be challenging. Planning ways to help them navigate change allows for success and saves the teacher from dealing with problems that could have been averted.
The iPad as an Instrument
PDF only – An introduction to the Tech Spot column and an article on using technology in an Orff classroom.
Stories and Music Unite in New Collaboration
PDF only – The Northern California chapter of AOSA, together with Stagebridge Senior Theatre Company of Oakland, received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to fund a new interdisciplinary arts project, Stories and Music United (SAMU). The article discusses the implementation of the grant as the author worked with senior learners.
Fly, Fly, Fly
PDF only – This lovely canon about moving from autumn to winter has been shared with permission from Libana.
First Steps in Rhythm: Exploring Duration
PDF only – Movement activities are an excellent entry point in building the foundation for rhythmic learning.
Perspectives on Listening
PDF only – The author discusses ways to create opportunities for students to form deep connections with specific musical examples.
Entering the Spielbuch Through Movement
PDF only – Goals in this lesson include melodic improvisation with a set of given rhythmic building blocks and developing mallet technique for a quickly moving melody.
Wave Movement
PDF only – Students experience expressive movement by exploring and creating shapes and pathways using a picture book and music.
Talking Blues in the Classroom
PDF only – “Talking Blues” is part of our American folk tradition and can be traced back at least to the 1920s. Students discover how the functional harmony of elemental I-IV-V progression, with speech accompaniment, can be musically complex.
A Three Part Lesson in Triple Meter
PDF only – Experiences, songs, and lessons in triple meter are difficult to find and yet beat divided into groups of three is such an important skill. The Volumes are an amazing place to find elemental material for triple meter.
Working Together: Children’s Literature and Elemental Music
PDF only – The spoken word is one of the foundations of the Schulwerk, so it is natural to incorporate children’s literature into the Orff Schulwerk classroom.