Response to “Orff Music Therapy, An Overview”

By Nicole Craven, Graduate Student at Lesley University. Email: ncraven8@gmail.com

Like other music therapy students who responded to this article, I was also excited and enlightened by Voight’s introduction to Orff music therapy. In her article, Voight gives a wonderful synopsis of the history, principles, and uses of Orff music therapy, as well as two clinical examples that illustrate the effectiveness of this type of music therapy in working with developmentally delayed and disabled young children. As a music educator and aspiring music therapist interested in working with developmentally delayed young children, Orff music therapy is a method I would like to study more as it seems to be a way to combine the skills I already have as a music educator with the skills I will gain in my training as a music therapist.

I have taught general music (kindergarten-eighth grade), Kindermusik classes (0-3 year olds), and Musical Movement classes (2-4 year olds) and am currently studying to be a music therapist. Although I have not gone through the three levels of Orff training, I have been exposed to the Orff method through my undergraduate studies in music education and at music education conferences. I incorporate many of the Orff principles into my teaching, regardless of the age I am working with, especially the use of movement, speech, and sound. After reading this article, I would like to study much more about this model of music therapy and intend on becoming trained in the Orff-Schulwerk method or Orff music therapy.

The three aspects of Orff music therapy that resonated with me the most in Voight’s article were the importance of “musiké”, “improvisation as play,” and the role of the parents in an Orff music therapy session. The Orff-Schulwerk method uses “elements of speech, rhythm, movement, dance, and song” (Davis et al, 2008) in teaching concepts to children. This holistic approach to learning is even more important when working with developmentally delayed children to help awaken all of their senses and to help improve physical and cognitive delays. I always found that my students learned best when I incorporated as many different sensory experiences as I could when teaching a concept. For example, when teaching about meter, students would move to different meters, count rhythms in different meters, and play instruments in different meters. This allowed them to feel, see, and understand this musical concept. Incorporating speech, movement, and rhythm into a music therapy session will help the developmentally delayed child successfully meet their goals of the therapy session.

When talking about improvisation, Voight emphasizes the importance of play in Orff music therapy. Marcia Humpal wrote about theorists such as Vygotsky, Piaget, Smilansky, and Erikson and their work around the importance of play in a child’s development, as well as the different stages and types of play in her response to Voight’s article. It is so important that Orff music therapy recognizes the importance of play and uses this as the way to interact with the child in a music therapy session. Play is how a child naturally learns about, discovers, and interacts with the world around them (Olfman, 2003). Therefore, it is imperative that we use this in working with children with developmental problems to help them attain the clinical goals for them. By allowing the child to play with music and explore sounds we are allowing them to exercise their creativity and to learn skills in a natural way. In addition, a music therapy session that is playful will keep the young child engaged in what they are doing.

Voight also discusses the active role of the parent in an Orff music therapy session. Like social pediatrics in Germany, early intervention services in the United States offers therapeutic services to developmentally delayed children under three years of age. The parents are a key part of the early intervention service. As Voight wrote, the music therapy session can offer a nervous, stressed, or intimidated parent of a developmentally delayed child the tools to play and make music with their child in a developmentally appropriate way. In this way, the parent becomes an integral role in the therapy of the child. This can help empower the parent who may feel inadequate or unsure of how to care for a developmentally delayed or disabled child.

If a parent is able to incorporate the activities done in a music therapy session throughout the week or time in between sessions, I would also expect that that the therapy would be more effective and faster results may be seen. In teaching Kindermusik classes, which incorporates at-home materials including a recording of the music we use in class, I have seen a marked difference in the children that frequently listen to the CD and do some of the in-class activities at home and those that do not spend as much time with the material outside of class. My students who listen to our music throughout the week are often more active in singing and participating in the activities in class because they are more familiar with them. Therefore, in working with young children in particular, it is important to never underestimate the role the parent can play in music therapy.

Regardless of what method or model of music therapy is being used with a young child with developmental delays, some of the principles and ideas of Orff music therapy can be incorporated into the music therapy sessions, such as the use of movement, play, and inclusion of parents. I look forward to studying and learning more about Orff music therapy and how I can incorporate it into my work with future clients.

For others interested in learning more about Orff music therapy, The Orff Music Therapy: Active Furthering of the Development of the Child (Orff, 1974) and Alike and Different: The Clinical and Educational Uses of Orff-Schulwerk (Bitcon, 2000) are two additional resources I found on the method that were not mentioned in Voight’s article or the responses to it.

References

Davis, W.B., Gfeller, K.E. & Thaut, M.H. (ed.), (2008). An Introduction to Music Therapy: Theory and Practice, Third Edition. Silver Spring, MD: the American Music Therapy Association.

Olfman, Sharna. (2003). All Work and No Play…How Educational Reforms Are Harming Our Preschoolers. Westport, CT: Praeger.