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July 8-19, 2024; Monday – Friday, 9AM – 5PM

Florida State University
Orff-Schulwerk
Teacher Education Course
Level I
& II

The Florida State University College of Music is pleased to offer Levels I and II of the Orff-Schulwerk Teacher Education Course. These courses offer a non-competitive atmosphere where one of the rewards is the pleasure of making good music with others.

For more information, please contact:

Suzanne Rita Byrnes
Course Director, FSU College of Music
sbyrnes@fsu.edu | (850) 273-1132

Additional Information

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Tuition and Credit Information
  • FSU Undergraduate and Graduate 3 Credit Hours subject to current FSU tuition and fees
  • Non-credit Continuing Education Units (6.) Est. Program Fee: $875

This course offers 3 semester hours of academic credit each at the undergraduate or graduate levels. Teachers wishing in-service hours should bring the necessary forms from their schools/districts at the time of the course. Non-credit students may receive 6.0 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for the course.

Since space is limited, please complete your registration by June 21; registrations will be accepted on a space-available basis. Registration confirmations and course information will be sent to you on receipt of your registration request form and course payment. Unfortunately, cancellation refund requests will not be accepted after June 28.

Content

Level I is designed for people with music training who wish to acquire basic knowledge and pedagogic foundation in the Orff-Schulwerk approach. This course is recommended for those with no previous Orff-Schulwerk training. Course components will include studying basic Orff techniques including the use of pentatonic scales, simple bordun, ostinato, and elemental music form; basic body movements including structured and creative movement and their application to the Schulwerk; vocal and rhythmic training; improvisation, and soprano recorder (see HERE).

Materials: Materials will be available for purchase on the first day of class from Beethoven & Co. at Florida State University (approx. $150-$175).

Materials Used in Level I:

Level I Basic Pedagogy
Required:

  • Music for Children, Vol. 1, Keetman/Murray/Orff
  • Play, Sing, and Dance: An Introduction to Orff Schulwerk, Doug Goodkin
  • Rhythmische Ubung, Keetman

Recommended

  • Journey Around the Globe with Recorder!, Darla Meek
  • Flight 2: Another Journey Around the Globe with Recorder!, Darla Meek

Optional

  • 150 American Folksongs to Sing and Play, Erdei & Komlos
  • 150 Rounds for Singing and Teaching, Bolkavec & Johnson
  • Sail Away: 155 American Folk Songs to Sing, Read and Play, Lock

Level I Movement

Recommended

  • Creative Dance for All Ages, Anne Green Gilbert
  • It’s Music to Their Ears! Movement-based Listening Lessons for the Music Classroom, Darla Meek

Level I Recorder

Required

  • Soprano Recorder with Baroque Fingering
  • Recorder Routes 1, Carol King
  • The Sweet Pipes Recorder Book, Soprano (Book 1), Burakoff & Hettrick

OTHER
Children’s Books Used in Class (FYI):

  • The Grand Old Duke of York, Maureen Roffey and Bernard Lodge
  • Work Song, Gary Paulsen
  • The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats
  • Millions of Cats, Wanda Gag
  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Bill Martin, Jr.
  • To Sleep, Perchance to Dream, William Shakespeare
  • Listen to the Rain, Bill Martin, Jr.
  • Snowflake Bentley, Jacqueline Briggs Martin
  • Snow, Uri Schulvitz
  • To Everything There Is a Season, Leo and Diane Dillon

Level II is designed for people with music training who have already completed Level I Orff-Schulwerk. Level II content builds on the Level I content. It is rewarding to move beyond the call, chant, and pentatonic scales into half steps, diatonic modes, and triads. Meters and rhythms become more complex yet seem possible to use with children through the elemental style of teaching and learning that happens in Orff Schulwerk. Level II content requires a deeper understanding of basic music theory principles. If this is an area that worries you, brush up on some of the terminology and listen to the Music for Children recordings. Expect that there will be some assignments in your level II class arranging, composing, and improvising with this new material (see HERE).

Materials Used in Level II
*access to Music for Children Vol. 1 for the couple of days (from Level I)

Level II Basic Pedagogy
Required

  • Music for Children, Vol. 2, Murray Edition
  • Music for Children, Vol. 4, Murray Edition
  • Rhythmische Ubung, Keetman

Recommended

  • Elementaria, Keetman
  • Re-Echoes, Book, Carley, ed.

Level II Movement
Required

  • Creative Dance for All Ages, Anne Greene Gilbert
  • A movement journal (hardcopy or digital format)

Level II Recorder
Required

  • Alto recorder (Yamaha or Peripole)
  • The Sweet Pipes Recorder Book, Soprano (Book 1), Burakoff & Hettrick
  • The Sweet Pipes Recorder Book, Alto (Book 1), Burakoff & Hettrick
  • Recorders with Orff Ensemble (Book 1), Isabel McNeill Carley

Optional

  • The Sweet Pipes Recorder Book, Soprano (Book 2), Burakoff & Hettrick

ALL STUDENTS SHOULD HAVE THE FOLLOWING:

  • A computer with notation software such as Finale or Sibelius and ability to print assignments.
  • Three-ring binder with dividers: Basic Pedagogy/Movement/Recorder/Special Topics
  • Paper and writing utensils or an electronic device for taking notes
Evaluation

Students will be evaluated on the basis of the following overall criteria:

1. Participation in class activities
2. Completion of written assignments
3. Preparation and performance of ensemble selections involving use of singing, movement, recorder, and Orff instruments
4. Attendance – 100% attendance required

Instructors

Dr. Suzanne Rita Byrnes, Director

Dr. Suzanne Rita Byrnes is a member of the Music Education faculty at FSU. Dr. Byrnes directs the FSU Capital Children’s Choir, directs the Summer Orff Schulwerk workshop, and teaches a variety of courses including the children’s choir internship and music in early childhood. Dr. Byrnes received her PhD from FSU in 1994.

Previously, Dr. Byrnes directed the Kansas City Children’s Chorus for 12 years, taught Choral Arranging, and was a guest lecturer in many classes at the Conservatory at UMKC. She also managed and taught in her Kindermusik® studio at UMKC for 8 years.

She is French-Canadian and hails from Ottawa, Canada where she taught at École Secondaire De-La-Salle in the Arts Concentration program. There, she headed up the choral, band, and orchestra programs and also participated in the drama program productions.

Dr. Byrnes has studied choral conducting with Dr. Fred Stoltzfus (University of Illinois, formerly at McGill University), Dr. André Thomas (FSU), Dr. Judy Bowers (FSU), Rodney Eichenberger (FSU), Jon Washburn (Vancouver Chamber Choir), James Jordan (Westminster Choir College), and Frauke Haasemann (Westminster Choir College, now deceased). She also studied instrumental and choral arranging with Canadian composer, Donald Patriquin.

Darla Meek, Level I Instructor

Darla Meek serves as Music Education Coordinator at Texas A & M University-Commerce, teaching undergraduate and graduate music education classes and supervising student teachers. She is presently working toward the Doctor of Education in Supervision, Curriculum and Instruction. Certified in both Kodály and Orff Schulwerk, Darla serves as a teacher trainer for the American Orff Schulwerk Association in both Movement and Level I Pedagogy for Orff Levels courses.

Darla is the author of three resources for elementary music specialists, Journey Around the Globe with Recorder! and Flight 2: Another Journey Around the Globe with Recorder! published by Sweet Pipes, Inc., and All Things Bright and Beautiful published by Choristers Guild. Her articles have appeared in The Orff Echo, The Chorister, and Kodály Envoy. In addition, Darla has published children’s choir curricula for Lifeway Christian Resources and for Celebrating Grace, Inc.

Darla presents professional development sessions for teachers at the district, regional, state, and national levels. She is a past President of the North Texas Chapter of AOSA.

Dr. Aaron Lohmeyer, Recorder Instructor

First introduced to Orff-Schulwerk in 2010, Aaron Lohmeyer has applied the approach to elementary general, concert band, guitar, and jazz band classrooms ever since. Long an advocate for musical creativity, Aaron Lohmeyer attributes the teachings of Carl Orff, Gunild Keetman, and Dorothee Gunther to his ability to bridge this value to an actionable practice. Dr. Aaron Lohmeyer is Assistant Professor of Music Education at Winona State University and program director for music education.

Aaron Lohmeyer taught in Title 1 public schools in both rural Alaska and urban Florida. While serving as the general music teacher, guitar instructor and arts integration specialist for the Apalachee Tapestry Magnet School of the Arts, the school was honored to earn recognition as a Florida Arts Model School in conjunction with the Florida Alliance for Arts Education and the Florida Department of Education.

He completed the three Orff Schulwerk levels with the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District in Alaska and the University of Kentucky. He has since presented his own practice of Orff Schulwerk on local, state, and national stages. His presentations and published research focus on how tools and processes within an Orff approach contribute to creativity and life-long musicianship across multiple genres. A jazz and classical saxophonist by training, he strives to incorporate methods acquired in his own advanced instrumental study to beginning recorder instruction.

Aaron Lohmeyer has earned degrees from Davidson College (BA Religion) and the Florida State University (MM Saxophone Performance, MME Music Education, PhD in Music Education with an emphasis in General Music Education) with additional studies in music at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

Dr. Daniel C. Johnson, Level II Instructor

Daniel Johnson is a Professor of Music Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he coordinates the undergraduate and graduate music education programs. Having taught as a Fulbright Scholar at the Orff-Institut in Salzburg, Austria, he is an international authority on Orff-Schulwerk and regularly presents at teacher-education courses and workshops across the country and abroad. During the past three decades, his teaching experience has spanned the PK – university gamut with a focus on general music education.

What will I take back to my classroom?
  • Music activities that match the stages of child development
  • Poems, songs, dances, and games for immediate use in classroom instruction
  • Resources for acquiring and creating your own teaching materials
  • Ideas to help foster creativity in students
  • Lessons with ties to the National Standards in Music

These courses will be held on the Florida State University campus. Classes are scheduled for Monday – Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Registration

Since space is limited, please complete you registration by June 21. Registrations will be accepted on a space-available basis until the class is full.

To register for Continuing Education Units, click here.

For credit registration:

MUE 4352-0001 (2611) ORFF SCHULWERK LEVEL 1 (Undergrad) HMU 105
MUE 5354-0001 (4484) ORFF SCHULWERK LEVEL 1 (Grad) HMU 105
MUS 3934-0002 (6001) ORFF SCHULWERK LEVEL 2 (Undergrad) TBA
MUS 5939-0005 (2821) ORFF SCHULWERK LEVEL 2 (Grad) TBA

July 8-19 – Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri – 9 a.m.-5 p.m.