What are the advantages and disadvantages of a musical education ...

The main aims of the Orff Approach are to develop rhythm, harmony, melody and texture.
Play is believed to be a fundamental part of a child’s learning; it gives them time to discover
themselves and their own abilities. Carl Orff thought that it was important for children to first
experience music by improvising with different percussion instruments, dancing, and singing,
before the intellectual side was introduced. His ideas were structured around rhythm and
movement. Orff believed that it was important for children to learn at their own level of
understanding. ‘In the Orff approach, children make music with activities that are natural
and enjoyable for them: singing, rhyming, dancing, and playing instruments’ (Kleiner, 2001,
P.3). Carl Orff strongly believed that this approach was a much more effective way of
teaching children and that once they had learnt to appreciate music by taking part in rhythmic
activities and games, they would have a greater understanding and be better prepared to learn
how to read and write music notation. When teaching the Orff Approach the most commonly
used music is folk music or the music that the children have composed themselves. The
children are encouraged to experiment and practise playing lots of different instruments. It is
the role of the teacher to act as a conductor to make sure that the whole class is involved in
some way, whether they are playing instruments or acting out different moves to the music.
In some cases music is used during a story time and children are asked to make the sound
effects using various percussion instruments and acting out the story. Most commonly used
instruments are bells, maracas, triangles, drums and tambourines. There are now Orff
organizations based all over the world in various countries such as the United States,
Australia, Japan, South Africa and China. The effect that Orff has had on music for children
has been widespread and is evident in most children’s toy, book and music stores, where
there are a huge range of fun and simple appliances and accessories to help introduce children
to music.
Zoltan Kodaly was born in 1882 and was a Hungarian composer and music educator who
developed a method of teaching music to very young children. He believed that music
education should be introduced at a very young age. ‘To be most effective, music education
must begin with the very young children. It is in his or her early years that a child acquires
discrimination in pitch as well as language’ (Kodaly cited in Anderson; Lawrence, 2007,
p.99). Kodaly believed that it was important to introduce the building blocks of music
education at as young an age as possible but that it should be taught in a fun and interesting
way that would stay with the child for the rest of their lives. Kodaly himself said:
"Teach music and singing at school in such a way that it is not a torture but a joy for the
pupil; instill a thirst for finer music in him, a thirst which will last for a lifetime" (Kodaly
cited in Estrella, 2005).
Kodaly believed that before teaching a child to play an instrument they first need to have an
understanding of music through listening to nursery rhymes, story songs and playing
rhythmic games. The aim of this is to create a musical foundation very early on that
contributes to children’s ability to be able to pick up and learn new instruments later in life.
Music Education in Regard to Children CM6002 Emily McGregor 163930
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