TEACHER TALK

In this MMB Music interview series, Brian Crisp talks with renowned master teachers in the field.

Featured Interview

Brian Burnett is a music specialist for the Rossford Schools near Toledo, Ohio. He holds a Masters in Music Education from Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He has training in Dalcroze Eurhythmics and certification to teach Orff Schulwerk courses from Hamline/St. Thomas University. Currently, he teaches Orff-Schulwerk course at the University of Kentucky and Webster University. Brian has presented workshops for the AOSA National Convention and at state music conferences across the east coast, and was a movement consultant for McGraw-Hill’s Share the Music.

What was your first introduction to the Orff-Schulwerk and what aspects attracted you?
I was first introduced to the Schulwerk in a county-wide children’s music festival. Teachers were using Orff instruments to accompany the children’s chorus. Afterwards, these teachers gave a demonstration using the barred instruments to accompany singing. At the time, I was a band director who was also teaching general music—the instrumental nature and sound of the barred instruments thrilled me.

This experience inspired me to pursue Orff-Schulwerk certification. This experience supplemented my work on my master’s thesis—I was writing about gifted students and creativity. My academic research led me to the Schulwerk because of its creative nature. The Schulwerk contained the same aspects found in my research on creativity and gifted students; it was synchronistic. I have been practicing the Orff-Schulwerk philosophy ever since.

What elements do you find the most timeless in Orff-Schulwerk?
The most compelling parts of the Schulwerk are two-fold—the basic elemental style where music and movement are incorporated into one, and the fact that the body is the primary instrument. The body moves, makes percussive sounds, creates, sings, and makes other vocal sounds. You can practice the Schulwerk with a full instrumentarium, or as they did at the Guntherschule in the beginning, with just the body.

You are quite versed in the area of movement. How do you see movement being utilized as a vital part of the Schulwerk?
Movement is part of the foundation of the Schulwerk. Music and movement have to be paired for essential music learning. This pairing is the easiest gateway for children to understand. Because children are kinesthetic beings, movement is essential for them to understand rhythm and form, as well as their creative and aesthetic development. Movement also taps into their natural arena of play.

Movement must go beyond a simple body-percussion transfer to unpitched percussion or barred instruments. That is only a small element of movement. The children must be up, moving, dancing, and creating movement.

I use folk and world dance material as a framework of ideas from which the children can draw. This makes creating dance safe and accessible for students. It allows children to explore dance elements and create a vocabulary of dance. This is no different from the way we use melodic material in the Schulwerk. The learning and creating is structured in a way where a given melody is transformed into a new melody. The folk dance is given and then transformed with spatial relationships, gestures, directions, and other aspects of dance.

If you were to give advice to new teachers just beginning the Schulwerk, what would it be?
Easy! When I took Level 1, I did not understand that the philosophy was about children creating new and exciting pieces, as opposed to the reproduction of folk music arrangements or instrumental pieces. Do not be seduced by the settings—this makes the instruments more important than the children and their understanding of musical elements. The instruments are vital and should be played in a virtuosic manner. The children should be creating new virtuosic pieces that enhance their learning and the aesthetics. It took me ten years to understand this. The Schulwerk is not about reciting previously composed pieces, it is about new pieces created by children. The Music for Children books are models that instruct us in the way children can create. The instruments and materials must be the best, because our children deserve the best.

You have also done a lot of work with assessing students’ music learning. What are the main points of assessing in the music classroom?
Assessment is for the children’s learning. There are five reasons to assess. Number one is to give feedback to the students so they understand the concepts and ideas they are learning. Assessing should be for the children—not just the parents, the administrators—but the children. The children want to know. It also gives them opportunities to improve their learning and performance. The teacher must have the essential tools to correct and enhance musical learning.

Where do you see the future of the Schulwerk? What excites you most about it?
The best practices of the Schulwerk are going to blend with other disciplines. Music in the Schulwerk will not be in isolation, but in sequence with other effective teaching and learning. People will want to be versed in all disciplines, so they can enhance children’s learning. This thinking is open and blossoming, much like the nature of the Schulwerk, which is open to new ideas.