Taylor, D. M. (2011). Orff ensembles. General Music Today, 25(3), 31-35.

The author of the article, Donald M. Taylor, has a Ph.D in music education, teaches

undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of North Texas in music education, and

also is the coordinator of Ph.D studies. In the article, Taylor explains a lot of useful information

regarding Orff ensembles in the classroom and their application to further music learning. The

article outlines challenges that accompany learning through Orff ensembles, such as confidence

to play out, the inability to cover up inaccuracies, and garnering the patience to play slower in

order to practice good technique and accuracy. These are all skills that are also necessary to be

successful in higher instrumental music. Orff can be used to improve mallet technique. By

removing enough bars to leave a pentatonic scale behind, students can focus on hand position,

correct posture, execution, etc. without having to also focus on playing the correct notes. The

educator must also make sure that repertoire they choose is not too difficult or too easy because

students will either get frustrated with their inability to learn a piece of music or become bored

with how non-challenged they feel respectively. In order to successfully acquire these skills,

however, students must be given feedback in a specific manner. Whether it be constructive

criticism or praise, students need to be given specific feedback in order to understand what they

did right or wrong because they often lack the musical awareness to understand it at their current

skill level.

This article is interesting to me because I do not recall using Orff instruments as I was

growing up. It makes me wonder if I would have had a greater potential for learning instrumental

music at a younger age. As I have worked with them in the last few years, however, I can see

how many of the benefits outlined in this article work for teaching these concepts.
 I will integrate this article into my teaching by using the strategies it suggests for

instruction in my potential general music classroom or instrumental ensemble. I will also use the

strategies it offers regarding technique with my future mallet players.

This article makes sense to me and is easy to follow. I believe that many of the

suggestions provided can be used in a variety of different ensembles, not just Orff instruments. I

believe the article will prove useful to me in my future teaching endeavors.