Week Eight

5/16/2019

I observed that the teaching styles between Balinese Gamelan and Orff Schulwerk had many similarities, in particular their use of melodic chunking, ostinati, repetition and learning all parts. We learned the decorative line initially (the hardest line) which we learned through observing, chunking and repeating. Though the process of learning was the same, I thought it was interesting that we started with the hardest harmonic line, while Orff usually teaches the melodic line first and builds on it with harmonic lines. We learned the remaining three lines continuing to move from hardest to easiest, and continuing with the pattern of repetition and echoing. It was interesting to see that aspects of Orff Teaching are applicable not only in school teaching but in music across different cultures as well.