Playing Instruments

 

Following the "Orff-Approach“ (Elemental Music and Dance Pedagogy by Carl Orff) I regard and introduce the body as „first instrument“. Hands and feet work as natural instruments by giving immediate sound initiated by gestures connected to an inner impulse: Feeling the wild animal inside might make the legs stamp firmly and quickly on the ground, producing a sound of a drum roll. Connecting with the lightness of a butterfly might result in a fluttering gesture sounding with soft clapping of palms of hands.

The so-called „Elemental Instruments“, which are an essential part of Orff‘s Pedagogy (also known as „Orff-Instruments“), allow to express music in its full range: percussion instruments especially connect to rhythm, barred instruments to melody and harmony; all of them can be experienced as elongated organs of expression in the moment the aliveness of the body centre allows sensitive movement to flow out into the sound-giving body parts playing the instrument.  Sound becomes visible, audible and kinesthetic-tactile to the player and is in this way deeply connected with his/her own individuality. In addition to these instruments everything that gives sound (like materials and objects) enrich the soundscape, that invites exploration, improvisation, accompaniment of speech, song, movement and dance, instrumental pieces, composition etc.