In Steve Pierce's Fifth Grade Music class, his students stand in a circle, stomping their feet, snapping their fingers, and improvising melodies using voice and body percussion. Starting with basic call-and-response, students first tap out a simple beat, then add layers of movement and sounds to form rhythm and patterns. It's all part of an innovative technique in music instruction that Mr. Pierce brought back from New Orleans this summer, where he spent two weeks in a professional development course titled, the Jazz Course. Offered by the San Francisco Orff Institute, the course provided Mr. Pierce with hands-on training in the Orff teaching method, known to be especially effective for making complicated music, like jazz, accessible to the youngest of students. 

“The main technique from the Jazz Course in New Orleans that I am incorporating into the classroom is the Orff approach,” shares Mr. Pierce, “which combines music, speech, movement, and drama into music lessons that are very similar to the way a child plays naturally.” A four-stage learning process of imitation, exploration, improvisation, and literacy, the Orff approach explores melody and rhythm through speech, singing, clapping, and movement. 

“What does that look like in the classroom?” continues Pierce. “Instead of being very explicit with the students about what we are doing, it is revealed through improvised, non-verbal movement that engages the students with surprise, mystery and creativity. We might put a rhythm into our feet, or echo some body percussion. Eventually, we begin building the rhythmic content of the song we will be learning, before finally adding our voices and melody at the end. Once we have this in our bodies and our voices, then we take this to the musical instruments.” 

“This way, the students are coming to the instruments knowing what the song sounds like and feels like, which helps them understand how to play it. If you can say it, or sing it, you have a better chance to play it. If you can move the rhythm in your feet, that will help you play it on the instrument. Even though we just started this in our classes, I'm excited with how it is going so far.” 

“Another gift I received from the Jazz Course in New Orleans,” reflects Mr. Pierce, “is the framework to incorporate jazz material into the younger student classrooms. In New Orleans, we worked on jazz songs from Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Milt Jackson, and many more. Together with the other teachers, we played arrangements appropriate for younger learners. I’m very excited to try some of these songs this year.”