Taking the Orff Approach to Heart: Essays & Articles from a Pioneer of Orff in America contains twenty-nine original essays and articles. It is a companion book to Making It Up As You Go , also from Brasstown Press. North American Orff educator Isabel McNeill Carley writes with skill and humor on topics from theory to practice, integrating music, speech, movement, and improvisation. 
Assigned as a text in Orff Levels certification instruction, Taking The Orff Approach to Heart offers insights into teaching, childhood development, pentatonic music theory and applications, and even an illustrated children's story. 
Never-before published gems include: 
Detailed guidance on weaving speech play into the classroom, with great examples from the public domain
 A comprehensive master class for creating Orff arrangements
 How to introduce Orff instruments in the classroom, with stepwise instruction
 Gentle, age-appropriate sequences introducing music and creativity for preschool and for kindergarten
 Key ways to integrate speech, play, movement, singing, and rhythmic and melodic instruments into the music classroom And numerous additional essays about the joys of teaching from the heart, engaging children and adults with spontaneity and simplicity. There's even an original children's story which, when read aloud, leads from speech to song. More inside: How to introduce music to pre-schoolers How to compose and arrange for the Orff instrumentarium and classroom How to introduce music through speech play - with a bonus chapter of great speech materials in the public domain How to introduce the ostinato and build the Carpet of Sound How to teach and use the recorder with the Orff Approach
 Foreword by Karen Stafford PhD 
Editor's Introduction by Anne M Carley 
Biographical Note about the author 
Informative essays on Carl Orff and the Orff Schulwerk, developed by Orff and his colleague Gunild Keetman 
Introductory headnotes from the editor 
The significance of the pentatonic scale in Orff education 
Extensive speech play resources
 Pentatonic scales + modes in C, F, & G 
Glossary and biographical notes 
Published resources and references 
Selected bibliography The Table of Contents includes: 1. The Case for Creativity 2. That Lovely Two-Headed Betsy Higginbottam 3. Create or Perform 4. Music Plus: Five- and Six-Year-Olds in the Classroom 5. Playing With Our Materials: Speech Play 6. Speech Play Resources 7. At the Foot of the Mountains, Or How Mrs. Dow Made a Song 8. Introducing Ostinati with Murray Volume I 9. Tips for Teachers of the Recorder 10. How To Introduce the Orff Ensemble 11. Practicing Some Neglected Ensemble Techniques 12. Master Class: Composing and Arranging for the Orff Classroom 13. Teaching Music to Preschoolers 14. Concerning Rabbits 15. The Next Ten Years: A View from the Early Day 16. On Patterns in A Music Gestalt 17. First Encountering Gunild Keetman 18. Improvisation Makes It Happen 19. The Inclusive Art of Music 20. The Essential Role of the Recorder 21. Using the Recorder: The Orff Approach 22. On Setting a Program's Goals 23. The Schulwerk's Origins and Early Music 24. The Orff Approach in Church 25. On Being Simple-Minded 26. My Theory of Education 27. Educating All of the Human Mind 28. Little Is Possible Without Healthy Roots 29. Imparted Grace: The Central Role of Music in Education