158 folk songs and singing games with body percussion, movement, and instrument work — including 38 with barred instrument parts and 22 with unpitched percussion. Organized by grade and concept and every one demonstrated on video, many taught by a teacher with Orff training.
Start Your Free Trial →The Orff approach
The Orff Schulwerk approach puts elemental music-making at the center — speech, singing, movement, and instruments working together as an integrated whole. Children don't learn about music first and then make it. They make it, and the understanding follows.
Every song in The Singing Classroom library was chosen because it works in this spirit — body percussion that grows out of the song's natural rhythm, movement that embodies the form, games that make the musical structure physical and immediate.
The elements of Orff Schulwerk
Browse the Orff repertoire
A sample from the library. Every song is demonstrated on video, many with the full teaching sequence: introduction, body percussion, movement, and instrument work where applicable.
Body percussion songs — clapping, patting, stomping, and snapping patterns that emerge naturally from the song's rhythm and reinforce musical form through the body.
A layered body percussion song built on fa, with clear sectional form. One of the most satisfying body percussion pieces in the elementary library — challenging enough for upper grades, beautiful enough to be worth the effort.
A layered partner body percussion game that adds complexity gradually — exactly the Orff principle of starting simple and building. Works across a wide grade range with different levels of challenge.
An upper-elementary partner clapping game that older students find genuinely demanding and satisfying. The body percussion element is intrinsic to the song — it can't be separated from it.
Students respond physically to the phrase structure — jumping in or out at exactly the right moment. The movement is the analysis. If you jump at the wrong time, everyone knows.
A folk song with motions and body percussion that builds naturally across verses. A clean, accessible Orff piece for early grades that demonstrates the approach beautifully.
A motion song for the youngest students — the simplest end of the Orff body percussion spectrum, where the motions are the song and the song is the motions.
Movement and dance songs — circle games, longways sets, and partner dances where musical form, phrase, and meter become completely embodied.
A longways set dance where the A and B sections are physically distinct. Students feel musical form through their feet before any notation — Orff methodology at its most natural.
A circle game with given movements and an unpitched percussion part. Musical structure becomes completely physical — exactly the approach Orff advocated for young children.
A groups-of-four movement game where the rocking motion embodies the meter in the Dalcroze sense while the pentatonic melody provides the Orff dimension — both methods working together.
A Scottish song in major, moved in groups of four with skipping to the phrase. The sophisticated movement makes this one of the most musically mature pieces for upper elementary Orff work.
Children weave through a standing arch of classmates. The winding movement maps directly onto the musical phrase — a perfect early-grades Orff movement activity.
A steady-beat game that upper elementary students find genuinely challenging — the kind of ensemble work where the pulse has to be internalized, not counted.
Stick and passing games — circle activities where sticks are passed on the beat and ensemble skill is built through the game itself. Four of these carry unpitched percussion parts in the library.
Rhythm sticks passed around the circle on the beat. The social accountability — every student responsible for the pulse — is the Orff principle of ensemble awareness in its most natural form.
A circle passing game that spans a wide grade range, with solo singing moments built in. The challenge level can be adjusted by tempo and pattern — the same song works from 1st through 6th grade.
A partner stick game for upper elementary. The drone-like repetition and the stick game element make it one of the most genuinely Orff-influenced pieces in the library.
A circle passing game with barred and unpitched percussion parts — pitched and unpitched instruments working together, which is core Orff ensemble practice.
A Brazilian passing game for upper grades — one of the few pieces in the library from South America, and one of the most rewarding passing games at this age.
A Caribbean hand-clap game in groups of four, carrying both barred and unpitched percussion parts — an important piece for building a culturally diverse Orff repertoire that goes beyond European folk tradition.
Pentatonic songs — the melodic foundation of Orff Schulwerk. 23 songs in the library carry a pentatonic mode, do-based or la-based, ideal for barred instruments and for building pitch awareness before introducing diatonic material.
A circle game that introduces do, with barred instrument parts in the library — one of the most natural bridges to xylophone work in the early grades.
Do pentatonic in a longways dance — the melody works on barred instruments while the dance teaches form. Two dimensions of Orff practice in one song.
A circle game reaching below the tonal center to low sol, with barred instrument parts. Essential upper-elementary Orff repertoire.
A pentatonic circle game with solo singing moments — a natural entry point for early barred instrument work and for building confident individual musical expression.
A Do pentatonic movement game — the melody works on barred instruments while the rocking motion teaches meter. A model of the integrated Orff approach.
A Do pentatonic cumulative song — the speech element (listing the growing verse) is pure Orff, and the pentatonic melody sits naturally on barred instruments.
Who created this
Every demonstration in The Singing Classroom was created by Deborah Skydell Pasternack — not by a curriculum developer or a generalist, but by a teacher trained in all three major approaches to elementary music education.
Questions
Try The Singing Classroom free for 7 days. Browse 150+ folk songs with body percussion, movement, and instrument work — every one demonstrated on video.