A MEANS OF EDUCATION:
THE MAKING OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
BY CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
by
Heinrich M. SAMBETH, Music Teacher, Eusskirchen, GermanyI have long been convinced that methods other than those used in
formal music education should be employed for giving children a
musical training. How can we hope, with the two hours of music
lessons per week, to offset the effects of the light music which young
people hear at home for six or eight hours every day? How can the ear of a
child who is surrounded bythe noise of machines and motors be sensitive
to the melodies of a string orchestra? How can he, taken up as he is by
sport and exposed to the sensations which assail him on every side, find
time for serious study of the violin or piano? Young people seek for a
form of music that will exert an immediate effect upon them and give
them immediate satisfaction through stirring rhythm and simple
melody.
We have made tubular bells, xylophones, kettle-drums, hand-drums
and long-drums with which to play, and improvise on, the music of
Orff and the works of Bergese. We have succeeded, despite the attrac-
tions of jazz and ultra-light melody, in giving children a real under-
standing of serious modern music. This new method of musical train-
ing will certainly involve the creation of a new form of children’s
orchestra. In addition to the various instruments invented by Orff,
such as stickpercussion and side-drums or snare drums, we have already
manufactured guitars and ‘fidels’ (rudimentary violins) which, designed
to form the basis of the new orchestra, are later to be supplemented by
recorders and brass.
All this is so far merely at the planning stage, but it represents the
music of the future. The making of musical instruments by children
and adolescents is a powerful aid to music education and, also, to
character-building.
- A child who acquires a thorough mastery of his instrument feels
he is entitled to be taken seriously. He is able to create something
which has its own voice, sound and rhythm.