As the excitement builds for the upcoming AOSA National Conference in Des Moines, we’re thrilled to continue our spotlight series on multitalented music educators who’ve also embraced the world of authorship. Today, we’re turning our attention to the remarkable Doug Goodkin, a renowned music educator with decades of experience teaching with the Orff Schulwerk method.
AH: I’d like to start this off with a two-part question. What is your background in music and what were your first interactions with the Orff Approach?
DG: My musical journey really took off when I was 22. I met an Orff teacher named Avon Gillespie who opened my eyes to a whole new world of music education. It was like nothing I’d experienced before – we were singing, moving, and playing in ways I never had as a kid. That experience showed me it’s never too late to have a happy childhood through music. This encounter led me down a path of discovery, and I eventually became a teacher myself at the San Francisco School. At the school I was the first Orff teacher, and they only had six Orff instruments, so I jumped into the deep end of the pool and just started exploring. In 1984, I joined NCAOSA, the local Orff Chapter, and was on their board as a newsletter editor. That year I presented for the first time at a national conference in Las Vegas. I went from being a student to a colleague, always with Avon as my mentor until his passing in 1989. But his influence still guides my teaching every day. What I learned through this journey is that music education isn’t just about reading notes on a page. It’s about learning through your body and voice, whether that’s through Orff methods, jazz, or world music. It’s about opening new ways of experiencing and creating music.
AH: I know you travel a ton, but what are you currently doing as far as teaching is concerned?
DG: Although this is my fourth year retired from the The San Francisco School, my daughter, James, and Sofia are continuing the marvelous legacy of that remarkable place, so I am still connected with it and sometimes sub. I have mentored some local people in Orff training, I have done some volunteer singing at local public schools and continued to travel and teach Orff around the country and in Canada. Post-pandemic, I’ve taught Orff courses in Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Hong Kong, Taipei, China, and Ghana. I taught a jazz course in Australia and will teach another in Brazil in January. This, in addition tot eaching Level III at The San Francisco International Orff Course and the Jazz Course in New Orleans. Thankfully everything just continues, and I am almost overbooked. A good problem to have. In addition to traveling, I do a lot of writing and publishing for myself and other authors. Plus, I have a daily blog that is on its thirteenth year and am about to launch a podcast.
AH: Is there a favorite place around the world that you like to teach?
DG: In terms of my experiences there, my relationship with the Orff institute, and just the place itself I would have to say Salzburg. It has a beautiful balance of old and new and it is truly a magical place. I have taught the Special Course there every two years since 2003, summer courses since 1990, and attended symposiums. But New Orleans is extraordinary, Ghana is amazing, and these are all very special places with special teaching situations. I haven’t been to a place I haven’t loved yet.
AH: What initially inspired you to become an author?
DG: From the very beginning I started writing articles about the different aspects of Orff Schulwerk. Not articles that I intended to be published but rather articles as a way of processing the thinking behind what I was doing. I eventually started sending them to magazines and local Orff newsletters, but in 1985 I sent my first article to AOSA. At some point I ended up gathering some of the articles, changing and refining them into the book Play, Sing, & Dance. In addition to becoming an author, I became a publisher. Frustrated by the companies holding my jazz book for two years and then passing on it, I decided to self-publish and Pentatonic Press was born. Now I could do it all my way on my timetable. There was a steep learning curve to hire a graphic designer, lay-out person, editor, find a printer, contact distributors (of which West Music is my oldest and most supportive!), keep track of the business side of invoices and such. Then I decided to publish other authors, starting with my colleagues Sofia and James, then working with Barbara Haselbach and Carolee Stewart and Volumes II and III of Texts on Theory and Practice and publishing Wolfgang Hartmann.
AH: Since you have been teaching for a while, what would you say now to your younger self?
DG: You’re on the right track! Keep experimenting as you are, keep studying a variety of musical styles and instruments, keep noticing what makes children happy and what doesn’t connect with them and adjusting your teaching accordingly. I can testify almost a half century later that all your intuitions were correct, and I have the testimony from hundreds of children to prove it. Of course, this is not to say I didn’t make a thousand mistakes. But rather than warn my younger self about them, I understand that I had to make them. It is truly the only way I could have learned what I did about what children need. The only mistake I could have made worthy of regret would have been to not notice the mistake or to keep doing it the same way because I didn’t care or was too lazy to think deeper.
AH: Of all the books you’ve authored, what is your favorite resource?
DG: Sometimes I reread things that I have written, and I feel like they all hold up. I think Play, Sing, & Dance is very good for the level trainings as an overview of Orff Schulwerk. I really love the Teach Like It’s Music book. I think that it talks about things most people don’t usually talk about. Both the details of lessons and how to create a better flow. I think these things are great for young teachers. I like that the book goes back and forth between the details and the philosophical thinking. My hope is that this can be very helpful for people to have details on how to adjust their teaching for the children to be happier. I feel very proud of that book. I think that the Now’s the Time: Teaching Jazz to All Ages is a groundbreaking book in Jazz education. I also like my ABC’s of Education book that applies the pedagogical principles of Orff Schulwerk to all of education. This, in fact, is the theme and title of my new podcast.
AH: What about this upcoming AOSA conference in Des Moines are you looking forward to?
DG: Every year I just look forward to being back with the community. This year I am not presenting, but they are going to show The Secret Song film. I have watched it about twenty times with all sorts of different audiences, but this one with the AOSA people might be one of the most special ones.
AH: What for you has AOSA meant as an educator and as a person?
DG:The biggest thing is that it provided, and it provides a home for all of this to happen. There is no question about it, nothing in my life would have gone the way it has without AOSA — the conferences, the chapter of workshops, the Levels courses, the Orff Echo — all of it! AOSA is a home with a family feeling and a family’s dysfunction — I’ve at once felt like the ignored or misunderstood kid, the rebellious teenager, the betrayed husband, the beloved father, the weird uncle, the respected grandfather. But in the end, AOSA is the home in the way that Robert Frost says it in his poem, “The Death of the Hired Man:” ‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.’
You can find Doug Goodkin’s products here.
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Aaron Hansen is an experienced K-6 General Music educator, passionate about bringing music to life through the Orff Approach. He holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Music Education from the University of Northern Iowa. Aaron has completed comprehensive Orff Teacher Training, including three levels at the University of St. Thomas and an Orff Master Class. His dedication to the Orff method took him to the Summer International Course at the Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria. Aaron also shares his expertise by teaching movement at various Orff Teacher Training Courses and conducting workshops for local Orff Chapters.
