What do you get when you fuse Dalcroze, Kodály, and Orff methods, folk dancing, and rock and roll in the music classroom? Meet Paul Maley (CSU ’18, M.M. in Music Education), director of music at Estes Park Elementary School, who is a pioneer in music education and is challenging the norms of what it means to be an educator. He has put together videos that can best be described as a children’s Orff MTV jam session, and leaves teachers feeling inspired to pursue multiple music genres in the classroom.
For perspective on the uniqueness of Maley’s programming and arranging, his Orff percussion ensemble, ‘Bobcat Beats,’ recently performed Fred Wesley, James Brown, Of Monsters and Men, and Evanescence tunes and featured three generations of musicians: a student whose grandfather is a professional jazz trombonist, and whose father plays bass. Maley’s choral ensemble, ‘Mountain Echoes,’ has partnered with Ballet Renaissance, an Estes Park nonprofit focused on youth education, for a performance of multiple art forms.
Plan A and B both work out
“It took me eight years to graduate from my undergrad at UNC [Northern Colorado],” said Maley. “The second time I went back, I didn’t even want to be a teacher. I did it as a backup plan. I wanted to be a rock star, and I still play professionally.”
Luckily, both of his plans panned out, and his desire to be a rock star is being displayed in a new light to his students.
Maley’s search for repertoire is a labor of love, and his ability to turn complicated songs into arrangements his students can master is a work of art. His selections are based on many criteria, including chord progressions and arrangements that translate to the tessitura of children’s voices.
“Sometimes I’m ok with just doing a small part of a song,” said Maley. “We did Cat Stevens’ ‘Wild World’ last night, and there are certain aspects in the chorus I wasn’t able to get in there, which is ok, but I wanted the walk down.”
Maley explains that distinct phrases truly make a song, and other phrases can be simplified to make them more accessible to younger musicians.
When assigning parts to students of differing musical abilities, he takes into account those who want to play instruments they haven’t played before.
“As cheesy as it sounds,” said Maley, “when people ask what I do for a living, I say, ‘I build kids’ confidence.’ That’s my number one thing."
Growing and shining
When it comes to teaching, Maley is not a purist in any method. His students start reading in standard notation in second grade. He has his students sing through their parts multiple times before playing them, and he has cheat sheets with note names to help students play their music.
While Maley wants everyone to have a time to grow in confidence and shine, he also has high expectations, and he leads by example by working hard as a teacher.
“They come in before school and teach each other parts,” said Maley. “And sometimes there are conversations with students that don’t put in the work: ‘you’re letting the group down, what are you going to do to pick it up, what can I do to help you pick it up?’"
These high expectations have paid off, with ensembles that can play fairly advanced songs with a sound that is rehearsed and polished.
Each of Maley’s classes in K-5 participates in folk dancing and playing instruments. The fourth grade is a pivotal year of creativity and the ‘meat and potatoes’ of his program, where students compose the music they perform and devise choreography.
State education leader
Maley is the chair of the Colorado Music Educators Association (CMEA) Music Council and will serve as chair in 2026. He hopes to make an impact on education in his own right and pave the way for others to find confidence in doing something different in their classrooms.
“I don’t want to keep doing the same things; we need to move forward in education,” said Maley. “We’re not moving forward because we’re not collaborating in ways we should. One of my main goals as chair of CMEA next year is to discuss how we have isolated ourselves at CMEA from Orff and Kodály. I think people are afraid to move forward in a more progressive light. And there are a lot of people who are worried about progress because they think it lacks integrity of music, which is absolutely not true in my mind.”
A contribution he was proud of at CMEA this year was hosting a folk dancing event at Ivy Wild, a brewery and eatery housed in an old elementary school.
“What is beautiful about an event like this is that it brings music educators together in a slightly unexpected activity, teaching them things and connecting them in an unexpected way. All of which is extremely accessible, with each teacher participating in an activity that was once so common in daily life, but is now, for many of us, a distant memory, except for our last prom or wedding.”
Maley has his hands in multiple forms of music making, which keeps his goals as a teacher innovative and transformative. At CSU, he earned a master’s degree in music education, Kodály certification, and partial certification in Eurythmics. These qualifications are in addition to his Orff certification and undergraduate degree in music education from the University of Northern Colorado. Maley remains active as a performer in his band, Equally Challenged, and continually seeks ways to push himself as a musician on every level.