Choir Training for Young Singers The Rehearsal Plan Choir Training for Young Singers Oct. 7, 2013

Ten Basics for Choral Directors Create good mental focus Teach breathing/posture techniques Use correct vocal range Teach correct placement of resonance Insist on intonation accuracy

10 Basics (Con’t.) Promote a buoyancy of sound Teach reading skills Teach an understanding of music Communicate the text Choose high quality literature

Don’t Go there... Some teachers only teach songs Some teachers separate musicianship skills from repertoire Some teachers teach everything by rote or vocal modeling Some teachers dictate all musical decisions

Go Here... Some teachers develop active “musical thinking” through contextual teaching Some teachers have a comprehensive musicianship approach to their choral pedagogy Some teachers develop a curriculum of music literacy using the repertoire as a basis for their teaching

Learning Considerations Learning Anchors Visual Gesture Aural Sensation Physical Sensation Movement

Sight-reading Musical sight-reading is a skill built from a combination of literary skills It is not merely a matter of teaching “intervals” Singers must be active with the skills derived from many aspects of musicianship training

Musicianship from Repertoire Vocal Technique Warm-up/Vocalises Vowel Shapes Breathing Mental Focus Range/Tessitura

Reading Tools Solfege Rhythms Key Signatures Terms/Tempo Markings Meter

Elements of Music Melody Rhythm Form Harmony & Texture

Artistic Expression Style Color Expression Communication Cognitive Singing

Music History Composer/Poet Genre Period Nationalistic Style Historical Setting

Other Learning Benefits Foreign Language Memorization Quick Recall Poetic Language Aesthetics

Tongue-Jaw Position for Vowels