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Julie Whalen R&S Chair MS/JH Music, Secretary This is a great time in the year to focus on vowels with your singers. No doubt you’ve been doing this all year. But have you taken the time recently, and I mean daily, to spend 7 or 8 minutes focused only vowels? Correct –and matching– vowel formation throughout the choir (and within a section) can have incredible impact on tonality. I have also noticed that girls/ladies tend to understand and match up vowels in their section more quickly. Sometimes the latter is a result of simply mimicking the director. I mention this, because if your choir is mixed, and you want to divide and conquer, then send the girls (by section or small groups) to practice rooms, give them prepared vowel warm-ups, and allow them to work on their own. Keep the boys in the room and really help them as a team with you at the lead. The boys tend to need more instruction and reassurance. Useful thoughts to keep in mind and to re-mind, re-teach, or teach to your singers:
Remember, you don’t need to take a lot of time, just make this a focus for part of your rehearsal (I’d say no more than 10 minutes), however, do try to focus on it daily. Hint: if you need to make it a part of rehearsing music, but don’t have time to make it a vocalise focus, then ask your singers to turn and face other while they sing. Tell them they are responsible for assessing one another’s postures, breath-preparations, breathing, and vowel formations. It turns out most warm ups you already use can be singled out for focus on vowels. The “ah” and “ee” shapes work well for everyone, but direct attention should be paid to all vowels as we use them all at some point in song lyrics. Lastly, I will say this; shorter vocalizes (such as 5 or 3 note runs) work best, and move by half steps, up and down the scale, rather than jumping around. If your singers are confident, single out one or two each day to “set the tone and shape” and ask the other singers to model them. And, of course, as the director, you should always be displaying what you expect of your singers. Be prepared and be ready to be the first to set the tone. Web/Editor's note: Using the IPA with your high school choir - by Tami Alderman Choral Colors - by Patrick Ryan, former president, MT ACDA Building Choral Tone - by Richard Nance
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September 1, 2010 More "start of the year" ideas with emphasis on "getting to know you" by Julie Whalen, R & S Chair for Middle Schools/Junior High
I also came to observe, year after year, without fail students wanted to share. And when asked simple questions they enjoy writing about themselves. A teacher can learn a lot about their students’ abilities, talents, skills, academic prowess, and musical history just by asking a few questions on a worksheet and allowing them the time to simply fill in the blanks. *Incidentally, I allowed them to leave an item blank if they had no answer. Here is a sample “getting to know you questionnaire”
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April 30, 2010 Have you taught them to sight-read? I One of the better ways I have found to discover whether or not I’ve taught my students how to read music, during the course of the year, is to ask them to create their own sight singing exercise. This project is an excellent means by which your students may show you their level of music mastery. If this is an assignment you have already used during the school year, then do it again, (because it’s an effective learning tool for students and teacher alike). If you have not used this idea before, I have created a sight singing assignment below. You can use it as is, or tailor it to fit your students’ abilities as necessary. The one thing I most enjoy about this assignment is observing the creativity that comes out of the singers as composers. Typically they over think their compositions, and actually make them too hard, and then have to “go back to the drawing board.” Yet, in my experience the students accept the challenge to get the task done correctly and seem enthusiastic to share them with their classmates. SIGHT SING COMPOSITION ASSIGNMENT Directions: Compositions will be presented on the overhead*, therefore, BE SURE THE WRITING IS DARK AND CLEAR! Write it out in pencil, and when you are confident it is correct, go back over it in black ink, or heavy pencil. *If you don’t have access to an overhead, photo copy the students’ work. To save paper, copy ½ the amount and request that students share. Details for your composition:
-a time signature – choose one from the list below:
-it must be 8 measures Be sure to include a variety of notes & rests: -Try to use a logical melody, but be sure to include intervals for variation (do, mi, so, or do-so-do, or mi, so, fa, do, or octave leaps)….etc. Be careful not to make it impossible to sing, but shoot for creating some challenging moments! Ideally you should be able to play your composition on a piano, or at sing it back to yourself. Taking it to another level:
Have fun! |
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January 26, 2010 Need a second semester fresh start? Here are some ideas that’ll renew your energy and vitalize your choir I recen I can’t speak for all of you, but I certainly feel like the middle of the year brings with it the challenge to change things up and get a fresh start with the second semester. Early in my teaching I tended to over think everything, when it turns out all the “fresh start” ideas are already right at my fingertips. In fact this recent experience working with the boys’ choir was a super reminder of ideas and techniques that will renew your choirs’ energy and spirit as they head toward the second half of the year.
YET MORE IDEAS…. Start your rehearsal by adding physical motion with arms and body into warm ups and then song rehearsal. By doing this you will also find that diction gets better as energy increases and new excitement is found. The midway point of the year is an excellent time to change the standing order, or even allow students to sing for each other to determine whose voices match best when singing. Ask for student volunteers to conduct the choir, or run warm ups. This gives the students a voice (totally meant that pun) to be involved, and feel the team leadership. At this point in the year, students who were previously shy and scared may now be ready to step up and take a risk. Lastly, since choir is a group effort, be sure students are connecting as a team. Take two to five minutes to talk with them about what they are feeling as they sing. Remind them the importance of paying attention to and understanding lyric, text, and emotion. Since emotional context can be difficult for younger students to put into words, talk about what colors they would paint the song. Ask them to sing their color pallet or even try having them “sing certain colors”… if you haven’t tried this – it works. A song sung deep red sounds very different from a song sung pale yellow. Paint lots of colors! I never could choose just one, so my white boards were filled with a rainbow of colors! I sincerely hope you enjoy your second semester. |
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WA-ACDA welcomes Julie Whalen as new R&S Chair for Junior High/Middle School Choirs Activities and music ideas for the start of school Hello! I am Julie Whalen and I have accepted the position as the JH/MS R&S Chair. I am looking forward to joining the WA-ACDA Board and being a more active member in the choral activities for our state. I have always enjoyed researching choral music, and I love finding that one song that the singers beg to sing all year long. Whether it is research via the internet, listening to publisher discs that come through the mail, attending concerts of colleagues and professional groups, or talking with co-workers, I’m always taking notes and keeping lists of repertoire for the future. I’ve taught junior high choirs in Puyallup for eleven years, as well as drama classes and a musical theater class. Choral music and teaching are absolutely passions of mine, as are being a mom and wife to my two boys and husband. It never occurred to me that I would do anything other than teach until retirement rolled around, but much to my surprise, I was recently offered the opportunity to stay at home for a few years. While it took some time for the idea to settle, the option to take a leave of absence allowing me to stick closer to home and family, making me available to be a “mom” and teacher to my own children, was a opportunity I could not turn down. However, I knew I would need to keep my hands (and toes) in the music world, so when the opportunity to arose to apply for the MS/JR Music R&S chair I knew it was the perfect way to keep active in the music community. In addition to serving on the board as a music chair, I will also be the WA-ACDA Board Secretary, and I will be singing in local Tacoma choir, Choral Union, directed by Dr. Richard Nance. I am also excited to share that I’ve received my first invitation to serve as the clinician for the Kenai-Peninsula Middle School Choral Festival in Homer, Alaska April 2010. I must admit, it’s very odd not preparing for the new school year just as I’ve done for the past 11 years. That being said, the choral director in me can’t let go of searching for new and exciting music or ideas for starting up the year. Here are a few ideas and songs for starting the year or for using throughout the year.
The Four Corners of Me*
Next, once the writing is done, tell all the students to crush the paper into a “snowball”, stand up, and on a given count, tell them to toss them away to the center of the room. Finally, once this is done, everyone must go and claim another student’s snowball, find that person, and question them to learn more about the words they wrote in the corners of the paper. Extension: ask each person to introduce their new friend and share what they learned about the person. Opportunity: If acceptable and allowable by participants, take photos of the event (especially the “snow storm” when they throw the papers) and post them on your website or print and hang in the room.
-As Fair As Morn by Russell Robinson – voiced 3 part mixed, a cappella madrigal Julie Whalen - whalenjr2000@yahoo.com |
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Vowels are the key to the key