There comes a time at the end of the year when there’s a month left and your choir has very little left to accomplish. In this week’s Technique Tuesday, Ryan Guth will go over some ideas of how to spend your time to enhance your program and add some fun to the end of the school year!
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Some ideas Ryan Guth goes over in the episode
– Go outside
– Sing music you won’t perform
– Reflect on the year (what went well/what needs improvement)
– Recruitment (go down to the middle/elementary school)
– Work on musicianship, but make it fun
– Write thank you’s to admin/board of ed
– Make graduation extra special
– Do a joint project with an outside discipline
– Hold a non-musical talent show
– Trade places with the band/orchestra teacher for a day
– Write a school song (if you don’t have one) with input from the kids
– Experiment with new teaching techniques
– Make a recording
– Spring cleaning
– Try new room configurations
Wayne Toews says
I agree strongly with the previous comments. That period at the end of the year is also valuable to prepare for the final written exam. From the results of the written and individual performance exams I learned a great deal about what my students had actually learned and now understood. My students also enjoyed the chance to compose their own music and to hear what others composed. We used pieces in graphic notation to experiment with improvisation. Lessons in listening to outstanding choirs and singers were always received well. Some examples are here – http://conductorschool.com/SMC.html
Those classes were uptime rather than downtime.
Wayne Toews, conductorschool.com
David Schildkret says
These are all excellent suggestions. In my view, however, there is an underlying flaw. Throughout the year, choir should be about more than giving performances: it should help develop the students as individuals through music. If that is consistently the purpose, the choir won’t seem to be lacking in relevance once the last performance of the year is finished. All the other objectives and goals that have been carried out all year long can now come to the fore. The activities proposed here are good examples of things to do at various times, not just after concerts are finished. You and your students will always feel stuck if you focus only on the next performance or competition.
Michael Shasberger says
Do your singers a huge favor and teach them all a basic solo song or two that they can use for auditions for college scholarships and choirs, theatre productions, next year’s choir at your school, community choirs, or whatever for the future. If every singer knew something like Seben Crudele, Vaughan Williams “The Sky Above the Roof”(both of which are available in public domain resources and can be placed in a pretty universal key) and 16 bars of a Broadway song and you could set them in good stead for life!