One of the oddest things about Vocal Music Education as a profession, is how little we are required to learn in our schooling about the voice. Vocal Pedagogy courses are often the purview of voice performance majors, which is very odd considering how many more students will be impacted with vocal instruction by a person […]
vocal pedagogy
Vocal Pedagogy in the Overlapping Rehearsal Contexts of Musical Theatre and Choral Music
The November/December 2022 issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Vocal Pedagogy in the Overlapping Rehearsal Contexts of Musical Theatre and Choral Music” by Robert C. Jordan with Catherine A. Walker. Following is a portion from the article. _________________ Many secondary choral music educators have been asked to collaborate with their theatre colleagues to […]
What is Our MAIN Job?
Is creating a welcoming, inclusive, fun, engaging and safe learning environment enough to be an excellent choir teacher? I say no. Is choir an activity or an academic course of study? You can get a PhD in it. It is an academic subject. In this episode, I “dialogue” with many of you who joined a […]
CJ Reply: Critical Pedagogy and the Choir
The February issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Critical Pedagogy and the Choir” by Simon Hill. You can read it in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the introduction. ___________________ What is critical pedagogy? Since the release of Paulo Freire’s seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed, a singular definition […]
Suggestions for Improving the Changing Adolescent Female Voice
Part 3 of a 3-Part Series First, some basics. This quotation by Leslie Leedberg from “Adolescent Singing Voices” provides a good starting point on this topic: “The female voice can take up to four years to fully change and generally begins between the ages of 10 and 14. Females go through their growth spurts approximately […]