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Music in the Middle

Recruiting Boys for your Middle School Chorus

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Oh my…

Haven’t books been written on this subject?!?   And aren’t seminars almost always presented at every major conference about keeping boys in your chorus?

And I’m trying to sum it up in a quick blog post?

Impossible.

But…as I always say each time I write, I don’t have all the answers…or even half of the answers.

I can only share some of the things that I do that work for me in the Title 1 Atlanta middle school classroom setting where I teach, and let you decide if you can use any of the ideas or not.

So here we go…

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What is your experience with Perfect Pitch?

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What is your experience with Perfect Pitch?
On Monday morning, I was on the treadmill running, and I came across this article about a child in Atlanta who has perfect pitch.
I’ve always believed that perfect pitch was far more rare than some of us believe.
Maybe it’s because mine isn’t perfect!  🙂
I certainly appreciate the information that expert researchers in our field contribute to our work, but doing it is not a passion for me.
So, today, I am asking for data from YOU based on your experience!
Here is mine!
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The Winter Months-When the Rubber Meets the Road in your Middle School Choral Music Classroom

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January and February can hit a middle school chorus teacher square between the eyes.

The dark, cold days can be trying ones.  It isn’t easy motivating children to sing when they are struggling with the difficulties of getting back into the daily rigor and routine of life.  If our classroom management techniques haven’t been as strong as we would like, we are now dealing with the repercussions…day after dark winter day.

The symptoms are the same for all of us who teach middle school children.

They range from testing of rules and boundaries to a slacking in the work ethic.

So, what do we do?

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Introducing a New Song to Your Middle School Beginners

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The moment when you introduce a new song to your middle school beginners is so important.

If we don’t get them hooked from the start, they shut down and decide they don’t like the song.  Then, it’s like pulling teeth every time we sing the song.

Most of the true beginners aren’t ready to sight read right through it since they are still building those skill sets.

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Share your ideas with your choral music peers!

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My first year teaching middle school choral music in public schools was awful.

I have no idea how I made it through.  I didn’t know what I was doing.  I was armed with a master’s degree from a very good music school, and I was not good at teaching choral music to beginners.

I was ready to quit in December.

That was in 1989.

I showed up to school daily and did the best I could partly out of necessity and partly because I don’t like to give up.

I didn’t take my students to North Carolina Music Educator’s Association’s adjudicated festival in the first year because I knew my students would have a bad experience.  It wasn’t their fault…it was mine.    I had no idea how to help my beginners learn what they needed to know to succeed at this sort of event.

In year 2, I did my best to prepare them for the event, and we went!

They sang better than they’d ever sung.  They brought their best, and so did I.

They got a 3…which is “good”.

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Difficulties of Reading Words and Music for your Beginners

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It’s a New Year!

It is highly likely that we are all teaching new music.
Reading music is so natural for all of us who’ve completed college degrees and taken piano since we were children.  Like speaking a language fluently, reading music feels natural to us.

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…And it is highly likely that most of us whose families were able to afford to have a private tutor at the piano or other instrument also had lots of help from involved and engaged parents who helped us learn to actually read letters and words a bit earlier than children who did not.

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