Choral Journal

Choral Journal Article Preview: Lessons from Summer Camp

September 28, 2020 by Amanda Bumgarner Leave a Comment

The October issue of Choral Journal is online and includes an article titled “Lessons from Summer Camp” by Joy Hirokawa. You can read it in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion of the article.
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As our world reeled around us and the ground kept shifting over the summer, we struggled to come to grips with how to translate our instruction to the online environment.

Music teachers are passionate and resourceful people. For those leading virtual summer camps, Zoom became the standard platform. We learned how to navigate setting up break out rooms, manage students through the screen, and make learning engaging and meaningful. Teaching in this environment provided a testing ground to try a variety of pedagogical approaches. What worked? What didn’t? Following are ideas from three different perspectives that may be useful as you plan for rehearsals this fall.

The Choral Village format (see the April 2019 Choral Journal for more information on this program) provided a surprisingly adaptable structure to a different “deep dive” through a different delivery system. The focus of the week shifted from looking externally to looking inwardly; from performance to creation. Body percussion, improvisation, spoken word, discussion, and drumming provided artistic tools and ideas for students to create an artistic expression of their experiences and feelings living through these last few months. Following are some techniques used in Choral Village that would be easily transferred to any online choral setting.

[Read and download the article online for more on each of these areas]

-Exploit Zoom!
-Body Percussion
-Sing
-Improvise
-Guest Artists
-Practical Ideas

-Boldly Go!

Meaningful learning in the virtual choral rehearsal can happen! But rather than trying to replicate or recreate the traditional rehearsal, I encourage you to think outside the box and take advantage of the unique opportunity to reinvent your pedagogy.

• Consider what you might be able to do in a virtual world that you are not able to do in an in-person rehearsal.

• Consider how being in a room by themselves frees your singers to be unencumbered by peer pressure, and able to explore their creativity without judgement.

• Reconsider expectations and outcomes. If a pristine and polished performance is not possible due to restrictions on in-person rehearsing, in what ways might you expand your singers’ musicianship and musical knowledge?

• This is a perfect time to explore improvisation and composition, two National Standards that are frequently short changed in the traditional choral setting.

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Read the rest of this article (and more!) in the October 2020 issue of Choral Journal.

Choral Journal Article Preview: Choral Singing with COVID-19 Health Measures

September 21, 2020 by Amanda Bumgarner Leave a Comment

The latest issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Acoustical, Psychoacoustical, and Pedagogical Considerations for Choral Singing with COVID-19 Health Measures” by by John Nix, Harald Jers, and Sten Ternström. You can read it in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion of the article. Please read the entire article for more on these recommendations.
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Singing Outdoors
Singing outdoors has the potential to remove much if not all of the typical reverberant character of a performance space on the choir’s sound (as experienced inside and outside of the choir), radically changing the Self to Other Ratio (SOR) experienced by the singers. By the ‘Self ’ signal, we mean those sounds of one’s own voice that arrive directly to one’s own ears. By the ‘Other’ signal, we mean the sum of all other sounds that reach the singer, both direct and reflected. The Self-to-Other ratio is represented as the level difference LSelf – LOther, in dB.

A significant component of Other is the diffuse field of sound reverberating in the room. When singing indoors but with wide spacing, the diff use field dominates the Other sound. When singing outdoors, however, the diff use field is absent, and only the direct sound from the rest of the voices in the choir remains in the Other.

Together with the inverse square law, which states that every time the distance from a sound source is doubled, the intensity reduces by a factor of four, this means that one will hear an Other sound that is weaker and greatly dominated by one’s immediate neighbors in the choir, while the singers who are furthest away might be basically inaudible. This has significant implications for maintaining synchronization within the choir. . . .

Physical Distancing
Increased spacing between singers increases the SOR, whether indoors or outdoors, and tends to make the bulk of the Other sound consist of the direct sound from each choir member’s immediate neighbors. With increased spacing indoors, the number of singers on a set of risers or on a stage will by necessity need to decrease. From a viral risk reduction standpoint, fewer singers performing at one time is beneficial, although from a perceptual standpoint for the singers, directors should understand that the SOR will increase as the level of the Other sound is reduced. Increasing the distance between choir members also introduces greater delays in the sound of one performer reaching another. . . .

This article discusses Singing Indoors with Increased Ventilation; Wearing Masks; Practical Suggestions for Choral Conductors, Music Educators, Choral Singers; Reinforced Sound; and Other Technological Possibilities.

View this full article (and more!) in the October 2020 issue of Choral Journal, available online at acda.org

Choral Journal Article Preview: The Biochemical Power of Choral Singing

September 14, 2020 by Amanda Bumgarner Leave a Comment

The latest issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “The Biochemical Power of Choral Singing” by Nicholas Sienkiewicz. You can read it in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion of this article’s introduction.
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In a time where the state of the arts is ever more fragile, it is important to be reminded of the profound benefits of choral singing. It is well understood that music, in general, contributes to our emotional, physiological, and spiritual well-being. But what about choral music specifically? What if I told you that choral music could have an impact on our biochemistry, affecting areas including stress, social bonding, and our immune response? In the midst of a global health crisis where the fate of near-future singing is uncertain, discussing the biochemical benefits of choral singing is an essential concept.

Science has firmly established that music has profound effects on the mind and body. Moderate, early musical training has been shown to decrease age-related auditory declines, even if the training is discontinued. A study done by Toyoshima et al., found that playing the piano significantly reduced cortisol stress levels and anxiety. The effect of playing the piano was more profound than other activities, including calligraphy and clay molding. Even just listening to music has been shown to increase dopamine levels, make you consume less calories, and reduce pain. And those are just naming a few!

In a choral rehearsal, although we may not consciously think about it, physical and mental health are often emphasized. Warm-ups involving motion and stretching are common practice and allow our bodies to feel alive and rejuvenated. Intimate connection to the music gives choristers a means of healthy emotional output, allowing them to be vulnerable in a safe space, reaping positive benefits for the collective mental health. But what about what’s actually happening inside our bodies? Could the practice and performance of choral music really be modulating our biochemistry, affecting things like hormone, protein, and neurotransmitter levels? What if we could argue that choral music not only contributes to the wide range of musical, artistic, mental, and physical health benefits, but also benefits our immune system and modulates our brain chemistry?
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Read the rest of this article (and more!) in the October 2020 issue of Choral Journal.

Choral Journal Article Preview: The Virtual Choir as Collaboration

September 7, 2020 by Amanda Bumgarner Leave a Comment

The latest issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “The Virtual Choir as Collaboration” by Janet Galván and Matthew Clauhs. You can read it in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion of this article’s introduction.
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The outbreak of novel corona virus COVID-19 led to a global pandemic in the spring of 2020. At the time when this article was written, the virus had infected fifteen million people around the world and caused over 619,000 deaths.

In the United States, schools and universities closed their campuses to slow the spread of the virus and minimize the loss of life. As a result of school closures, music educators were faced with a daunting task of adapting their classes and ensembles for remote instruction, using video conferencing tools to deliver synchronous (at the same time) content and online learning management systems such as Google Classroom and Blackboard for asynchronous (not at the same time) teaching and learning.

We (the authors) responded to this challenge by planning and implementing a collaborative virtual choir project. It was important to us that the project be focused on process and the acquisition of skills, knowledge, and experience, rather than the production of a single video. As the director of choral activities at our institution, I (first author), wanted to keep our singers connected to their choral community and also provide them with a performance opportunity. Prior research demonstrates the vast benefits of group singing for community mental health, especially in response to adverse life events such as a global pandemic. Keeping communal singing alive (no matter what format) seemed important for the well-being of the students. Additionally, there is evidence of higher perceptions of social presence in virtual choirs when compared to live formats.

After having conversations with the second author, a music education professor who taught a music technology class in the spring semester, we determined a virtual choir would be mutually beneficial for both the choir and technology class. The virtual choir would also be a model for future collaborations between our music performance and music education departments.
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Read the rest of this article (and more!) in the October 2020 issue of Choral Journal, available online at acda.org.

October Choral Journal Preview

August 31, 2020 by Amanda Bumgarner Leave a Comment

The newest issue of Choral Journal is available online. It is a focus from ACDA’s Standing Committee for Education & Communication. Following is a list of the articles you will find in this issue.

ACDA members can log in with their username and password to view and download the newest edition. You can also read our electronic version. Below is a preview of the articles you will find in this issue. If you are not already a member of ACDA, join today to start receiving your monthly Choral Journal! Associate members can join for only $45 a year.
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FEATURES

The Virtual Choir as Collaboration by Janet Galván and Matthew Clauhs

The Biochemical Power of Choral Singing by Nicholas Sienkiewicz

Acoustical, Psychoacoustical, and Pedagogical Considerations for Choral Singing with COVID-19 Health Measures by John Nix, Harald Jers, and Sten Ternström

ARTICLES

Less is More by John Yarrington

Sacred Music Choral Reviews

Repertoire & Resources – Children’s Choirs
Lessons from Summer Camp by Joy Hirokawa

Retirement and the Professional Choir Director
Transition Journey: From Employee to Retiree
by Frank R. Lloyd

Choral Reviews

A Webinar Summary: Preliminary Study Results on the Safety of Singing
by Amanda Bumgarner

Resilient Choral Teachers – Article Preview

August 24, 2020 by Amanda Bumgarner Leave a Comment

The September 2020 issue of Choral Journal features an article titled “Resilient Choral Teachers” by Alex T. Favazza, Jr. and Amon Eady. You can read it in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Below is a portion of the article from the introduction.
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The study of teacher resilience, especially thriving teachers, is a somewhat nascent field of inquiry. Gu and Day indicate that only as recent as the 1980s, and continuing through the decades to follow, has the research on resilience shifted focus to the positive traits and strengths of the resilient, rather than the negative situations they overcome. Beltman, Mansfield, and Price compiled a review of fifty educational research studies on teacher resilience from 2000 to 2010 focused on “quality retention.”

These researchers identified recurring concepts of resilience:

Individual characteristics such as self-efficacy, confidence and coping strategies are important in overcoming challenging situations or recurring setbacks. Difficulties are not simply managed, but individuals are able to bounce back quickly and efficiently, persevere and thrive. Successful adaptation occurs despite obstacles, and personal well-being is maintained. Reciprocal, mutually supportive personal, professional and peer relationships are important in this process. The outcome is that teachers maintain job satisfaction and commitment to their profession.

What does resilience look like for the choral teacher? We have focused these recurring concepts of resilience in the research literature into three areas concerning the pre-service music educator and beginning choral teacher:
• Self-Efficacy and Skill sets
• Personal Magnetism
• Support Systems

We will explore these factors of resilience-building for the pre-service and early-career choral conductors through three reflective personal essays.

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Read the rest of this article (and more!) in the September 2020 issue of Choral Journal, available online at acda.org