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Find Your Forte

Student Teachers: If you eventually want a job, listen to this first!

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5 things to keep in mind when student teaching with a choral director. I want you to make the most of you student teaching opportunity, and I want your cooperating teacher to want to take on more student teachers in the future, so don’t screw this up!!Technique Tuesday (NEW) (1)

 

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My Bullet Points

 Stay humble.

    • Listen
    • Observe
    • Shut yo damn mouth and keep your opinions to yourself
    • Don’t offer feedback to your cooperating teacher.

Be professional, even if your co-op isn’t.

    • Be punctual
      • You can get anywhere on time if it’s important to you
    • Don’t get “chummy” with faculty/administration. You haven’t earned it yet.
    • Look your best.
      • It’s about habit. Waking up with enough time to get dressed in nice, clean, pressed clothes helps you build this habit in the future.

The semester is not about you. It’s STILL about the kids.

    • Your director has a program to run with or without you.
    • This is your chance to be creative (not reckless) with the understanding that your co-op has a fixed amount of time to prep a concert.

Have a “What can I do to help?” attitude.    

Avoid negativity.

    • Many teachers complain A LOT. Doesn’t mean you should too.
    • Stay the hell out of the faculty lunchroom.

 

Breaking into the professional choral scene, with James Bass

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James Bass of UCLA and Seraphic Fire joins Ryan today to speak about balancing out your education and conducting career with opportunities as a seasonal professional choral singer. We will dive into schedule, pay, sight-reading requirements, and so much more.

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This week on Find Your Forte: Cutting the cheese and Patrick Dupree Quigley

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We often seek permission and approval from others in order to live the life we wish to live, both personally and professionally. The problem is that when we do this we give up control of our lives to everyone else but ourselves. Since we love what we do so much, there is a very blurry line between our personal and professional lives. This presents a huge problem. If we’re always looking for other’s permission and approval professionally, then we will never truly be ourselves personally.

In this week’s Technique Tuesday entitled “Cut the cheese“, I lead you through a process and give you permission to choose music that you and your choir will feel great about. It’s a short one! ~15 mins
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On the regular interview episode entitled “Choral Entrepreneurship“, I had the privilege of interviewing Patrick Dupree Quigley, conductor of Seraphic Fire, undisputedly one of America’s best professional choirs. He speaks about giving himself permission to make that scary leap from a safe job into full-time entrepreneurship. Patrick describes what it was like to build Seraphic Fire to the $1.6 million/year budget powerhouse that it is today. ~50 mins
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Feng Shui your choral classroom (I think), with Ryan Guth

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Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing the configuration of your room, and seating your choir.

Listen to this episode (16 mins)

Ryan Guth

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Show Notes

When choosing to Feng Shui your room and seat your choir, keep the following items in mind.

  1. Be aware of the height of you versus the choir, especially if discipline is an issue. Just because you have risers doesn’t mean you need to use them.
  2. Channel your inner civil engineer and plan the flow of traffic into and out of your rehearsal room. This means that you should have aisles planned out so that each section can easily get to their spots. Theres nothing worse than 4 straight lines with no aisles for people to be falling over each other. There are only two ways in/out of each aisle. Unless your students line up in riser order outside of your door before the bell, I don’t see this as a good solution.
  3. Plan for bathroom breaks/interruptions when choosing a seating layout. If a student must get up in the middle of rehearsal, will it be distracting to the rest of the choir. This is especially difficult when you’re on riser. You may want to visit your bathroom policy if you have no other choice.
  4. If you choose to put your students in a pattern where they face each other, like a “U”, make sure they can handle it. Sometimes kids can get a little goofy if they have the ability to look at each other and not at you. 90-degree angles are not your friend in this situation.
  5. Consider a podium. One cue I used to use was that the choir was not allowed to speak when I was on the box. We used to listen for the sound of the air conditioner only when I was standing on my podium. I would train the kids by getting on and off the box and allowing them to rehearse talking and being quiet based on where I was standing.
  6. Let them face the clock. It’s better than creating unnecessary neck tension in the middle of your rehearsal, if you get my drift.
  7. You must be far enough away from the choir that you can hear all the parts evenly, but close enough that you’re still engaging.
  8. Ask for feedback from your most trustworthy students or class. They will tell you whether they notice discipline issues and will give you a general sense of the “vibe” that this configuration is causing.
  9. Most importantly, can your choir hear each other?

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Mastering the music ed job hunt, with Kyle Karum

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Kyle Karum is an expert music ed interviewee and shares his tips on creating a compelling cover letter, resume, and portfolio that your potential employers will love!

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Episode 053

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LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE!

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KYLE KARUM’S BIO

Kyle Karum is a music educator originally from Muskegon, MI where he graduated from Mona Shores High School in 2006. He then attended Western Michigan University for his studies in music education. While at WMU, Kyle studied conducting under Dr. James Bass, Dr. Ronald Oliver, and Dr. Kimberly Dunn Adams as well as music education with Dr. Dee Gauthier. He graduated in 2012 with his Bachelor’s of Music: Music Education (Choral/General Emphasis).

Kyle recently held the position of Director of Choral Music and General Music Teacher at Prairie Heights Community School Corporation in LaGrange, IN where he taught two general music classes and five choir classes. In addition, he also taught Music Theory/Composition and Music History/Appreciation as well as acted as the Assistant Director/Conductor of the Theater Department.

Kyle is currently the Director of Choral Music at Seymour High School in Seymour,IN where he teaches over 200 students in five choir classes. Under his direction, the four choral ensembles at SHS attended the ISSMA District Choral Festival on 2016. There each ensemble was awarded a Gold rating in not only performance, but also sight-reading. As a part of his appointment, Kyle is also responsible for directing the spring musical each year.

Kyle continues to sing with the Bloomington Chamber Singers in Bloomington, IN.

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RELEVANT LINKS MENTIONED IN THE INTERVIEW

Sheet music: Dominis Vobiscum – by Sydney Guillaume

Episode 29 with Dominick DiOrio

Episode 47 with Helmuth Rilling

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