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middle school

3 Creative Ways to Motivate Your K-12 Choir

March 28, 2018 by ACDA Leave a Comment

Conducting a children’s choral group can be both energizing and exhausting at the same time. On one hand, your students LOVE to sing! On the other hand, it can be hard to get them to focus when it’s rehearsal time.

Leading a children’s choir successfully requires you to get creative in the way you keep your students motivated, so here are three tips and tools to get your group excited about music.

3 Ways to Motivate Your K-12 Choir

Add Creativity to Your Warm Ups

Don’t just stick to the old-fashioned scales and triads when warming up young voices. Turn that major scale into some phrases with words – don’t be afraid to get silly. Better still, encourage your students to create their own and share with the rest of the group.

A good book to find more inspiration is Vocalize! by choral director Andy Beck. A playful warm up will always set the tone for a productive rehearsal.

Get Students Moving

It goes without saying that children have short attention spans and easily get bored. But this isn’t math class – so get them moving! Have a break mid-rehearsal where you incorporate a simple theatre game or two. There are countless books that offer simple games that your singers will beg to do in future rehearsals!

These games are centered around valuable performance skills, such as listening, focus, and improvisation. One excellent resource that many students enjoy is 101 Improv Games for Children and Adults by Bob Bedore.

Take Advantage of Technology

It’s important that music instructors take advantage of the latest technologies to make learning more fun in rehearsals. Try an app such as Loopy to find new ways to spice up your usual repertoire.

Another excellent way to get your older students inspired is to watch a motivational TED talk together. Check out choral conductor Eric Whitacre’s TED talk on YouTube. His ideas are taking choral performances to the next level, especially with his virtual choirs!

Make good use of these resources with your group of young singers, and you’re bound to get them excited about coming to choir. Thinking outside the box will not only encourage their creativity, but it will also make your job much more rewarding.

Do you have any more ideas of ways to keep your choir students motivated? Let us know in the comments section below.

This article was contributed by Molly McLinden from TakeLessons, a platform for local and online singing lessons. Molly is a choir, opera, and classical singing teacher. She’s been an instructor since 2002 and thoroughly enjoys working with students of all ages and backgrounds. 

Filed Under: Others Tagged With: classroom management, high school, middle school, Teaching

14 “Secret” Indicators That Your Choral Program is Outstanding

June 20, 2017 by Adam Paltrowitz Leave a Comment

How do we measure success?  This, of course, is a lifelong question that stares us in the face every day. This article is far less philosophical, but does perhaps pose a way in which we should change the way we view success in terms of high school choral programs.

 

Find out the 14″Secret” Indicators that YOUR choral program is outstanding!

 

I published this blog last June, and it caught fire. This was the very first post I had written as it’s huge response became the very premise of the Choral Clarity Blog; every post that I have written since has been based on the premise of what is presented within the 14 “Secret” indicators. 

 

Filed Under: Choral Clarity Tagged With: ACDA, American Choral Directors Association, Choral, choral clarity, choral ethics, classroom management, high school, Innovation, middle school, Repertoire, sight singing, Teaching

Memorizing Music Without Really Trying

April 18, 2017 by Adam Paltrowitz Leave a Comment

Choral Clarity Blog Presents:

As we move closer to our Spring concerts, many of us believe a memorized concert will make for a better performance.

How we teach and run daily rehearsals greatly impacts our students’ ability to be responsive to our conducting, sing freely, and be communicative.

How Students Can Memorize Music Without Really Trying

Our rehearsal approach can foster the ability for our students to naturally memorize their music;

We should not need to require them to memorize or even waste time and energy giving part tests!

 

 

Filed Under: Choral Clarity Tagged With: ACDA, ACDA Membership Benefits, American Choral Directors Association, choir, high school, middle school, Teaching

Don’t Use Rubrics Unless Everyone Can Succeed

April 11, 2017 by Adam Paltrowitz Leave a Comment

Choral Clarity Blog Presents:

Rubrics have a place in the performing music classroom, but they should not be used to recognize achievement.
They must be used properly and give every student the opportunity to be successful.

Don’t Use Rubrics Unless Everyone Can Succeed

 

Filed Under: Choral Clarity, Others Tagged With: ACDA, ACDA Membership Benefits, American Choral Directors Association, high school, middle school, sight singing, Teaching

Life after Retirement: Not Retirement, but Redirection!

April 10, 2017 by Amanda Bumgarner 2 Comments

The latest issue of Choral Journal features an ongoing column written by retired choral conductors, for retired choral conductors. This month’s contribution was written by Linda Lovaas, a retired middle school choral music educator from California.

Following is a section of the article, which you can read in full in the May 2017 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. 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.

______

“I don’t call it retirement. I call it redirection!” I can still hear Dr. Ginger Covert Colla, a choral teaching colleague here in Modesto, California, saying this some years ago. I laughed at the idea and thought it was a great way to look at things, but I never really “got it” until I joined the ranks of the retired. What a perfect way of describing what happens to us in this time of life!

I loved my choral music job in junior high. I started in Texas, where I was born and raised. My dream was to go to New York and be a famous star—either opera or Broadway—or to teach college music. I got my teacher’s credential for backup, student taught at the high school level, and was hired in Texas City, a “blue collar” oil refi nery community near Galveston. It was in middle school. What fascinating creatures! I was hooked for life.

…

The biggest thing I miss about teaching is the contact with young adults. I fi nd myself seeing junior high-age students at the grocery store or at the mall, and I try to get them to talk to me. (No, I’m not stalking!) It is fun to make brief connections with the “skills” we have as teachers to be able to communicate with them. To help fill this void, I have also offered my experience to choir teachers around my area and have been invited to work with choirs in our county. It is a good exercise for my brain, and it is a great feeling to help guide students and their teachers in a healthy way. I really enjoy the connections and the happy feeling that I am a part of an exciting work community even though I am retired.

I’ve also realized there is a huge need for mentoring. Some teachers are like me and are loving retirement with a finger or two (or twenty) in the field still, helping out those who are still teaching and needing advice and someone to work with their choir or observe and offer help. Other retired music teachers I know do not feel wanted or needed anymore because no one contacts them. There is this huge gap between those who teach and those who are retired, and I am advocating to close that gap. We must reach out and continue to offer our services and experiences!

It is our job as retired choral directors to advocate the importance of our passion. It is sad how chorus gets lost in the funding, lost in the order of importance, lost in the need to nurture children’s souls with the instrument they carry with them every moment of their lives. Singing provides a solace in times of stress, grief, and happiness. We need to redirect ourselves to help those in the trenches to give our strength and our voice to help keep choral music, folk songs, classical, and new compositions up front and personal for all.

____

If YOU are an experienced choral conductor interested in passing your wisdom to the next generation (you don’t have to be retired!), please consider becoming a mentor through ACDA’s mentoring program! More information here. You can also contact  with any questions.

Filed Under: Choral Journal, The Choral Life Tagged With: ACDA, ACDA Membership Benefits, ACDA Publications, choir, Choral Journal, mentoring, middle school, retirement

5 Ways Music Rubrics Can Fail Our Students

April 4, 2017 by Adam Paltrowitz Leave a Comment

Choral Clarity Blog Presents:

In recent years, rubrics have become a popular trend for assessing student achievement; they have been the common grading tool at most choral and solo festivals for as long as any of us can remember. While rubrics can be useful, they also present several pitfalls thats can severely impact the long-term growth and motivation of students at all levels.

Here are 5 Ways Music Rubrics Can Fail Our Students

Filed Under: Choral Clarity, Others Tagged With: ACDA, American Choral Directors Association, choir, choral clarity, high school, middle school

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