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sight singing

Priorities, Planning, and Protocols with Purpose: New Opportunities / New Vision

September 7, 2021 by Stuart R Hunt Leave a Comment

by Stuart Hunt

Choral conductors are agents of change and adaptation. It IS our DNA. Our students and their families depend on the joy, satisfaction, connection, and growth we offer to those who share our passion.

MOVING AHEAD WITH PURPOSE

My personal definition of intelligence is not what or how much you know how to do, but what you do when you don’t know what to do. In order to continue to grow and come out the other side on our feet, we must consciously prioritize and plan for the time we have with learners . . . of all ages, abilities, and skill levels. Let’s take a look at specific tools and skills that speak directly to that. The distance is challenging. We need clarity and tools.

One effective tool is concept repetition, aka drill. Not just repeating the same thing over and over, but creatively presenting the same concept in different ways / scenarios / contexts.

This blog will focus on one particular tool and three concepts we must keep before us at all times. As you read, consider your rehearsals and short- and long-term goals that you believe will create and grow choral experiences for all learners.

CHORAL LITERACY and SKILLS RUBRIC (CLaS) – https://www.clasresources.com/

As we conceived, discussed, and created the first-ever Choral Literacy and Skills rubric, Dr. Geoffrey Boers (Choral Chair, University of Washington) and I sought out those who already possessed or were actively pursuing the skills we all need to grow and equip great singers and choirs. It required new thinking and rethinking of what we have been taught and practiced, but are willing to reconsider. Dr. Boers states on the website:

“The Choral Literacies and Skills Rubric is a groundbreaking document for choral music educators. Grade-based rubrics such as these have been foundational elements in the development of bands and orchestras for decades, but heretofore were non-existent in the choral world.

“Choirs differ from instrumental groups in that singers come and go from ensembles, do not start “on their instrument” at the same time, and for the most part do not take lessons, so it was necessary to develop a Level-Based, rather than a grade-based, Rubric.

“The Rubric consists of twelve areas of literacy, only two of which deal with the traditional elements of music literacy, that is music reading. The descriptors on the rubric are written as Mileposts and Markers of development, and describe what literacy looks and sounds like for ideal choir at every level of development.

“This site will direct you to information and resources to bring your choir and your teaching to the leading edge of the choral art.

“CLaS is supported by an ACDA Fund for Tomorrow Grant, NAfME, NATS, and Choral Canada for use in all choral classrooms.”

Imagine having a clear, concise, outcome-based approach and method to steadily, skillfully grow great choirs that seeks student input, uses and inspires them to monitor and guide their own developmental planning, and rewards skill acquisition intrinsically.

Above all, is incredibly fun planning and achieving collectively. Take a moment right now and click on the link above. Explore the website and download the FREE tools available to you, both in your rehearsals and festivals.

THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT SKILLS

 With four minutes or less each day, musicians can and do learn to count, see, and hear intervals before they sing them, and sing in parts.

 SKILL #1 – Rhythmic counting and MASTERY

Eyes ahead to identify and prepare rhythmic “packages.”

To effectively read and learn music, our eyes must always be ahead of our mouth. That includes reading rhythms, text, dynamics, entrances/exits, watching the conductor, et al.

Ask and answer yourself before planning and presenting concepts:

  • When and how do you present the components of rhythm?
  • What ARE those components?
  • How do you prove that learners have MASTERED the tools? If they are not mastered early, plan to return later, as a less convenient time, to revisit and re-learn them. It eats holes in rehearsal growth.

For example, how do you (plan to) build in the ability to establish and build internal timekeeping? Conductors, eventually, should not be the timekeeper. We are interpreters of a composer / arranger’s intent. Beating time subtracts from artistry.

SKILL #2 – Audiation of intervals

Audiation is a term Edwin Gordon coined in 1975 to refer to “comprehension and internal realization of music, or the sensation of an individual hearing or feeling sound when it is not physically present.” Another way of thinking of it is pre-hearing – combining seeing and accurately hearing an interval before singing. It is a coached and acquired skill of milliseconds, but it most certainly can be learned, and, it is how we sing accurately. Combined with eyes ahead of rhythm, singers LOVE being able to do this themselves.

SKILL #3 – Part-singing

Unless you only coach soloists, you will be dealing with parts. Let’s think:

  • When replacing old processes of teaching part-learning by rote, as we restart, we can build new habits with our students.
  • Part-independence is the goal.
  • Time-investment is a serious consideration.
  • How to assess actual progress?

A critical component of learning to sing and hold your own part is selective listening, being able to hear but not be distracted by other parts. That requires selective focus. Skill mastery requires that we conductors must set aside our urgency to prepare for concerts or sing in parts too soon. Become intentional. Unmastered skills will present themselves at the least opportune time, and you will wish you stayed with your mastery plan learning and rehearsing. It will prove itself. Consider:

  • Daily sight-reading
  • Presenting new material
  • Utilizing sight-reading skills to learn new material more effectively
  • Don’t bite off more than they can chew
  • Use mastery skills to adjust pacing
  • Develop and transfer mastery protocols to new material – that is your game plan

As we pay closer attention to needed changes and the processes built into all of our lessons, ToolsforConductors.com addresses these issues and leads to mastery in all three skills on one page that can be emailed / texted to students and used as a rehearsal sight-reading entrance activity. Our “You Won’t Miss a Beat” assessments from MusicFirst coordinate with the lessons and are digitally assessed. Visit the website, look at the sample lessons, and plan how best to implement best-practices.

Conclusion:  Whatever happens in September, plan to teach your students to READ!

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

 “One day, you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. DO IT NOW.”

 – Pablo Coelho

 Stuart Hunt is the founder of sight-reading and music literacy ToolsforConductors.com and is beginning his 51st year as a conductor, music educator, and author. He can be contacted at .

Filed Under: Others Tagged With: sight reading, sight singing

The Philosophy Behind the Sight-Reading Imperative

February 15, 2020 by From Our Readers Leave a Comment

By Stuart Hunt

Why your students will love you for raising the bar

I struggle writing this. My passion for building musicianship drove me to create a business whose sole focus is to address literacy in the three parts of sight-reading:

  1. counting
  2. interval recognition
  3. part-singing

For me it is both imperative for our students who recognize the benefits and at least ascent to the brief time we invest in learning to read better, and seeing some who have even developed a passion for it. Yet, I must honestly and regretfully say, my experience tells me we are clearly a small minority. We too often choose to invest the time or use our rehearsal time in other ways.

Teaching literacy in music reading is a professional choice. I will attempt to professionally address the whys and the benefits. I struggle with the opposite philosophy, but either way, I believe it is always philosophy that guides our decision.

For example, why do or don’t we

  • exercise
  • read
  • maintain our car
  • learn to cook
  • prefer indoor or outdoor exercise
  • marry or remain unmarried

Some of these are weighty questions; some are not. However, it is our personal philosophy that guides our responses and action. I freely admit that parts of this blog may be uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable to write, but it is not taboo.

Investing in sight-reading

There are only pluses, no minuses.

Given the narrow window of time we actually get to engage choristers, and considering the number of skills they need to acquire and master, the variables in rehearsal, and the outside options and mandates (concerts, performances, assemblies, testing, etc.), what we do with every second of rehearsal adds to or subtracts from musical excellence. Time is not our friend, therefore, as we all know, detailed planning of those activities that enhance skill acquisition and mastery are the stuff excellence feeds on.

Spending something does not yield a return. Investing does. I cannot countenance or advocate for deciding not to invest in teaching the myriad skills acquired in effective sight-reading skills, but here are a few reasons to consider:

  • Sight-reading teaches heuristic (self-learning) skills. Those who acquire critical skills altruistically teach their choirmates, saving valuable rehearsal time.
  • When students are engaged in learning, they are not interested in any form of distraction. Actually, they oppose distractions.
  • With guided, planned, focused skill acquisition and mastery, decisions about literature are vastlyaltered. What was never thought possible is believed to be achievable
  • When reading and note-learning / correction / drill are not an issue, there is more rehearsal time available for meaningful, deeper discussions about culture, intent of the composer, interpretation, listening examples, guest conductors, choir exchanges, concert detail planning, audience engagement, facial expression, movement or choralography, and so on.
  • When a conductor plays a recording of music they know will deeply impact the choir and the audience, regardless of musical challenges, the choir can see and hear themselves come up to the challenge, and be willing to engage it.
  • The culture described by Dr. Robert Shaw begins to develop: “I don’t desire to be a part of a choir that sings because they want to, but because they have to.”

How else and who else will develop future audiences unless we, choral conductors do that? One does not join an Olympic bobsled team for the experience.  That person must bring something to the party: skill, passion, team-spirit, inspiration. Skills they have already acquired. So, what’s the difference with the choral art?

How are singers supposed to acquire the ability to read music?

Just by singing? How? If our literature choices are limited by our student’s poor skills, it is a zero-sum gain. Charles Ives said: 

“If you always feed a 3-year old candy for breakfast,
they will always be a 3-year old
and the oatmeal market will die!”

Stop for a moment. Take stock of your rehearsals. Take stock of the learning rate of your choirs. Is it all you have ever wanted?

  • Why or why not?
  • Do you regularly get choked up in rehearsal?
  • When was the last time?
  • Why?
  • Did you talk about that with the choir?
  • Are your audiences ever brought to tears?
  • Why or why not?

Consider this metaphor as a foundational reason to make sight-reading a daily regimen:

  • A tall building must have a strong foundation if it is to stand for a long time (legacy, inspiration, space for all and welcome for all).
  • A good foundationprovides overall lateral stability for the structure (choral integrity and trust building).
  • It also provides a level surface for the construction of substructure (positive leadership and sectional pride).
  • Load distribution is carried out evenly (rehearsal absence is not an option; no dissention; focus is on the most important musical elements).
  • Anchor it against natural forces such as earthquakes. Yes Dorothy, stuff happens even in great choirs. When it does, do we bend and focus on solutions or dissolve into petty arguments? We have all experienced that.

Reflect for a moment on your college and university experience and recall those moments when time just stopped. There was not another place on earth you had to, or would rather, be at that moment. Do your choirs regularly experience and talk about those with their peers and siblings? That is how great choirs are built.

I once saw a statistic that 80 percent of those who sang in a choir were recruited by someone else. I am one of those. I only sang in choir the last quarter of my senior year in high school. It totally changed my life.

Forty-eight years of conducting public and private choirs on both American coasts, throughout British Columbia, and 23 concert tours including 2 five-nation concert tours and competitions of Central Europe later, I can say that choral music is not a vocation. It is greater than a profession. It is a life! By committing our choirs to music literacy, we have all had experiences that none of us ever dreamed of, and we got there together, as a team of growing artists.

Choose your sight-reading system to fit your needs. Don’t go for low-hanging fruit. Commit to rigorous standards and stick with them! Your singers will not object – they will love you for teaching and motivating them to seek a higher challenge.

In fact, they will insist on raising the bar!

Great musical skills equip them to look beyond just the possible. You will give them new glasses to see, in their own way, that because they SOARED in a choir, and it altered their perception of what is possible. You will change their lives because, as Pat Riley said, “it is the result of always striving to do better.” It is not a skill, it is an attitude, rooted in competence, nurtured by mastered skills, and brought to fruition by a wonderful conductor with great ideals. YOU!

Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention,
sincere effort, and intelligent execution;
it represents the wise choice of many alternatives—
choice, not chance, determines your destiny.
—Aristotle

Your thoughts are most welcome. Contact Stuart Hunt (www.toolsforconductors.com): .

Filed Under: From Our Readers, Others Tagged With: rehearsal management, rehearsal tips, rehearsals, sight singing, sight-reading

I Heart (Love) Sight Singing!

September 16, 2019 by Amanda Bumgarner 1 Comment

ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly publication for choral conductors and teachers at all levels. It is published online, and each issue contains four practical articles. If you are not already a member of ACDA, you can join and receive access to ChorTeach online. Below is an excerpt from an article written by Jane Vanderhoff appearing in the Spring 2019 issue.
_____________________________________

Sight singing is the unbreakable principle, the sacred cow, the “must do,” most days, anyway! It is the key to a singer’s progression/growth; it breaks the artificial ceiling of rote singing; it gives students independence and musicianship to get started. It is the key to their success! In my classroom it takes many forms. I use different books from year to year or throughout the year, write exercises on the board, use portions of songs, have students sing in groups or alone, sing the exercise backwards, switch from line to line, sing portions of a song, have one group clap the beat while another counts/claps the rhythm, anything to keep the brain moving in a musical direction.

For beginning sight readers, I have assigned a pitch to a section (SSA or TTB usually), and they must sing their pitch as it occurs in the exercise, in rhythm. If there are more notes than sections, I sing the leftovers. If they sing on their own, they can choose any exercise in the book for me to sing on the spot. All of these ideas have been stolen from someone else! As we move toward Common Core standards, documentation of student writing becomes more important. As a bellwork activity, I had my singers complete the following in three or more ways, including the good, the bad, and the ugly:

“Sight singing is…” Their responses fell into five main categories:

1) A definition:
• Singing a song with no knowledge of said song. Basically hoping for the best. —Abby G.
• Making the notes into music. —Maritza G.
• Holding your own and being able to process music. —Consuelo S.
• A brain-busting, hair-pulling technique that all singers should work at. —Gemma L.
• A necessity! —Kimberly C.

2) A warm-up activity:
• Not very fun, but a good way to get started. —Messina D.
• A great way to warm up and get in the singing mood. —MacKinzie W
• A good way to warm up your voice and your mind. —Christy K
• You can also use sight singing to help with songs you are learning at the time. —Josh F

3) A tool for teaching rhythms and intervals:
• A great way to get mistakes out of the way. —Kristin G.
• I look for rhythm patterns in my own music now. —Gary H.
• It is skill-building. —Alexandria T.
• It helps one learn common patterns within musical styles. —Victoria N
• It is the ability to do “music” on your own! —Jose V

4) A developmental process
5) The big picture

______________________

Read the rest of this issue in the Spring 2019 issue at acda.org/chorteach.

Filed Under: ChorTeach, Others Tagged With: ACDA Membership Benefits, ACDA Publications, ChorTeach, sight singing

Turn Sight-Singing Fear Into Fun!

September 23, 2018 by Adam Paltrowitz Leave a Comment

Do your students FEAR Sight-Singing?

Have you tried to make it fun, but it just isn’t working?

Is sight-singing a drain on your students, your rehearsal, and your prep time? 

If so, I have some suggestions!

Here is my latest blog post!

8 Keys to Turn Sight-Singing Fear into Fun!

Filed Under: Choral Clarity Tagged With: choral clarity, fun, sight singing, sight-reading

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

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

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