Reply To: Middle school 7-8 choir question

[nafmeadmin]

Sorry to be late to the party!
I used a couple great books of partner songs arr by Sally Albrecht and Jay Althouse with my elementary choir and had the same problem — they’re 90 seconds long each on average!! A colleague accompanied my concerts on piano. I seriously considered asking her (though never did) to follow my edits to extend the piece. I was going to use standard extension things – repeat 2/3 of the song on “la” and pick up the words near the end; repeat a section again and clap on beats 2 and 4; repeat a section with piano only while the choir does choreography. Of course some of these would involve the third time around with harmony.

Canons: the Taco Bell canon is fun and harmonic! Google it. A friend does it with her middle schoolers every year.
There are also silly cannons like the Star Wars cannon. Middle schoolers are VERY picky, moody and social. If they don’t like it, it ain’t flyin’!! (I taught 9 years in K-8 inner city!!) If their friends think it’s corny, it ain’t happening!! It’s gotta be current, appealing and yet musical (if only for you).