What to teach in 9 weeks?

[nafmeadmin]

I’ll be starting a nine week Choir Exploratory after spring break. The students are placed in my class rather than ‘electing’ it. How can I keep things interesting and promote success among students who don’t particularly want to sing?

[nafmeadmin]

Start by teaching technique: teach about the diaphragm and proper breathing technique. Get them to relax and do some fun warm-ups. I’m assuming this is high school, so nothing too elementary. I teach elem choir, so I’m the wrong person to ask about that, sorry. Show them some videos of proper singing technique. Discuss vocal projection and how stars do / not do this. Referring to their idols will help pull them in / appeal to them. You might talk about the idea of lip-synching in a performance (i.e. Beyonce` and others).

Depends on your population, but I think you can’t go wrong with the standards. Yonder Come Day is an easy two or three-part song you can teach by rote (far easier, for older kids). Choose a gospel-style piece, a pop-like piece and a rather traditional piece. whether the piece calls for it or not, add some clapping to the Gospel-style piece. Get a recording of each piece; that’s one of the best ways to give kids an idea of what they are expected to sing and what it will sound like ultimately. My choir prefers this, honestly, tho it’s not my first choice. For repertoire ask other music teachers in your district if you can raid their libraries, or go to sheetmusicplus.com (one of my favorite sites) or jwpepper.com and go shopping. These sites sell sheet music, not always a recording. however, YouTube is the go-to place for many great choral recordings/files in my experience.

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