1. Choir Training for Young Singers
The Rehearsal Plan
Choir Training for Young Singers
Oct. 7, 2013

2. Ten Basics for Choral Directors
Create good mental focus
Teach breathing/posture techniques
Use correct vocal range
Teach correct placement of resonance
Insist on intonation accuracy

3. 10 Basics (Con’t.) Promote a buoyancy of sound Teach reading skills
Teach an understanding of music
Communicate the text
Choose high quality literature

4. Don’t Go there... Some teachers only teach songs
Some teachers separate musicianship skills from repertoire
Some teachers teach everything by rote or vocal modeling
Some teachers dictate all musical decisions

5. Go Here...
Some teachers develop active “musical thinking” through contextual teaching
Some teachers have a comprehensive musicianship approach to their choral pedagogy
Some teachers develop a curriculum of music literacy using the repertoire as a basis for their teaching

6. Learning Considerations
Learning Anchors
Visual Gesture
Aural Sensation
Physical Sensation
Movement

7. Sight-reading
Musical sight-reading is a skill built from a combination of literary skills
It is not merely a matter of teaching “intervals”
Singers must be active with the skills derived from many aspects of musicianship training

8. Musicianship from Repertoire
Vocal Technique
Warm-up/Vocalises
Vowel Shapes
Breathing
Mental Focus
Range/Tessitura

9. Reading Tools Solfege Rhythms Key Signatures Terms/Tempo Markings
Meter

10. Elements of Music
Melody
Rhythm
Form
Harmony & Texture

11. Artistic Expression Style Color Expression Communication
Cognitive Singing

12. Music History Composer/Poet Genre Period Nationalistic Style
Historical Setting

13. Other Learning Benefits
Foreign Language
Memorization
Quick Recall
Poetic Language
Aesthetics

14. Tongue-Jaw Position for Vowels