Settle the Score: How I teach my new choir students to read a choral score

It’s Day One of Choir, and you’re looking at a sea of faces who have absolutely NO idea what choir is, how to sing, how to read, use, follow, HOLD the new music. So what to do?

This post is to give you some tools to teach HOW to read a choral score to brand new choir students. (I start with them in 6th grade, so that’s my viewpoint for this writing.)

1. Choose a unison piece with more than one verse, some extra musical symbols (like repeat, fermata, breath marks, etc.), and a keyboard accompaniment.

2. Number the measures before you pass out the music.

3. Pass out the music, and tell them about the cover page. Have them look for title, composer, arranger, parts, price, copyright, etc. All the things.

4. Turn to the first page of written music. This is probably page 2. Explain why.

5. It’s super helpful to use an document camera or something similar, if you have one. You’re going to start LABELING the music. These are the terms I choose to use and label at this point in their learning:

   • System

   • Staff

   • Measure

   • Bar line

   • Verse

   • Bracket. Show the difference between the vocal parts’ bracket, and the accompaniment bracket.

6. Identify Systems. Show how the vocal part, lyrics, and accompaniment all happen at the same time and travel left to right.

7. Verses. We read verse 1, next system, verse 1, next system, verse 1….. When they read in literature class, they read every single line of music, one after another. This is not that.

8. Bar lines and measures. Ask questions to challenge them to use their new measure number knowledge to find answers. For example: “What word starts measure 6?”

9. Now, it’s time to start the song, and see if they can follow. I play and sing, because there are a couple measures of introduction, and those count. I like to use “Sing a Song of Nonsense” by B. Dardess. (Get it here.) Instruct them to listen, and follow along with their fingers as I move through the measures. When I stop, can they figure out which measure I’m in? First one to stand and give the correct answer when called upon gets a [school currency], etc.

   • Take this to the next level by asking them to identify system number (1, 2, 3 on the page), measure number, and word!

10. Repeat the play/sing/find routine SEVERAL times. Seriously. I do it about 10-12 times, stopping in different places each time. I usually only get to the middle or bottom of the 2nd page of music. That’s challenging enough for them, because they’re following systems, more than one verse, and having to turn a page!

THAT’S IT for Day 1 of reading a choral score.

Day 2 adds:

1. Quick review of terms, making sure things are correctly labeled in music. (system, measure, bar line, lyrics, etc.)

2. I sing, they echo, phrases for verse 1.

3. Notice any musical symbols that need attention. For example, in “Sing a Song of Nonsense”, there’s a fermata midway through page one. I make a GIANT deal about it. It’s okay to be silly and dramatic at this point. I also make a big deal about any lyrics that we sing improperly, like “got you”, if it sounds like gotchoo.”.

4. Move to the end of verse 1, and talk about the repeat sing, where it bounces back to, and what you read at that point.

There’s so much more that can be taught using this song, but this is a great start for getting your newbies to feel comfortable reading their choir music. Have fun! Laugh! Celebrate all the wins! Oh, and if you’ve got a good “first-choral-score” piece you love, please let me know!