Choir Remix: Reinvent Your Sound Throughout the Year

Change it up, keep it fresh, stretch their skills, build their technique.

When I started reaching in my current school, I had a daughter in our district's high school. I got to see "behind the scenes" and learn what they were learning, get a parent-view of the performances, and a unique perspective on the learning, as I met with the high school choir teachers weekly for our Professional Learning Community. Hearing what was happening from both the teachers and a student helped me understand what was working well and why the kids loved it.

And, I realized our middle school students weren't aware of all the amazing things ahead for them in high school choir! So, I started sharing videos of our high school choir throughout the year, and changed up our performance focus throughout to match the choirs available for our singers. This allows them to experience concert choir, contest, and show choir, which informs their decisions moving into the high school.

And, another benefit is that every quarter is NEW!! We're not repeating the same process over and over again.

Here's the quarterly focus for my choirs:

New Singers Qtr 1: New singers (6th grade) get "How to Choir 101" because they've never done this before. We learn how to create sound, how to work as an ensemble, how to read a score, how to follow a conductor. It's a process, right? HERE is a resource for teaching posture/breath to new singers. And, HERE IS A FREE resource for teaching new singers how to follow you.

Returning 7th grade Singers Qtr 1: They perform the National Anthem within the first 3 weeks of school at our big rival football game. This gets us going in three parts (which is new for them, mostly), and then we begin working on a piece that we sing with our high school choir in a mass number at the end of their first concert (about 6 weeks into school). From there, we turn to Winter Concert music, and continue working with changing voices.

Returning 8th grade singers Qtr 1: Musical Theater focus. We do a musical in November, and use choir class time to teach all the ensemble pieces (voice and choreography). We also jump heavily into sight reading and do a review over everything they're supposed to know.

Qtr 2: Winter Concert. We choose music that our audience will enjoy hearing and our students will enjoy singing. For new singers, this is their first foray into performing, so we tackle Performance and Audience Etiquette, along with continuing our music reading and part singing skills. We also throw in the "Worst Winter Song Ever" contest in December to bring in some levity as we're nearing the finish line of semester 1.

Qtr 3: Contest Music: This is, arguably, the hardest quarter. We focus in on music chosen for our contest performance, and make sure to choose a variety of music styles. I usually choose one in a different language, one spiritual or gospel piece (because they always love those!), and one "showy" piece that stretches them and impresses the listeners. 😀 We learn about Adjudication Terms, work on evaluating ourselves and other groups, and continue working on sight singing and rhythm. We also share about Influential Black Artists in February, and this always brings some much needed happiness into the gloom of contest music.

Qtr 4: Show Choir! This is my favorite quarter of the year. By this time, our kids understand musical concepts, they're comfortable with sight singing, rhythm, ensemble sound, and with each other. So, it's the perfect time to introduce show choir to them! Because this is AFTER the official show choir season, I can share videos of our extracurricular middle school and high schools' shows to paint the picture for what's ahead. We have each group do two choreographed pieces and one ballad. We use various choreographers to give our kids exposure to as many talented people as possible. Our 6th grade currently works with one of my former students who is a dance major. She is perfect for their first experience doing choreography. Our 7th and 8th grade singers work with the choreographer who does our high school's shows; this provides our kids a great stepping stone into high school choir. They really enjoy him, and it's less scary when they think about moving forward high school choir. And, I love bringing in a third choreographer for any SA-only or TB-only group numbers. Our last concert is during the LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL which is crazy, but gives us a focus for class time right up until the end! If you can't get to show choir during the school year, HERE is a resource to help you do a summer camp.

And, that's a wrap! Each singer experiences 3-4 different types of performance, focus, and style, and hopefully, that means we've found something that everyone loves. (We have a 93% retention rate, so I think it's working!)

I'd love to hear from you: what's working as you move through the school year?

Thank you for being a part of my choir family!

-Teresa