Becoming a Choral Music Teacher

A Field Experience Workbook

Patrice Madura Ward-Steinman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351682909
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Becoming a Choral Music Teacher: A Field Experience Workbook, Second Edition is a choral methods textbook that prepares students in Music Education to become middle school and high school choral music teachers. It emphasizes important musical skills, vocal pedagogy and repertoire suitable for secondary school choirs in order to provide future teachers with the critical experiences to be effective. Focusing equally on rehearsal strategies, auditions and classroom management, the book is also a "workbook" that requires the students' active learning through participation in fieldwork.

Students learn in a sequential and practical manner, beginning with the study of the middle school voice and progressing to the high school voice, through practice of theory with adolescents, followed by class reflection on common problems and solutions, and then continued practice.

NEW to this Edition

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• Updated references to NAfME, and new national and state standards and licensing rules

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• More on the needs of Special Learners in the choral classroom

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• Latest resources on classroom management theories and practice

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• Expanded vocal warm-ups that incorporate body movement and aural skills training

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• More on gender issues (including LGBT awareness), sociological impact and meanings of choral singing, and emerging knowledge of multicultural choral music

Becoming a Choral Music Teacher: A Field Experience Workbook, Second Edition fully integrates the choral field experience for hands-on learning and reflection and allows the student to observe and teach the book's principles.

1
THE CHOIR TEACHER AS COMPREHENSIVE MUSICIAN

Choral music teaching is an honorable profession. While it is time-consuming and work-intensive, there are few careers more rewarding than making music with young people. You probably had a choral music teacher who inspired you to love choral music, to become a better musician, and to consider a career in music. Take time right now to reflect on the qualities of your most inspiring choral teacher, and list them here:

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You may have listed some of the following characteristics: passionate, caring, motivating, humorous, organized, and dedicated. As you continue to think about the qualities of effective choral music teachers, consider other musical and teaching skills, and decide how important they are to you.

Essential musical characteristics might include knowledge of how the voice develops in middle school and high school singers, excellent piano skills, clear conducting skills, ability to hear errors in individual vocal parts when the whole choir is singing, knowledge of choral music repertory that is effective for secondary school students, how to achieve a beautiful choral tone, arranging skills, and knowledge of music theory and history.

Essential teaching characteristics might include the ability to engage and motivate students, classroom management skills, organizational skills, attention to detail, knowledge of short-term and long-term planning, the ability to expertly prepare a choir for contests, and a genuine enthusiasm for helping all students succeed.

The most essential personal characteristic is the desire to be a choral music teacher. Someone who loves choral music and the idea of developing that love and appreciation in young people has the right motivation to teach secondary choral music. It will require a commitment of time and hard work, but will be a labor of love. Other personal characteristics include kindness, high energy, a sense of humor, and “people skills” (the ability to work with students, parents, teachers, and staff.)

Take time right now to reflect on the musical, teaching and personal skills identified above (and feel free to add more) that you already possess, as well as those that will need focused attention as you continue to work toward your professional goals. List your strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths	Weaknesses

Take another moment to reflect on your most memorable choral experiences and consider what made them so. Think back on those choral performances that were peak experiences for you. What were those choral compositions, and what made them so special? Name the piece(s) that made you feel that way.

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Can you put your finger on why you felt that wonderful, profound feeling? Was it the occasion, the ensemble, the conductor, the location, the musical composition, or a combination of two or more of those factors? Certainly, music has the power to move humans in extraordinary ways, and some pieces are more powerful than others in providing moving and beautiful experiences that make a difference in our lives. Once we have had such an aesthetic experience through music, we spend our lives seeking those experiences for ourselves and for our students. We can do that best by preparing ourselves as outstanding musicians, educators, and human beings so that we can well execute and express the choral music of masterful composers. Choral music teaching demands a commitment to excellence in order to give students important and rich musical experiences.

The Voice Teacher

As a secondary school choral director, you will be the only voice teacher that the majority of your students will ever have. Therefore, you need to be able to teach them to use their voices in healthy and beautiful ways through vocal warm-ups, appropriately sequenced repertory, awareness of vocal misuse, vocal modeling, and clear explanations. You are encouraged to enroll in a vocal pedagogy course, particularly if it focuses on the adolescent voice. Even if you have taken voice lessons, this does not ensure that you know how to teach voice. If your degree does not require or offer such a course, this text will provide multiple ideas and resources to significantly boost your knowledge and skill in this area.

The Error Detector

Although every music major practices error detection in music theory, ear-training, and conducting courses, it is often difficult for the choral methods student to identify specific wrong notes in a choral sound when simultaneously involved in the multi-tasks of conducting, playing the piano, and reading the score. This is where the conductor’s preparation is key. With a fully analyzed score and an accurate aural model, the choral teacher has set the stage for hearing and identifying sung errors. One way to practice this aural skill is to sing chorales and other homophonic pieces vertically, from the bottom to top of each chord, focusing especially on the roots and inner parts (Napoles et al., 2016).

The Sight-Singer

Good sight-reading skills assist the choral teacher in learning scores quickly, but knowledge of the pedagogy of sight-singing is also necessary. Consider how satisfying your choral rehearsals will be as your students become good sight-readers, enabling their music learning to come quickly. No one likes to “pound notes.” A sequential approach to teaching sight-singing in the choral rehearsal will be presented in this textbook.

The Memorizer

What are the benefits of memorizing the choral score? In short, it means that the music has been internalized. The more the teacher’s and students’ eyes are out of the music, the more they can experience and express the music.

The Arranger/Composer/Improviser

The choral music teacher often needs to re-arrange a choral score for the particular voices in the ensemble, arrange the school’s theme song for choral voices, or assist students in the creative skills of composition and improvisation. Coursework should have prepared the music education major with these skills, but, if not, they will find that they have enough musical knowledge and resources to explore arranging, composing and improvising on their own or through conference sessions, summer workshops or graduate courses.

The Scholar

Those music history and theory courses really do matter when the time comes to prepare a choral score for teaching. It is the teacher’s responsibility to know the history and theory of every piece in order to effectively teach it. Score analysis also involves searching for information about the piece, the composer, the text, the performance practice, the language, and listening to various recordings. Thorough understanding of the music score will provide rich and meaningful musical experiences for the conductor and the students.

The Manager

A choral music teacher needs to be organized. There are many details that the choral teacher must handle, or delegate to others when possible, for a successful program. These include the choral music curriculum, the budget, the choral library, concert programming, concert dates, concert dress, tours, festivals, parent relations, classroom management, grading, fundraising, and so much more. Many new teachers feel unprepared to control these non-musical demands of their jobs, so numerous organizational procedures are presented in this book to alleviate those concerns.

The Leader

Leaders influence others. They improve the lives of others through “vision, trust, teaching, persuasion and character” (Wis, 2007, p. xvii). Your vision is your unique view of how you will make your singers’ lives better; your trustworthiness will make your singers feel safe in your choir; your persuasiveness will help singers reach levels of achievement they didn’t know they were capable of; and your character will inspire you to use your core values to permeate all that you do and provide you with your life’s mission. To learn to develop these leadership qualities in yourself, study The Conductor as Leader by Ramona M. Wis.

The Teacher

While strong musical skills are a prerequisite to achieving success as a choral teacher, it is the knowledge of effective rehearsal strategies and repertory choices that complete the picture. How does one learn to be a good teacher? Is someone “born” a natural teacher, or can it be taught? Obviously music education professors believe it can be taught, although there is a natural inclination and desire to teach that is vital. Effective teaching strategies fill this textbook.

The Mentor

Adolescents participate in choirs not only because they enjoy performing and learning about music, but also for the social aspect—the connection with people. This connection includes the mentorship by the choir teacher. The teacher needs to care not only about music, but also about the stu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents Summary
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface to the First Edition
• Acknowledgments
• 1 The Choir Teacher as Comprehensive Musician
• 2 Middle School Singers: Managing Adolescent Voices and Behavior
• 3 Auditions and Warm- Ups for Middle School Choirs
• 4 Repertoire for Middle School Choirs
• 5 Recruiting and Planning for Middle School Choirs
• 6 High School Singers: Hearing Their Voices
• 7 Warm- Ups for High School Choirs
• 8 Repertoire for High School Choirs
• 9 Effective High School Choral Music Teaching
• 10 Directing Vocal Jazz, Contemporary A Cappella, Show Choir, Musical Theater, Madrigal Dinners, Gospel Choirs, and Multicultural Ensembles
• 11 Checklists for Practical Matters: Concerts, Festivals, Travel, Technology, and the First Year of Teaching
• Appendixes
• Index