cd september 2012

SEPTEMBER 2012$5.00

34 Choral Director • September 2012

UNISON“Oliver Cromwell”Benjamin Britten (Boosey & Hawkes)Easy

2013 marks the 100th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s birth. While he may be best known to choral musicians for his “War Requiem” and “Five Flower Songs,” Britten also wrote wonderful music for younger voices. His setting of this Suffolk nursery rhyme is whimsical with an imaginative piano part. Students will enjoy this piece’s lightheartedness and silly text.

bit.ly/s7jert

SSA“What If I Never Speed?”John Dowland, arr. Russell Rob-inson (Carl Fischer)Medium-Easy

This is a wonderful intro-duction to the music of John Dowland. Celebrate the 450th anniversary of his birth by pro-gramming this interesting mad-rigal. Students will enjoy the beautiful homophony and be challenged by the brief “echo”

Choral musicians enjoy a wealth of literature

spanning more than five centuries. With

the tremendous amount of compositions

from which to choose, programming a concert can

easily become overwhelming. I’ve found choosing

pieces based on the anniversary of world events or

composers’ birth and death dates not only helps me

narrow my search, but is also an incredibly useful

tool to help students contextualize music within his-

tory. Consider programming these or other works

by Britten, Dello Joio, Dowland, Hindemith, Pou-

lenc, and Verdi. Because 2013 also marks the 150th

anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and

the Battle of Gettysburg, I’ve included several pieces

to commemorate the Civil War.

By John C. Hughes

Repertoire Forum: Commemorating Anniversaries

Musical & Historical Anniversaries in 2013

Get your Choral Director on the iPad

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Performance: Sight Singing

Repertoire Forum: Anniversaries in 2013

Sarah Baker of Ohio’s Little Miami High School

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Choral Director® Volume 9, Number 5, is published six times annually by Symphony Publishing, LLC, 21 Highland Circle, Suite 1, Needham, MA 02494 (781)453-9310, publisher of School Band and Orchestra, Musical Merchandise Review, Music Parents America and JAZZed. All titles are federally registered trademarks and/or trademarks of Symphony Publishing, LLC. Subscription Rates: $20 one year; $30 two years. Rates outside U.S.A. available upon request. Singles issues $5 each. Resource Guide $15 Standard Postage Paid at Boston, MA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER/SUBSCRIBERS: Send address change to Choral Director, 21 Highland Circle, Suite 1, Needham MA 02494. The publish-ers of this magazine do not accept responsibility for statements made by their advertisers in business competition. No portion of this issue may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.Copyright © 2012 by Symphony Publishing, LLC, all rights reserved. Printed in USA.

ContentsFeatures

Columns

8 UpFront: FundraisingCD checks in with Jon Krueger, executive director of fundraising association AFRDS, on tips for maximizing fundraising revenue while minimizing effort.

14 From the TrenchesReady or not, teacher evaluations are coming. Bob Morrison warns music educators to prepare for the inevitable.

16 Survey: Sounding OffCD readers sound off on challenges in the work place and the tools and resources they deem to be most important for success in the choral classroom.

20 UpClose: Sarah BakerCD catches up with the director of Ohio’s Little Miami Select Women’s Choir, Sarah Baker, who, in spite of massive systematic cuts to the arts in her district, took her school choir to improbable heights at the recently concluded World Choir Games in Cincinnati, Ohio this past July.

28 Performance: Sight SingingEducator and technology expert Adam Wurst suggests ways to engage an array of free web resources for empowering developing sight singers into the curriculum.

34 Repertoire Forum: AnniversariesJohn C. Hughes presents music based on anniversaries of world events or famous composer births and deaths that fall in the year 2013.

4 Opening Notes

6 Headlines

37 New Products

38 Vocal Tip

39 Classifieds

40 Ad Index

Choral Director • September 2012 1514 Choral Director • September 2012

the music education field comes up with a solution or series of solutions or we will have one imposed upon us by people who have no idea about what we do in the classroom or what we are really try-ing to accomplish. And, in the second of those two options, I guarantee we will not like the solution. This is the scariest of thoughts.

Already in some states we have heard music teachers will be measured by stu-dent outcomes in… math! Yep, you read correctly. All that training to allow you to become the most effective teacher pos-sible (using music as your educational tool of choice) will be reduced down to a measure of something you have no influ-ence or control over.

This is what is at stake. So, here is what needs to happen:

Get over it – this issue is not going

away. Ignoring it will only put our pro-fession at greater risk.• Get a plan. There are plenty of dis-

tricts that are trying out ideas on ways to meet the administrators’ objectives. In June, NAfME hosted a National Symposium on Music Assessment and Teacher Evaluation to tackle this very issue. Visit nafme.org or music-standards.org

• Be sure to reachout to othermusiceducators and your state music edu-cators association to connect with those who may be tackling the same issues.

• Usesocialmediatofindandconnectwith your peers who are interested in this issue. The hash tags #musiced #musedchat are great places to start.

The reality of teacher evaluation sys-tems in music is coming fast. It will be up

to all of us in the music education field to ensure that the systems being imple-mented will measure our teachers based on their area of expertise and student growth… music.

Robert B. Morrison is the founder of Quadrant Arts Education Research, an arts education research and intel-ligence organization. In addi-tion to other related pursuits in the field of arts education advocacy, Mr. Morrison has helped create, found, and run Music for All, the VH1 Save The Music Foundation, and, along with Richard Dreyfuss and the late Michael Kaman, the Mr. Hol-land’s Opus Foundation.

He may be reached directly at [email protected].

From the Trenches

We have all heard

the stories about

how teachers

need to be held accountable for

student growth. I suspect most

people would not disagree with

this statement. Where there is

plenty of debate and disagree-

ment, though, is “how?”

By Bob Morrison

For subjects like language arts and math, where there are statewide assess-ments to measure student performance, the task of tying student growth to teach-er evaluation may be easier. Notice I said, “may.” Just because something is possible does not mean it is the proper thing to do and there is plenty of debate about tying student test scores to teacher evaluations.

Buthere is the reality: tying teacherperformance (for all teachers) to student achievement and student growth is a freight train rolling down the railroad track, and it is heading down hill. The national movement to tie teachers as-sessment to student outcomes will be the “new normal” for teachers across this country… including you, music and arts educators.

This leads to the logical question: “How will this be accomplished?”

And the answer the profession has right now is: “We do not know!” And this

is the scariest statement of all.Here is why: School districts across

the nation are moving to tie teacher as-sessments to student outcomes. Many states have mandated these programs be in place as early as the 2013/2014 school year. This creates a challenge for all sub-jects that are in the “non-tested” category (think all arts, world languages, social studies, some sciences, physical educa-tion, and more). In essence, nearly 80

percentofteachersintheUnitedStatesteach “non-tested” subjects. This does not mean it will keep the administrators from implementing something – any-thing – just so they may say they are do-ing as they are told.

So here is the rub: our profession has yet to come up with a solution to this issue and school administrators are ac-tively seeking answers.

The hard reality we face is that either

Ready or NotTeacher Evaluations Are Coming

“The hard reality we face is that either the music education field comes up with a solution or series of

solutions or we will have one imposed upon us.”

School Band and Orchestra • September 2012 2928 Choral Director • September 2012

creasing pupils’ understanding of pre-vious work, sharpening the skill under practice, and providing a foundation on which higher level cognitive skills can be built.

Before introducing some incredible Web resources for your Theory and Ear Training Toolbox let’s address some ca-veats:• For clarity, this article will inter-

changeably use sight “sing” and “read” for teachers who may use one term over the other.

• Thearticlewillstrivetoprovideasmany quality resources for a variety of age groups and musical develop-ment without entering into an in-depth review of the pros and cons of each website.

• Thefocuswillbegearedtowardthedevelopment and reinforcement of the singer as an individual. While many of the resources may be used in a group setting, the intention is to offer suggestions for strengthening the ability and confidence for each singer independently.

• Thisarticlewill focusontheInter-net resources that provide perfor-mance-based ear training exercises as opposed to strictly providing “worksheet” type drills for theory.

One of the most comprehensive musictheoryresourcesontheInternetis Ricci Adams’ musictheory.net (Fig-ure 1). This flash-based website offers musicians the opportunity to interact with theory lessons, exercises, and oth-

er tools. An added benefit is that stu-dents can down-load a copy for use when they are not online. I haveused musictheory.net successfully with both middle and high school students in small group and individ-ual settings. While the lessons portion of the site is very good, the power for developing sight singing skills is found in the exercises area.2 There are 13 varieties of train-ers each capable of being customized for student’s specific need of drill and practice. Of particular interest is the ability to customize the sound used in the ear training demonstrations. Using electronic sounds in the ear training of singers has long been known to be less effective than an acoustic instru-ment. However, using a flute or clari-net sound has produced greater results and much improved accuracy when working with my students.

Perhaps my favorite feature in this rich training toolbox is the ability to show or print a Progress Report at theendofanactivity(Figure2).Thisfeature has proven quite valuable in gauging students’ progress and keep-ing them accountable in their quality of work. Particularly helpful is the in-formation that reflects how many ex-ercises were skipped in the process of completing the activity.

Learning to sight read is similar to learning a different language. Actually, thinking of the process of sight read-ing as processing multiple languages at once may be more helpful as we con-sider why developing musicians strug-gle with the concept.

“Suppose you had studied a second language. You can read well-formed sentences composed by someone else if they are given to you in writing, but you can’t converse easily. You can under-stand spoken phrases if you can listen to a recording of them re-peatedly and write them out, but you can’t deal with them quickly enough to have a conversation. You can make phrases yourself, but not in real time. You have to write them out and make lots of revisions. Would you call yourself fluent?3”

Sight singing involves a complex variety of musical languages such as pitch, rhythm, melody, articulation, and expression. Add to these musical elements the use of sight singing “lan-guage” such as Solfege, numbers, or neutral syllables and it becomes clear why it is important to be able to fo-cus on various skill sets one at a time. JTheory Creations’ eMusicTheory of-fers a tool for rhythm performance and rhythm dictation that connects what the student hears with what they see as well as giving them a chance to per-formtheexample(Figure3).

An interesting feature is the ability to play sounds during the exercise or turn all sounds off. Setting the sounds to “No” causes the drill to use a flashing metronome instead of an audible click

Ask most students to sight sing by themselves or in a small

group and you are sure to witness a reaction of dread or

even terror. Many developing singers admit to feeling inad-

equate when reading music, let alone reading music unaided, in front

of peers, or for an assessment. Compounding the issue for singers

includes the psychological effects of the quality of their musicianship

reflecting in direct proportion to their ability to sight read. Perfor-

mance anxiety and basic musicianship skills come together in a “per-

fectstorm”ofquestionssuchas“WhatdoIdofirst?”“HowdoIfind

myfirstpitch?”and“HowdoIknowIdidwell?”

By Adam Wurst


‘The Cloud’

As teachers, we may spend adequate amounts of time training our choirs to sight sing as an ensemble only to find that students still require additional help whenhavingtoreadbythemselves.Inagroupsetting,itmaybeeasierforstu-dents to recall the steps for working through an exercise but quickly forget what to donextwhenperformancepressureandanxietyweighin.TheInternetprovidesmany resources that give developing musicians the confidence needed when pre-paring to sight read independently. Using these technology resources, primarily

Empowering Developing Sight Singers

through “drill and practice” methods, reinforces the concepts of theory and ear training taught during rehearsals as well as develops independent skills for your singers, which encourages greater confidence and assurance.

Drill and practice methods using quality Internet tools are highly ef-fective in reinforcing theory and ear training concepts from the rehearsal. Research from theMalawi InstituteofEducation supports this method espe-cially in the development of language learning:

“Drill is the repeated hearing and use of a particular item. This technique is most helpful in language learning. As a form of repetition, drills enable one to focus sharply on particular points…and can be fun if the teacher is lively and enthusiastic about it.”1

Particular strengths of providing drill and practice ear training activities through online resources include in- Figure 1

Figure 2

14

28

September 2012

Cover photo by Ryan Armbrust, Louisville, Ky.

20 Sarah Baker

“I have to keep pushing because the success these kids will feel is going to carry over to whatever to whatever career they choose.

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September 2012 • Volume 9, Number 5

GROUP PUBLISHER Sidney L. [email protected]

PUBLISHER Richard E. [email protected]

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Opening Notes

Management ResourcesFinding effective management resources can make a world of difference for any educa-

tor. In this issue’s Survival Guide survey, on page 16, CD readers were asked to name their most valuable teaching tool. Perhaps surprisingly, what was most commonly cited was not something that can be bought or easily acquired: vocal music educators pointed to personal-ity traits such as a sense of humor and creativity, along with experience, as the resources they rely on most in the classroom. While these are no doubt essential qualities for any successful educator – indeed, anyone who works with children or young adults – they’re also somewhat intangible.

Because this publication aims to serve vocal music edu-cators and school choral directors with management tools and ideas, I’d like to focus for a moment on the second most popular response to that aforementioned question in the survey, in which choral directors trumpeted the value of YouTube and other Internet resources.

In this issue’s performance article, “Empowering Devel-oping Sight Singers Using ‘The Cloud,’” author and educa-tor Adam Wurst presents a number of Internet resources, referred as “the Cloud,” that can be used to help develop sight reading and sight singing skills. Wurst writes detailed reviews of these sites and resources, many of which start-ed out as the work of a single generous educator looking to share ideas, along with suggestions for implementing them in classroom exercises and curricula. And that’s all within this one discreet area of focus – sight singing.

On YouTube, a search for “choir” yields over 370,000 videos and 18,000 channels. Imagine if there were 18,000 television channels, all focusing on various aspects of cho-ral repertoire, performance, and instruction? That’s essen-tially what YouTube offers. What’s more, videos and chan-nels are all keyword searchable, meaning that if there’s a particular video or performance topic one is searching for,

it’s as easy as typing, “pharyngeal voice” or “choral warm up exercises” in the search bar, hit-ting return, and browsing the relevant hits. This is great for finding and examining repertoire, exploring performance and teaching tips, and keeping tabs on the choral world at large.

For the non-musical challenges facing school choral directors, web resources are not so consolidated. ChoralNet (www.choralnet.org) is the official website of ACDA and its extensive forums and up-to-date and well-organized links make this site an excellent place to start. Everything from rehearsal techniques to pedagogy to working with special needs singers is discussed in the forums or associated sites and articles. Amoung other handy web resources worth mentioning is: www.drewcollins.com/resources, which includes a list of budget-sav-ing tools, resources for changing voice choirs, downloadable repertoire, and more. Directors should also check their state’s vocal association web site. The Florida Vocal Association site, for example, found online at www.fva.net/for-directors/ctr, has a great list of links covering topics like advocacy, classroom aids, choral websites, and much more.

Along with www.choraldirectormag.com, the home of this publication and its years of back issues, insightful articles, and the latest breaking choral news, what other websites do you visit when looking for ideas for managing your ensembles? Be sure to “like” Choral Direc-tor’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/choraldirectormagazine, and then share your favorite choral-related web links on our wall…

“Imagine if there were 18,000 television

channels, all focusing on various aspects

of choral repertoire, performance, and

instruction?”

®

Eliahu SussmanEditor • [email protected]

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HeadlinesThe Actual Cost of a Music Education

College of Wooster marching band director of 27 years Nancy Ditmer is set to begin a two-year term as president of the National Association for Music Edu-cation (NAfME).

Ditmer will transition to a half-time schedule at Wooster so that she can serve as president of the organization through June of 2014. “This is a logical next step for me,” she says. “It will give me an op-portunity to gain additional leadership skills and to broaden my network of con-tacts across all 50 states.”

Indeed, Ditmer will attempt to visit every state during the next 24 months, chair the National Executive Board (NEB), develop meeting agendas, and

Joseph Martin, Director of Shawnee Press Sacred Publications

Hal Leonard recently announced that Joseph Martin has signed a new agreement to continue as the director of sacred publications for Shawnee Press, the acclaimed choral and in-strumental music publishing company it acquired in 2009. Martin has overseen the overall publishing for the church market – for Shawnee and its prestigious imprints Harold Flammer Music and GlorySound – and is responsible for meticulously maintain-ing their stellar reputations.

In his expanded role, Martin will focus on catalog development, composing, producing, workshops and reading sessions.For more information on Shawnee Press publications, please visit www.shawneepress.com.

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deliver keynote addresses at the orga-nization’s annual gatherings. She also hopes to have a strong voice in enlight-ening Washington lawmakers about the importance of music education in the na-tion’s schools. “In my opinion, as long as politicians are running education, there will be problems,” she says. “It’s just too hard for them to keep up with what’s happening in the schools. We need them to listen to us; we are the educators; we are with the students; we can provide

valuable advice.”Nominated by William Anderson, re-

tired associate dean and former professor of music at Kent State University, Ditmer has been president elect for the past two years and actively involved in policy making, in-cluding the formation of the strategic plan. She has also been working on such issues as improving professional development for teachers and establishing learning commu-nities through advanced technology.Learn more at www.nafme.org.

Nancy Ditmer Begins Two-Year NAfME Presidency

A first-of-its-kind study outlines the ac-tual costs of a comprehensive k-12 music education program. The research, funded by the National Association of Music Mer-chants (NAMM) Foundation’s Sounds of Learning research initiative, calculates a cost

for music education averaging $187 per student annually in the sample school dis-trict. Mark L. Fermanich of the Center for Education Policy Analysis in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver conducted the study by focusing on a school district that served over 70,000 students during the 2009-2010 school year.

The district includes urban, suburban

and rural schools with a total district budget of $853 million. From that $13.9 million was allocated to music education represent-ing 1.6 percent of total district expenditures. The sample school district is moderately di-verse with 25 percent minority students and

25 percent of the student popula-tion designated eligible for Title 1 funds available for low-income families. Participation in elective music programs in the district’s middle and high school levels mir-ror the district’s demographics, with

minorities equally as likely as whites to par-ticipate.

Based on total enrollment, the study reveals that the music education costs av-erage $187 per student annually. Costs averaged $195 per student at the elemen-tary level (grades 1-5) where general mu-sic, a 45-minute music class per three-day cycle, is mandatory. Per student spend-

ing in middle school averaged $189 and $143 in high school, as music instruc-tion is elective at the secondary level. The school district examined in this study is committed to a robust music program with general music and instrumental mu-sic offerings for all grades. The principals and teachers surveyed in the study placed a high value on music’s benefits to their students and their schools. In addition to universal elementary music participation, the study found that over 50 percent of students in middle school and high school participate in elective band, choir and or-chestra offerings. The study also found that these core education funds gave these schools better access to quality music in-struction. Additionally, participation in school music programs correlated to low-ered drop out rates and higher school en-gagement.Read more at www.namm.org.

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Choral Director: What are some the trends in fundraising that you’re see-ing, particularly as it relates to ef-forts by school music programs?

Jon Krueger: There is some data out there that I have seen that indi-cates many schools are doing more and more fundraising. Better said, the ten-dency is to run more campaigns. The budget gaps are getting bigger, and it’s getting more and more difficult for schools to fund everything they need to in order to provide their students with a well-rounded education. That’s been the case for many years, but it’s especially true in recent years. There

is a tendency among school music groups, just like with PTOs and other school groups, to think, “We need to raise more money, so we should do more fundraising campaigns.” Our organization encourages pretty much any fundraising group, especially at the school level, to do what they can to reduce the total number of fundraisers that they run.

We have a mantra among our mem-bers, and they share it with their cus-tomers, that goes, “Do a few and do them well.” In other words, have a good game plan for your fundraiser, say at the beginning of the year. Iden-

tify those programs that have worked well in the past. Work with your fun-draising professional to find out what other groups in the community are do-ing, but in any way that you can, try to cut down on the fundraising noise. Parents, supporters, and other people in the community are getting hit more and more with fundraising requests of all types – and it’s not just schools; it could be Girl Scouts or Little League – and eventually apathy starts to set in.

According to our members – and a lot of our members have been in the industry for many, many years – one or two well-executed fundraisers at the

Many music programs these days still receive the majority of their

funding from school budgets. However, for those who must raise

money on their own to enable participation in festivals, perfor-

mance tours, or other special projects that fall beyond the scope of typical

school funding, it doesn’t have to be a lonely process. While some fundraising

campaigns may be independently organized and executed, there are also

thousands of companies that specialize in assisting non-profit groups,

like school music programs and their boosters, with maximizing cam-

paign profits and minimizing the effort involved. Jon Krueger is the ex-

ecutive director of a trade organization comprised of such companies,

the Association for Fund Raising Distributors and Suppliers (AFRDS).

Choral Director recently caught up with Mr. Krueger, who gives some in-

sight into the latest trends in fundraising, as well as some tips for maxi-

mizing bang for the buck, and focusing efforts.

Upfront: Fundraising

Fundaising Campaigns:

“Do a Few, andDo Them Well”

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school or school group level will often-times outperform four, five, or six fun-draisers. If you run too many, you’ll es-sentially cannibalize your support base over the course of the year.

CD: That makes sense, even though it might be a little counterintuitive.

JK: Right, it’s not quite a paradigm shift, but it’s something that you need to let sink in a little bit, if not really think through. A lot of times groups are so eager to get something out there to bring in some money that they don’t necessarily end up doing it in the most effective way. It is often much better to have a plan, a more strategic approach to the overall fundraising efforts that will take place throughout the year. Professional fundraising programs should be able to help with that pro-cess.

CD: Speaking of strategy, is there a rubric for determining the most ef-fective fundraising campaign for a given community? Who should sell products versus gift cards or what-ever else?

JK: To find the best fit takes a multi-pronged approach. A lot of organiza-

tions should look at their his-tory and what’s worked well for a particular community, especially what’s been popular with a group’s supporters. We have done some opinion poll-ing and market research over the years asking school groups which fundraisers have been the most profitable and, con-sistently, the most prevalent answer is product sales. There are other fundraisers that can be really effective depending on the community, organiza-tion, and goals of the cam-paign, but it does seem like

traditional product sales continue to do well. There are several reasons for this: it’s a tried-and-true method; peo-ple know how it works and are familiar with it; and it’s something that people identify with school fundraisers.

Another thing to consider when planning a fundraising campaign is how much vol-unteer support there is for your organization – what it is going to take to actually pull off these events. Even if you do have a strong volunteer base, do you want to put all of their efforts into a fundraiser? Or you want to do something that only requires a portion of your resources there, leav-ing open the option to ap-ply the remaining volunteer resources to other activities outside of fundraising? Gen-

erally speaking, product sales is one fundraiser that doesn’t suck up a lot of volunteer support time. We’ve asked the questions over the years about the average number of volunteers it takes to execute different types of fundrais-ing programs, and for product sales, it’s much fewer than something like a carnival or walk-a-thon.

In the newsroom section of our website, www.afrds.org, there are ma-terials that talk more specifically about some of the figures and facts associated with various fundraising campaigns, the most profitable fundraisers, num-ber of volunteers per fundraiser, and so on.

CD: Has there been a push for more “green” or “eco-friendly” products in fundraising?

JK: There is an emphasis from some suppliers for green or eco-friendly products, but I wouldn’t say that it’s something that’s too prevalent today. As it has been for many years in fun-draising, the traditional, tried-and-true products tend to dominate the market-place. This includes things that people typically think about when it comes to product fundraising: gift wrap, food items, gift items, magazine subscrip-

“What we’re trying to do as an organization is help people focus their fundraising efforts, cutting down on the total number of campaigns and really focusing on planning and executing the ones that are the most effective.”


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SCD_11 11 9/21/12 11:53:24 AM



tions – those continue to be the major players in the market.

As far as green or eco-friendly items, there hasn’t been a lot of chatter about that to me directly, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not out there among our member companies.

CD: Has the slow recovery from the recession that took place several years ago had an impact on the fund-raising industry?

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CD: Where would you suggest that educators begin their search for a good partner in fundraising?

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From the Trenches

We have all heard

the stories about

how teachers need

to be held accountable for stu-

dent growth. I suspect most peo-

ple would not disagree with this

statement. Where there is plenty

of debate and disagreement,

though, is “how?”

By Bob Morrison

For subjects like language arts and math, where there are statewide as-sessments to measure student per-formance, the task of tying student growth to teacher evaluation may be easier. Notice I said, “may.” Just be-cause something is possible does not mean it is the proper thing to do and there is plenty of debate about tying student test scores to teacher evalua-tions.

But here is the reality: tying teacher performance (for all teachers) to stu-dent achievement and student growth is a freight train rolling down the rail-road track, and it is heading down hill. The national movement to tie teachers assessment to student outcomes will be the “new normal” for teachers across this country… including you, music and arts educators.

This leads to the logical question: “How will this be accomplished?”

And the answer the profession has right now is: “We do not know!” And this is the scariest statement of all.

Here is why: School districts across the nation are moving to tie teacher as-sessments to student outcomes. Many states have mandated these programs

be in place as early as the 2013/2014 school year. This creates a challenge for all subjects that are in the “non-tested” category (think all arts, world languag-es, social studies, some sciences, physi-cal education, and more). In essence, nearly 80 percent of teachers in the United States teach “non-tested” sub-jects. This does not mean it will keep

Ready or NotTeacher Evaluations Are Coming

“The hard reality we face is that either the music education field comes up with a solution or series of

solutions or we will have one imposed upon us.”

Trenches.indd 14 9/21/12 2:01 PM

Choral Director • September 2012 15

the administrators from implementing something – anything – just so they may say they are doing as they are told.

So here is the rub: our profession has yet to come up with a solution to this issue and school administrators are actively seeking answers.

The hard reality we face is that ei-ther the music education field comes up with a solution or series of solutions or we will have one imposed upon us by people who have no idea about what we do in the classroom or what we are really trying to accomplish. And, in the second of those two options, I guaran-tee we will not like the solution. This is the scariest of thoughts.

Already in some states we have heard music teachers will be measured by student outcomes in… math! Yep, you read correctly. All that training to allow you to become the most effective teacher possible (using music as your educational tool of choice) will be re-

duced down to a measure of something you have no influence or control over.

This is what is at stake. So, here is what needs to happen:

• Getoverit–thisissueisnotgoingaway. Ignoring it will only put our profession at greater risk.

• Getaplan.Thereareplentyofdis-tricts that are trying out ideas on ways to meet the administrators’ objectives. In June, NAfME hosted a National Symposium on Music Assessment and Teacher Evalua-tion to tackle this very issue. Visit nafme.org or musicstandards.org.

• Besuretoreachouttoothermusiceducators and your state music edu-cators association to connect with those who may be tackling the same issues.

• Use social media to find and con-nect with your peers who are in-terested in this issue. The hash tags

#musiced #musedchat are great places to start.

The reality of teacher evaluation sys-tems in music is coming fast. It will be up to all of us in the music education field to ensure that the systems being implemented will measure our teach-ers based on their area of expertise and student growth… music.

Robert B. Morrison is the founder of Quadrant Arts Education Research, an arts education research and intelligence organiza-tion. In addition to other related pursuits in the field of arts education advocacy, Mr. Morrison has helped create, found, and run Music for All, the VH1 Save The Music Foundation, and, along with Richard Dreyfuss and the late Michael Kaman, the Mr. Hol-land’s Opus Foundation.

He may be reached directly at [email protected].

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Survey: Survival Guide

Sounding off:

and LifelinesObstacles

54%

School BudgetFundraising

Grants/Donations/sponsorships

13%

33%

Familiarity with technology (or lack thereof )

34%

33%

16%

8%

5%

4%

Nothing gets in my way!

Funding

Administrative support

Student enthusiasm/talent

Facilities/equipment

Parental/Community support

29%

18%

16%

13%

9%

7%

6%

2%

Humor

Computers/YouTube/the Internet

Festivals/competitions/honors choirs

My own experience/creativity

Guest clinicians

A Projector/Smart Board

Piano/Accompanist

SmartMusic/Finale

53%

24%

18%

4%

1%

Nearby colleagues

Friends & family

Music ed associations – ACDA, NAfME, etc.

A mentor

I’m all alone – help!

41%

32%

14%

11%

2%

Time management

In-class instruction

Funding/fundraising

Working with Administration

Incorporating technology


Surviving in vocal music education isn’t easy.

Between funding, red tape, scheduling con-

straints, standardized testing, increasing de-

mand for teacher accountability, changing technolo-

gy, and a host of other non-musical concerns, school

choral directors have an awful lot to worry about.

And that doesn’t even touch upon the challenges

within the classroom itself.

This recent reader survey aims to uncover those elements most critical for survival and success among school choral di-rectors: most common challenges and obstacles, lifelines, sup-port and funding, as well as the most helpful tools in choral classrooms. Pinpointing these pressing issues and, in particu-lar, how vocal music educators across the country deal with them, might provide an assist for those choral directors look-ing for a leg up. Whether a chance to see how others let off steam or to pick up a tip, this glimpse into choral classrooms is sure to have something of interest for anyone in the field.

What is the primary obstacle standing in the way of achieving all of your goals as a vocal music educator?

Survey.indd 16 9/21/12 2:02 PM


“After eight years of teaching, I stopped making excuses for why we weren’t going on tours and do-ing the challenges I wanted to give the singers and did it! You can find money if you can delegate and make the time. It is true though that you have to lay the ground work with setting up your plan.”

Natalie MillerOak Ridge High SchoolEl Dorado Hills, Calif.

“Scheduling, and retaining kids with the many college classes now offered in high school makes it impossible for some kids to stay in choir. How can you expect them to choose between cheap college credits and concert choir?”

Susan BuddLawrenceburg High School

Lawrenceburg, Ind.

“The one difficulty I face is that our school has an incredibly successful band program with a very charismatic director. Once I get kids in my pro-gram, they stay. The tough part is the initial recruit-ing. I must say, though, that the band director is very supportive of the choral program, and I always have some singers who are also in band.”

Lynn PerneznyWellington Landings Middle School

Wellington, Fla.

“I feel that I spend a lot of my energy on fund-raising and this takes away from what I am best at.”

Alberta SmithCentral High School

Springfield, Mo.

If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing related to your music program, what would it be?

“Having choir during the school day. Right now, I have choir on Tuesdays and Thursdays. With only two hours of instruction per week after school, competing for time with kids is tough.”

Ken Kleager, IIIJane Addams Middle School

Bolingbrook, Ill.

“I would have an assistant director so that we could offer more choirs.”

Michelle ByrnCaston School Corporation

Fulton, Ind.

“My time and energy levels. The students, par-ents, and administration are amazing... I just wish I had more time and energy to make it an even better program.”

Joy AugustineDes Moines Christian School

Urbandale, Iowa

“I would have create more connections between school and community music programs.”

Mary Lynn DohertyNorthern Illinois University

DeKalb, Ill.

Which of these areas is most challenging for younger/inexperienced teachers?

“Although we have some very well prepared young teachers, it is sometimes a challenge for them to simplify concepts so that students under-stand the basics and can move forward. Classroom management can also be an issue.”

Dianne JohnsonJefferson County Board of Education

Birmingham, Ala.

“Until you have proven yourself as a leader in the classroom and have earned the respect and co-operation of your students, I don’t believe any of the other listed areas will matter, will work, or are particularly needed. Unfortunately, gaining leader-ship, respect, and cooperation have little to do with the subject matter we spent our college years pre-paring to teach.”

Leah BaskinRock Valley Children’s Choir

Rockford, Ill.

54%



13%

33%


34%

33%

16%

8%

5%

4%


Funding





29%

18%

16%

13%

9%

7%

6%

2%

Humor




Guest clinicians


Piano/Accompanist

SmartMusic/Finale

53%

24%

18%

4%

1%

Nearby colleagues

Friends & family


A mentor


41%

32%

14%

11%

2%

Time management


Funding/fundraising





What is the biggest source of funding for your music program?

What/who is your most effective lifeline for support?

“We all have to be careful not to let our ‘friend tanks’ get too close to empty. This profession is very time consuming and it is easy to get out of balance.”

Chris FowlerBuford High School

Buford, Ga.

“My lifelines have changed through the years. As a young teacher, I don’t know how I would have made it without ACDA and NAfME and my connection with music colleagues within these two organizations. Now, I find myself in more of a mentor position giving back to ACDA and NAfME and relying more on my colleagues within my school building for support and opportunities to vent.”

Peggy Leonardi BucheitHamilton Middle & High Schools

Hamilton, Mt.

“Our district has a wonderful music coordinator who is available for support. I also talk with the band and orchestra teachers here at school.”

Jackie FosterSneed Middle School

Florence, S.C.

What is your most helpful teaching tool?

“Although I am an accomplished pianist, my accompa-nist is my absolute right-hand person! I require an accompa-nist at my school who is competent and can almost read my mind. That person must be knowledgeable and enjoys being in the classroom with the students.”

Connie ColemanBixby High School

Bixby, Okla.

“I can do a lot with humor! We just got Smart Boards this week, and I know that will be helpful. I’m also hoping to get Finale (which I had years ago). I learn a great deal at festivals and competitions.”

Judy AbramsLeonard J. Tyl Middle School

Oakdale, Conn.

“I find so many wonderful teaching tools on the Internet. I am able to research each choral piece to make sure that my students are informed about the nuts and bolts of each of their pieces.”

Megan Wicks-RudolphVestavia Hills High School

Vestavia Hills, Ala.

54%



13%

33%


34%

33%

16%

8%

5%

4%


Funding





29%

18%

16%

13%

9%

7%

6%

2%

Humor




Guest clinicians


Piano/Accompanist

SmartMusic/Finale

53%

24%

18%

4%

1%

Nearby colleagues

Friends & family


A mentor


41%

32%

14%

11%

2%

Time management


Funding/fundraising



54%



13%

33%


34%

33%

16%

8%

5%

4%


Funding





29%

18%

16%

13%

9%

7%

6%

2%

Humor




Guest clinicians


Piano/Accompanist

SmartMusic/Finale

53%

24%

18%

4%

1%

Nearby colleagues

Friends & family


A mentor


41%

32%

14%

11%

2%

Time management


Funding/fundraising



54%



13%

33%


34%

33%

16%

8%

5%

4%


Funding





29%

18%

16%

13%

9%

7%

6%

2%

Humor




Guest clinicians


Piano/Accompanist

SmartMusic/Finale

53%

24%

18%

4%

1%

Nearby colleagues

Friends & family


A mentor


41%

32%

14%

11%

2%

Time management


Funding/fundraising




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A lot of them will never have this experience again. So I feel like it’s my job to just take them to the highest level that I possibly can.“ ”

CDUpClose: Sarah Baker

UpClose.indd 20 9/21/12 2:04 PM


CC

For one week in July this year, the entire international choral world cen-tered on an event in the United States – the World Choir Games in Cincinnati, Ohio. A gathering of thousands of singers from around the world, the event features competition in dozens of categories and countless musical styles in performances that last all day long and spill out into the lobbies and streets of the city. Many of the world’s most talented students and educators were in attendance and more than a handful of unforgettable performances graced the stage at US Bank Arena.

How a small Ohio choir in dire financial straits climbed the podium at the World Choir Games


CC

”

By Matt Parish



One of the best success stories from the Games, though, was that of hometown underdog Little Miami Select Women’s Chorale, who over-came years of budget cuts and a fail-ing school financial system to score an unexpected silver medal in the “Youth Choirs for Equal Voices” cat-egory. Just two years ago, the school was placed in the state’s care after being designated a fiscal emergency (one of seven such districts in the state) after years operating with no money. Vital arts, music, and gym classes were cut completely through-

out many of the elementary schools in the district.

The district’s sole choir instructor, Sarah Baker, didn’t let that deter her. Through old fashioned hard work and determination, this native of rural Ohio kept her students on task and prepared for one of the biggest stages in the choral world.

Baker overcame challenges like get-ting kids to competitions without bus-ses, planning a high school program with no feeder system, and orches-trating a full calendar of fundraising events throughout the year to get the

choir to that esteemed place in the fi-nal standings. No easy feat. Now the choir has been selected to perform at the Ohio Music Education Association Professional Conference this winter in Columbus and, beyond that, has been automatically granted a spot in the 2014 World Choir Games in Latvia, both of which present their own com-prehensive set of challenges.

For now, though, Choral Director wanted to check in with this uniquely accomplished director to talk about the different ways she’s managed, with extremely limited resources, to get such incredible results.

Choral Director: Congratulations on your medal at the Choir Games! It’s great to talk to so soon after your performance there.

Sarah Baker: I was so excited! It was really awesome for me and the girls in the ensemble to see just how important it is – all the stuff that they do. I don’t think they’ve ever been re-ceived by an audience quite like that. I mean our girls have been received with standing ovations and cheers be-fore, but this was – we felt like rock stars.

CD: You’ve found yourself in a fair-ly unique and challenging position. What’s the situation like in the Lit-tle Miami School District?

SB: There have been nine failed levies since I started here 12 years ago. They finally passed a levy last No-vember, but by then the district was declared insolvent and the state had taken over. So now we have a state ap-pointed board that our school board has to work in conjunction with to get approval with for anything. The state has control of all the money in our district. They cut all the primary music classes – from K-5 or 6, there was no music. No elementary music, art, or physical education. So a lot of teachers were cut or were moved into other positions. It’s been quite an ad-justment. We have an excellent band program in middle school and that band director’s program was slashed a lot. They went down to bare bones – intermediate band and junior high

“



band. He had a wonderful jazz band program and they cut all that. We had a 7th and 8th grade choir in our pro-gram up until three years ago, which I taught my first two years here. For 2012-2013, there are no junior high choirs at all.

CD: So you’re basically at the end of your high school students who have known training. It’s time to see what it’s like with no choral feeder program.

SB: Right. A lot of students are coming to us now who have never had any music training at all. It’s probably been four or five years since they’ve had any real study of music of any kind in elementary school. My students in the auditioned choir usually have a different mindset when they come in – they do more things like singing in church or in local choirs like the Cin-cinnati Children’s Choir and that kind of thing. But when you get students to come into the other choirs that have never been in a choir before, you have

to start from scratch. They couldn’t even tell you what a staff was.

CD: Are there any funding issues with what you do with your choirs throughout the day?

SB: I basically get no funding from the school. I used to have $3,000 -5,000 a year in the budget, which was wonderful. I could buy music, tune my pianos, and buy other little things to help out, but I haven’t had that for years. The students have to pay a $10 fee to be in the choir and that’s how I tune pianos and purchase music.

CD: So then do you have to raise a significant amount of money through fundraising?

SB: I find that we make the most money when I take our select choirs out in public and we perform every-where that we possibly can. People just give us donations. We did 13 performances in December alone. When my women’s chorale was

nominated for the Champion’s Divi-sion in the Choir Games, we had to raise $3,000 by December. No fund-ing from the school was available, so we went out and sang at concert after concert. We got anywhere between $100 and $200 for every little con-cert that we’d do.

CD: Where were you performing?

SB: We did a show at the Cincin-nati Women’s Club, the Cincinnati Country Club, some churches – we were really fortunate that we did a community Christmas concert here in Lebanon where one lady felt so sorry for us that she wrote a $1,000 check the next week. It was amaz-ing. If it hadn’t have been for her and another couple from my church, where the girls performed one Sun-day morning, it would have been tough. There was another church up the road from the high school that gave us $1,500. That’s the easi-est way for us to make money, but it does take time.

I don’t think they’ve ever been received by an audience quite like that. I mean our girls have been received with standing ovations and cheers before, but this was – we felt like rock stars.“ ”



CD: Do you get a lot of volunteer effort?

SB: I have a handful of parents that step forward to do the things like the bake sales and carwashes and those kinds of things. Concerts and stuff, driving kids places. Our high schools haven’t had bussing for two or three years. So when we go to contests or anything like that, we’re always car-pooling. When we went to Cincinnati for the Games, my superintendent and the transportation director did pro-vide bussing for us, because it was five solid days of going down and back be-tween here and the city. So we were really grateful that they did that.

CD: Sounds like the cuts have been pretty substantial across the board!

SB: People just want to go down to “bare bones” education. “We just need reading, writing, and arithmetic. We don’t need phys-ed. We don’t need music. We don’t need the ‘extra stuff.’” They all call it “extra stuff.” They think because they economy is tough, we just need to cut everything.

CD: Have you seen an effect on the kids since the programs have been cut?

SB: I think the morale is low. They don’t have the outlets they used to have. Several years ago, I also directed the high school musicals and I got to see how excited the kids were to do those kinds of things. Lots of honors students and other kids who didn’t have many opportunities anywhere else had a place there to shine. It was somewhere they could feel valued in what they did.

I think when you work with kids every day and you see the effect that it has on them, then you understand. I really think people would have hollered if they cut all the athletics. They’re not so noisy when they cut K-3 art, music, and phys-ed, but I bet if we didn’t have football on Friday nights, people would be upset. I love sports and I ran cross country and did track and played softball in high school. And I was in the marching band. It isn’t that I’m against athletics, but I think we need to be fair to all the

students in what they’re doing.

CD: And like you’re saying, there are large groups who don’t get ful-filled from those sports.

SB: My daughter, who is a junior this year, is a straight A student, and having the outlet of singing in choir is just something she needs. She’d get burnt out throughout the day without that chance to just focus on some-thing like singing. And she’s in my top ensemble, so it’s not like she’s doing easy pieces. They’re very challenging in their own right, but it’s a different kind of challenge.

CD: Have you been able to find some kind of outside support from other organizations with grants or awards?

SB: I’ve applied for grants from people that are OMEA sponsored. Last year, there were a couple of dif-ferent grants that I applied for like the Glee Give-a-Note Foundation and the Grammy Foundation. We’ve had re-ally bad luck with grants because we don’t have free and reduced lunch programs and things like that. People look at our school district from the outside and they see a district that should be able to finance itself. We’re not an inner city school, we don’t live in an old coal mining town – I mean, it’s just really hard to convince a cor-poration or a foundation that we need money.

CD: How is the choral social net-work in your area for helping out?

SB: I have a lot of friends in the area that are choir directors and band

directors, and sometimes just having their encouragement to keep going is the best help. Maybe the students don’t realize just how much you’re do-ing for them right now, but someday they’ll get it. Being reminded of that is great. I’m really good friends with Charles R. Snyder, who directs the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir, for which I was on staff full-time for eight years. My college professor from OU – I’ll call these people sometimes just weeping. “What am I gonna do?”

And my husband is probably the most unsung hero in the whole thing. I don’t know how many times I just wanted to quit, but being a musician himself – he’s a brass teacher – he just gets what I do and he knows just how much work and heart and soul you have to put into these things.

CD: And through it all, you and the choir made it to the Games. How was that?

SB: Just to be around people from all the different countries and singing everywhere was incredible. People were singing in the convention hall, singing in the busses, singing on the sidewalks – everywhere you went, there were people singing. And I have girls that would do that in our hallways at school and people would tell them to stop! Why would you do that? It’s so much better than listening to profane language from these other kids yelling at each other and every-thing. You’re gonna yell at somebody for singing? It was nice to see that free-dom and great for the kids to see that.

CD: How did the Games differ from their typical competition?

Little Miami High SchoolLocation: 3001 East US 22 & 3, Morrow, OhioOn the Web: www.littlemiamischools.comStudents in the Choral Program: 140Total enrolled at LMHS: 895

AT A GLANCE



SB: It’s more relaxed. At the Choir Games, people could take pictures whenever they wanted. They were able to celebrate what the kids were doing, and they’re able to feel the energy more. We get wonderful re-sponses from our OMEA audiences, but sometimes I feel like it needs to be golf claps. [laughs] At the World Choir Games, we felt like people could stand and cheer at the end of the perfor-mance and not be afraid of being pe-nalized if they did that. People were really good about it – they’d stay in their seats and take their little snap-shots and not do it during an actual song. I didn’t feel like it was distract-ing at all – I just thought it gave the girls so much positive energy.

The thing that I like about OMEA is that we’re able to get feedback from colleagues. That really helps us build in our learning and our skill. At the World Choir Games, if you wanted to receive feedback from judges, you had to participate in an evaluation session.

My girls were the guest choir for a workshop session and we got to work with a director from Singapore. The girls and I had to dive into learning something in Mandarin, which was really exciting because none of us had ever done something like that before! We really had the opportunity

to broaden our horizons with all this multi-cultural music.

CD: Were you notified of the results of the completion soon after your performance?

SB: No. Our performance was the first full day of the games, so we had to wait three more full days before we could find out how we did! They put us on this big stage in US Bank Arena, and they go through every category, every single choir, and announce in front of all those people what your score was and what medal you earned. It was exciting, but I was a nervous wreck that whole day. I don’t think my girls could have sung any better than they did, though. They just sung their heart out. They ranked with all the other international choirs and they should be bursting at the seams with pride. I’m not sure they really under-stand the caliber of the event, but they don’t need to.

CD: Is there anything with that choir in particular that you try to focus on?

SB: I try to get them to do as many different kinds of pieces as we pos-sibly can. We do everything from re-naissance pieces to 20th Century stuff.

We do jazz, we do pop, and we do classical. We have pieces written spe-cifically for women’s choirs. There’s nothing but a high expectation for that group. They do pieces that pro-fessional women’s choirs and college women’s choirs would do. The level of commitment is very high. A lot of girls aren’t going into music and – not that that’s necessary in college to par-ticipate in a choir – but a lot of them won’t and will never have this experi-ence again. So I feel like it’s my job to just take them to the highest level that I possibly can.

CD: Sounds like an ethic that could translate well to the rest of their lives.

SB: I totally credit my parents for it. Growing up on that farm an hour and a half away from any big city, I didn’t have all the opportunities that I might have had if I was closer to a city. But I did have activities like lo-cal community theater, church, and 4H clubs, and I never saw two people work harder than my parents. I think they instilled that in me.

One of the stories I told my girls before the Games was about the expe-rience I had with the horses, showing horses in 4H. I didn’t have the $20,000 horse. I didn’t have the private trainer.

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I didn’t have the best of everything you could possibly have. But what I had was determination. My dad would stand in the middle of the ring when I

was too young to ride by myself and he’d say, “We need to practice this, this, and this.” My parents were not horse people and my dad was not a trainer – he had no idea. He asked a lot of questions, though. A lot of questions.

I told the girls, “Do you know how gratifying it was to know how hard I’d worked, especially if I’d go in and win a class, or even place really high in the class, knowing that I was com-peting against people who may-be had more things and more money?” When you know that you can compete with people, it means a lot. The costs do add up and it would be a lot easier, but if you have something in your heart, you can either sit there and feel sorry for yourself or you can try to make it work. I always tell the kids that I cannot do this

unless they want to do this with me. It takes so much of that teamwork. I’ve got a really great crew of singers.

CD: With the next World Choir Games on the horizon (in a loca-tion not nearly as convenient for you as Cincinnati), challenges must already be mounting for you again.

SB: The 2014 World Choir Games is in Latvia so we’re going to need to raise close to $2,000 per student to go. With the success that we’ve had and all the challenges on the way to being successful, I want to be sure that we can get that done. So I have a wonder-ful parent who is being my champion by looking for corporate sponsorship, and that’s something we’re investigat-ing this year. We’re going to work on getting grants and refining that strat-egy – we need to find a different way to convince people that we need help. I just know that I have to keep push-ing because the success these kids will feel is going to carry over to whatever to whatever career they choose. You just have to put your head down and keep working.

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Ask most students to sight sing by themselves or in a small

group and you are sure to witness a reaction of dread or

even terror. Many developing singers admit to feeling inad-

equate when reading music, let alone reading music unaided, in front

of peers, or for an assessment. Compounding the issue for singers

includes the psychological effects of the quality of their musicianship

reflecting in direct proportion to their ability to sight read. Perfor-

mance anxiety and basic musicianship skills come together in a “per-

fect storm” of questions such as “What do I do first?” “How do I find

my first pitch?” and “How do I know I did well?”

By Adam Wurst


‘The Cloud’

As teachers, we may spend adequate amounts of time training our choirs to sight sing as an ensemble only to find that students still require additional help when having to read by themselves. In a group setting, it may be easier for stu-dents to recall the steps for working through an exercise but quickly forget what to do next when performance pressure and anxiety weigh in. The Internet provides many resources that give developing musicians the confidence needed when pre-paring to sight read independently. Using these technology resources, primarily

Empowering Developing Sight Singers

through “drill and practice” methods, reinforces the concepts of theory and ear training taught during rehearsals as well as develops independent skills for your singers, which encourages greater confidence and assurance.

Drill and practice methods using quality Internet tools are highly ef-fective in reinforcing theory and ear training concepts from the rehearsal. Research from the Malawi Institute of Education supports this method espe-cially in the development of language learning:

“Drill is the repeated hearing and use of a particular item. This technique is most helpful in language learning. As a form of repetition, drills enable one to focus sharply on particular points…and can be fun if the teacher is lively and enthusiastic about it.”1

Particular strengths of providing drill and practice ear training activities through online resources include in-

Performance.indd 28 9/21/12 2:06 PM

School Band and Orchestra • September 2012 29

creasing pupils’ understanding of pre-vious work, sharpening the skill under practice, and providing a foundation on which higher level cognitive skills can be built.

Before introducing some incredible Web resources for your Theory and Ear Training Toolbox let’s address some ca-veats:• For clarity, this article will inter-

changeably use sight “sing” and “read” for teachers who may use one term over the other.

• Thearticlewillstrivetoprovideasmany quality resources for a variety of age groups and musical develop-ment without entering into an in-depth review of the pros and cons of each website.

• Thefocuswillbegearedtowardthedevelopment and reinforcement of the singer as an individual. While many of the resources may be used in a group setting, the intention is to offer suggestions for strengthening the ability and confidence for each singer independently.

• Thisarticlewill focusontheInter-net resources that provide perfor-mance-based ear training exercises as opposed to strictly providing “worksheet” type drills for theory.

One of the most comprehensive musictheoryresourcesontheInternetis Ricci Adams’ musictheory.net (Fig-ure 1). This flash-based website offers musicians the opportunity to interact with theory lessons, exercises, and oth-

er tools. An added benefit is that stu-dents can down-load a copy for use when they are not online. I haveused musictheory.net successfully with both middle and high school students in small group and individ-ual settings. While the lessons portion of the site is very good, the power for developing sight singing skills is found in the exercises area.2 There are 13 varieties of train-ers each capable of being customized for student’s specific need of drill and practice. Of particular interest is the ability to customize the sound used in the ear training demonstrations. Using electronic sounds in the ear training of singers has long been known to be less effective than an acoustic instru-ment. However, using a flute or clari-net sound has produced greater results and much improved accuracy when working with my students.

Perhaps my favorite feature in this rich training toolbox is the ability to show or print a Progress Report at theendofanactivity(Figure2).Thisfeature has proven quite valuable in gauging students’ progress and keep-ing them accountable in their quality of work. Particularly helpful is the in-formation that reflects how many ex-ercises were skipped in the process of completing the activity.

Learning to sight read is similar to learning a different language. Actually, thinking of the process of sight read-ing as processing multiple languages at once may be more helpful as we con-sider why developing musicians strug-gle with the concept:

“Suppose you had studied a second language. You can read well-formed sentences composed by someone else if they are given to you in writing, but you can’t converse easily. You can under-stand spoken phrases if you can listen to a recording of them re-peatedly and write them out, but you can’t deal with them quickly enough to have a conversation. You can make phrases yourself, but not in real time. You have to write them out and make lots of revisions. Would you call yourself fluent?”3

Sight singing involves a complex variety of musical languages such as pitch, rhythm, melody, articulation, and expression. Add to these musical elements the use of sight singing “lan-guage” such as Solfege, numbers, or neutral syllables and it becomes clear why it is important to be able to fo-cus on various skill sets one at a time. JTheory Creations’ eMusicTheory of-fers a tool for rhythm performance and rhythm dictation that connects what the student hears with what they see as well as giving them a chance to per-formtheexample(Figure3).

An interesting feature is the ability to play sounds during the exercise or turn all sounds off. Setting the sounds to “No” causes the drill to use a flashing metronome instead of an audible click Figure 1

Figure 2



(Figure 4). When focusing in on this feature there was a group of students in each class that expressed much higher success when concentrating on the flashing metronome rather than inter-acting with sound.

Finding a quality ear training cloud resource that is fully customizable yet simple enough for developing singers to use independently was not difficult. José Rodríguez Alvira’s Teoria.com is a musician’s powerhouse, which can be fully personalized for the specific ear training areas that need to be devel-oped (Figures 5 and 6). Teoria.com is a web resource that can provide constant guidance in developing and maintain-ing the musician’s ear through every stage of development. Its robust cus-tomization of features allows for skill development and training for interme-diate to advanced musicians. Adding variety to drill and practice through timed exercises, limiting tests with a maximum time to answer, focusing on ascending or descending intervals only, studying variations of clefs, and offer-ing a variety of methods for inputting answers, make this an incredible edu-cational resource.

To encourage my students further, as well as vary the theory environment, I have developed small groups or teams to work together in a “competitive” set-ting using Teoria.com. Having students work together in a timed setting in-spires teamwork and imposes pressure to answer quickly and correctly. In an

Online Ear TrainersThe resources listed here are online and, at the time of this article, do not require pur-

chase or membership

Ricci Adams’ www.musictheory.netwww.musictheory.net

A comprehensive resource for beginning to intermediate musicians. Lessons and exercises are available for independent skill development. The progress report is a unique and easy way to track students individual progress for monitoring mastery.

JTheory Concepts emusictheory.com/practice

A good tool for beginning dictation, especially rhythm dictation. An excellent option of allowing for hearing the dictation or turning off the sound and only seeing the dictation.

Neil Hawes Learn to SightSing www.neilhawes.com/sstheory/sitesing.htm

An interesting and somewhat unique beginning point for sight readers that encourages repro-ducing a note and actively listening to your voice. This resource would be more powerful with an online tuner so the young singer could visually gauge intonation.

Ear Training Guide eartraining.tumblr.com/tagged/Ear_Training_Online_Tools

Not a very user-friendly website that provides a moderate resource for cloud-based sight read-ing tools.

Online Ear Trainer 2.0 www.iwasdoingallright.com/tools/ear_training/main

A great resource that is able to be customized for very complex interval and chord training. Would have gotten 5 stars if there was a way to view accuracy and progress.

Music Tech Teacher www.musictechteacher.com

By the sheer number of resources in the games and music help section, this free resource is a powerful arsenal for the music teacher. Graphics and interactivity keep younger students engaged and entertained while learning fundamental music concepts.

Teoria Music Theory Web www.Teoria.com

The most comprehensive and customizable cloud resource for intermediate to advanced mu-sicians. Complex ear training drills include basic and jazz progressions with immediate feedback as to the student’s progress. Utilizes melody and chord training.

Figure 3 Figure 4


School Band and Orchestra • September 2012 31

effort to succeed, students will create a peer teaching environ-ment, explaining the theory concept in a supercharged tempo of the game in order for the developing student to “win one for the team.” Similarly, students who become bored with the process of sight reading, dictation, or theory can be reenergized by being paired with another student who is not experiencing success. Additionally, it instills a pride and camaraderie when the singers succeed together.

The Internet has always provided a forum for tools, tips, and strategies to be shared and developed among professionals and interest groups. Having access to free quality tools on the cloud affords the opportunity for musicians to develop skills apart from having to purchase programs and software that can be cost prohibitive. Costly updates are no longer an issue thereby outdating a valuable software investment. Using purchased software in a large group rehearsal environment which is in-tended for individual application does not promote tailored in-struction in the same way that ear training and theory websites support personalized progress.

It is important to realize the goals of assessment in devel-oping singers. When is the point where musicians need to be encouraged for their effort regardless of level of accuracy and success? How can the effective teacher create an opportunity for students who may struggle and fail when asked to sight read individually or in a small group setting? The most important aspect to sight singing successfully, whether in a group setting

Figure 5

Figure 6


www.colonialwilliamsburg.com


or in an individual or small group setting, is consistency and fre-quency. It takes time to develop the skills necessary for success-ful sight reading. It takes time to reinforce the skills needed to recall things at a quick pace. It takes time to practice developing skills so they become second nature. After all, independent singers make for more confident singers, who make for a better choir.

Adam Wurst is currently serving as director of vocal music at Allendale Middle School, overseeing more than 250 students each day in six curricular gender-based choirs. Adam is an ac-tive member of the Michgian School Vocal Music Association (MSVMA) having served as a State Solo & Ensemble supervisor, hosting choral festi-vals and 6-7-8-9 Honors Choir rehearsals; he is currently an active adjudicator and serves as the state technology coordinator.

Adam actively supports the collaboration between public education and profes-sional artists, having introduced performers, authors, composers, and master teachers into the classroom setting. He has presented at the MSVMA Summer Workshop, the Midwestern Music Conference, and the Michigan Music Conference with topics relating to recruitment, working with boy’s changing voices, and improving communication and organization through technology.

1Malawi Institute of Education. Participatory Teaching And Learning: A Guide to Methods and Techniques. Domasi: Malawi Institute of Education, 2004. 3-4. Malawi Institute of Education. Web. 6 Aug. 2011.

www.equip123.net/equip1/mesa/docs/ParticipatoryTeachingLearning.pdf.2Adams, Ricci. Ricci Adams’ musictheory.net. Ed. Ricci Adams. N.p., n.d. Web.

www.MusicTheory.net. 3Murphy, John. IWasDoingAllRight. N.p., 5 Jan. 2006. Web. 6 Aug. 2011.www.iwasdoingallright.com>.

Adam Wurst Page 8 [email protected]

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UNISON“Oliver Cromwell”Benjamin Britten (Boosey & Hawkes)Easy

2013 marks the 100th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s birth. While he may be best known to choral musicians for his “War Requiem” and “Five Flower Songs,” Britten also wrote wonderful music for younger voices. His setting of this Suffolk nursery rhyme is whimsical with an imaginative piano part. Students will enjoy this piece’s lightheartedness and silly text.

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SSA“What If I Never Speed?”John Dowland, arr. Russell Rob-inson (Carl Fischer)Medium-Easy

This is a wonderful intro-duction to the music of John Dowland. Celebrate the 450th anniversary of his birth by pro-gramming this interesting mad-rigal. Students will enjoy the beautiful homophony and be challenged by the brief “echo”

Choral musicians enjoy a wealth of literature

spanning more than five centuries. With

the tremendous amount of compositions

from which to choose, programming a concert can

easily become overwhelming. I’ve found choosing

pieces based on the anniversary of world events or

composers’ birth and death dates not only helps me

narrow my search, but is also an incredibly useful

tool to help students contextualize music within his-

tory. Consider programming these or other works

by Britten, Dello Joio, Dowland, Hindemith, Pou-

lenc, and Verdi. Because 2013 also marks the 150th

anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and

the Battle of Gettysburg, I’ve included several pieces

to commemorate the Civil War.

By John C. Hughes

Repertoire Forum: Commemorating Anniversaries

Musical & Historical Anniversaries in 2013

Rep Forum.indd 34 9/21/12 2:07 PM


passages. This adaptation is also avail-able in a three-part mixed voicing.

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TTB“Tell My Father”Frank Wildhorn (Hal Leonard)Medium Easy

Two important events of the Civil War will be remembered in 2013: the Emancipation Proclamation and the Battle of Gettysburg. Remember them at a concert by performing “Tell My Father,” from The Civil War: An Ameri-can Musical, which received a Tony nomination for “Best Original Score” in 1999. The text is written from the per-spective of a fallen soldier, making this piece very powerful. It not only offers an opportunity to feature a soloist, but also calls for an optional violin part, which, if feasible, would certainly add to the character of the piece. Audiences will be very moved by a performance of this wonderful work.

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“Say Love”John Dowland, arr. Patrick Liebergen (Alfred Music)Medium Easy

2013 will mark the 450th anniversa-ry of John Dowland’s birth. Liebergen’s arrangement of this madrigal not only introduces male singers to the madri-gal style, but also has a piano part to reinforce the harmonies. “Say Love” is an excellent teaching piece, and sing-ers will enjoy the simple melody and rhythmic vitality.

bit.ly/uds6bs

SAB“Oh, Freedom!”Arr. John Purifoy (Hal Leonard)Medium Easy

“Oh, Freedom!” not only incorporates three important Civil War melodies (“Oh Freedom,” “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,” and “Battle Hymn of the Re-public”), but also draws words from the Emancipation Proclamation, making it a perfect piece to commemorate the 150th anniversary of that important document. With a Gospel-inspired piano part, not only would this piece serve as a won-derful concert closer, but it also would help inform your students of a key part of American history. It is also available in SATB and SSA voicings.

bit.ly/pu4nik

SATB:“Legacy”Z. Randall Stroope (Heritage)Medium

Legacy is a brand new piece by Z. Randall Stroope, written especially to

commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Its dissonant and dark moments balance nicely with grand, lush harmonies. The piano part adds a sense of boldness and power. This piece would certainly cre-ate an emotional climax at any concert. It is also available in a TTB voicing.


“Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”Giuseppe Verdi (Oxford)Medium

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In 2013, it will have been 200 years since the great Italian composer Gi-useppe Verdi’s birth. Taken from his opera Nabucco (1842) and based on the Israelites’ captivity in Babylon, “Coro di Schiavi Ebrei” (“Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”) offers a chance for choirs to sing a very famous opera cho-rus, as well as to sing in Italian, though the foreign language element is not necessary. This piece has been a stan-dard in choral literature for a long time, and for good reason!


“Come to Me, My Love”Norman Dello Joio (Hal Leonard)Medium Advanced

Norman Dello Joio is among the great American composers of the twen-tieth century, and 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of his birth. Dello Joio expertly captures the mystical and dark qualities of Christina Rossetti’s poem, “Echo.” With a dramatic piano part, lengthly a cappella sections, and

frequent chromatic movement, this piece requires significant time and skill; however, its powerful climax, fol-lowed by a haunting repose, will have a lasting impact on performers and audi-ences alike.

bit.ly/ujheom

Six ChansonsPaul Hindemith (Schott)Advanced

Paul Hindemith died in 1963,

making 2013 the 50th anniversary of his death. A renowned composer and teacher, Hindemith is known for writ-ing challenging yet rewarding pieces. Each of the six chansons is quite short and is strictly four parts; however, the independent lines and obscure harmo-nies require advanced training. The po-etry of Rainer Maria Rilke, in French, creates lovely, picturesque vignettes. It may not be necessary to do all six pieces; perhaps choose a few to create a shortened set.

bit.ly/gn02hr

“Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël”Francis Poulenc (Salabert)Advanced

2013 marks the 50th anniversary of Poulenc’s death. Poulenc is, at times, remembered for loud, brash music. However, his “Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël” are works of sublim-ity, depth, and complexity. They re-quire well-developed skills in tuning, ensemble, and range. While difficult, once learned, the beauty of these piec-es is intoxicating. Instead of doing the entire set, choose one or two. My fa-vorites are O Magnum Mysterium and Videntes Stellam.


John C. Hughes is a versatile choral musician and pedagogue, drawing from experience as a K-12 teacher, collegiate conductor, and church musician. Presently, Hughes is pursuing the D.M.A. in Choral Conducting and Pedagogy at The University of Iowa, as well as serving as a music di-rector at a church in Iowa City. Please contact him directly at his website: www.johnchughes.com.

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Networking the Jazz Arts Community …… Local to Global!

Register to exhibit today at:

JazzEdNet.org/Exhibitors

EXHIBIT AT THE

4TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE

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Make your organization part of the fastest growing event in the industry!

Hurry! Exhibit space is limited!Reserve your space by November 1, 2012, to ensure your

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cd september 2012

Documents

com2 choral director

choral director volume

needham ma

music of john dowland

wonderful music

brief echo choral musicians

highland circle

music parents america