A director’s transformation: developing musicianship in the choral singer

Abstract

The pedagogy in this report is rooted in the information, skills, techniques, and perspectives that I have learned throughout my degree. Throughout my time completing the degree, I have moved from teaching middle school to teaching high school in very different socioeconomic situations, taught completely virtually, and taught simultaneous classes with online and in-person students all before returning to fully in-person instruction, at various times with and without masks and social distancing. As a result of these extracurricular influences combined with the coursework in my degree, I have undergone a significant shift in my methods of instruction. Through studying, comparing, and contrasting the philosophies of music education philosophers such as Jorgensen, Reimer, Eisner, and Elliott, my philosophical beliefs about why music and music education are important have changed as well. Prior to my degree, I often defended the importance of music education through a utilitarian defense and idolized high contest ratings. However, I now believe that developing the musicianship and the whole person are more important than contest ratings or defending music education because it potentially raises test scores. It is safe to say that who I am as a teacher and what I believe, do, and say, have all changed significantly throughout my time completing my master’s degree. The lessons presented in my recordings are typical of my rehearsal and class structure, but the design, activities, and specific techniques can all be individually traced to information gained from specific courses in my degree. The lessons are primarily focused on vocal warm-ups and technique building, literacy and ear training development, and preparing a song entitled Give Good Gifts for performance at our school’s spring concert and at graduation. Beginning before the videos ever start, my score study of Give Good Gifts is an example of the implications of what I have learned in my degree. Being at a new school this year and developing a choral program from a practically non-existent program has meant that the voicing of my lone chorus class is not well-aligned with traditional SATB choral voicing. Through my score study and as a result of my Advanced Choral Rehearsal Techniques and Arranging Choral Music courses, I was able to re-voice and re-assign specific parts, identify elements of the song that could be omitted, and accurately modify voice parts to meet the needs of my ensemble and the performance. My overall rehearsal structure, as shown in the video, emphasizes individual student ownership and placing the work of music learning on the singer. The vocal warm-ups shown in the videos and rehearsal techniques to prepare the song for performance are all heavily rooted in my Advanced Choral Rehearsal Techniques course. Additionally, the videos show students in leadership roles and students giving non-musical responses and reflections, which were emphasized in the Theories of Music Teaching and Organization and Administration of the Successful Music Program courses. Without the benefit of the coursework and faculty, I would not be the educator that I am today.