Recently, I saw this comment on a Facebook group page for Music
Teachers:
“Why won’t my Middle School Choir Sing?”
When I read the comment, it brought back some frustrating
memories of my early days of teaching choir to this challenging age group.
I remember standing in front of my class and thinking, "Why
are these students in choir if they don't want to sing?!"
After having faced this exact scenario several times, I did some
deep and difficult soul searching, and it made all the difference for me. 25 years later, I am thriving while I teach
my middle school students, and so can you.
First, you must know. You
are not alone.
Many middle school chorus teachers experience this situation in
their classrooms, and it causes them to become disillusioned.
I, myself, almost left teaching altogether in part because I experienced
it too many times with my students.
After watching it morph into other forms that included numerous challenging
discipline problems, I found myself dreading going to work everyday.
Before I share how and why I believe this situation occurs, you
need to be prepared! The answer is not easy to hear.
Good News/Bad News…
Let’s share the good news first!
The good news is that there ARE solutions to this scenario that
will help your middle school program grow and thrive. The adjustments will take time, but we can
cause positive change to occur and begin working toward having a classroom of
motivated singers.
The Bad News…
Here it comes. Hold your
breath…
It's our fault they aren’t singing.
It’s not the administrator’s fault. It’s not the fact that your class is a dumping
ground. It isn’t the socio-economic
background of the students in your classroom.
It isn’t caused by block-scheduling, or the new SLO requirements, the
Common Core, or any other of the plethora of reasons with which we come up in
order to explain away the situation in which we find ourselves.
It’s us.
Ouch.
Do block-scheduling, common core, SLO requirements and all the
rest impact us in our classrooms? Sure
they do, and we should work toward changing them when it’s practical to do so,
but that is an entirely different subject for a different article.
We must remember one important fact: Our classroom is our oasis. No one has more impact on what goes on from
bell to bell than we do as the leader of that classroom. We can absolutely make
some changes in our daily approach that help create a fun and motivating
environment for learning to occur.
When I decided to take responsibility for the lip-syncing, unmotivated
middle school children who were sitting in front of me each day, everything
began to change. My program began to
grow exponentially, and I began to have fun teaching my students.
Facing the difficult fact that it was my fault is the reason
that I am still teaching this age group today.
Ok...now that's over.
Let’s talk about 5 potential causes along with some ideas that
will help us work toward creating
enthusiastic middle school singers!
Reason
#1:
Reading a Choral Octavo is like reading
a book in Russian.
It took me a while to realize how little my middle school
students knew when they walked into my door at the beginning of the year.
When I handed them a choral octavo for the first time, I noticed
they would rarely even bother to look at it.
They chose to learn it by ear partly because they had no clue
where to look on the page.
For them, it was epically confusing.
Most of my students come from strong elementary feeder programs,
but most have had music only one time a week for 30 minutes each session.
It is not possible to teach the details that I was expecting of my
students in that amount of time.
I realized that I had to change my expectations and meet them
where they were when they arrived. I needed to work to find fun,
interesting ways to deliver the material about reading music so that they not
only learned it, but enjoyed the process of learning it.
Instead, at the time, I would look at them and yell, "Why
isn't anyone singing?!? If you don't sing, I'm going to go down the line
and make you sing by yourself!"
What an awful way to inspire good singing…
We must remember this important fact: In general, middle school children aren’t
risk-takers.
I soon realized that most of them didn't have any idea what a
staff or system or measure is. All they are thinking as I am yelling at
them is this: “Sing alto? What's that?
Sing forte? What is that and how am I supposed to know when or how
to do it without singing out of tune or by using a harsh tone quality?! Why
is he yelling at me?! You want “loud”,
I’ll give you loud!”
…and it turns into an awful situation. They are confused. They sound awful. It spirals out of control from there.
It also became clear to me that, when I was finally able to get
them to put their eyes on the music, most of my students were simply following
the words on the page, and even THAT didn't make sense to them. When they were looking at a 2-part or 3-part
piece, they didn't understand where to go when they reached the last measure of
a system. In elementary school, time is so limited that it is a common
practice for teachers to hand their elementary students a piece of paper with
words on it, yet I was expecting them to magically figure out how to read the
alto line in a two-part score that included piano accompaniment and drums, for
example.
And when you consider the fact that many 6th graders
still struggle with basic reading skills, it’s no wonder nobody was singing! They
can’t even read most of the words! …Especially
when the words are written like this:
To-mor- row is
go- ing to be a
bea- ti- ful day.
And I had the audacity to ask why no one was singing?
Recognizing and empathizing with what our beginning middle
school students don't know is so very important.
Here is an analogy: When they look at a 2 or 3 part piece
of music that includes dots, curved lines, fractions, grids and symbols
with which most of them have little or no experience, they feel the same we
would feel if someone asked us to read aloud a book that is written in Russian.
It's a vicious cycle, and the only way to break it is to teach
them one concept at a time steadily, creatively and deliberately each and every
day and to do it in a way that they thrive and enjoy the process of
learning.
Does that mean you might teach from rote sometimes?
Sure…and I don’t think you should feel badly about it as long as you are
gradually giving them the tools they need in their toolbox in order to become
proficient sight singers. More on
“rote-teaching” later…
It helped me when I compared the learning of music literacy to
the learning of language: I don’t know
any four-year-old children who can read and write every single word they are able
to speak and understand in a sentence.
Once I realized how much my beginners didn’t know, the
atmosphere in room began to shift. It
went from me being frustrated and yelling about them not singing to me
patiently teaching important concept and their faces lighting up with the slow
unveiling of the mystery of what the dots, dashes, and curved lines on the page
of music mean.
Reason #2:
They don't like the
music you've chosen.
During
my career, I’ve seen many teachers with incredible degrees from awesome
universities struggle enormously with picking music for their middle school
chorus. They walk into their middle
school classrooms filled with beginners, and they expect their singers to dive
into an a capella Latin piece. The
children can’t run into the counselor’s office fast enough to get their
schedules changed.
Programs
shrink or die altogether.
With
middle school children, we cannot be musical snobs.
"Does
this mean I have to teach Pop music?!"
The
answer is unequivocally no...unless teaching that style of music really excites
YOU!
So,
what can we do to improve our music choices?
First,
we must remember that middle school students respond to our passion. So,
if we are passionate about teaching pop music, then pop music should be some
part of what we teach in our classrooms.
I
believe that we must find a way to “throw our students a bone” during every
term and sing at least one song that truly revs their engines. It certainly
should be something we enjoy teaching as well. We must remain open minded
in the same way we expect them to open up to our a capella Latin piece.
Too
many of us have a sort of “high brow” approach to music selection that usually
does not work well with this age group.
We respond, “That’s hokey!” when we hear a piece that we deem as silly
because perhaps it uses flashlight choreography or is supposed to be performed
in the dark with a fog machine.
All
I know is that my students LOVE that stuff!
In
fact, I’ve just described one of the most successful songs I sing with my own
students. It is one that I introduce
very early in the school year as part of my “hook” to help get them invested in
the choir at my school. It’s a Halloween song. On
the first day, as they listen to the piece, they get so excited as I describe
the fact that it will be performed in the dark with a fog machine and that each
student will be using a flashlight.
The
energy is palpable.
They
are invested!
Can
every song be like that? Of course
not! Nor would we want it to be.
With
this age group, we've got to re-think some of the hard-core classical
approaches to which we get so married in our university training. Should
we ever teach madrigals? Absolutely…but, once again, it shouldn’t be all
we teach… not with beginners….and especially if we want to attract a variety of
students and grow your program.
I've
spent my career teaching in public schools in three states. I
have learned so much from all of the students who have come from a variety of
ethnic, economic and cultural backgrounds about what they want in their choral
music experience. One of the most important things I’ve learned is
that they will sing just about anything you want them to sing if you have the
correct balance in your repertoire of “fun” music and more serious
music. The balance is crucial to the success of building a choral
program in middle school.
When
I choose music, I keep three things in mind:
1)
Choose one "fun" novelty piece per term.
2)
I want to teach at least one lyrical piece and at least one upbeat,
rhythmic piece so I can teach important concepts about good choral singing.
3)
I have to love every piece I’m teaching. If you don't love it, they
will sense it. Sometimes, I swear
they are psychic! If you choose songs you don’t like or songs you
think you must choose for some reason outside of yourself, you will be
miserable, and so will they!
If
you stick to these three principles, not only will they sing for you in class
daily, but your program will begin to grow in ways you may not have imagined.
Reason #3
We don't publicly
celebrate and recognize the positive things our students are doing.
All
it takes is a couple of seconds to positively acknowledge our students in front
of the class. They just want to be noticed, and when you do notice
them, all of the children around them work harder so they, too, might be
recognized. Here are some examples:
1) I love your posture
Charley. Everyone turn to page 3, measure 24."
2) "Sara!
Your mouth position on that 'ah' vowel is nice and tall! Everyone,
pull out the next song on the repertoire list for today."
3) "Row
three sopranos, you are creating overtones back there! It's stunning!
Everyone go back to measure 12 and sing it staccato to correct the
rhythm."
It’s
about quick, positive acknowledgement that lets the kids know that you notice,
and then moving on to the next correction you wish to make.
The
minute I make comments like these to my students, the children who’ve been
acknowledged feel great, and the kids around them start correcting the very
thing I complimented in their peer.
It
must be quick and clear. We must make sure every student hears the
positive remark. We must keep the lesson moving.
Fewer
words = More effective results.
That
rule applies whether we are praising or correcting our middle school
students.
Nothing
sucks the life force out of a middle school classroom room like a “lecture” on
what the children should be doing.
When
we praise what our choir students are doing well, the energy snowballs, and
more students enjoy process of learning to sing well.
Reason #4:
We don’t know how to introduce music.
It is possible to turn this age group against a new piece of
music in the first minute of introducing it to them for the first time.
I struggled for years with finding good ways to introduce a new
piece in a way that would peak their interest and excite them to want to dig
into the song and make it great.
During my first years in the classroom, I kept hearing the
voices of my college professors in my head:
“Don’t teach by rote! Make them
literate!”
I couldn’t figure out the balance of teaching “by rote” and
teaching literacy when I was introducing a new song.
Ultimately, the guiding force for me became the energy in the
room.
Like comedians in a comedy club, we can tell when we are
bombing. Kids this
age are transparent, and it is not easy for them to hide how they feel when we
are failing while we teach.
If you feel boredom and frustration from your students when you
teach a new song, it’s probably time to try a new approach to the introduction
of your new music.
In the early days of my career, my teaching process when I
introduced a new piece was way too slow.
I constantly demanded that they figure things out on their own yet I systematically
taught them the tools they needed to do it. I failed to see that there were ways to
teach new music that were much quicker and more fun and included developing their
ears using techniques that some might call “teaching by rote”.
I also didn’t realize how long it takes for their sight singing
abilities to catch up to their ability to sing a song that may be quite
difficult.
My students just wanted to sing, and all I was doing was stopping to talk, or
complain about how they missed something in the music or explain things they
simply were not ready or interested in learning yet. I tried to teach everything about sight
singing all the time, and as a result, they were learning nothing about sight
singing.
..and I talked too much.
I finally asked myself, “What exactly is ‘teaching by rote’? And who defines it? And how can I actually USE “rote teaching” to
give me opportunities to vary my teaching techniques while helping them become
better musicians?
I had to let go of some of those voices in my head from my
college professors. I had to focus on
finding ways to help my beginning students enjoy the process of learning a new
song.
Most of my students had never taken a private piano lesson, so I
had to work to find ways to keep them engaged during the learning of a new
piece while instilling, unveiling and building the important skill sets they
needed for sight singing. Literacy is
key to their continued growth and involvement as choral music singers, but
finding the proper balance wasn’t easy.
Now, I take about 10-15 minutes per day to focus specifically on
theory and sight singing, and I use the rest of the time while I am teaching
repertoire using rote techniques mixed with literacy teaching. If there is an opportunity to connect some
dots from the sight singing lesson of that day, I do it.
I started allowing my beginners to listen to recordings on the
first day of learning a new piece, and I turned it into a fun form exercise to
help them develop their ears. When
working on form with our beginners, however, we cannot turn it into a sophomore
college theory class exercise that uses terms like “ABA” form etc. Instead,
we must find ways to teach form that are engaging for them at THIS age.
Here is a form exercise I often do with my beginners:
While they are listening to a piece of music for the first time,
I ask them to draw pictures to represent new musical ideas when they hear them. I encourage them to be as crazy and
creative with their pictures as they want as long as they indicate the shape
and form of the song. If
the chorus happens twice, but the second chorus has a different ending than the
first, for example, their pictures should indicate the difference. If they drew a smiley face for
the first chorus, then they might draw a smiley face and add hair to the
drawing when they hear the chorus that has a slightly different ending.
It is hilarious to see some of the drawings that they create. When I call them up to share their drawings
on the Smart Board in front of the class, there is lots of laughter! The
best part is that they get to listen to the song multiple times while they are
creating the pictures. We can teach many good listening skills during
an exercise like this one when we teach them to listen to the smallest
differences in various phrases and to indicate those differences in their
pictures.
Creating excitement over a new piece of music is critical. If the students “check out” on a piece
because we’ve introduced it poorly, it’s really difficult to get them to give
the song a chance. The last thing we can
be with our middle school students is boring. It’s a nail in the coffin of our
programs. We must be open
to varied teaching techniques, and we must constantly work to find ways to help
them stay engaged and excited as we ease them into the learning of a new song.
Reason #5
We focus too much on technique and not
enough on developing their true artistry.
When I go to adjudicated choral festivals, I see lots of middle
school choirs who sing proficiently. By
that, I mean, it is evident the teacher taught diction, phrasing, dynamics,
etc.
I call those things “the basics”.
Most of us spend a lot of time on the basics or “technical side”
of music because our students NEED it!
However, we can suck the oxygen out of our singers if we
relentlessly seek technical perfection without balancing it with connecting the
music to their hearts and spirits.
Working toward technical perfection nonstop is boring to
them.
Let’s take an example from another Art Form….Cirque de Soleil…
Why do people love
watching Cirque de Soleil?
It’s not just the incredible athleticism that is displayed which
took countless hours of training and technical work to develop and perfect. It’s the unforgettable way our spirits
are moved when the athleticism is combined so beautifully with music and
lighting and costuming.
In our middle school classrooms, we have to inject more “Cirque
de Soleil” into our teaching.
When I watch the choirs whose teachers have focused entirely on
technique, it feels like eating cake that has no butter and sugar.
To quote the famous movie “Sixth Sense”… When I see and hear a
technically proficient performance in which it is clear the students are well trained
but have no idea about what they are singing, “I see dead people”.
I feel nothing.
The performance is utterly unmoving.
That is not what music is.
Teachers often ask, “How do I get them to who facial expression? Raise their eyebrows? Smile?”
My answer: From
the inside out.
Here is how you DON’T do it.
Don’t say “Raise your eyebrows! Smile! Sing with facial expression!”
With this age group, it doesn’t work.
Regardless of the obscurity of the meaning of the song and how
it seems to have absolutely no meaning to them in their young lives, we must take
the time to find a way to help them emotionally connect to a song.
Just talking about the meaning of the song for 2 mintues or
giving historical context will NOT do the trick.
We have to be willing to make them think. We have to help them connect some form
of the meaning of the song to their own lives in some way. We have to help them dig into themselves.
I tell my own students that, as choir singers, they are also
actors.
We, the teachers, must guide them through the treasure trove of
their life experiences to find a meaning that they can sing for that particular
song. When we take
the time to ask them to dig into their own life experiences to properly sing
the meaning, it means the world to them.
They notice the fact that WE value their own life experiences enough to
ask them to inject them and use them as they sing because, so often in their
young lives, their pain and their life experiences are dismissed.
Sometimes, it’s easy to change the energy in the singing.
For example, when I’m teaching “Sleigh Bells”, and they are
singing with absolutely no energy at all because it is a Wednesday and not a
Friday and they are hating school that day and their boyfriend has just broken
up with them and they have two projects due….blah, blah, blah…I stop the music,
and I say: “Do you like
snow days?” They usually
scream “YES!” Then, I
say, “Pretend that you just found out tomorrow is a snow day and then sing
it!”
Everything changes.
When I am able to successfully take them to some sort of
internal emotional moment to which they can relate for a particular song,
everything changes. Many of
the technical issues we’ve labored over correct themselves. They breathe bigger. They sing with truth. Their faces come to life. Their tone has energy. They smile.
They raise their eyebrows. They
do all of the things we want them to do, but this time, they do it with honesty
and truth.
Sometimes, it takes some time, and having a conversation about
the meaning of the song is worth the investment.
I have grown to love the days when we are focused on unveiling
the true meaning of the songs and helping them to find ways to connect it to
their lives. If we are singing a
spiritual, for example, we can certainly use it as an opportunity to discuss
how and why slaves sang spirituals. We can
acknowledge that none of us in the room have ever been slaves and that we cannot
know how the depth of the pain slaves must have felt, but we can ask them if
they’ve ever wanted to escape something painful in their lives. Have you every been a slave to something or
someone and wanted to break free?
In my experience, almost all of them have wanted to escape
something, and their entire energy changes when they are asked to place
themselves into that moment of personal truth and then to sing it as they sing
the spiritual.
Again…with that honest heartfelt singing, many aspects of their
music making change as they sing the song.
When you are able to help them find a meaning that is powerful
for THEM, connect to it, and deliver it, the energy of that rehearsal is so
powerful that they do not forget the experience, and they cannot wait to sing
it again.
Then, when the audience experiences it in a live performance,
their energy is also palpable as they receive this truly artistic moment.
…you will get goose bumps…
…and so will your students.
I think we probably all enjoy moments like these the most. When we are able to successfully make the
heartbeats of everyone who is making the music and receiving the music beat
together as one, it has enormous power, ignites great passion for singing and
is life-changing.
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