Senior High

Carrie Owens, Senior High Choirs

Stand Together

SSAB accompanied

Jim Papoulis

Boosey & Hawkes 48019165

Stand Together is a great piece for a non-auditioned high school or middle school choir at the beginning of the year. The text speaks about accomplishing more when we work together. Which is a great theme at the beginning of the school year. The rhythms are complex with sixteenth note tied across the beat. I used this to teach complex rhythms in our sight-reading.The melodic lines are stepwise and skips that are predictable. Students can be successful quickly and enjoy singing it.

Through the Dark

SATB accompanied

Andrea Ramsey

Pavane Publishing 08301900

Through the Dark has text adapted from the writings of Helen Keller. There is a lot of “meat” on this bone musically and depth of text. Musically there is mixed meter, harmonic dissonance, wide dynamic range, mostly homophonic passages, long phrases and varying tempos. The text speaks of light and darkness, sound and silence. My students related to this text very easily as we discussed the light and dark in our own lives. The piano accompaniment has little to do with the choir parts. Be sure your accompanist can listen to a recording before playing so they have an idea of the gestalt.

Your Smiling Face

SATB

James Taylor Arr. Ken Berg

Alfred 33137

If you are interested in Vocal Jazz or Pop A Cappella, but you are not ready to add vocal

percussion and movement, Your Smiling Face is a great jumping off point for top your

ensemble. This may be perfect for the lighter side of your spring concert. Audiences enjoy the throw back and your students will gain a knowledge of James Taylor’s music. Before choosing this chart be sure you have a solid singer that can handle the range of this solo. The accompaniment parts are repetitive. There is a key change, which presents a minor learning challenge. The texts and rhythms are mostly homophonic in texture. Enjoy!

Progressive Sight Singing Third Edition by Carol Krueger

Oxford University Press

Dr. Krueger’s approach to Sight Singing has reinvigorated my passion for teaching students to be musically literate. Progressive Sight Singing along with Dr. Krueger’s companion resources in her Dropbox (only $10 if you attend one of her workshops) have been an invaluable part of my classroom. She sequences ear training, sight-reading, dictation, rhythm, melody in an easy to follow procedure. You will choose your literature on what you want your students to master over the course of the year. This year my non-auditioned choirs have focused on major and minor tonalities, skips of a third and audiation within those scales. The literature I chose is primary major and minor. This spring I was able to choose a piece that goes back and forth from major to minor and my students are successfully reading this on solfege in two and three parts.

I highly recommend you attend one of her workshops. She will also be at Lakeshore Choir Camp June 18-22 as the High School Clinician. Please email Dr. Krueger for more information of her summer 2018 workshops at ckruegermusic@gmail.com