A huge tenant of my teaching philosophy is the idea of Multicultural Music Education. Thanks to highly influential professors in my undergraduate training and the opportunity to travel regularly, I work each year to make sure my students see diversity in every aspect of my choir room that they can. I don't claim to be the perfect shining example but I do hold myself to a high standard and hope you will consider some of the following ideas.
Basic tenants:
Things I avoid:
Challenges/Excuses and Possible Solutions
Benefits I've seen in my classroom:
Consider your classroom, community, and training. I am lucky to have open students, supportive administrators, and parents/guardians who allow me to take risks. Address your own bias, privilege, and insecurities. What are we not including and what does that say to your students and audiences? Who doesn't have a "voice" in our concerts? Resources to Check Out
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Comprehensive musicianship is a desire to expand what students study and the ways in which they participate in their learning. The CMP movement originated in Wisconsin in the 1970s and still offers training and sessions today. The heart of the approach seeks to make music education broader, deeper, and more meaningful for students. This is not a strictly "choral" approach as many band and orchestra teachers are CMP-trained.
The CMP model consists of five components:
In an ideal world, every student would have a full background history and context for every piece of music they perform. But how do we do this amidst the deadlines, pressures, and stresses of a teaching job? Basic questions we consider as we select repertoire:
Deeper questions about repertoire selection:
We tend to choose songs and then rehearse them. CMP encourages us to find the "hook" of a song and engage our students immediately in the deeper meanings of the music. While a thorough CMP analysis may not be possible for you to do for every piece of repertoire you have to accomplish in a year, perhaps start with one analysis per semester. Or one per concert. Any work we can do on the back end will only make our teaching that much more effective and meaningful. Interested in learning more?
The Great Choral Treasure Hunt
Many veteran teachers recommended I include a list of places to go for repertoire that is "off the beaten path." Whether it's independent publishers/composers or music specific to a particular culture or region, the world of choral publishing is definitely changing. Peruse these websites and go on a choral treasure hunt as you make exciting new discoveries! Check out this previous blog post with some ideas for beginning your search!
General Self-Published Composers International
Commission Don't forget you can commission composers to write a song specifically for your choirs! Encourage diversity in who you approach for composing and don't be afraid to take a risk on younger composers. Have a great online resource for repertoire I'm forgetting? Please let me know! One of the best pieces of advice I got as a beginning teacher was to have more options than you need for each concert for each ensemble. While you may have each choir sing 3-5 songs at a concert you should go into your new job with about 6-10 scores for each ensemble so you can have some flexibility with your new groups. That does not mean each group would sing that many songs, but once you know their abilities and interests you can narrow down your song choices in a more meaningful way. The longer you teach the more you know the abilities of your ensembles and how much repertoire you can manage for one concert cycle. I tend to over-program and give my students too many pieces with too many challenges (and not enough time). While I still sometimes fall into this bad habit again, I have definitely improved in my knowledge of how to pace and program. Set yourself up for success by planning, preparing, and learning from your mistakes! Organizing your Repertoire Ideas Check out my last post on the search for repertoire. We want to choose music that challenges our students and us as educators. Find a way to keep all of your repertoire ideas organized. I have file folders organized with single copies of perusals I have either ordered or picked up at reading sessions at conferences. When I am looking for ideas I can play through these folders and pull pieces that intrigue me. I also have magazine file holders for each concert for the year. Once I've narrowed down my ideas I'll put in single copies of songs into these so all my program ideas are in one spot. Last year I created a Google spreadsheet of all of my repertoire ideas I want to pursue. This has allowed me to pop in ideas if I'm on a choral YouTube binge, talking with my choral colleagues, or after I attend a choral concert. I can access the app in my phone and write in the title and composer of repertoire I want to do.
Feel free to make a copy of this Repertoire Brainstorming Template spreadsheet and adapt it for your own ensembles and needs. Happy hunting! To Theme or Not To Theme Some conductors are masters at theming concerts with creative and meaningful titles or constructs. Other conductors never theme concerts and have just as much success. As a beginning educator have fun with themes but try not to feel limited by them.
Side note: My creative and zany uncle, clueless in the choral world but with the best intentions, tried to help me come up with concert themes and had some interesting ideas such as "Pies" and "Sewing/Knitting" and "Prisons." If you can make any of these themes work please let me know! Scope and Sequence I typically map out a year of repertoire at a time. I have a Google Doc with a running list of repertoire for the year. This allows me to cross check my repertoire for each concert.
Again, feel free to make a copy of my Yearly Repertoire Planning Template and adapt if for your own ensembles and needs. One of the most time-consuming aspects of being a secondary choral educator is finding quality* repertoire. As a new teacher, you might draw on the repertoire you have sung in your own middle/high/collegiate experiences. However, this music might only give you a small sample of the bulk of what you will need for your teaching position. And chances are, the repertoire you have sung will probably not be the most ideal fit for the abilities of your students. So where can you find repertoire? How can you maximize your time and find music to inspire, engage, and challenge your students? Your school library Our repertoire as choral educators is essentially our textbook. And every concert and every year we must search and research and prepare these new "texts." As a new teacher or student teacher start with what you have. Know your school's choral library (make a database if there is not one), and use what you have. If you do not have a catalog of your choral library, feel free to make a copy of this Choral Library Database Template and adapt it for your school. This makes a great student project - get a volunteer "librarian" who can organize your music and type this list for you. State Festival Lists Many states have large-group festival song lists. If you are a member school you can access these lists and have a great resource for finding "standards" for each performance level. The lists are broken up typically by SATB, SSAA, TTBB, SAB, and 2-part lists and then by difficulty classes. Many lists also designate if a song is a cappella or not which can be really helpful as you program. Professional Learning Network Build a Professional Learning Network (PLN) of friends and mentors in the field who can help you out. We share our choral library lists and lend each other music quite often. I have my "go-to" colleagues I send emails or messages to frequently with cries for help such as, "I need an SSA foreign language uptempo song and our theme is water." In our region we also tend to do choral roundtable workshops in the summer where we meet and share our "hits and misses" of repertoire from the past year. These peer recommendations are invaluable in getting new ideas of quality and diverse choral literature. ACDA and NAfME Another way to build your PLN is by becoming a member of the American Choral Directors Association and National Association for Music Education and their affiliate state (and/or collegiate) chapters. Attending conferences, getting the latest research in the publications, and meeting other choral educators can be extremely life-changing for beginning educators. We often feel like we are on an island as the only choral educator in our building/region/district and being able to connect via these organizations is extremely beneficial. Invest in a membership and you will have access to repertoire recommendations and be able to attend the conferences with repertoire reading sessions and perhaps even more importantly world-class concerts featuring a wealth of repertoire and programming inspiration. CPDL or IMSLP
What's better than websites of free and historical music? Search for specific voicings and composers to offer students accessible and meaningful repertoire. These public domain websites not online offer free, reproducible sheet music but typically also have great resources with translations, history, and insights. Caution: Publishers often sponsor reading sessions at conferences and send you endless mailings and emails about their latest publications. As tempting as it may be to choose from the "top selling" octavos make sure you do whatever you can to be thoughtful and purposeful in your repertoire choices. If you are enthusiastic and challenged by the music your students will be too! Stay tuned for an upcoming post about planning your concert cycles and keeping track of your repertoire ideas. *Defining "quality" repertoire is a contentious topic with a lot of opinions and perspectives. Stay tuned for a future blog post on this! |
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