Repertoire Project Piece 8: Crucifixus

"Crucifixus" is a great way for a beginning women's group to gain experience singing the Latin mass text. It's two-part texture offers a wide yet accessible range for both the soprano part and the alto part. The piano accompaniment could probably be played by someone with little piano experience with some practice, making this piece a good choice for a program that does not necessarily have a daily accompanist in its budget. Working with the Latin language allows for focus on good vowel shape and tone production, since there are a very limited amount of vowels in the language. The vocal parts are independent from each other for the most part, and only move in parallel motion with each other twice. There is some voice crossing that could be tricky but also a cool concept, as altos will find it really fun to sing above the sopranos, although if in a middle school, hopefully the groups aren't labeled by voice part.

Repertoire Project Piece 7: La Lluvia

"La Lluvia" could be a great way to start exploring music from around the world, or in this case, from Ecuador. The lack of text, or rather the lack of English, would be a great way to work on really pure and unified vowels and would side-step a the challenge of singing in English. This also allows for some creative thinking on the part of the teacher and the students to give meaning to the piece. One idea would be to assign ideas based on what each musical theme could be personifying. Each part has a relatively large range, but the ranges are expansive in an attainable way, making this piece perfect for an advanced middle school or early to intermediate high school mixed groups. The themes get passed around often, making all four parts very interesting to sing. It also has some really cool and accessible percussion parts, including use of the vibraslap. Other musical concepts that can be taught include phrase shape, tuning minor chords, and learning parts on solfege.

Repertoire Project Piece 6: Rise Up, My Love, My Fair One

This text is another one that would be great for a men's choir simply because there aren't a lot of choirs that take advantage of texts that aren't drinking songs or sea shanties or some other stereotypically "manly" piece. The TBB piece allows for more specialized parts, particularly for the tenors, who will be able to work on using different parts of their voice when working on this song. It would be best for an advanced middle school men's group or a high school men's group. There are unison, two-part, and three-part textures, and the baritone part (where it's added) is very protected and allows for expressive singing in a small range. The choir can work on feeling the hemiolas when going from a 6/8 measure to a 3/4 measure, and will also be exposed to an unusual unpaired meter, 7/8. Dynamics can also be a teaching focus with this piece, as well as rubato. There is a flute part that could be given to a band student, and opportunity for a short vocal solo.

Repertoire Project Piece 5: Circle 'Round the Moon

This piece is arranged for 2-part treble voices, and would be great for a beginning choir that is exploring singing in multiple parts. There is a lot of unison singing, and when it breaks into 2 parts, the alto part is written using a lot of contrary motion and movement when the soprano part is not moving. It sits a bit low, so it'd be important to have singers who have a good grasp of head voice drop down to that part, so as to prevent singers from trying to push the part out in an overly chest voice-y way. The text is full of really vivid imagery that would be engaging for the students to sing, and the song itself is really beautiful. Since it is mostly diatonic, it would be a great piece with which to apply sightreading skills by using solfege in the learning process.

Repertoire Project Piece 4: When Jesus Wept

Exploring early American music is something that's very important to me, and I think that this piece is a great way to do that. This particular arrangement would be best for an advanced mixed ensemble, but parts of the piece could be adapted to better suit younger choirs, such as making a round out of the main theme. There is some unison singing for the women, but not for the men. In fact, the amount of divisi that exists for the men probably calls for not only an advanced group, but a large group. The ranges are also not suitable for very young singers, and the bass part is probably to low for even high school students as it stands, though there are many places where popping up the octave would work just fine and would actually make approaching some dissonances easier. Working on achieving a forward, bright tone would be really fun, especially because it will help with tuning the many open chords that are a characteristic of this music.

Repertoire Project Piece 3: Set me as a seal upon your heart

This piece would be great for a beginning to intermediate mixed group. It includes a lot of different textures in which to sing, including unision, 2-part, and full SATB. The ranges include no extremes to the voices, yet allow for each voice part to explore more of their voice than many tradional SATB parts. Phrasing is extremely important in this piece. Also, the unison sections will require listening across the choir and working toward a unified vowel scheme. The text discusses love, a concept that can be relatable to everyone, especially in such a safe place as a choir classroom. There are not many texts that allow men to explore love in this sensative way, which makes this particular setting of this text a really valuable tool.

Haslett Internship - Visit 8

For my final visit to Haslett High School, Mr. Boyce asked me, "So am I warming them up or are you?" Thanks to the discussion we had in Choral Methods last week about taking advantage of every opportunity your mentors give you, I decided that I would lead warm ups, but I was really scared. I'm happy that I was able to follow the warm up process pretty closely, even when put on the spot. My piano playing went much better than last time, and I was much clearer when I introduced each exercise to the men. I tried to focus on listening to the sound that they were producing, and I think I could have stopped to adjust more often, but I know that is something that I'll get better at with time.

I'm hoping that I remember how much of an impact these young men have had on me if I ever have the option to teach an all mens group. I am still the most uncomfortable in front of this type of group, but I hope that I'll want to challenge myself and help to make it more normal for a woman to be teaching TTBB choirs in the future.

Haslett Internship - Visit 7

Today at Haslett, I lead another bass sectional with the young men of the Varsity Choir. This time, we worked on their part in Old Irish Blessing, an SATB piece that has become a tradition to sing at the last concert with the alumni. This is one of the first times that I have become aware of the difference between parts in an SATB texture and a TTBB texture. The bass section spans a much wider range in this SATB piece than I have seen in any of the TTBB music that they have. This made me realize how beneficial it is to have young singers in either a TB or SA choir, since only a few of the men could produce sound all the way through the over-an-octave bass line that sat really low for a while and then really high. These men will have support for the concert from the older basses to be sure, but it was an eye-opening observation.

The sectional itself went really well - I can already tell how much better the young men have begun to read from the beginning of the semester to now. One of the goals that Mr. Boyce had was to teach them where were were adding breaths and where we were carrying through. Because of this, I found myself adjusting my conducting to be more technically clear and sacrifice a bit of musicality to exaggerate where the breaths and no-breaths were until the men had them in their voice. I vocally modeled these places well, but I think I could have modeled crisper diction, as I kept having to get after them to produce more energized voiced consonants. In addition to the music making, I was happy with the way that I addressed them, calling them "gentlemen" instead of my usual bad-habit-go-to, "guys", and was surprised at how much of a difference it made in the tone of the rehearsal. There was much more focus, all of the men were engaged in making good music, asking questions, and very respectful, which was a really nice way to start my day.

Repertoire Project Piece 2: She Sings

This piece is great for an middle school SSA choir. The ranges of the upper two parts span an octave, only dipping below an octave briefly. The soprano 1 part often functions as a descant and the soprano 2 part as a melody, though the parts are equally interesting. The alto part is also interesting, but has a low enough tessitura that it would be best sung by singers who know how to navigate the low part of their range without pushing at the sound with unhealthy vocal production. Students would not be met with too much difficulty, since the parts are all doing their own thing for most of the song until the last verse. The text is about singing, followed by imagery of a beautiful day, and then almost a sad prayer, which brings a surprising end to the piece which started in a very happy place but ends on a dreary note. This would be a great song to work on singing in unison with beautiful english vowels.

Repertoire Project Piece 1: Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder

I think that a group of young men would love this piece because it brings up an important part of American history, includes vivid imagery, and it calls for unique percussion and nontraditional choral sound. This piece would be appropriate for a big TTBB high school choir, or maybe even all of the tenors and basses in a middle school and high school program with the middle school choirs taking their own lines. The range is a bit low for the tenors at the beginning of the piece, but the melody could be turned into a bass section feature or even a solo. The low basses have a very low part, but it could be taken up the octave. The texture gets thicker as the piece goes on, offering more specific ranges that could be suited better for singers. Many musical ideas can be taught, such as tuning open chords, finding an appropriate vocal tone for this style of music as well as stylistic nuances, singing a unison line, working toward an overall crescendo-shape to the piece, and function of each part in the thicker textures. The text is filled with imagery as aforementioned, and also can start a discussion about the chain gang spirituals.

Hayes Middle School Class Visit

Mr. Armstead is clearly a master at keeping his class moving, in more ways than one. I admire how seamlessly he used chanting between activities and vocalizing to not only keep the attention of the choir, but also to keep them listening and thinking in a musical way. He kept them moving physically as well, such as when he had them moving their arms when they were singing, which helped with the choir's phrasing and vocal production. Also, when he asked the girls to sing with bent knees, I thought it was really cool that he also conducted with bent knees. I feel like that must give the girls permission to move without feeling self-conscious, and to establish more of a problem-posing model of education rather than a banking model, with an emphasis on learning together. By exaggerating his own movement, he makes it okay for them to move.

I also liked the way he integrated a school requirement that might at first seem like a burden. The daily reading is not only a great way to integrate a skill not always found in a music class, but also a great way to address important topics in life and talk about them in a meaningful, safe way.

CMS Young Men's Chorus - Visit 2

Today I focused on Kyle's musicianship. There was never a single moment in the rehearsal where I wasn't absolutely confident that Kyle not only knew everything on every page of every piece of music, but he also knew exactly how he wanted every note, phrase, and whole piece shape to sound. He has many, many strategies for each teaching move. In the piece, "Praise his holy name," Kyle was working on getting the men to sing with more accent. In a span of about a minute, he modeled what he was looking for, explained that an accent had a loud attack and then decayed quickly, and then had the men try that section while "karate chopping" their hands. After that, Kyle didn't stop listening for the accents, and would stop the choir when they didn't perform the accents as well has they had previously. After he worked on the accents with the men, the rest of the piece felt more rhythmic in general. 

Every time he modeled, while he might have had a more singular goal, he was able to communicate so many musical ideas that were also picked up by his singers, and that were also then present in his gesture. I feel like he was audiating his ideal sound while still being able to listen to exactly what he was getting, and added helpful teaching tools into his gesture, like pulling a string vertically for taller "ah vowels", to get the sound he was hearing closer to what he was audiating. And, of course, the whole time he seemed to be having fun which was infectious to his singers.

Haslett Internship - Visit 6

On April 2, I led another sectional with the basses on the piece "Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder." I was so excited, since I heard the piece for the first time earlier this semester when Dr. Mitchell directed the TTBB State Honors Choir at MMC. The sectional basically consisted of us running the whole piece. I discovered that the piece didn't really offer much variety to their part. Since all of the men in the choir program were singing on the piece, these basses had a line all to themselves, but it was very repetative. We ran out of time to work on much else than just some seemingly random differences that came up in their part, but it occured to me that maybe more could have gotten done with the piece if we hadn't split into sections. Knowing the tenors, they probably knew their part at least as well as the basses did, so maybe the very few note things could have been addressed later and they could have worked on things across the whole ensemble, like vowel shape and stylistic nuances. 

Mr. Boyce was also able to answer some questions that I had about his operational procedures for me that day. 

The choirs at the middle school and high school are: 

6th Grade Choir Rotation (6 Week Exploratory for EVERY 6th Grade student)

7th Grade Choir- 2 mixed groups of approx. 50 students

8th Grade Choir- 2 mixed groups of approx. 50 students

Varsity Choir- Beginning HS Men's Choir (40ish primarily 9th grade and newer singers)

Treble Choir- Beginning HS Women's Choir (75ish Primarily 9th/10th grade, and newer)

Concert Choir- Intermediate HS Mixed Choir (70ish)

Chorale- Advanced HS Mixed Choir (40ish)

Select Women's Ensemble- Advanced after-school group

Select Men's Chorale- Advanced after-school group

As far as relationships with students, teachers, and other faculty at the school go, communication is the most important part of maintaining the positive relationship he has with those he comes in contact with. After reviewing the handbooks that he sent me for the middle and high school choirs, I think one of the most unique and important things that stuck out to me was how Mr. Boyce and Mrs. Valla are such a united front when it comes to their expectations with the programs at each school. It must help with recruitment as middle schoolers graduate to high school, and more than just recruitment it must help with keeping the majority of the students who did choir in middle school in choir as they go to high school. I remember being surprised at how many middle school choir friends of mine did not continue to do choir in highschool for various reasons, and I wonder if there was more of an overlap of the programs from school to school if we would have seen less people drop the program.

CMS Young Men's Chorus - Visit 1

Last week, I was able to visit the Young Men's Chorus at CMS for the first time. I love how Kyle connects with each of his choirs while still establishing himself as a leader. He has a great sense of when it is appropriate for him to "follow down" an opportunity to connect more, and when to stick to rehearsal. For instance, he used the metaphor of a unicorn as he asked for more resonance from the tenors in their head voice. One baritone shouted out, "Or be a narwhal!" Kyle asked what that was, and then the men erupted in explaining the whale with a unicorn-like horn and he had someone look up a picture of it. It was simple, didn't take a lot of time, and was a fun way to incorporate their ideas into his teaching of a concept.

Kyle's also not afraid to set expectations and follow through with them. This day was picture day, and since one of the kids didn't have his performance shirt, he wasn't able to be in the picture. Those are the things that I feel like I'm going to have trouble following through with, but I think that because he follows through, he gains the respect of the parents and the kids. Even if the student is disappointed that he's not in the picture, he understands that it was his responsibility, and I don't think he was actually all that mad at Kyle for enforcing the rule of which the whole group was fully aware. It's evident that Kyle respects the students, and that they respect him.

Haslett Internship - Visit 5

The next day, Mr. Boyce had me warm up the choir. Usually, Mr. Boyce and Abbie follow a similar process that we discussed in class, so I modeled my plan after the warm up sequences we have discussed in class, using some exercises of my own and some that I have observed in the classroom. Even though I had my plan, I got more nervous the closer it got to warm up time. This affected by piano playing. While I was able to keep the class going, I found myself focused much more on my own playing than on what sound the men were achieving. Also, I was so flustered at one point that I added a random warm-up that I wasn't even planning on doing, and that threw me way off.

All in all, I stuck to my plan and effectively prepared the men for class, but I did not feel good about it afterwards. Through this experience, I realized that being in front of a group that you work with all the time is very different than being in front of a group for which you are stepping in. Being in front of a real group of young men, not just hypothetical ones, was a challenge too. I found myself wondering just how low to warm them down and where to start certain warm ups, even though these are things that we've talked about in class.

I'm excited to try and navigate this again!

Arrangement Project: Shady Grove

Haslett Internship - Vist 4

On March 19th, I noticed a few changes in the classroom since MSVMA Festival was getting closer. Particularly, Mr. Boyce's behavioral expectations seemed to have been pushed up a notch. Some things that Mr. Boyce would have probably let slide in the past were addressed more quickly, such as students having phones out when he wasn't working with them. He was very respectful whenever he asked for attention, he just did it more often than before. Sometimes he would walk by a student with their phone out and quietly but authoritatively say, "John, put it away." If there was excess talking, he was much quicker to use "sh" rhythm patterns to focus them back on task, be it warming up or sightreading. When they started rehearsing their festival pieces, if not everyone was singing, he wouldn't hesitate to stop and say something like, "Basses, I need all of you," or "Guys, everyone." The tenors, who tend to be the most attentive and the most extroverted about being excited about singing, were clearly getting annoyed with the young men who were being less than respectful.  After a few stop and starts from Mr. Boyce, though, most of the students began to really engage in the task at hand and Mr. Boyce had to use less and less time managing the class.

One of the tenors who was clearly upset at the students who were disrupting the class was the same young man who asked super musical questions on my first visit, and who I've began to be able to pick out in the tenor's sound as a leader in that section. Once Mr. Boyce was walking back to the podium while the introduction to a piece as playing, and this student stood right up, ready to sing, and then sort of looked around sheepishly when no one else stood up.  As he sat back down I realized that it had been a while this class period since the boys were asked to stand. I think it might have helped them all focus on really performing the piece if they had been standing, not only to refocus the group, but also because almost all of the students, even the engaged ones, don't sit with very good singing posture.

Another thing I noticed is how effective Mr. Boyce's modeling is. There is so much information in his singing, like phrasing, crisp consonants, and vowel shape. Sometimes the students don't exactly get everything that he has done, but there is usually a noticeable change in their sound. I also noticed that when Mr. Boyce sings first and explains what he's looking for before he has them try it, he gets a bigger change in the sound than when he explains and then sings, as if they have time to forget what he was looking for between the time he explains it, through the modeling, and then to their turn to sing. Often, he will pair movement with modeling, or afterwards if the change in sound wasn't enough. He doesn't often let the students get away with singing that is not up to his expectations, and his teaching is flexible enough that he can help his students get to those expectations in many different ways.

Piano Teach: She Sings...

Mind Map:

Rehearsal Plan: pp.1-3

1. Read main melody, mm. 5-12

     - Model on "do do do", moving the phrase in body

     - Sing on "do do do", with body showing emphasis

     - Isolate trouble spots

          - perhaps m. 11, chant while keeping eighth note pulse in hands

          - perhaps scooping at beginning of 2nd phrase, staccato "doot"

     - Add text

          - Keep phrasing in mind

          - Listen for unified vowels

2. "La" Section, mm. 12-20

     - Model 2nd sop melody with "petting the cat" motion

     - All sing 2nd sop melody

     - Take repeat, sing "On the grass" verse, read in 3 parts

          - Sing melody, play S1 and A

          - Isolate parts

          - Emphasize listening for S2 melody

     - When successfull, try a cappella

     

Haslett Internship - Visit 3

On March 5, I visited Haslett High School for the third time. Mr. Boyce was doing "voicings", or the beginnings of figuring out next year's choir rosters, in his office, so he had Abbie and I run some sectionals with the men on a brand new piece.

It was both scary and rewarding to be thrown into the mix with little warning! I got to work with the basses, which is the section home to some of the more rambunctious and distracting personalities in the group. Knowing this, I decided to have them come and stand around the piano instead of staying seated in their chairs, which are situated far enough from the piano that I think I would have felt removed from them. They ended up responding well to this, and I didn't really have to quiet them down or refocus them after that, which was a nice surprise! 

Learning the piece together was a bit more of a challenge, and since I hadn't seen the piece before, we literally were learning it together. We had a goal of getting through the first two verses of the piece, and since I knew Abbie's plan was to start with the tenors from the beginning, that's where I started with the basses. First I had them read on "lu" with me playing along on the piano. Then I isolated phrases, with me modeling them at pitch (it was in a comfy Alto 2 range). Where we had trouble with intervals and rhythms, we would isolate to even smaller bits of music. Then we would work to sing larger and larger phrases until they could sing the whole verse confidently. 

I tried to have them focus on some phrasing gestures (we "pulled some taffy" to encourage a legato line and sweeped our arms at high points of phrases), listen across the circle and match their "u" vowel, and then filter their English words through that "u" shape once we added text, but altogether I'm not sure if I like the way I rehearsed with them. It felt very note-and-rhythm-centric. While I'm glad I tried to give them other goals in addition to or along-side learning the notes, I'm not sure I found a great balance between just letting them isolate the notes and rhythms and then asking them to do more - they didn't seem to get overwhelmed as a whole, but there were definitely times where I saw individuals become so. I don't think that rehearsing for notes and rhythms is very rewarding for students or teachers, but is there a time when doing that prevents them from becoming overwhelmed and helps them to become confident enough to try more? 

I've just realized that I ran that sectional much like I did as alto section leader in high school, where we would learn the notes and bring them back to the choir to receive further instruction on phrasing, tone, etc. What was different though is that I tried to add the phrasing and tone and etc. to the sectional. Should sectionals function differently than full choir rehearsals?

Sightreading Mini-Teach

Process:

• Ask for time signiture
• Chant rhythms on Gordon syllables
• Ask for key signiture
• "If we're in the key of ___, what solfege syllable do we start and end on?"
• Chant rhtyhms on Solfege syllables using hand signs
• Sing the example

Haslett Internship - Visit 2

This week's visit allowed me to see class period that included content that isn't always present in every choral rehearsal, and it allowed me to focus on Mr. Boyce's rehearsing and teaching techniques in a unique way.  The night before my observation was their pre-festival concert, so Mr. Boyce started off rehearsal and got the students' attention by playing a recording of their performance.  Most students sat and listened with some talking here and there, while others were on their phones and others even seemed completely oblivious to what was going on, carrying on loud conversations in groups.  At the end of the piece, Mr. Boyce gave the students one minute to discuss positive comments and constructive comments with a small group before they shared the comments as a class. This brought some of the same, with some students clearly engaged in the activity and some getting distracted with other things.  However, when Mr. Boyce called on individuals to share their thoughts, it was the distracted students that surprised me most with their responses.  One student who I had written off as thinking he was "too cool" for choir actually had a super insiteful comment about the way they sounded in their fall concert and how far they had come this concert. I'm not sure I can pinpoint and how Mr. Boyce instills a sense of ownership in these students yet, but he does and it becomes evident when they are invited to participate in the conversation about what they are doing.  It seems so simple, yet something that is often missing in classrooms that I have been a part of.

Because of this interaction and many more, it is clear that Mr. Boyce has great rapport with his students.  He is always so genuine.  While he doesn't sugarcoat, he is always supportive and not only helping his students to grow, but helping them want to grow. They trust him and are encouraged by him, and therefore they trust and encourage each other.

In rehearsing the repertoire in the second half of the rehearsal, Mr. Boyce's gesture always reflected the style and was attentive to what the boys needed, such as cut-off gestures that reflected different consonant releases.  He also would have reminders that he could throw into his gesture, such as his "North and South" sound (represented by his forearm straight up and down) rather than is "East and West" sound.  He modeled this consept often, planing out his vowels for East and West and lengthening and rounding them for the preferred North and South sound.  In fact, modeling was used often in his rehearsal and the student's sound was always changed.  Even from last week, I thought their balance had greatly improved, which was one of their big goals.

Structure in the classroom

Having structure in the classroom is helpful in fostering security in both productivity and feelings of safety in students. A routine builds student expectations and therefore helps students as well as the teacher in transitioning from task to task.  I think those expectations can also help strengthen students' focus in the class period, that somehow knowing what is coming next helps to prepare them to better approach the task.  When students know what to expect, they can feel willing (and wanting) to participate, and feel more comfortable doing so.  Conversely, when students are blindsided, it can take a while for the class as a whole to adjust to what is being asked of them.  Genuine participation might be diminished due to the unsteadiness brought on with the unfamiliarity or lack of a structure.

While having structure is very important in the music classroom, I think teachers need to balance that structure with flexibility.  Structure is different than rigidity, and flexibility is different than disjointed chaos.

Haslett Internship - Visit 1

Yesterday I was able to make my first visit out to Haslett High School to observe the Varsity Choir. This choir is made up of young men who are mostly freshmen.  The men seemed very well behaved for being some of the youngest students in the school, and generally they seemed to really enjoy choir.  My walk from the office to the choir room was very cool, because as I got closer I realized that some of the students around me were also going to the choir room, and they were singing together.  During the announcements the students were generally near their seats and talking to each other while two of the students took attendance.  During warm-ups, they were all singing and doing movements to each vocalise without having to be reminded to do so.  The students only got very loud and disruptive a couple of times, and when that happened Mr. Boyce had some great classroom management strategies in place.

At the end of many transition times, Mr. Boyce would chant a couple patterns on "sh" until the students were all echoing him.  He also didn't just stay on the podium for the whole rehearsal, which I found really cool and very effective in keeping the class focused.  During sight-reading practice times, he weaved in and out of the sections, sometimes sitting down with a group that was practicing to sing it with them.  The students seemed to really love it when he did this.  He also moved from section to section when he would isolate a specific part in their repertoire.  This gave the sections that weren't being worked with some time to chat and I even spotted four or five students on their phones, but this didn't seem to bother Mr. Boyce and it didn't distract the section that was working.  There were only a couple of times that Mr. Boyce had to use strictly verbal instructions to refocus the group.  Something else that isn't necessarily a classroom management strategy that Mr. Boyce did was admit that he didn't know something about the piece, and then he sort of led a conversation with the students to try and make a decision about a phrase.  Seeing this further solidified my observation that Mr. Boyce and his students have a great relationship where they feel safe to make mistakes and learn from each other.

There were a couple of individual students that stood out to me.  One of them was a tenor who asked super musical questions, and used solfege AND signs when he was singing a phrase that he had a question about.  After he asked the question, a different student turned around and sang using hand signs as they tried to figure something out.  The students are clearly growing their skills and are encouraged to use them.  The other student that stood out to me has special needs.  Mr. Boyce said that he has severe autism and is non-verbal, but he loves choir.  He has sat in this class for the past four years, sitting a chair away from the tenor section.  He keeps to himself mostly and sort of just sits calmly, but as soon as any singing starts he starts moving his arms and becomes very alert.  The other students treated him very well when they came in contact with him, further affirming that this classroom is a very safe place.

Effective and Rewarding Rehearsals

I think effective and rewarding rehearsals can look very different from rehearsal to rehearsal and teacher to teacher, but some over-arching goals of these rehearsals stay consistent: 1. To strive for a positive, lasting change to the sound as the group works towards a goal, 2. To strive for each member of the choir, including the teacher, to learn something at each rehearsal, be it a musical something or otherwise, and 3. For every person involved to find some joy in the process!

While no rehearsal will probably look exactly alike, there are some characteristics that seem to be present in all effective and rewarding rehearsals. The most satisfying rehearsals never seem to include an abundance of talking, but also have a variety of musical ways of getting to a specific point or idea.  Also, varying the amounts of time spent making music and trying to keep those times balanced is something that can make or break the focus of the rehearsal.  When the conductor-teacher can let the choir just sing and make music for a long section of a piece while still knowing when to rehearse shorter excerpts, it lets the singers explore musically and maybe even improve on their own while still allowing the teacher to refocus the class when the need arises. Personally, overcoming challenges always has me leaving rehearsals feeling like I accomplished something. This might mean getting after a difficult couple of measures, an in-depth discussion of the text or text setting, or even just accomplishing what the conductor-teacher had planned for the day. As we have discussed, the preparation and planning on the part of the teacher also plays an important role in the success of a rehearsal so that questions can be answered, music can be experienced by all involved in many different ways, and goals can be accomplished.