Programming for the Standards

by: Mitchell Robinson Ph.D. University of Connecticut

Appointed Professor of Music Education Michigan State University for 2003 

     Imagine an ensemble that plays in tune naturally and easily, with minimal reliance on electronic tuning devices or “down the line” intonation checks.  Imagine spending the majority of each rehearsal working on issues of phrasing, sensitivity and interpretation, because your students can “hear” the music on the page as easily as they can “hear” the words printed on the pages of the morning newspaper, while the time spent on “drill n’ kill,’ repetitive rehearsal tasks has shrunk accordingly.  These students are able to fix their own musical problems with a minimum of teacher help, leading to fewer interruptions and more efficient rehearsals.  Many instrumental music teachers across the country who have begun incorporating singing, improvising and composing into their teaching routines are finding that these activities are helping their students to become independent learners—one of the major goals of good teaching.  

     Since the release of the National Standards in music in 1994, 42 of 50 states have adopted some form of standards-based teaching as a model for best practice in music teaching and learning.  Nearly all of these guidelines include activities such as singing, composing and improvising as integral components of the instructional process, regardless of setting (choral, instrumental, general or classroom music) or grade level (elementary, middle school, high school).  These new standards have served in some ways as an instructional “litmus test” for practicing teachers, providing a benchmark for the elements of a comprehensive program in music education.  Teachers--and those responsible for the supervision of teachers--can use these standards as a means for assessing the quality and completeness of music programs and curricula, in an effort to improve the design of programs in music so as to provide sequential, meaningful and comprehensive instruction for all of our children.

      Each of these activities is a necessary component of standards based teaching, and when taken together can form the core of a comprehensive, standards based approach to teaching.   Some instrumental music teachers, however, may feel unprepared or inadequately trained to incorporate these activities into their teaching.  The purpose of this article is to offer simple, introductory activities and strategies, along with some sample pieces from the wind band literature that teachers can use to explore the concept of singing with their students in both rehearsal and performance.

 Singing

     Singing is fundamental to everything that we do as musicians.  In fact, if any of the National Standards can be said to be of more importance than the others, it could well be singing.  Every minute spent on singing pays off down the line in terms of aural skills development (intonation, pitch and rhythm accuracy, tone quality, blend, etc.) and the building of independent, personal musicianship among your students.

 First Steps

·   Don’t give up.  Introduce vocal activities slowly, but persistently—students are often less than enthusiastic about new activities.

·   Try humming first.  Many students—especially boys—aren’t really afraid of singing; they are afraid of being seen singing.  Closed mouth humming can be a great first step, and provides an easy transition to open mouth singing.

·   Think range.  Pick comfortable singing ranges (D to A is a good beginning range for most students), and don’t worry if you need to sing in a different key than you play in—most “band” keys are not great singing keys (Bb, for example!)

·   Ask for help.  Your choral or general music teachers are great resources to tap into as you begin introducing singing activities with your students.  Ask for tips on selecting good keys, vocal warm-ups, help with diction and vowel production, etc.  Its also a great first step towards articulating the curriculum in your school’s music program.

·    “For,” not “with.”  As a general rule, it is better to sing (and play) for your students rather than with them.  This allows you to provide a good role model as a singer by singing for the class (“teaching” mode), then stopping to listen and evaluate student singing (“evaluation” mode).

 A Suggested Sequence

·   Develop a large repertoire of familiar—then unfamiliar—songs.  These can be folk songs, rote songs, popular songs, jazz standards—whatever tunes you can get your students to sing (consider the age and sophistication level of your students).  Keep the harmonic background limited to tonic and dominant functions as you begin, but include a wide range of tonalities (major, minor, modal), meters (duple, triple, mixed meter) and styles in order to provide students with a diversity of musical offerings.

·   Sing, then play, the melodies and bass lines.  You may need to simplify the bass lines to some tunes

·   After the students have a group of melodies and bass lines that they can sing and play, extract short rhythm and tonal patterns from these tunes, and ask your students to echo selected patterns, first vocally and then with instruments.  This makes a great addition to your normal warm-up routine.

·    Begin with neutral syllables (“bum” is a good choice), and then move on to some sort of syllable system.  Tonal solfege (do—re—mi) is the best choice for singing, as the vowels encourage good vocal production and technique, but any syllable system is better than nothing.  The syllables provide an order and structure to the singing, and give students something to “hang on to” as they are thinking about what they sing.

·   When echoing, try to insert a brief, rather random bit of rest in between your model and the students’ response.  Vary this wait time from pattern to pattern so as to avoid setting up a predictable pattern for the activity.  You’ll find that this technique helps students to develop their inner hearing (or audiation) skills far better than simple echoing.

 Some Tips

·   Keep it Short!  These activities should take up only a few minutes, perhaps during the warm up period before each rehearsal.

·   Keep it Aural!  Resist the temptation to provide notation for these activities.  Keeping the focus on aural skills will speed your students’ development along faster than any other technique.

·    Keep it Safe!  Create a “safe” classroom environment by praising participation (“Thank you!”) rather than quality (“That was perfect!”; “Out of tune and too slow, again!”)and never, ever critiquing an individual student’s singing in front of the class.

·   Take a Solo!  Encourage solo singing as well as ensemble singing.  Solo singing will also improve individual skill development more quickly than group singing.

·   Pick Good Tunes!  Nothing will sink a new singing activity than a poor choice of repertoire.  Avoid tunes that your students will think are “baby-ish” or passé.  Check with your students—often!—about the hottest new groups and artists; remember, kids’ taste in music changes faster than the seasons.  What was in last winter is probably hopelessly out by now.

·   Be a Role Model!  Sing often for your students, and do it with enthusiasm!  One of the things that we know about students is that they value three things about teachers—competence, fairness, and enthusiasm.  Students want teachers who are good at what they do, treat students fairly, and are “in to” what they teach.  Get in to it!

Activities

·   When playing a chorale, stop at cadences and ask the group to sing the resting tone or tonic.

·   Once the students can accurately find the resting tone at each cadence, then ask them to silently audiate the tonic and sing another pitch (the dominant, perhaps).

·   Alternate the phrases of the chorale, starting by playing the first phrase and then singing the next phrase, and continuing in this way to the end of the chorale.

·   When introducing a new composition, first teach the major themes vocally, following the sequence described above.  Don’t forget to include the bass line.

·    If appropriate, try singing the melody as a canon, or in different tonalities and meters.

     Sample literature may be found on the Marshall Music Newsletter archives site under Educational Articles, Programming for the Standards. Any music educator aware of other works that fit in this category is asked to contact the author via email       m.robinson@unconn.edu

  Sample Repertoire

Here is a partial list of recommended repertoire for wind band that incorporates singing.  Use this list as a jumping off point for your own collection of pieces that encourage the use of singing in the instrumental ensemble.

“Africa:  Ceremony, Song and Ritual,” by Robert W. Smith, published by Warner Bros

“. . .and the mountains rising nowhere,” by Joseph Schwantner, published by Helicon Music Corp. 

“Ancient Voices,” by Michael Sweeney, published by Hal Leonard. 

Bach Chorales, various. 

Concert Selections for Wind & Percussion (Grades II--IV), edited by Christopher D. Azzara, published by GIA Music. 

“Crystals,” by Thomas Duffy, published by Ludwig. 

Epinicion, by John Paulson, published by Kjos Music. 

“I Am,” by Andrew Boysen, Jr., published by Kjos Music

“Japanese Tune,” by Soichi Konagaya, published by Molenaar. 

“Linden Lea,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, arranged by John Stout, published by Boosey & Hawkes

“Shakata:  Singing the World into Existence,” by Dana Wilson. 

“Snakes,” by Thomas Duffy, published by Ludwig. 

“Solitary Dancer,” by Warren Benson, available through Carl Fischer. 

“Symphony No. 1, In Memoriam Dresden—1945,” by Daniel Bukvich,

This is by no means an exhaustive listing of band compositions that incorporate singing or vocal exploration techniques, but it should offer suggestions for teachers interested in programming such works for their students.  Any music educator aware of other works that fit into this category is asked to contact the author via email (m.robinson@uconn.edu) to add the names of new works to this collection.  Results and an updated list will be available upon request.