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MUED 376: Choral Music, Materials & Techniques

MIDTERM EXAM
Suggested Due Date: October 30, 2018 - midnight

NAME__________Alton Peters________________ DATE___

GENERAL DIRECTIONS: help each other, share ideas, strategies and

definitions!

Part I: From O% to 100% in 10 Rehearsals of 15 Minutes:

One Suggested Sequence of Rehearsal Threads

Directions:
 Take the piece you are doing for VMRC and design a full lesson
sequence as indicated below, based on a fifteen-minute rehearsal.
 Modify each class as needed from this template. Add or delete
activities and chunks as needed.
 Do not do a Direct Instruction Script for this assignment, only
outline the activities and chunking that will complete each
rehearsal thread.
 Be creative and include lots of kinesthetic and learning
experiences.
 Please spend no more than 40 minutes on this part of the exam
 Please feel free to work with others on this exam! Share answers,
Rehearsal 1 – “Hook” and introduction to the piece (rote introduction,
and rote to note in the music.)

Time: (1/1/15) Activity 1: Introduction and Rehearsal Threads

Chunk 1: Welcome Good Morning VMRC! The piece we will be working on

today is:__Come thou Long Expected Jesus__ My rehearsal threads today are:
Notes and Rhythms.

Chunk 2: We will learn the Soprano part in full today on text.

Transition statement: Please keep your music closed and repeat after me.

Time: (2/3/15) Activity 2: Tone sets

Chunk 1: Do tone set for first 2 measures and have them repeat

Chunk 2: Do tone set for second 2 measures and have them repeat

Chunk 3: Repeat for last 4 measures in 2 measure chunks

Transition statement: Great, you handled all of the tricky intervals well.
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Time: (3/6/15) Activity 3: Solfege

Chunk 1: Do solfege for each 2 measure chunk and have them repeat it back

Chunk 2: Combine into 4 measure chunks and do on solfege

Transition statement: You are getting the hang of it. Now please open your
music. Does the soprano line look familiar?

Time: (4/10/15) Activity 4: Neutral syllables and text

Chunk 1: Have them sing entire soprano line on neutral syllable

Chunk 2: Check any rough points

Chunk 3: Run entire soprano line again

Chunk 4: Speak the text and have them repeat it back

Transition statement: I think we are ready to sing this whole soprano line on text

Time: (5/15/15) Activity X: Learning Summary

Chunk 1: Sing the entire soprano line on text, go back and fix tough points and
text errors.

Chunk 2: Today we learned the entire soprano line on text. We used proper
diction and sang all the right notes and rhythms.

Rehearsal 2 – Section A - mapping melody, harmony and text

Time: (0/1/15) Activity 1: Introduction and Rehearsal Threads

Chunk 1: Welcome: Good Morning VMRC! Please turn to _page 15____ in

your music folder. My rehearsal threads today are: learning harmony, blending,
and diction

Transition statement: Let’s review what we learned last class

Time: (4/5/15) Activity 2: Review last class + bass line

Chunk 1: Sing through melody

Chunk 2: Solfege bass line in sections and have choir repeat

Chunk 3: Add text to bass line have them sing it on their own

Chunk 4: Sing bass and melody together

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Transition statement: Now lets look at the tenor line

Time: (4/9/15) Activity 3: Tenor Line

Chunk 1: Solfege tenor line in chunks and have them repeat it

Chunk 2: Tenor line on neutral syllable

Chunk 3: Loop tenor line on text, then soprano, then bass

Transition statement: Last but not least let’s add the altos

Time: (6/14/15) Activity 4: Add altos

Chunk 1: Solfege alto line in chunks and have repeated

Chunk 2: Alto line on neutral syllable

Chunk 3: Loop alto line on text, then soprano, tenor, bass

Time: (1/15/15) Activity X: Learning Summary

Chunk 1: Today we learned all of the harmonies for this piece on text, and we
sang the entire first verse on parts.

Rehearsal 3 - Review Section A and repeat it in all the sections that are
the
same throughout the piece
Time: (1/1/15) Activity 1: Introduction and Rehearsal Threads

Chunk 1: Welcome: Good Morning VMRC! Please turn to ____page

15___________ in your music folder. My rehearsal threads today are: Diction
diction diction.

Transition statement: Let’s review verse 1 on parts

Time: (1/2/15) Activity 2: Review verse 1

Chunk 1: Sing verse one on parts

Transition statement: Wow you really retained the information from last
rehearsal. Let’s move on to the other verses.

Time: (12/14/15) Activity 3:

Chunk 1: Recite text for verse 2. They repeat back. Sing verse 2 on text

Chunk 2: Recite text for verse 3. They repeat back. Sing verse 3 on text
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Chunk 3: Recite text for verse 4. They repeat back. Sing verse 4 on text

Chunk 4: Sing entire song on text

Time: (1/15/15) Activity X: Learning Summary

Chunk 1: Today we learned the text for the entire piece. We then sang the entire
piece in parts on text.

Rehearsal 4 - B Sections - melody, harmony and text

Time: (1/1/15) Activity 1: Introduction and Rehearsal Threads

Chunk 1: Welcome: Good Morning VMRC! Please turn to __page 15_____ in

your music folder. My rehearsal threads today are: Review day!

Transition statement: We are going to start by looping on solfege or neutral

syllable.

Time: (4/5/15) Activity 2:

Chunk 1: Tenors sing part on solfege

Chunk 2: Altos added in on solfege

Chunk 3: Basses added in on solfege

Chunk 4: Sopranos added in on solfege

Transition statement: Let’s try the same thing but let’s add the words this time

Time: (5/10/15) Activity 3:

Chunk 1: Tenors sing part on text

Chunk 2: Basses added part on text

Chunk 3: Altos added on text

Chunk 4: Sopranos added on text

Transition statement: Ok! Let’s sit up nice and straight. Get our breathing
mechanisms right, and let’s try the entire piece on text.

Time: (4/14/15) Activity 4:

Chunk 1: Sing entire piece on text, stopping if need be to fix things. End goal is
one time all the way through correct without stopping.

Time: (1/15/15) Activity X: Learning Summary

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Chunk 1: Today we reviewed all of our notes and text. Practice this, and next
week, we are going to turn this collection of notes, words, and rhythms into
music.

Rehearsal 5 – Review B for corrections, link A and B Sections, singing

long
Chunks, review for meaning and expression
Time: (1/1/15) Activity 1: Introduction and Rehearsal Threads

Chunk 1: Welcome: Good Morning VMRC! Please turn to ___page 15____ in

your music folder. My rehearsal threads today are: Phrasing and breathing

Transition statement: Let’s review the piece.

Time: (1/2/15) Activity 2:Review

Chunk 1: Sing the entire piece on text and parts

Transition statement: So that was all technically correct. Now let’s work on
making it musical.

Time: (12/14/15) Activity 3: Breath marks and word stress

Chunk 1: Verse 1 mark breaths and word stress

Chunk 2: Sing verse 1 with those annotations

Chunks 3-8: Repeat for other 3 verses

As time goes on ask students for input on what they think word stress
should be.

Time: (1/15/15) Activity X: Learning Summary

Chunk 1: Today we learned the proper breathing and phrasing for this piece.
This is a great step in the right direction towards making this piece musical.

Rehearsal 6 - What’s different or new?! Sections C & D & perfecting tone

Time: (1/1/15) Activity 1: Introduction and Rehearsal Threads

Chunk 1: Welcome: Good Morning VMRC! Please turn to page 15____ in

your music folder. My rehearsal threads today are: Proper tone and sustaining

Transition statement: Lets sing the first verse

Time: (4/5/15) Activity 2:Verse 1

Chunk 1: Choir sings first verse.

Chunk 2: Have them sing it again with better tone.

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Chunk 3: Check the chords at the end of each subphrase.

Chunk 4: Sing the verse one more time.

Transition statement: Great job. The tuning is really working. Let’s try this on
the other verses. Different vowels will tune differently.

Time: (9/14/15) Activity 3: Tuning and breath support

Chunk 1: Repeat above process with verse 2

Chunk 2: Repeat above process with verse 3

Chunk 3: Repeat above process with verse 4

Chunk 4: Sing the entire piece with breath support and tuning.

Time: (1/15/15) Activity X: Learning Summary

Chunk 1: Today we learned about proper breath support, and how different
vowels tune differently.

Rehearsal 7 - Review what’s different (Sections C & D) or new and link to

A
and B sections, if time, sing all the way through
Time: (9/9/15) Activity 1: Introduction and Rehearsal Threads

Chunk 1: Welcome: Good Morning VMRC! Please turn to _page 15____ in

your music folder. My rehearsal threads today are: Finding meaning in the
piece.

Chunk 2: Have discussion about what the piece means to the choir, give a short
story about what it means to you then ask the choir. Should take up to 8 – 9
minutes

Transition statement: Let’s take what we’ve talked about and transition it to
music.

Time: (5/14/15) Activity 2: Singing

Chunk 1: Sing through the piece one time

Chunk 2: Fix any cosmetic errors

Chunk 3: Sing again

Time: (1/15/15) Activity X: Learning Summary

Chunk 1: Today we did some polishing and added meaning to the piece.
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Rehearsal 8 - Sing all the way through, improving and perfecting tone and
adding reminders about meaning
Time: (8/8/15) Activity 1: Introduction and Rehearsal Threads

Chunk 1: Welcome: Good Morning VMRC! Please turn to ___page 15_____

in your music folder. My rehearsal threads today are: Tone

Chunk 2: Do some warmups dealing with breath support, 7 balloons, etc

Transition statement: Now let’s apply this to our song

Time: (6/14/15) Activity 2: Sing

Chunk 1: Sing through the first verse

Chunk 2: Go back and fix tone, tune chords, etc

Chunk 3: Sing whole piece

Chunk 4: Go back and fix any trouble spots

Chunk 5: Sing through whole piece again

Time: (1/15/15) Activity X: Learning Summary

Chunk 1: Today we learned how to tune to each other, and sing with good
breath support and tone.

Rehearsal 9 – Buzzwords to deepen expression, tone, and sophistication

Time: (9/9/15) Activity 1: Introduction and Rehearsal Threads

Chunk 1: Welcome: Good Morning VMRC! Please turn to __page 15_______

in your music folder. My rehearsal threads today are: Buzzwords

Chunk 2: Talk about buzzwords throughout piece

Chunk 3: Make sure buzzwords line up with word stresses, meaning for the
piece

Transition statement: I want to be able to hear these buzzwords in the piece.

Time: (5/14/15) Activity 2:Run fix run

Chunk 1: Run fix run

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Time: (1/15/15) Activity X: Learning Summary

Chunk 1: Today we added buzzwords to our piece

Rehearsal 10 - Run Fix Run

Time: (15/15/15) Activity 1: Introduction and Rehearsal Threads

Chunk 1: Welcome: Good Morning VMRC! Please turn to ______page

15______ in your music folder. My rehearsal threads today are: Run fix run

Chunk 2: Run fix run

Transition statement: I’m so proud of how far you’ve come this semester. The
concert is a celebration of what has already happened. Let’s Celebrate!!!

Any extra rehearsals?

Digging deeper, working on tone, breathing, meaning, expression,
sophistication

Part II: PHILOSOPHY STATEMENTS LIST
Directions: Pick 10 out of the 20 philosophy statements below and define them
in 1-3 sentences. Please spend no longer than 20 minutes on this portion of the
exam.
Philosophy Statement
97% of what you teach is who you are.
Be the Music.
Controlling the environment that in turn
controls us.
Creating the culture that in turn creates the
community.
Cultivate FLOW and the culture will GROW!
Curricularize the social and deliver highly
effective music curricula.
Everything is related to everything.
If it is meant to be, it is up to me.
JAHEES? SHRED’M!
Learning occurs at the intersection of the
academic and the social.
Meet your students where they ARE, not where
you think they should be.
Positives come and go, negatives accumulate.
The Concert is the Celebration of What Has
Already Happened.
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Definition
Your personality shows in the way you teach.
Just being yourself imprints your learning styles
and experiences on the students.
Being the music entails transferring your
personal life experiences into how you perform
music. Music is more than notes and rhythms, it
is about telling a story to the audience.
Teachers can create an environment in which
learning is encouraged. The more comfortable
students are in the classroom, the more
information they will learn, and the more they
will grow in their musicianship.
This is taking the negative behaviors in the
classroom and turning them into positives.
Anything that is harmful to a positive learning
environment can be traced back to JAHEES.
It is important to always teach in the Least
Restrictive Environment for the student. Teach
them in the way that they learn best. Wind the
content forwards and back to meet the
individual needs of your students rather than
force the plan you originally made.
People will enjoy positive things that happen as
they happen, but seldom hang onto most of
those memories. The negative things will stick
with people and will be forward in peoples
minds. We need to create an environment in
which there are more positives created than
negatives.
The concert should not be what you strive for.
The work happens in the classrooms during
rehearsals. We shouldn’t be so focused on the
concert itself, rather making the music in a way

What is your agenda?
When you know better, you do better.
Whereever you go, there you are.
Who am I to judge?
Who claps for you?
Who do you want to be when you grow up?
You don’t know what you don’t know!
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that is meaningful for both the choir and the
audience.
We are always learning. The more you are
learning and growing in your own
musicianship, the more you can pass that onto
your students.
We don’t know what students and other
colleagues are going through. The best we can
do is foster an environment that supports them
no matter what to help their growth.
There is always more to learn and life is about
constantly striving to learn and experience
more. However, trust that when you don’t know
something, it is ok! There will always be people
that will be able to help you out and support
you when you struggle.