Today, I got to lead some warm-ups for the choir. I was pretty nervous to lead warm-ups because I have not had much experience working with choirs. I was also very nervous because Ms. Valla uses the piano a lot during warm-ups and I do not have the skills to do that.
I tried to come up with a range of warm-ups that could focus on different aspects of singing. I started with the physical warm-up that Stuart did in class on Monday (clapping/patting different parts of the body and having the choir follow his movements 4 beats behind). In addition to tapping different parts of the body, I also included some sirens in the exercise to begin to bridge speaking voice and singing voice. This particular warm-up went pretty well, although, I need to get some more variety into it. I want to add in some lip trills next time and more difficult rhythms or tapping patterns. Despite this, I heard one of the altos say "That was cool!" when I finished the exercise, which was really cool to hear.
After the physical warm-up, I did "Mah Meh Me Moh Moo" (descending down a 5th and ascending by half step). I chose this exercise because consistent vowel shape is one of the things that Ms. Valla keeps bringing up with the choir, and I thought this warm-up would provide an opportunity to work on dropping the jaw and getting consistent vowels across the ensemble. I didn't go too high on this one since it was the first warm-up. Instead of playing the warm-up, I opted to sing each starting pitch and stay away from the piano. The choir seemed a little unsure about this given that their warm-ups are normally done with a piano. I need to find a better way to bring the choir in after giving the pitch - my cues were not very clear because the initial entrances for the exercise were very hesitant.
After the vowel warm-up, I did "The Lips, The Teeth, The Tip of the Tongue" (Descending down a 5th and descending by half step). Just like in class, I asked the students to try to spit on the person in front of them after the first warm-up didn't have enough "t" for my ear. Again, I stayed away from the piano. The students were much more unsure with the descending exercise and at one point, the exercise switched from major into minor. This made me wonder if the choir may be a little too dependent on the piano because they could not keep the same intervals on the new pitch. I think it might be really good for me to do warm-ups without the piano because this will challenge the choir to maintain intervals internally rather than mimicking the piano's pitches.
My last warm-up was "Zi (steps up a fifth) Zoh (steps up a fifth) Zah (up and down a scale)." I started this in F and worked on phrasing (crescendoing up the scale and decresecendoing back down). I had the choir sing it a couple times in unison in order to get the phrasing I wanted, then I divided the choir into two parts and had them perform the warm-up in a round. After that, I split them into three parts for a round. I had planned to have the choir sing the warm-up twice when I split into the 3-part round, but I forgot and only had them do it once, so one group finished right when the last group started. If I do this again, I will be sure to have the choir sing the warm-up twice for the 3-part round.
In addition to warm-ups, I also got to lead a sectional. The choir started a new piece, "Bright Morning Stars" by Jay Althouse, and Ms. Valla had me work with the first sopranos for about 10 minutes (she worked with first altos, Jeremiah worked with second altos, and the pianist worked with second sopranos). We were working on a small section of the piece per Ms. Valla's instructions. I started by having the girls sing on text while I played the part on piano with them. The first soprano part had some high es, so I worked with the girls to float those notes (I had them bend their knees on the high e to keep the note light and not strained). One girl said her private teacher had her do that all the time and completely understood what I was asking. The others were less committed to following through with the motion, but did it a little anyway. I also had them work on keeping all of the notes, especially the lower ones (a and g) light in order to match the quality of the high e. After playing the part for them a couple of times, I stopped playing and sang with them instead. The first time was shaky - I think because the group does most of their work with the piano - but they did much better when i had them do it again without the piano. Overall, I think it went really well and they sang all the correct pitches in rehearsal when the group rejoined, which was great!
One thing that was really cool was that one of the first sopranos told me before we started working that she and one of the other girls loved my voice (I had modeled my warm-ups before asking them to sing). Hearing this made me feel like I could potentially work with choirs since I haven't had voice lessons since high school and I haven't been in a choir since 2007. It also really made me want to sing again since I was able to impress these advanced singers! I feel much more relaxed about teaching this group after today and I'm looking forward to doing more next week!
I love your fearlessness--even though you are nervous--you just go for it. Given the group's dependence on the piano, I think you made some good inroads with them. Paying attention to vowels, again, will be important for you. You have the background to understand this and it is clear by your warmup goals that you are thinking about it's contribution to vocalism.
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