MSU Children's Choir - Observation #2

After last week, I wanted to see how Kyle gets his choir to sound the way he wants - mainly, how does he make technique/intonation/musicality accessible to kids.

Kyle does a lot with solfege to help the kids internalize pitch and the distance between notes. Last week, Kyle had a warm-up where the kids sang every major interval up a scale (on E natural, they would sing Do - Re (F#), Major (E) Second (F#) and continue up the scale). In addition to singing the solfege and syllable, the children would do the hand signs as well, to reinforce what they were singing. This week, Kyle included minor intervals in the scale (Do - Ra, Minor Second), which I thought was really cool. Again, the children did hand signs while they sang.

When the children began rehearsing their pieces, I noticed that they all use the hand signs while they sang, just like they do in warm-up. Many of them sang very well in tune, even when they were sight reading new sections. I really like having the kids sign the solfege even when they sing because it has that physical movement associated with the notes, which probably helps to internalize the intervals.

When the kids got to new section of the piece, Kyle had them write in the solfege, but while he did this, he played music of a choir singing as a background. I really love this idea because it encourages the children to keep thinking in music even when they are writing in solfege. It also helps their ear because Kyle is playing examples that are good examples of tone, consonants, vowels, musicality, and blend.

Again, throughout the rehearsal, Kyle treated the children like adults and held them responsible for their parts and their singing, which I love. During one song, the group was sight reading a new section and Kyle told them to "give it one more shot without trying to fix anything because you are smart." Instead of correcting everything that was wrong after one time through, Kyle asked every to "personally try to be more accurate," which I really loved. The kids responded too because they second time was much more in tune and much more together without Kyle having to fix things. It just showed me what these kids are capable of and how little talking you really need to do if you train each student to be responsible for their singing and comfortable with their pitches and musicality.

Another technique that Kyle uses a lot to help is having sections circle up so they can all hear each other. Kyle utilizes this especially on songs where rhythms are hard to fit together as a whole group or where individual sections have melodic lines that are very dissonant with other sections. I really love this idea because it allows each section to sync with each other, making them more secure when they return to choir formation.

All in all, I was really impressed with the critical ear and musicality that these kids demonstrate during rehearsal. Kyle told me the group ranges from 5th grade to 9th grade, but they already have highly developed ears and can identify balance issues, intonation issues, vowel alignment, and a whole bunch of other characteristics without Kyle needing to say anything. I hope that I can give my ensembles, choral or otherwise, this level of musicianship. Kyle truly is teaching these children to be musicians on their own rather than spoon-feeding them music.