Homeschool Choir is Fun!

For the last two semesters at Homeschool Out of the Box, our secular co-op here in Norfolk, I have been teaching a choir class for all ages. The first semester we learned some basics -- interval training, breathing, projecting, etc. and some simple songs. The second semester we took on Celtic music -- ballads and jigs and reels and silly songs and sad songs, all from the British Isles. This coming semester, we will be diving into the music of Appalachia -- murder ballads, nonsense songs, Stephen Foster standards, and bluegrass favorites.

We work on memorizing lyrics, ear training with notes and dynamics, and have lots of fun in class. Here are a couple of examples of our songs from last semester. We love to incorporate instruments that the kids play -- you can see a cello and tin whistle participating in this song, as well as my guitar:

Last semester we memorized several poems from W. B. Yeats, and here's one of them, one of our more serious selections:

This spring, we're singing American tunes like "Beautiful Dreamer," "Skip to My Lou," "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," "Cotton Eyed Joe," and "Shady Grove." Our songbook can be purchased as a coil-bound notebook from Lulu.com for $10 or you can download and print your own for free from our Yahoo Group files section. If you order the official songbook, the cost of the class is $60 for all 15 weeks. Without the songbook, the cost is $80 for the semester. We meet for an hour every Tuesday morning near the Chrysler Museum in downtown Norfolk. Won't you join the fun?

Kinetic Choir: Week 2

Great to see the kids back this week! I had such a good time with them.

Today's class:

Breathing exercises. Deep breathing, and a game called Zoom. Ask your kids about it!

Vocal Warm-ups. We played a game to help them visualize what it means to have higher notes and lower notes. In this game one person (first me, then all the kids had a turn) puts her hand out in front of her, and gives us a starting note. Then the leader raises or lowers her hand, sometimes quite drastically, sometimes more slowly, sometimes in jerks and skips, and the group follows by raising or lowering the pitch they're signing. This was fun! Lots of giggles, but a good way to start thinking about relative pitch, intervals, and good watching practice.

Composition. Several children had written verses to the song "You Are My Sunshine" and we had a great time listening and singing those gems.

Form: We practiced "Rocky Road to Dublin."

Interval Training: We reviewed "Bought Me a Cat" and learned "Little Bird, Little Bird." One has a major third and one has a minor third. We learned the songs thoroughly, and then practiced hearing intervals on the piano and deciding whether it was a "Bought Me a Cat" or a "Chipsy Chopsy" or a "Little Bird." They were really good at it! We'll work more on thirds next week. The goal is that they'll be able to identify major and minor thirds, and also sing them when asked.

Parts Singing: We practiced "My Paddle Clean and Bright" and "Rose Rose Rose Red."

Thank you choir! You had a great day!

Kinetic Choir: Week 1

We had a great day in choir today -- as I told the children, these are the choir pioneers,
blazing a trail for an HSoBX choral tradition. They were very good sports even
with our small numbers, and made some beautiful music!

Today's class:

Breathing exercises. We learned the difference between our talking voices and singing voices. We don't use our singing voices for talking, or in most cases we'd sound like Cinderella impersonators all day. Likewise, we do not use our talking voices for singing -- we want to access that sweet, higher voice that feels like it's located up in your forehead, not in your throat.

Vocal Warm-ups. We sang Me-balaba You-balaba Me-balaba and Mommy Made Me Mash My M&Ms. And we're not explaining. And we're not sorry.

Composition. We talked about how most songs have verses and a chorus, and we
looked at "You Are My Sunshine" as an example. The children's first composition
assignment is to write a new verse for this song! They can write about whatever
they like -- we talked about how songs can be about love, about a favorite
thing, about a person, about an event that happened, or really about anything.
I'm very interested to see what they come up with, and look forward to
incorporating their own work into our repertoire.

Form: In the morning class we talked about verse / chorus structure more as we
introduced "The Rocky Road to Dublin" in which Travis will sing the verses while
the choir claps a rhythm, and the choir will join in on the choruses.

Interval Training: In the afternoon class we learned the concept of intervals
and learned about thirds. We sang the song "Bought Me a Cat" which has a lot of
thirds in it. My goal for the class is that the children will be able to
identify and also produce all the different intervals on the major scale. That
will be a real accomplishment!

Parts Singing: Both classes began to learn the round "Rose Rose Rose Red" which
we will learn to introduce parts singing. We also learned "My Paddles Clean and
Bright" in the earlier class.

Next week I will have folders for the kids -- I was trying out some different
things today to see what would stick. I have a better idea now of the directions
we can go. I'm pretty excited about how well they did today!

Listening Links:

Rose Rose Rose Red

Bought Me a Cat (karaoke version)

Note: If you search around on YouTube for "I Bought Me a Cat" you will find many
many links to the Aaron Copeland version of it, but this is NOT the version
we're doing, because it doesn't have the same thirds in it that I need for their
ear training. The one we want goes "Do-Do-Mi, Do-Do-Mi, Do-Do-Mi-So-Mi-Re-Do" if
that makes any sense.

My Paddle Song

You are My Sunshine

Rocky Road to Dublin

Have fun! See you next week. Interested in choir? We have room!