Teaching Choral Concepts: Simple Lesson Plans and Teaching AIDS for In-Rehearsal Choir Instruction

by Duane S. Crowther

Book Overview

This book, "Teaching Choral Concepts: Simple Lesson Plans and Teaching Aids for In-rehearsal Choir Instruction," contains complete lesson plans for in-rehearsal teaching of a wide variety of basic... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0882901192
• ISBN13: 9780882901190
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Horizon Publishers & Distributors
• Length: 447 Pages
• Weight: 1.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Complete Lesson Plans for 35 Choir 20-minute "Mini-lessons"

"Teaching Choral Concepts" was written as a Doctoral Dissertation in music education at the University of Utah. The curriculum was tested and refined in two high schools in the Salt Lake City area under carefully-controlled conditions. Remarkable results were produced! Three other Salt Lake City high schools were used as control groups. Choral students in all five schools were pre-tested at the beginning of the school year and post-tested at the end of the year. Results from two of the control schools, who didn't receive any specific instruction in singing-techniques principles, showed that their students actually knew less about choral principles at the end of their school year than they knew at the beginning! In contrast, the schools receiving the 35 mini-lessons course of study showed remarkable increases in knowledge of choral principles. Choir members in one test school, for instance, demonstrated an average 51.3% increase in knowledge on their post-test scores, though less than 15 total hours of instruction were devoted to teaching them the program during the school year! The lessons are designed to maximize teaching effectiveness. They are easily prepared and require relatively little teacher-preparation time. They carefully define the learning objectives and list the behavioral changes which will show that the students have utilized the materials. The lessons follow the natural order of learning and are meaningfully stated in a consistent format. They focus on basic choral principles and avoid matters of pedagogical controversy. Appropriate background reference materials are provided for each lesson, and visual aids are available for the entire study course. This book is organized in two sections. The first 84 pages are part of the dissertation chapters which describe the careful preparation of the program and tell of its implementation and evaluation. The second portion of the book, the main portion, is devoted to the 35 lessons and their supporting materials. It contains complete lesson plans for in-rehearsal teaching of basic choral principles to school and adult choirs. All of the lessons are "mini-lessons," designed to be taught in 20 minutes or less. Because of the precise instructions provided, the lessons can be taught even by relatively inexperienced teachers and conductors. Each of the lessons has been carefully tested and refined, and the cumulative ability of the 35 lessons to produce significant growth has been proven. The lessons cover the following topics: Unit I: 1. Introduction 2. Correct Sitting Posture 3. Correct Standing Posture 4. The Breathing Mechanism 5. Controlled Breathing 6. Voice-Part Classifications 7. Vocal Ranges 8. The Reed-Flute Tone Continuum 9. Change-of-Color Points 10. Audition Preparation Unit II: 11. Objectives of Vocal Training 12. The Singing Mechanism 13. Open Throat 14. Personal Warmup 15. Care of the Voice 16. Vocal Resonance 17. Good Singing Tone 18. Tone Color 19. Attacks and Relea