For Band Directors Teaching Choir Thursday, November 21, 2019
recommended by Jen Sper and Lora Moore, School Choral Music Specialists
What? Me? Teach choir? But I am a band director!
Perhaps you’re trained as a band director and you find yourself in a job where you are suddenly expected to teach a choral class, and the most training you’ve had is perhaps one or two semesters of voice. Check out these resources to competently approach teaching chorus when trained as a band director.
A Practical Guide to Choral Conducting by Bradley Ellingboe
With nearly 40 years of experience in the choral field, esteemed conductor and composer Bradley Ellingboe shares his wisdom, tips, and practical advice in an accessible and enjoyable style. His pragmatic approach will help you learn the right questions to ask for your own unique situation, and will help you learn to arrive at your own solutions.
The interrelated chapters guide you through the necessary steps for preparing a successful concert or season, making effective rehearsal plans, efficiently preparing your scores and conducting gestures, problem solving issues of vocal technique, and much more. The appendix of correlated, reproducible worksheets, templates, music, and handouts will help you more easily organize your plans and apply the useful suggestions.
Finding Your Teacher Voice by Katie O’Connor-Ballantyne
Singing is an integral part of any music classroom, but the voice works differently than other instruments and needs its own specific strategies. Whether you’re an instrumentalist who finds yourself teaching choir, or a vocalist who is an expert at singing, this book can make your rehearsals more successful. Beginning with an exhortation to use your own voice as a singing example – even if it’s not perfect – it presents all the skills your singers need to learn: posture, diction, pitch, notation, and the list goes on. Each chapter offers a clear overview of a singing goal, then lists several strategies you can use to achieve it with your group.
Harmony Handbook by Katie O’Connor-Ballantyne
A treasure trove of choral pedagogy! This step-by-step guide will take beginners from unison to two-part singing by focusing on the underlying aural and developmental skills necessary for success. Sequential chapters on unison, echo, round, and partner singing serve as benchmarks along the way to full harmony. Each of ten carefully curated songs is prefaced with a two-page rehearsal guide that targets essential objectives and suggests exercises and activities designed to introduce, explore, and master the pieces. Learn how to anticipate and address musical challenges for this repertoire, then transfer these masterful techniques to your entire program.
For more choral guidance, please contact us – we’re happy to help! Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!
About the Authors:
Jen Sper has been with Stanton’s since 2006. A former middle school and high school choral director, she holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baldwin Wallace College Conservatory of Music. An active choral singer and accompanist throughout the Central Ohio area, she also enjoys good food, running (to counteract the good food…) and the Muppets.
Lora Moore joined the Stanton’s choral staff in July 2018. A former middle school and high school director of 32 years, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Choral Music from Capital University and a Master’s of Arts in Choral Music from The Ohio State University. Currently she is a church choir director, operates a private voice/piano studio and is active as a clinician and accompanist. During the off hours, Lora enjoys scouting out new day trips in Ohio to balance what her budget allows for her frequent trips to New York City to visit family and take in a Broadway show or two!