We began rehearsals for our choirs the 3rd week of September and we have been going strong ever since. We have 3 kids choirs now, and I'm very happy to have Jill Spencer, Shelley Christensen and Samantha Cirilly working with me. Jill is assisting with the Children's and Notables choirs, Shelley is teaching a dancing segment during the Footnotes rehearsal, and Samantha is teaching a pre-rehearsal, optional dance class for the Notables choir. Also we appreciate Hannah Simpson and Kristin Chicoski accompanying our choirs.
Here's a little run down for each of the choirs with a few pictures from our first performance just 3 weeks after we started rehearsal! This was a fun way to get us out into the community at the annual Onion Festival sponsored by the Sherwood Chamber of Commerce. It was a low pressure gig, and I think the kids got the year off to a good start. Thanks to everyone who came out to support us!
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| All Choirs at the Onion Festival October 8, 2011 |
Children's Choir
We started the season by learning a round--I Put Music in My Life. The added gestures helped the kids gain a sense that the melody for each phrase is in a different register, low, medium and high. It also helped them see a clear distinction between each phrase and each entrance for the round. They learned it quickly, and it was enjoyable for them to hear harmony on the first day.
We also learned a partner song, This Little Light of Mine to help them gain some further exposure to harmony. A partner song presents a melody for a verse, then a different melody for another verse, and then the 2 melodies are sung simultaneously to create harmony. It's a very simple, and effective way to teach kids to learn and hang onto a voice part. With the added choreography, it became even more fun and challenging. The arrangement we worked on is from a book of partner songs entitled "All Aboard the Partner Express" and it includes choreography suggestions, which were very useful for a very busy choir director to grab onto!
The third song we worked on was Kids of the Future from the movie "Meet the Robinsons". To keep expenses down, I just provided them with a page of lyrics with a few musical hints and notations. I added some gestures that helped them gain some melodic contour understanding, and I was pleased to discover that some of the words really fit a few solfege signs that were accurate with the actual notes. It was gratifying to see how easily they picked up the song while using these gestures. There is a lot of unison or repeated notes in the song, and the gestures helped them to notice that, as well as the general up and down contour. I took out some of the gestures for our performance at the Onion Festival, but some where just too fun, so we kept them in!
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| Children's' Choir singing "Kid's of the Future" |
Notables Choir
This choir also learned the round and partner song that the Children's choir learned so that they could perform them jointly at the Onion Festival. Additionally they learned Into the Light from the movie "Tangled". This was a big hit as far as choir enthusiasm goes. They learned this song by wrote with lyric sheets only, and a lot of cues from the director for rhythm and pitch. I also wrote in many musical hints on and around the lyrics to help them learn the song. This was a good song to get the ball rolling and work on singing in unison and following the director.
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| Notables Choir singing "I See the Light" |
Footnotes Choir
This group of 8 girls began right off the bat learning a choreography for Hakuna Matata from "The Lion King". They quickly caught on to the group songs for the Onion Festival, and spent most of the rehearsals on Hakuna Matata. I was pleased with how easily they learned the harmony, and focused on the choreography that Shelley taught to them. They are really engaging well in rehearsal, and I expect very good things to happen in the weeks to come.
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| Footnotes "Hakuna Matata" final pose w/ 7 of our 8 girls! |
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| Sherwood Chorale singing "Riversong" |
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