The White Whale: A Case Study of Sight- Singing Philosophies and Practices of Two Secondary Choral Music Educators
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Authors Campman, Jennifer Brobeck
Citation Campman, Jennifer Brobeck. (2020). The White Whale: A Case Study of Sight-Singing Philosophies and Practices of Two Secondary Choral Music Educators (Master's thesis, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA).
Publisher The University of Arizona.
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Download date 03/10/2021 01:42:06
Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/648668
THE WHITE WHALE:
A CASE STUDY OF SIGHT-SINGING PHILOSOPHIES AND PRACTICES
OF TWO SECONDARY CHORAL MUSIC EDUCATORS
by
Jennifer Brobeck Campman
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the
FRED FOX SCHOOL OF MUSIC
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of
MASTER OF MUSIC MUSIC EDUCATION
In the Graduate College
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
2020
2 2
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE
As members of the Ma e Commi ee, we certify that we have read the thesis prepared by: Jennifer Brobeck Campman titled:
and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirement for the Ma e Deg ee.
______Date: ______Oct 19 2020 Dawn T Corso Ph D
Al a J Co e ______Date: ______Oct 1 2020 Alyssa J Cossey
______Date: ______Oct 20, 2020 Matthew Williams
Final approval and acceptance of this thesis i con ingen on he candida e bmi ion of he final copies of the thesis to the Graduate College.
I hereby certify that I have read this thesis prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the Ma e requirement.
______Date: ______Oct 19 2020 Dawn T Corso Ph D Master s Thesis Committee Chair
Music Education Area Fred Fox School of Music
3
Acknowledgements
The title of this thesis, “The White Whale,” was taken from one of my study participants’ quotations about the magnitude of the challenge of sight-singing. However, the label is ironically applicable to how the process of writing a master’s thesis has felt while also teaching high- school choir full-time. This document has been many years in the making, and I would like to acknowledge and thank the following individuals for their support in the process.
First, thank you to my advisor, Dr. Dawn Corso, and the members of my committee, Dr.
Matthew Williams and Dr. Alyssa Cossey. Their guidance and support have been invaluable, and
I am grateful for the effort that they have taken in reading and evaluating my research.
Thank you to my study participants (and my colleagues and friends), Mrs. Julia Higgins and Mrs. Sarah Ross. These two incredible teachers are the reason that I am a high school choir teacher today, and it has been a joy to interview them, observe them, and learn from their wisdom and expertise in a new way as a researcher.
Finally, my family and friends have my eternal gratitude for walking with me and supporting me throughout the long years of graduate school. A huge affectionate thank you goes to my new husband Tyler, who has never known me as anything but a master’s student, and with whom I am eager to continue life with beyond grad school. Thank you for lending your positive outlook and keeping me calm throughout this process; I love you more than words can say.
Finally, thank you to my parents, who pushed me to not give up, even when the “white whale” seemed to loom impossibly large. Thank you in particular to my dad for always supporting me and advocating for me, both professionally and personally. Dad, I dedicate this thesis to you.
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Table of Contents
Abstract...... 8
Chapter 1: Introduction...... 10
Background of the Problem...... 11
Rationale and Goals...... 13
Chapter 2: Review of Literature...... 16
History and Philosophy of Sight-Singing Instruction...... 16
Perceived Importance of Sight-Singing Instruction...... 19
Teacher Effectiveness...... 22
Systems for Sight-Singing...... 23
Developing a Sight-Singing Curriculum...... 26
Successful and Unsuccessful Sight-Singing Strategies...... 28
Effects of Instrumental Background...... 30
Conclusions...... 32
Chapter 3: Statement of Purpose...... 34
Chapter 4: Methodology...... 35
Potential Bias...... 39
Definition of Terms...... 40
Chapter 5: Summary of Data...... 41
Initial Interviews...... 41
Observations...... 43
Post-Observation Vlogs...... 47
Chapter 6: Results...... 50 5
Table of Contents – Continued
Theme 1: Teacher Identity...... 50
Personal Musical Experience – Julia Higgins...... 50
Personal Musical Experience – Sarah Ross...... 51
Instrumental Music Connections – Julia Higgins...... 52
Instrumental Music Connections – Sarah Ross...... 54
Perception of Self – Julia Higgins...... 56
Perception of Self – Sarah Ross...... 57
Relationship to Students – Julia Higgins...... 58
Relationship to Students – Sarah Ross...... 60
Theme 2: Musical Systems and Curriculum...... 62
Solfege – Julia Higgins...... 62
Solfege – Sarah Ross...... 65
Establishing the Key – Julia Higgins...... 66
Establishing the Key – Sarah Ross...... 67
Tuning and Intervals – Julia Higgins...... 68
Tuning and Intervals – Sarah Ross...... 70
Beat and Rhythm – Julia Higgins...... 71
Beat and Rhythm – Sarah Ross...... 73
Curriculum Choices – Julia Higgins...... 75
Curriculum Choices – Sarah Ross...... 77
Theme 3: Pedagogical Strategies...... 78
Structure and Repetition – Julia Higgins...... 78 6
Table of Contents – Continued
Structure and Repetition – Sarah Ross...... 80
Variety in Approach – Julia Higgins...... 82
Variety in Approach – Sarah Ross...... 83
Modeling – Julia Higgins...... 84
Modeling – Sarah Ross...... 85
Feedback and Assessment – Julia Higgins...... 86
Feedback and Assessment – Sarah Ross...... 88
Theme 4: Philosophy...... 90
Efficiency and Fluency – Julia Higgins...... 90
Efficiency and Fluency – Sarah Ross...... 91
Connecting the Mind and the Voice – Julia Higgins...... 92
Connecting the Mind and the Voice – Sarah Ross...... 95
Artistic Significance and Application to Repertoire – Julia Higgins...... 97
Artistic Significance and Application to Repertoire – Sarah Ross...... 98
Fun – Julia Higgins...... 99
Fun – Sarah Ross...... 101
Student Independence and Growth Over Time – Julia Higgins...... 102
Student Independence and Growth Over Time – Sarah Ross...... 105
Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusions...... 107
Discussion...... 107
Question 1: Teaching Philosophies...... 107
Question 2: Pedagogical Strategies and Systems...... 110 7
Table of Contents – Continued
Question 3: Relationship Between Philosophy and Pedagogical Strategy...... 115
Limitations and Recommendations...... 116
Conclusions...... 118
Appendices...... 119
A. Initial Interview Questions...... 119
B. Post-Observation Vlog Questions...... 121
C. Initial Interview Transcript – Sarah Ross...... 122
D. Initial Interview Transcript – Julia Higgins...... 147
E. Observation Transcripts – Julia Higgins...... 161
F. Observation Transcripts – Sarah Ross...... 205
G. Post-Observation Vlog Transcript – Julia Higgins...... 227
H. Post-Observation Vlog Transcript – Sarah Ross...... 233
References...... 238
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Abstract
Within the American secondary choral classroom, sight-singing instruction is a common practice, with many teachers touting its connection to building music literacy for singers. Given the plethora of available sight-singing curricula, as well as the many possible musical and instructional systems that can be used in sight-singing instruction, choir teachers can approach this subject in a variety of ways. This thesis sought to delve deeper into the backgrounds, philosophies, and rationales of two Tucson, Arizona-area secondary choir teachers in regard to the instruction of sight-singing in their choir classes. The two teachers, Mrs. Julia Higgins of
Esperero Canyon Middle School and Mrs. Sarah Ross of Marana High School, were first interviewed one-on-one to gain a foundational understanding of their personal musical backgrounds, teaching philosophies and instructional choices. They were then each observed teaching “standard sight-singing lessons” to three of their choir classes. After their observations, each participant made a self-reflection in the form of a vlog to discuss the rationales behind the lessons that they taught.
After analyzing the data, several categories emerged: teacher identity (subcategories: personal musical experience, instrumental music connections, perception of self, and relationship to students), musical systems and curriculum (subcategories: solfege, establishing the key, tuning and intervals, beat and rhythm, and curriculum choices), pedagogical strategies (subcategories: structure and repetition, variety in approach, modeling, feedback and assessment), and philosophy (subcategories: efficiency and fluency, connecting the mind and the voice, artistic significance and application to repertoire, fun, and student independence and growth over time).
This led to a discussion of each teacher’s music teaching philosophies as they relate to sight- singing, their pedagogical strategies used when teaching sight-singing, and how these two 9 categories connect. This study provides only a snapshot of two teacher’s backgrounds and methods, and further, broader research can and should be done to comprehensively investigate how and why secondary choral educators teach sight-singing.
10
The White Whale:
A Case Study of Sight-Singing Philosophies and Practices
of Two Secondary Choral Music Educators
Chapter 1: Introduction
An oft quoted and emotionally resonant maxim for music educators is that teaching music is so much more than “teaching music.” On a daily basis, many choir teachers have a plethora of tasks and objectives to manage. Many work to plan interesting and efficient lessons, with appropriately pacing to cover state and national standards as well as personal instructional goals. They may dedicate time to selecting appropriate repertoire and thoughtfully introduce and rehearse it with their students, all the while assessing students on an individual and group level.
On top of all these classroom tasks, they plan concerts, fundraising activities, and other community events, manage their program’s finances, and prepare individual students and ensembles for festivals. Many thoughtful teachers try to ensure that their students are growing in musicianship daily and having fun in the process, hoping that those key ingredients aren’t lost in the shuffle.
This begs the question - amidst all of the noise of daily life in the choir classroom, what goals and tasks will truly hold the most long-term meaning, to teachers and students alike? A
1996 survey asked adult choristers to fill out a survey about their formative years in music
(Stollak, G. and Stollak, M., 1996). These adult singers reported they were not mainly driven to stay in choir by concerts and competitions; instead, they found more motivation from love of singing and a desire to develop their musical skills. I see these findings as a helpful reminder of what is truly important. As a teacher, I often contemplate the following questions. As the years go on and students graduate from my tutelage, have they developed a passion for music? Do they 11 understand its forms and functions? Can they sing in a healthy way, with artistry and expression?
Crucially, do they have the skills to learn music on their own as adults?
Background of the Problem
Music literacy is a vital skill taught in the music classroom to help bridge the gap between teacher instruction and individual, independent learning. Teachers of all disciplines utilize Pearson and Gallagher’s Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) model, wherein a teacher models how the students will address the material first, helps them through the task, then eventually “releases responsibility” so that they can try performing the task on their own as independent learners (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983). One application of this principle in the choral classroom is teaching music literacy through sight-singing instruction, wherein a teacher helps beginning students understand and sing new musical content, scaffolding instruction so that students eventually develop the ability to analyze new music without teacher help. Thoughtful choral music educators at the secondary level often agree that teaching students to read music on their own without teacher help is important in developing a student’s ability to function independently as a musician (Demorest & May, 1995). Teaching by rote can sometimes be the right approach for a teacher who desires to introduce a piece in a culturally responsive way, to reach children who are too young to read, to isolate a musical element that is hitherto unknown to students, or simply to save the rehearsal time that practicing reading music might take with beginning students (Haston, 2007). However, teachers who develop music literacy skills in their students often find that they save time overall and are able to introduce more difficult music to their choirs (Demorest, 1998). Students who become proficient at reading music have more ownership over the music they learn, and students have a higher probability of placing into auditioned honor choirs and other outside musical opportunities (Justus, 1969). There is a time 12 and place for both teaching by rote and teaching by means of sight-singing, but sight-singing instruction’s many benefits make it an important strategy to use in a secondary choral classroom.
In secondary choral music, sight-singing is a useful tool to developing music literacy.
When singers learn to interpret a new excerpt of music using solfege, scale-degree numbers, various rhythm systems, intervals, and a host of other musical tools, they no longer need to rely on a piano, choir teacher, phone app, or recording to be able to read and sing the music. For both the singer and the instrumentalist, aural skills are an important component of reading music accurately; as Rawlins (2005/2006, p. 27) describes:
Performing rhythms accurately is not a process of mathematical calculation, but rather a
process of deciphering and hearing what is on the page prior to actually executing it.
Similarly, technical fluency is not simply a question of moving fingers quickly and
smoothly - it results from hearing the passage the way we desire it to sound and making it
happen.
However, asking a singer to sing an A 440, a B flat major scale, or a written passage on staff notation without a piano to assist is an entirely different task than asking an instrumentalist to do the same. As Justus (1969, p. 9) states:
The vocalist… is at a decided disadvantage, since his instrument is part of his mental as
well as his physical self. The absence of valves, strings, slides, and other physical devices
leaves the teacher faced with communicative problems that are further compounded by
mental obstacles.
Singers lack the ability to see much of their instrument, and the fact that much of singing occurs in the mind can frustrate young singers and lead to challenges for their teacher. In a voice, there are no keys to press or strings to bow. Reading music can feel like pulling notes and rhythms out 13 of thin air if a student has not learned voice-specific music literacy skills. For this reason, teaching musical understanding through the specific skill of sight-singing can enhance a singer’s ability to become an independent musician.
Rationale and Goals
Examining the topic of sight-singing instruction in the secondary classroom has proven equally relevant to me as both a student and a teacher of singing. Nichols’s 2012 investigation of choir teacher rationales for sight-singing instructional choices indicated that many teachers develop their philosophy toward teaching sight-singing from their own experiences as a young choir student. This assertion resonates with me deeply and provides much of my own rationale for choosing this particular topic of research. I first began taking voice lessons when I was in sixth grade, at eleven years of age. My first voice teacher was my church children’s choir director and a friend of my family, Julia Higgins. She had just graduated from the University of
Arizona and was beginning what would become a long and successful career as the choir teacher at Esperero Canyon Middle School. She was full of energy and ideas about how best to grow me as a singer. While her work with me on vocal technique, acting skills, repertoire selection, and overall confidence was vital to my development, her focus on sight-singing as a tool for cultivating overall musicianship changed my life and irrevocably shaped my future philosophy as a music teacher. A few years later, I began high school choir at Catalina Foothills High School and immediately felt that I had an advantage over many of my peers in terms of learning music – crucially, not due to any of my own “natural talent,” but due instead to the hours I had spent with
Julia learning to rapidly read, process, and understand music at an increasingly higher level
(note: the advantage of being able to afford private lessons is not one that is available to all students; this knowledge has made me all the more dedicated to providing quality sight-singing 14 instruction within the choir classes that I now teach). Julia’s work with me in our private lessons enabled me to audition into my school’s top ensembles, successfully place into regional and all- state choirs every year, and eventually make it into Symphonic Choir at the University of
Arizona as an incoming freshman. Every step of the way, it was not primarily my voice that led the way and impressed directors; it was my musicianship, fed directly by my facility with sight- singing.
When I came to the end of my bachelor’s degree in music education and went to student teach with Sarah Ross, then-director of the choirs at Marana High School, the importance of sight-singing was further impressed upon me. Sarah taught choir at Marana High School for twelve years, and in that time, she was awarded a host of honors, including the award for
Arizona Choral Educators’ Outstanding New Choral Educator of the Year (2008) and the
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards’ certification for Music/Early Adolescence
Through Young Adulthood (2016). Sarah’s passion and facility at teaching music literacy enabled her choirs to learn music much more quickly than I had ever experienced before, and I saw remarkably high numbers of her students placed into the regional and all-state choirs, grow from those experiences, and bring back what they had learned into her choir classroom. It seemed to me that sight-singing instruction benefitted the individual students as well as the choir program in which they participated.
As I have built my own high school choral program at Flowing Wells High School in the past three years, teaching sight-singing has remained a high priority. Since my first day at
Flowing Wells, my students have learned that their individual success in choir is inextricably linked with their work ethic toward sight-singing skills. As their teacher, I have found that when my choirs are able to sight-sing at a high level, they learn repertoire more quickly, process all 15 elements of written choral notation more fluently, hear and learn harmonies faster, and function more independently as individual musicians. Demographically, the school that I teach at has a significantly higher poverty level than the ones I attended. Many of my students do not have the home support and economic advantages that enabled me to take private lessons as a young singer. Since many of my students are not easily able to work one-on-one with a private vocal instructor, teaching music literacy thoroughly in the choir classroom is all the more crucial to me as their teacher. As I gain more experience as a teacher of sight-singing, along with increasing in general expertise as a choir teacher and consistently establishing expectations for my students’ musical, academic, and personal performance over time, I have seen clear growth in my high school choir program. By my perception, while outside factors within my local choral community may certainly have been at play, my program has sent more singers to outside honor choirs (from 10 students placing into regional honor choir my first year to 27 placing in my third year), earned higher ratings at festivals (from one Excellent rating at the NAU Jazz Madrigal
Festival my first year to Superior ratings for both my advanced choirs for the past two years), and tackled more difficult and more sophisticated choral repertoire throughout the year.
Now that I am an active teacher in the Tucson choral community, I have a renewed appreciation for Julia and Sarah as mentors that were so formative in my life, and this thesis provided a valuable opportunity to truly examine them as teachers from a research perspective.
How do they operate in the way they do as masterful, experienced teachers of sight-singing, and from where did these teaching philosophies arise? The goal of this study was to interview and observe these two different established and successful Tucson-area choir teachers, with the larger objective of understanding what teaching philosophies and strategies makes a successful choir teacher effective at teaching sight-singing. 16
Chapter 2: Review of Literature
History and Philosophy of Sight-Singing Instruction
Much of modern American sight-singing instruction can be traced back to the medieval period in Europe, when Guido of Arezzo (b. 991-1033) developed solfege to solve the problem of singers being able to sing without a “master” (Justus, 1969). Guido’s system used the hymn Ut queant laxis to establish a system of syllables designating scale degrees. The syllables ut, re, mi, fa, so, and la also formed the basis of the “Guidonian hand,” wherein the syllables were assigned to pitches, which were then ascribed to joints of the fingers of the left hand, thus physicalizing the practice of music reading (Palisca, 2007). In the Renaissance period, many important musicians (Binchois, Clements, Dufay, Desprez, Gombert, Lassus, Palestrina, Victoria, Willaert, and others) “emerged from the choirboy schools as trained vocalists with extensive experience in music reading” (Furby, 2008, pg. 10). Hymnal books became part of both the Catholic and the new Lutheran worship practices, and music literacy became the expectation for musicians, spreading through the cathedrals and churches of Europe (Collins, 1993). This expectation of music literacy in Western classical music only grew in the years to come.
Throughout the 18th and 19th century, several other Europeans rose to prominence as experts in the field of music literacy and education, including Johann Pestalozzi, Sarah Anne
Glover, John Curwen, and Zoltan Kodály (Furby, 2008). Johann Pestalozzi (b. 1746-1827) was a
Swiss educator and author during the eighteenth century whose ideas of education have influenced practice throughout Western culture for the past three centuries. Pestalozzi’s principles of teaching include: 1) begin with the concrete object before introducing the abstract;
2) begin with the immediate environment before dealing with what is distant and remote; 3) begin with easy exercises and move toward more difficult ones and 4) always proceed gradually, 17 cumulatively, and slowly. These ideas were adopted and refined by educators, including music educators, in the years that followed (Clark, 1999). Sarah Anne Glover (b. 1786-1867) was an
English teacher who was recognized through the excellence of her children’s choir, trained for her father’s church. Her system, developed over twenty years of teaching, was based on a new set of notational syllables, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, te, with do as the tonic pitch of the major scale.
This directly relates to modern solfege used in choirs today. Students were trained using the
‘Norwich Sol-fa Ladder’ to sing exercises and songs, and then introduced to traditional musical staff notation (Rainbow, 2003). John Curwen (b. 1816-1880), a nineteenth-century English minister, is another well-known name associated with sight singing instruction. Although he was not a musician, “his acquaintance with the Pestalozzian theory of education and his own study of
Glover’s Scheme for Rendering Psalmody Congregational led to his interest in developing and perfecting the scheme of tonic sol-fa” (Furby, 2008, pg. 12). Curwen is perhaps best remembered today for his development of a manual system to represent the notes of the scale (hand signs), a system developed to help students of all ages and class backgrounds to develop musical literacy
(Rainbow, 2007). Curwen hand signs continue to be a formative part of many students’ sight- singing experiences to the present day.
Zoltan Kodály (b. 1882-1967) is a name widely known in the area of teaching music literacy to children (Conrad, 1977; Furby, 2008; Tacka, 2007). The Hungarian musician and educator developed a system reliant on the use of relative solmization, hand signs and rhythmic syllables along with the native folk music of Hungary in order to teach music literacy to children
(Tacka, 2007). Kodály also drew upon certain aspects of the eurhythmics approach of Emile
Jacques Dalcroze (b. 1865-1950), wherein musical concepts are established through kinesthetic movement. The sequences of instruction included musical experience preceding symbolization 18
(Furby, 2008). The teaching order is sound to sight and concrete to abstract, drawing heavily on the work of Pestalozzi (Choksy, 1976). Kodály’s ideology stated that music literacy is something everyone can and should enjoy, singing is the foundation of all music education, music education should begin with the very young, the folk songs of a child’s own culture is his “musical mother- tongue” (Chosky, 1981, pg. 83) and should be the vehicle for early instruction, and only music of the highest artistic value (folk and composed) should be used in teaching (Chosky, 1981). Thus, the Pestalozzian principles of moving from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract “had a profound impact upon the ideas of music literacy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,” with Glover, Curwen, and Kodály all using this philosophy to inform their methods of music literacy instruction (Furby, 2008). The idea of moving from the simple to the complex is still foundational in many modern music-teaching principles.
These European visionaries had a profound impact on music education in the United
States. Lowell Mason (b. 1792-1872), regarded as the “Father of Music Education” (Phillips,
2004), “believed that all people had a degree of musical talent, and that singing was a skill to be generally developed,” which led him to “develop a sequential method of teaching sight-singing and singing skills to children based upon Pestalozzian principles” (Furby, 2008, pg. 15). Mason designated rhythm, melody and dynamics as categories for music-reading instruction and created a course of study for each category. American philosopher, psychologist, and educator John
Dewey (b. 1859-1952) placed the emphasis on educating the whole child, which impacted music education by calling it essential in the production of a well-rounded and educated student
(Collins, 1993). This argument is still relevant in present-day American education, as many continue to advocate for the importance of music and arts instruction alongside other academic subjects such as mathematics and science. 19
Perceived Importance of Sight-Singing Instruction
Even with this influence, “the importance of sight-singing instruction and musical literacy raged in a continual debate since the introduction of music education to the general public of the United States” (Furby, 2008, pg. 13). Researchers in the 1960s (Flom, 1969; Hales,
1961) discovered that most chorus teachers did not consider the development of sight-reading ability to be a primary objective for the high school choir. Daniels (1986) stated that much disparity existed in the importance placed upon teaching chorus students to read music, with some high school choral directors treating the teaching of sight-singing as a primary objective for the chorus class and others making little or no attempt to include such instruction in the choral curriculum. Demorest and May (1995) bemoaned that choral music education is often criticized for its emphasis on performance and rote teaching at the expense of developing music reading skills. The endless rush toward concerts and other performances is undoubtedly a significant factor in why teachers might abandon the teaching of music literacy. Justus (1969, p. 9) asserts:
To become a proficient sight-singer, the student must first become an understanding
musician …. Time must be made available for every student to establish familiarity with
the most basic music notation. Since music has often been referred to as ‘the universal
language,’ let us accept the premise that music is, indeed, a language and proceed along
the same lines which a language specialist might be expected to follow.
Thus, teachers encounter this common dilemma: how to find the time necessary for sight-singing study when confronted by the need to prepare for the next concert. Sometimes, in the middle of a busy school year, it might seem more practical to skip the daily sight-singing lesson in favor of additional rehearsal time for choral repertoire. Indeed, a survey by Johnson (1987) indicated that selected directors in the North Central region of the American Choral Directors Association 20
(ACDA) agreed on the importance of sight-reading, but devoted little rehearsal time to developing those skills. Szabo's survey (1992/1993) of randomly selected high school choir directors around the country noted that those directors typically did not include sight-singing in their rehearsals. These studies indicate that there is discrepancy between individual educators about how important sight-singing instruction might be.
Examining the current National Core Arts Standards for Music (2014) also allows room for interpretation amongst individual educators. The Traditional and Emerging Ensembles Strand of those 2014 music standards (which apply to instrumental ensembles as well as choirs), refer to music literacy in the “Analyze” section of the “Performing” standard, with the goal of “analyzing creators’ context and how they manipulate elements of music provides insight into their intent and informs performance” by “using music reading skills where appropriate” (National
Association for Music Education, 2014, p. 1). There is no specific mention of sight-singing at all.
These standards use the term literacy in a broad sense; besides including the traditional learning targets such as reading and writing musical notation, they also involve the development of
“artistic literacy” (Csikos & Dohany, 2016). Educators might have different perspectives about which elements of musical and artistic literacy merit classroom instructional time, and there also seems to be some discrepancy in interpretation of the verbiage of these standards, especially in regard to “music literacy” versus “sight-singing.” McClung (2008) notes, “Music literacy is a primary instructional goal in the music classroom… Sight-singing, a specialized component of music literacy, is a skill that remains a challenge to many young musicians” (McClung, 2008, p.
255, emphasis mine). This connection to music literacy forms one argument for why sight- singing instruction might be such a challenging yet important objective for many choir teachers. 21
Daniels (1986) attempted to determine the relationships of sight-reading ability in the high school chorus to factors in four general categories: the school, the music curriculum, the chorus teacher, and the individual characteristics of students in the chorus. The study found one of the factors that best predict sight-reading ability was a chorus teacher who believed in the importance of sight-reading instruction in the high school chorus. Daniels posits, “Apparently, the attitude the teacher brings to the teaching of sight-reading is of greater significance to the development of sight-reading ability among students than specific teaching methods or curriculum content” (Daniels, 1986, p. 67). This leads to further questions in Johnson’s 1987 assertion that teachers found sight-singing to be important but did not dedicate rehearsal time to sight-singing instruction. A teacher who is successful at teaching sight-singing may be one who believes that learning sight-singing is important, but the question still remains of how teachers’ philosophies are connected to their methods.
In this vein, Nichols (2012) sought to explore the rationale for sight-singing instructional choices of chorus teachers at the middle school level and sought to determine teachers' commitment to teaching music literacy. Nichols found that there is an increasing interest in accountability in the music classroom in the last fifteen years, with more time and resources now devoted to performance-based assessment than ever before, yet few studies have examined sight- singing instructional practices to see what influence these changes might have had on teachers' approaches to music instruction. Ultimately, Nichols found that while the data indicated that respondents employed a variety of methods, teachers' personal philosophies were determined to be more important than influences such as curriculum standards, festival requirements or previous methods professors (Nichols, 2012). Furthermore, when asked, "Where did you first learn the method you use?" more teachers (24.0%) responded that they had acquired the method 22 in their own middle school experiences, possibly indicating a lasting impression that early music learning may have on future music educators. In other words, a teacher’s personal philosophy and past experience as a singer may a determining factor of the level of significance they place on sight-singing in his or her choral classroom.
Teacher Effectiveness
In examining the topic of sight-singing in the high school choral classroom, a fundamental starting point is the effectiveness of the teacher. “Effective teaching” is a somewhat nebulous idea that many different researchers have sought to define (Husband, 1947; Kuehne,
2007; Lundstedt, 1966; Tuckman, 1995). Lundstedt (1966) defined effective teaching as knowing one’s subject matter as well as having empathy and feeling, the ability to take the role of another, and an acute sense of effective timing. In examining an effective teacher’s approach to teaching sight-singing, one might ask if they find it important to teach sight-singing to their students, and how they perceive that this affects the overall success of their own choral program.
Button (2010) investigated the perceptions of the effective teacher in association with the teaching and learning of music. Button posited that a key variable for raising the standard of music in schools is teacher effectiveness; this effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, is associated with personal teaching characteristics and the teacher’s perception of exemplary music practice
(Button, 2010). The personal teaching characteristics Button examined that were linked to students’ improvement in music were optimization of teaching time, matching learning to pupil achievement, achievable objectives, stronger academic focus, pacing of lessons, questioning techniques, conscientiousness, good control, empathy towards pupils, commitment, and the teacher's involvement in musical activities. Conversely, feelings of insecurity, diffidence, tension, and carelessness in practical matters fostered undesirable effects on student 23 achievement. Effective teachers seem to plan their instruction effectively and care deeply for both their content and their students.
Hamann, Baker, McAllister, and Bauer (2000) sought to determine what effect, if any, music teacher classroom-delivery skills or lesson content had on university music students' perceptions of lesson or teacher appeal by student academic standing. They expanded the list of teaching positives to include lesson quality, the ability to communicate verbally and nonverbally, teacher intensity, and conductor magnitude. They also found that effective teachers are identified as those who have highly developed teacher-delivery skills, including but not limited to eye contact, vocal inflection, facial expression, gesturing, proximity, or posture (Hamann et al.,
2000). At the end of their study, they emphasized the imperative to encourage pupils to use their own experiences to construct meaning that makes sense to them, rather than assimilating received knowledge through a pre-prepared format, in an effort to permit a variety of teaching strategies to be employed to support students’ learning (Hamann et al., 2000). This study showed the importance of student ownership over the material and emphasized that teachers are the most effective when their strategies support the goal of student independence.
Encouraging student independence to provide a sense of ownership over the material speaks directly to the importance of sight-singing in the choral classroom. Justus (1969) articulated that one of the most rewarding results of teaching sight-singing is the relish with which students soon take up the challenge of reading new material. He also spoke to the positive impact that sight-singing instruction has on students’ musical involvement in future years.
Effective teaching of music literacy has many benefits to student and teacher alike.
Systems for Sight-Singing 24
Within the realm of effective instruction, there are a variety of different systems that a choir teacher might use in sight-singing instruction. Hung (2012) observed that “the most common systems use solfege, sometimes called solfeggio, a technique where notes are associated with specific syllables (e.g., do- re-mi) and as the notes are sung the corresponding syllables are pronounced. It is felt that singing the syllables according to the solfege system helps singers produce accurate pitch from music notation” (pg. 1). Within the use of solfege, two different systems exist to name the notes. The movable-do system consists of using the same intervals of a major scale in any key (Bentley, 1959), in which do is identified as the tonic or starting pitch of the major key of the sight-singing piece, and the remaining solfege syllables re (supertonic, scale degree 2), mi (mediant, scale degree 3), fa (subdominant, scale degree 4), sol (dominant, scale degree 5), la (submediant, scale degree 6), and ti (subtonic, scale degree 7) follow in sequential order. Conversely, the fixed-do system entails using solfege syllables that are “fixed” to the notes of the staff and never change (Silver, 1956). Some music educators advocate the use of pitch numbers, which requires the use of numbers from 1-7 to represent the notes or steps of the scale. Others use letter note names; this system distinguishes pitches of the scale by the actual name of the note (A, B, C, etc.). Still others simply ask their students to sing on neutral syllables such as “la” or “loo” on all degrees of the scale (Autry, 1975).
Another choice lies within the moveable-do system: whether to use do-based minor or la-based minor. Do-based minor is when “the tonic remains do and the pitches are chromatically altered to account for the change to harmonic minor mode” (Silver, 1956). A natural minor scale do-based minor would be sung as, “Do re me fa sol le te do,” with a harmonic minor scale sung, “Do re me fa sol la ti do.” La-based minor is when “the relative key signature is adhered to and la is now the new tonic, better associating to the relative major key” 25
(Silver, 1956). A natural minor scale la-based minor would be sung as, “La ti do re mi fa sol la,” with a harmonic minor scale sung, “La ti do re mi fi si la.” Advocates of do-based minor claim that it better maintains the integrity of the key in terms of music theory; proponents of la-based minor insist that it is simpler and more logical for students to learn (Conrad, 2007). While both systems have their vehement proponents, research has shown that success can be found using either system (Johnson, 1987). It seems that given adequate instructional time and practice, as well as consistent use of a given system, trained students are often able to sight-sing with pitch accuracy regardless of whether their teacher advocates the use of fixed- or moveable-do or do- based or la-based minor – a finding that opens many doors in terms of individual teachers’ instructional choices.
Teachers also have a number of instructional options when it comes to teaching rhythm.
Some of these systems use mnemonic devices to aid in reading rhythmic patterns, such as measure counting, value counting, rhythmic syllables, word chanting, saying the words of the music in rhythm, and singing or chanting the rhythms on a neutral syllable (Conrad, 2007). In the measure counting system, students are instructed to count each beat and sub-divide each beat depending on where it is placed in a measure (e.g., four quarter notes in 4/4 time might be counted, “1, 2, 3, 4”). In the value counting system, notes are given values based on their duration (e.g. two quarter notes and a half note in 4/4 time might be counted, “1, 1, 1-2”). The
Kodály system uses a rhythmic syllable system wherein “the quarter note is “ta” and the eighth note is “ti” (Choksy, 1976) (e.g., three quarter notes and two eighth notes in 4/4 time might be counted, “ta, ta, ta, ti-ti”). In this way, a syllable is designated to each note denomination, and numbers are not exploited to count the rhythm patterns like the previous two systems mentioned.
These three rhythmic systems are common choices, but a teacher might elect to use any 26 combination of words, numbers, clapping, or otherwise physicalizing the beat or the rhythm as their ideal instructional choice (Conrad, 2007). Just as with the systems for pitch, students may find success using any one or a combination of the above rhythmic systems.
Developing a Sight-Singing Curriculum
Within each sight-singing system, there is a vast range of approaches amongst educators in terms of their preferred sight-singing routines and practices. Many teachers start with published sight-singing exercise books or systems devised in choral method books they read in their own schooling. Sight-singing-specific literature, such as choral methods textbooks for preservice choral educators (Collins, 1999; Demorest, 2001; Roe, 1983) as well as textbooks designed for junior high and high school choirs (Crocker and Snyder, 2005; Killian, Daniels, &
Rann, 2001) abound with ideas and strategies for assisting young musicians in becoming better sight-singers (Killian & Henry, 2005). Indeed, researchers cite numerous choral method books that include music reading instruction as an important part of the curriculum as evidence of why sight-singing ought to hold a stronger priority in classrooms across the United States (Nichols,
2012). However, even with the abundance of available literature, many teachers still find themselves at a loss. Naturally, as researchers have found, concurrence about the preferred instructional method seems to vary, and no single approach has emerged as consistently superior
(Killian & Henry, 2005). As with musical systems, the choice of sight-singing curriculum appears to be largely a matter of teacher preference and valuation based on a variety of factors.
Bowyer (2015) identified four main types of curricula for sight-singing instruction. The first “used newly composed musical material to the exclusion of substantive art and folk literature” (p. 69). The content of these resources is “functional, but lacked the artistry of vocal repertoires that have been vetted by time and experience” (p. 69). Bowyer’s second type of 27 curriculum taught “symbol before sound;” in other words, the music is presented “algebraically,” and students learned to identify note names, key signatures, scales, and intervals, but still
“acquired no real ability to audiate the material” (p. 70). The third curriculum category “featured excellent choral literature” such as folk songs and excerpts of choral masterworks but did not have a clear sequence or instructional strategy toward music literacy. As a result, Bowyer posited that such material fails to develop individual student musicianship effectively, as the source material is simply too vast. The fourth and final type of curriculum “walked students through a series of newly composed melodic exercises” designed to develop harmonic context and tonality in preparation for other literature in a similar vein (p. 70-71). Bowyer praised the “priority placed on in-tune singing and audiation,” but insisted that more rudimentary materials would be needed to ensure that students developed holistic musicianship. He concluded that for sight-singing instruction to be truly effective, curricula would need to develop fundamental musicianship skills, be highly sequenced and musically intuitive, relate directly to choral ensemble musicianship, engage students at every level of experience, and contain only “excellently composed music” (p. 71). While this criteria may seem difficult to fully achieve, these categories are applicable to a wide variety of sight-singing resources that teachers choose to use.
Many popular sight-singing instructional systems within the Western choral canon can be analyzed using Bowyer’s categories – and some employ elements of every category. For example, Andy Beck’s Sing at First Sight series (2004) is a hybrid of new melodic material, definitions of symbols, occasional excerpts of “excellent choral literature” from the Western choral canon, as well as development of harmonic context, particularly once students reach the multi-part exercises. Carole Krueger’s Progressive Sight Singing (2017) espouses the “sound before symbol” approach in her “grammar and syntax” model toward musical literacy, but her 28 book certainly contains new melodic material and harmonic exercises as well. In this researcher’s opinion, both books, as well as countless others in the genre, also rise to Bowyer’s standards of effectiveness.
Successful and Unsuccessful Sight-Singing Strategies
Researchers continue to examine what successful teachers do to enable their students to perform well at sight-singing. One might assume that a teacher whose program excels at sight- reading must dedicate a great deal of time in class to developing these skills, but this has not always proven to be true based on the research. Demorest and May (1995) observed that school choral experience might intuitively seem like the best indicator of sight-singing ability, but previous findings on the role of choral curricula in sight-singing achievement might not agree
(Daniels, 1986; Tucker, 1969). Killian and Henry (2005) also arrived at this conclusion in regard to the lack of significance of extensive class time spent on sight-singing, finding that the amount of rehearsal time devoted to sight-singing as reported by directors (Daniels, 1986; Demorest,
1998b) or as observed by researchers did not seem to be related to sight-singing accuracy, and whether or not the director rehearsed sight-singing during every rehearsal (as self-reported) made no significant difference in the scores of study participants (Killian & Henry, 2005).
If overall class time spent on practicing sight-singing does not seem to yield the results that teachers desire, they must find other strategies to help their students have more success. The answer may lie in the perennial academic adage, “Work smarter, not harder.” Research has indicated that there are specific strategies singers can employ that do tend to lead them to success in sight-singing (Brittain, 1998; Demorest, 1998; Demorest, 2001; Killian & Henry, 2005;
McClung, 2008; Nichols, 2012). Henry and Demorest (1994) noticed that group success alone was not a valid indicator of individual sight-singing achievement and recommended that teachers 29 incorporate more individual testing into their sight-reading programs. In this vein, Killian and
Henry (2005) compared various successful and unsuccessful sight-singing strategies as they administered individual sight-singing tests on Texas high-school students. In examining the way students used their practice time before a sight-singing assessment, they found that high scorers tonicized (vocally established the key), used hand signs, sang out loud during practice, physically kept the beat, and finished practicing the melody within 30 seconds significantly more frequently than did low scorers during practice. Anecdotal observations also suggested that accurate singers and less-accurate singers differed in their practice strategies when presented with an unknown melody (Killian & Henry, 2005). They posited that the instructional method (e.g., moveable versus fixed do) might be less consequential than the specific individual strategies singers exhibit while sight-singing and preparing to sight-sing. McClung (2008) also found that use of hand signs contributed to the success of experienced high school sight-singers. This might indicate that one of the most important factors in students’ individual success might be independence as sight-readers to wisely employ the strategies that they have been taught, even without a teacher present.
“This individual practice time is key,” claims Justus (1969, p. 8). “The temptation to assist the students by playing or singing a difficult interval, pitch, or rhythmic pattern defeats the purpose of sight-singing instruction. Students must be encouraged to make an honest individual effort, singing with a solid tone and to making their mistakes audibly” (p. 8). If allowing students to “go it alone” remains so important in developing their sight-singing skills, one of the techniques that may contribute to effective sight-reading instruction may be fostering and encouraging independent music-making. 30
Phillips (2013) examined how teachers might not only convey sight-singing instruction to students effectively, but also make the process fun. She advocated that teachers ought to consistently teach sequentially, reflecting, “Music teachers often repeat the adage that children learn music the way they learn language. We rarely examine what that statement actually means”
(p. 59). To follow that logic, Phillips emphasizes that “[teachers] must teach students to hear rhythm and pitch combinations aurally, then reproduce them vocally before we can ever teach them to actually read music” (p. 59). Next, she proposes that choral instructors should always use a consistent sight-reading and counting system. Rather than advocating for any one system, she told teachers, “Almost any rhythm or pitch-matching system seems to work as long as you are absolutely consistent in it… This homogenous approach helps everyone speak the same language” (p. 60). The next suggestion: “slow down” (p. 70) to give students more processing time, thus leading to fewer mistakes. Curwen hand signs can also “give a singer a tangible way to locate each abstract pitch” (p. 71), and sight-singing every single day can consistently reinforce skills (p. 71). At the middle school or junior high level, Phillips says, varying the routine can avoid monotony and make sight-singing fun. She encourages teachers to “participate and laugh along with them at the mistakes you will all make… when they see you make and accept your own mistakes, they will learn to accept their own as well” (p. 71). The advice for teachers to relate, laugh, and learn along with their students is consistent with Hamann et al.
(2000): effective teachers have empathetic relationships with their students, and sight-singing instruction is no exception.
Effects of Instrumental Background
Many researchers have examined how choral students’ instrumental backgrounds affect their sight-singing ability. Singers’ instrumental backgrounds plays some role in their sight- 31 singing success, but there is discrepancy in the research in regard to how much. Tucker (1969) investigated the factors related to music-reading ability of senior high school choir members. He found that school instrumental experience was more effective than vocal experience as music- reading training, and also found no relationship between music-reading ability and years in school choir. Daniels (1986) drew upon Tucker’s findings to support the presumption that no significant relationship exists between level of sight-reading ability and participation in public school chorus, albeit finding a strong correlation between instrumental experience and sight- reading ability.
Demorest and May (1995) had many of the same goals as Tucker (1969). Their study examined individual sight-singing skills of choir members in relation to their private musical training, their choral experience, the difficulty of the melodic material, and the system used for group sight-singing instruction. One of such factors that they referenced was students’ instrumental backgrounds. Unlike Tucker, they concluded that years of private instrumental instruction was found to be a significant background variable in sight-singing skill development but, notably, to a lesser degree than years of school choral experience (Demorest & May, 1995).
They also suggested that the specific instrument that a student studied might affect whether or not it aided their sight-singing scores: “Individually, instrumental experience in a student's background did not predict sight-singing achievement well; however, when considered in tandem with choral, piano, and private voice experience, it was a significant predictor” (Demorest &
May, 1995). Piano in particular was found to be more helpful than other instruments in directly impacting students’ musical literacy, with piano experience playing a more important role than did other types of private lessons (Demorest & May, 1995). Evidently, a relationship exists 32 between playing piano and sight-singing performance that might not appear as neatly in the learning of other instruments.
Later studies have also suggested that instrumental experience might relate to sight- singing accuracy. Killian and Henry (2005) found playing an instrument was a factor amongst high scorers in their sight-singing study. They concluded that an examination of the experiential backgrounds of the sight-singers themselves revealed instrumental playing experience had a positive effect on sight-singing accuracy (Killian & Henry, 2005). Henry (2011) continued this line of inquiry seeking to determine the relationship between pitch and rhythm tasks occurring concurrently; results pointed again to the issue of instrumental experience. Consistent with past findings (Killian & Henry, 2005), Henry (2011) found that singers with instrument/piano experience and singers with piano experience only scored significantly higher than did those singers without instrument/piano training. Those with instrument and/or piano experience were more proficient at performing pitch and rhythm together than those without such experience
(Henry, 2011). Therefore, it is possible that singers might tend to be more successful at sight- singing if they also have an instrumental background, particularly piano.
Conclusions
The available research can be categorized in two ways: philosophy and pedagogical practice. First, there is a relationship between an educator’s teaching philosophy and their effectiveness and their curriculum choices. For the purposes of this study, an “effective” teacher is one who has the ability to foster independent learning and passion for the subject matter in their students, which is directly transferable to prioritizing music literacy in the choral classroom
(Button, 2010; Hamann et al., 2000; Justus, 1969). Developing an equally effective curriculum for sight-singing instruction varies from instructor to instructor and researcher to researcher, but 33 certain general principles such as sequence, level-appropriateness, and relationship to choral literature, remain true across the board (Bowyer, 2015; Demorest, 2001; Killian and Henry,
2005; McClung, 2001; McClung, 2008).
Secondly, a teacher’s pedagogical practices in the realm of sight-singing affect the sight- singing success of their students and reflect back to their teaching philosophy. Teachers who zero in on practical skills and holistic musicianship do more to help their students score highly on sight-singing than do teachers who simply rely on a daily drill method (Demorest and May,
1995; Henry and Demorest, 1994; Justus, 1969). Research suggests that having an instrumental background might also cultivate a higher level of sight-singing skill for singers (Daniels, 1986;
Demorest and May, 1995; Tucker, 1969), although more research needs to be done on how a teacher’s instrumental background might affect the way they teach sight-singing. Ultimately, those very students who learned sight-singing skills in a secondary choral setting could grow up to be the next generation of effective choir teachers (Nichols, 2012).
34
3: Statement of Purpose
Therefore, the research questions guiding the study will pertain to individual teachers’ philosophies and pedagogical practices in an attempt to reveal effective methods for teaching sight-singing.
Research Questions
Research question one. What are the teachers’ music teaching philosophies, especially as they relate to sight-singing?
Research question two. What are the pedagogical strategies used when teaching sight-singing?
Research question three. What is the nature of the relationship between the teaching philosophy and the teaching strategies regarding sight-singing?
35
Chapter 4: Methodology
This study explored the philosophy of teaching sight-singing while working closely with
Julia Higgins and Sarah Ross, two established secondary choral educators in Tucson, Arizona.
Based on the strong preexisting relationships that I have with my study participants and a desire to explore their individual experiences deeply, I have selected qualitative research as my preferred method. While both qualitative and quantitative research are valid approaches, qualitative research has always captured my interest for its less concrete, more flexible nature.
Qualitative research is closely associated with anthropology – analyzing human nature in its natural setting. In qualitative research, phenomena can be observed, but not measured. While some might say that would make the data collected from qualitative research less meaningful, the psychologists who developed this research, such as Carl Rogers, argued that dwelling in the more nebulous area of observation and interviews can capture the totality of the human experience in a way that more measurable means might not reflect (Conrad, 1977). Furthermore, since I already have a strong preexisting relationship with each of my study participants, the fact that qualitative research is an interactive process that allows them to freely contribute their own perspective seems very appropriate.
Based on the goals of this study, it can be classified as a case study. Case studies involve the close examination of people, topics, issues, or programs and generalization is not the goal, as the uniqueness of each case is central (Hays, 2004). The general approach is to make observations, conduct interviews, and write an in-depth account of the data (Hays, 2004). Based on my research questions and Hays’s discussion of analyses, the individual teachers are my units of analyses (Hays, 2004). Stake (1995) believed that the temptation to be drawn away from the topic of study is one of the most serious problems in case study research, so the researcher must 36
be entirely focused before beginning to collect data at the case study site, but at the same time
flexible enough to see answers to research questions when they were not expected. In other
words, while I have already laid out my guiding research questions, it is entirely possible that the
case study might lead me to different findings than the ones I originally sought.
- In regard to data collection, Yin (1994) stated that a major strength of case studies is the
opportunity to use many sources of data. Hays (2004) posits that interviews are one of the richest
sources of data to be collected, but observations are another important source because interaction
of individuals cannot be understood without observation. Hays also cites documents and records
as a critical source of data (2004). Triangulation, in which multiple methods of data collection
are employed, is critical to establishing the validity of the research. Therefore, in an effort to
triangulate the research, I utilized interviews, observations, and personal reflections written by
the teachers to learn what they value in the scope of teaching sight-singing to their choirs.
Methodologically, I engaged in an initial interview with each teacher and collected an
observation of three sight-singing lessons by the teacher. Finally, each teacher then submitted a
personal vlog reflection to clarify and discuss elements of the lesson and how their personal
philosophies inform their teaching of sight-singing. At the culmination of the study, the
participants will contribute their final thoughts on the study and its findings.
First, I conducted an in-person interview with the subject. The themes of effective
teaching, instructional strategies, curriculum choices, and teaching philosophy guided the
interview questions, observation protocol, and reflection questions. I audio recorded and
transcribed the interviews immediately afterward to guide the observation of the teacher. A week
after the interviews, I observed three choir classes taught by each participant, observing and
taking descriptive notes while filming the classes for future reference. For each participant, all 37 three observations occurred sequentially in a single day, and all three observations were of different classes and/or levels of choirs. The observed classes were chosen by each participant. In the week following the observations, each subject completed a self-recorded reflection vlog, and submitted it to me for transcription and analysis. Hays (2004), citing Stake (1995), Wolcott
(1990), and Yin (1994), explains that experienced case study researchers suggest that much of the writing should be done during the data collection stage, which can involve formal protocols or informal methods.
This data was analyzed by searching for repeated instances and patterns of behavior, guided by the research questions. This analysis process used Stake’s methods of “direct interpretation,” “categorical aggregation” and “correspondence.” In other words, I searched for repeated instances and patterns of behavior, guided by the research questions, and labeling and organizing the data. This process is known as coding. Themes were then be interpreted based on repetition, emotional resonance, and participants’ emphasis. The data acted as “a series of puzzles to be worked through, with the researcher going back and forth through the data with an idea searching for substantiations of the idea” (Hays, 2004, p. 56). When it was appropriate or necessary, I asked the individual participants follow-up questions to clarify the findings and might even need to question or rework my conclusions if the subjects take issue with the findings
(Hays, 2004). This was especially crucial since it is common in case study research for unanticipated results to occur (Hays, 2004). Afterward, I created a case study of each participant, expanding upon their background and philosophy, examining their current teaching practices, and discussing the implications of how their philosophy affects their teaching.
Research must always be tested for its reliability and validity, and these issues are especially pertinent in qualitative research. As stated by Joppe (2000), “The extent to which 38 results are consistent over time and an accurate representation of the total population under study is referred to as reliability and if the results of a study can be reproduced under a similar methodology, then the research instrument is considered to be reliable.” Although this study was short in duration, I ensured reliability in a few ways. First, I collected multiple sources of data: interviews, observations, vlogs, and written reflections. Next, I looked for consistency across items in my analysis. When themes remained consistent across the different items of data collected, the reliability of the analysis could be confirmed. For example, if a participant said in an interview that she highly prioritized music literacy in her classroom, but then made no effort to include elements of music literacy in her lessons that I observed, I would question the reliability of her previous statement. Furthermore, although I was the sole researcher on this particular study, I have remained in communication with my advisor as well as my study participants themselves to confirm that accurate conclusions were drawn from the data.
Validity “indicates consistency and trustworthiness regarding activities and events associated with the phenomenon as signified by the study results explored in the research” (Golafshani, 2003). In other words, researchers must guarantee that the data they gather are not only accurate, but fully corresponds to the issue being researched. A study’s reliability does not ensure its validity. I have ensured validity in my data collection by using methods that are not only consistent with previous scholarly studies on sight-singing pedagogy, but also with case study research (interviews, observations, written and spoken reflections, etc.).
In their interviews, vlogs, and written reflections, my participants answered my research questions directly, and the data gathered there was then examined through the lens of their observations. By reviewing the available literature and defining key terms prior to the study, I established the framework for the data I gathered and analyzed. Throughout the process of 39 analysis, I frequently referred back to my original research questions, key terms, and previous research to ensure that my conclusions were valid within the content area. The role that my participants played in the entirety of my study also bolstered its validity, as they could confirm or deny that the conclusions I have drawn relate to their intentions as teachers.
Potential Bias
Hays (2004, p. 56) emphasizes, “… because much of the collected data is analyzed through the researcher’s lens, the researcher needs to provide information concerning the researcher’s perspective and relationship to the case.” This highly personal research will provide a valuable insight into the philosophies and pedagogical practices of these two teachers. Telling their stories will enable other educators to learn from their experiences, and perhaps begin to do the same work of self-reflection. The unavoidable fact that I have a preexisting, longstanding relationship with both of my study participants certainly makes it impossible for me to be unbiased. I am familiar with both of their instructional styles and choir programs and have already spent considerable time observing and working with both participants outside of the confines of this study. In my role as a researcher, I may now be inclined to regard both Julia
Higgins and Sarah Ross positively rather than impartially, and may be tempted to draw on information that I already know about them and their teaching methods outside of the study rather than solely confine my findings to the data presented in their interviews, observations, and reflections. As I am both participants’ professional colleague in the small Tucson, Arizona secondary public school choir teaching community, I likely take certain pieces of knowledge and experience for granted (for example, how regional choir is run, the culture of various Tucson- area public schools, the way that each participant is regarded within their school and community, etc.); an outside researcher might naturally ask more questions and thus obtain more unbiased 40 data. Furthermore, as Julia, Sarah, and I are all alumni of the University of Arizona School of
Music, we all have a shared experience and common language in terms of music literacy that might not exist outside of our professional and social circles, thereby further limiting the scope of the research.
Definition of Terms
For the purposes of this study, the following terms are defined.
Music literacy. “Music literacy,” one of the main focuses of this study, can be most easily explained by this definition from the International Kodály Society (2014, p. 1): “Music literacy refers to the ability to read and write musical notation and to read notation at sight without the aid of an instrument.”
Successful teacher. A “successful” sight-singing teacher will be defined as one whose students are consistently able to perform level-appropriate sight-singing exercises at a high degree of accuracy, both on a group and an individual basis (Demorest & May, 1995).
Effective teaching. “Effective teaching” is a somewhat nebulous idea that many different researchers have sought to define (Husband, 1947; Lundstedt, 1966; Tuckman, 1995).
For the purposes of this study, “effective teaching” will be defined by Lundstedt’s “Criteria for
Effective Teaching” (1966, p. 31) as: “knowledge of one’s subject matter, empathy and feeling, ability to take the role of another, and a sense of timing.”
41
Chapter 5: Summary of Data
Initial Interviews
The data collection process started with initial interviews with both participants. The purpose of the first interview was to establish the participants’ personal backgrounds and give them an opportunity to share about their philosophies and instructional methods before observations occurred. Questions were organized into 4 general categories: teaching philosophy, curriculum choices, instructional strategies, and teacher effectiveness. As the interview was conducted, the researcher recorded the audio of our conversation and took notes.
Sarah Ross was interviewed on a Sunday afternoon at Starbucks. She first discussed her educational background. As a young musician, she began by taking piano lessons and sang in a choir in school, but she repeatedly stated that she has no memory of actually learning to read music or use solfege until college. She credited her piano skills with developing her musicianship at a young age, and when asked why she teaches sight-singing to her students, she said that it enabled those who didn’t have instrumental skills to always know how to find the right notes. In terms of her philosophy, she focused on the need for repetition, and that developing sight-singing skills helped her students to access music faster and at a higher level.
Sarah’s preferred sight-singing teaching resources are a series of books from
Masterworks press, including the interval exercise book Melodia (Cole & Lewis, 1909). She also stated that she used Bach chorales and musictheory.net as sight-singing instructional tools, and that she had chosen all of these because they were classic, tried-and-true in her program, and established good habits with her singers.
In terms of instructional strategies, Sarah emphasized the importance of daily sight- singing practice, with a firm routine that she used in every level, every time. The habits, tips, or 42 tricks that she advocated were fluent use of solfege, focus on tuning, and continual “walking to the first note” (that is, singing a triad and then walking stepwise to the starting pitch). Repetition and routine were central to her responses.
The next questions were geared toward drawing out reasons for Sarah’s effectiveness.
When asked where she prioritized sight-singing in terms of skills taught in the choral classroom on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 as the most important, she said sight-singing was a 9, with 10 as
“being a good person.” She said that sight-singing was beneficial in her program by being a tool to “unify” singers at all levels as well as “highlight” the importance of music literacy. While she again spoke of the importance of routine, she also emphasized that she didn’t think she was good at teaching sight-singing and was constantly analyzing and changing her approach, a point that might contradict previous studies about the personality of an effective teacher (Hamann et al.,
2000). She said of sight-singing: “It’s the white whale we are all fighting” (Initial Interview,
February 9, 2020).
Julia’s first interview was conducted in her choir classroom during her prep period. When asked about her personal background as a singer and musician, she said that she was “pretty lucky” to have sung in choir since eighth grade, and to have had a series of teachers that focused on music literacy, doing a few sight-singing exercises every day (Initial Interview, February 13,
2020). She said that she currently teaches sight-singing similarly to how she was taught herself, but employs more variety in her approach than her past teachers. She has a background playing
French horn and piano, and claimed that learning those instruments helped her to develop pitch and rhythm skills on a higher level. When asked why she taught sight-singing to her students,
Julia said that every musician should know how to read music. Like Sarah, she mentioned that many of them did not play an instrument, so they would not be able to figure out the notes for a 43 piece in that way. Like Sarah, she said that teaching sight-singing enabled her students to learn a higher caliber of choral music more quickly. She said, “I want them to be independent musicians” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
Julia stated that she utilizes several different resources to form her sight-singing curriculum. She uses a software program called SmartMusic, and the book Sing at First Sight
(Beck, Surmani, & Lewis, B. R., 2004) within it. She also uses other online tools like musictheory.net, therhythmtrainer.com, and Rhythm Randomizer. Amongst her reasons for choosing these resources was that they were “good” or that they were free, and that she learned from years of trial and error. She said that she liked using a variety of resources so that students wouldn’t get bored. Variety, she said, keeps things fun (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
Julia’s instructional strategies also centered around a mix of consistency and variety. She dedicates Wednesdays to sight-singing instruction, but builds music literacy skills into her lessons every day. She is full of tips and tricks to offer her students, such as always looking ahead, not worrying if they mess up the counts or solfege, and finding do, mi, and sol on the staff first (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
When asked where she prioritized sight-singing on a scale of 1 to 10, Julia answered 8, and drew her answer back to the importance of music literacy overall. She said that she has tweaked and improved her approach over time, due to learning more about her students and having access to better technology. Finally, she found sight-singing instruction beneficial in her classes primarily because she finds that it helps her students learn music faster, more accurately, and with greater independence (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
Observations 44
Next, the researcher observed three lessons from Sarah and three from Julia, video recording and taking notes throughout. The researcher asked to observe three different classes or levels, and to do what they would consider to be a typical sight-singing lesson for each.
First, Julia was observed at Esperero Canyon Middle School. She had a “Quote of the
Day” written on the board: “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in his life (Muhammed Ali).” She referenced this quote throughout the day when students were brave enough to take a risk and perform on their own.
Her first class was 6th grade choir. She warmed up the class with some stretches and simple vocalises, which did not include solfege, then transitioned into some work on the solfege notes of the scale. First, they sang the entire scale, then several different exercises that manipulated the first three or four notes of the scale using vocal modeling, hand signs, and aural recall. One of the most challenging activities as perceived by the students’ in-class reactions was when they had to close their eyes and Julia would sing a pattern on “la” that they had to sing back on “la” while doing the correct hand signs. Finally, Julia asked her students to open their eyes, and going around the room, every student sang and signed a short pattern, and the class echoed. These activities took up the bulk of the class period. In the last fifteen minutes, Julia rehearsed the class on an SSA version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Even though they had transitioned to repertoire, solfege continued to be an integral part of the conversation, particularly when they were learning to sing new notes in harmony (6th Grade Choir
Observation, February 13, 2020).
Julia’s next class was 8th grade tenor/bass. This class was more boisterous, and Julia dedicated more time to classroom management than she had in her 6th grade class. She started by warming up the class, using vocalises that were major and fairly simple melodically. 45
Periodically, she would ask members of the class, “What would the solfege be for this warm- up?” After warmups, they transitioned to reading sample rhythms on the website Rhythm
Randomizer. Next, they moved to SmartMusic, where they sight-sang examples that were about
8 measures long. After sight-singing and working through two melodic examples, Julia turned off SmartMusic and passed out worksheets for them to do rhythmic and melodic dictation. She would tap the beat and play a four-bar rhythm on a single note on the piano, then give them time to transcribe it, then they would complete the notation together on the board. In this way, they did a couple of rhythmic dictations and only had time to start one melodic dictation before the class was over (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
The final class observed for Julia was her 8th grade treble class. The structure of this lesson was almost exactly like the 8th grade tenor/bass class, with a couple of exceptions. First, after warm-ups, she asked her class to take out their interval sheets. They sang through several interval patterns and then learned the next sequence. After that, they worked on the same
SmartMusic examples as the tenor/bass class, but due largely to fewer classroom management issues, they moved at a faster pace, and Julia made the sight-singing harder by taking away the metronome and green progress bar. At the end, she took volunteers to sight-sing the examples on their own, and gave them candy rewards. Julia drew their attention again to the Quote of the Day, and praised their bravery. After SmartMusic, she passed out the dictation sheets and did two rhythmic dictations and the beginning of a melodic dictation in the same sequence as she did with the tenor/bass class (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
All of Julia’s lessons occupied the entire class period. She clarified that she treated the observation day like a Wednesday sight-singing day, and structured each class to be entirely focused on music literacy for the day. She stated that she purposefully planned a wide variety of 46 activities in the classes that were observed so that the researcher would see the full gamut of her
“typical” sight-singing instruction.
A week later, Sarah was observed at Marana High School. Unlike Julia’s carefully structured full day of sight-singing lessons, Sarah intentionally made no adjustment to her classes’ daily sight-singing practice, preferring the observation to be wholly authentic to her day- to-day instruction. Sarah’s observed classes were ViVo (her intermediate treble choir), Women’s
Chorale (her freshman treble class of all abilities), and Symphonic Choir (her advanced mixed ensemble). Although the level of each class was different, Sarah’s lesson plan for the sight- singing component of class was exactly the same. At the beginning of class, the book page number and exercise number were written on the board, along with the key of the exercise. From the moment that students take their seats, she had a metronome clicking the beat (quarter note equals 80) from her computer speakers. She played a chord on the piano to establish the key, and the students sing the triad (do mi sol mi do sol do), then perform their entire interval sheet in that key. Next, they look at the exercise and sing each note one beat at a time on solfege, independent of rhythm, using the metronome. Next, they count-sing the entire exercise, doing a hand pattern to tap the beat along. Finally, they perform the whole exercise on solfege again one final time.
The metronome is running throughout the entire process (an average of 10 to 20 minutes per class, depending on the difficulty of the exercise). Each class had specific issues to address as they sight-sang. ViVo was very low-energy and a large portion of the class said they were sick.
As a result, their pitch was falling, and Sarah needed to frequently stop to reestablish the key
(ViVo Observation, February 17, 2020). Even though it was a class of only freshmen, Women’s
Chorale was generally more energetic and more disciplined. They tripped on one interval repeatedly, but Sarah used a variety of approaches (solfege, playing it on the piano, explaining 47 the interval, vocal modeling) to help them sing the interval correctly (Women’s Chorale
Observation, February 17, 2020). Of the three classes observed, Symphonic Choir spent the most time on sight-singing, and by Sarah’s admission, this was probably because the exercise was very difficult. She sang along with them the whole time, and it was clear that she was trying to figure it out as much as they were. It was a very collaborative experience, and the report and camaraderie that she has with her students, particularly her advanced students, was very evident
(Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020).
Post-Observation Vlogs
After each day of observations, each participant was sent a set of reflection questions to answer in vlog form. Each participant answered the questions in a self-filmed video, and then sent their videos back for analysis. First, participants gave a summary of the lessons that they taught, and then they answered a few follow-up questions about the content of the lessons.
When asked what she was most proud of in her lessons, Sarah commented, “I guess I am a big advocate of structure and when we do the same thing every day in every class, it builds and it sets expectations. It is my classroom management. I don't have to call everyone's attention.
They just come in and get their books and get going. Everyone knows what to expect” (Post-
Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020). When asked if she would have changed anything in her lessons, she said no. She acknowledged the difficulty of Symphonic’s exercise, but she said, “I like doing the difficult stuff. And I really like stretching them and kind of pushing them beyond where we're comfortable” (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020). When asked about her philosophy toward sight-singing, she referenced the grammar-logic-rhetoric model of classical education, calling sight-singing a “grammar level skill” (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15,
2020). For that reason, she focuses on repetition and memorization. The final question was, 48
“What advice would you give to a new teacher in terms of sight-singing instruction?” Sarah said two things – first, to have a routine and do it every day, and second, to have a good reason and motivation behind it. In her words:
“Kids are people, and they need a reason why to do something. So if you give them a
good reason why then they'll do it. Part of the routine is to give them the ownership. So
wherever possible, teach them to lead and teach them to find their stuff and talk about.
Tell them, ‘I want you to be an autonomous lifelong music learner, and that requires you
being able to navigate this notation on your own.’” (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15,
2020)
After Julia reviewed the process of her lessons, she said that she felt most proud of the 6th graders for their confidence to improvise solfege patterns on their own, of the 8th grade men for how well they did on rhythm, and the 8th grade women for how accurately they sang their interval sheet. Interestingly, all her points of pride were related to her students’ performance, not her own. In terms of modifications she would make to her lessons, she said that she wished she had given a bit more direction and scaffolding to the dictation component. When asked about her philosophy, she emphasized again that sight-singing was merely a tool toward music literacy, and like Sarah’s comparison toward the grammar stage, she reflected that the process of learning music was similar to learning a language, and that both repetition and using multiple modes of instruction was key. Finally, the advice she would give to a new choir teacher was similar to
Sarah’s: have a system. In her own words:
“It's nice to be consistent with your system, but I don't think that you have to be super
consistent with your approach or your strategies that you're using. I think my students do
well because I mix it up. Some days we're doing it on the SmartBoard and some days 49 we're doing sight-reading from a book and other days we're doing ear training exercises; other days we're just practicing singing our intervals. Sometimes we do games. We're learning theory at the same time. I have probably 5 different books that I draw from and other strategies that I've learned from professional development that I've gone to, and conferences that I've gone to. Just figure out what works and what makes sense for your kids.” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020)
50
Chapter 6: Results
Four major themes and several categories within each theme emerged from the data analysis:
(1) Teacher identity (subcategories: personal musical experience, instrumental music
connections, perception of self, and relationship to students)
(2) Musical systems and curriculum (subcategories: solfege, establishing the key, tuning and
intervals, beat and rhythm, and curriculum choices)
(3) Pedagogical strategies (subcategories: structure and repetition, variety in approach,
modeling, feedback and assessment)
(4) Philosophy (subcategories: efficiency and fluency, connecting the mind and the voice,
artistic significance and application to repertoire, fun, and student independence and
growth over time.)
Theme 1: Teacher Identity
The first theme centered upon the teacher’s personal identity, including their past experiences as a student and their present experiences as an educator. This theme had the following subcategories: personal musical experience, instrumental music connections, perception of self, and relationship to students.
Personal Musical Experience – Julia Higgins
Julia’s personal choral background prominently featured sight-singing. She recalled, “I joined choir in eighth grade, and my junior high choir teacher was very big on solfege and music reading stuff… I remember doing solfege exercises and things, probably not as much as I do with my students. But at least we did some. And then in high school, we sight read almost every day in the choirs that I was in” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). She said it was possible that her experience as a French horn player might have made her a better sight-reader at a young 51 age as well, but, as she said, “I'm sure it helped, but I couldn't tell you that I was really thinking about it” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). However, she reported that while sight-singing exercises were a large component of her experience in middle and high school choir, she didn’t remember learning pieces on solfege until college (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). When she did learn to read repertoire on solfege, she said that she found it “helpful as far as reinforcing a lot of the things that [she] had learned in high school” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
She even asked her high school choir director for sight-singing resources when she first became a choir teacher (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). In her current life as a singer, she considers herself to be a “good sight-reader,” but generally relies on her piano skills to teach herself new notes (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
Personal Musical Experience – Sarah Ross
Sarah reported that her background as a singer and musician informed her choices as a choral teacher. When questioned on her background as a singer, Sarah remarked that she “didn’t remember a time where [she] didn’t know how to read music,” continuing that she “[didn’t] remember being in a choir class” as a child, and that she also did not remember “much of any teaching at all” in her music classes (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). Although she did recall auditioning for All-State Choir in New Mexico, where she grew up, her strongest memories of using sight-singing strategies occurred in her college years, where she recollects passionately discussing solfege and its application to major and minor keys (Initial Interview, February 9,
2020). In Sarah’s sight-singing lesson with her Symphonic Choir, she also drew upon her passion for this same topic and spoke to her identity as a musician by saying: “So in our world, when it’s in a minor key, you call the tonic ‘la,’ so we sing, ‘La do mi do la,’ but in do-based minor, you would sing, ‘Do me sol me do’” (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020). The phrase 52
“our world” drew her students into their shared world of choral experience, in the context of discussing a topic that she recalls being passionate about at a young age (Initial Interview,
February 9, 2020).
Sarah also reported that her past musical experiences inform her actions and motivations as a teacher in the present. In her initial interview, she remarked that her first music teachers
“didn’t know how to teach,” and that she “didn’t remember much of any teaching at all” in her childhood (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She remembered learning music literacy
“basically by osmosis” as she took piano lessons, and explained, “when I was singing, I was really connecting to my literacy as a pianist” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). When asked if she taught sight-singing the same way she was taught, Sarah joked, “A different way because I teach it! . . . . I sight read a lot more now” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). In her post- observation vlog, Sarah reiterated that sight-singing was something she cared deeply about and continued to develop herself as a singer; therefore, she found it crucial to motivate her students to learn (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020). In Sarah’s own words:
“It's been really important for me to set up the ‘why’ with my students and they know
that I am not giving them busywork and I'm not giving them something to do that I don't
care about or that we don't ever use again. But they know that this is something we use in
every element of the rehearsal, and they will use it their whole time with me. And that is
something that they are bad at, but we'll get better at. And we just work on it all the time.
And I work on it with them and we work on it all together.” (Post-Observation Vlog,
March 15, 2020)
Instrumental Music Connections – Julia Higgins 53
Julia stated that her personal piano skills are “decent,” and that she took piano lessons
“from about the age of 5 until probably middle school” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
She also “played French horn in band from 4th grade to 12th grade” (Initial Interview, February
13, 2020). She perceived, “Both of those things definitely helped my rhythm reading skills a lot.
There were very rarely rhythms that that were scary or challenging to me… the songs we were doing in choir or the things that we had to sight-read in choir wouldn't have as challenging of rhythms as things I had to play in band or on the piano” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
Julia also thought that playing the French horn developed her sense of pitch, due to the mechanics of playing a brass instrument; she explained, “Subconsciously, I knew kind of about how far apart two notes would be, because I would have to do it on my instrument. So I'm sure that helped when I was sight-singing as a vocalist” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
In her adult life, Julia continues to rely on her skills as an instrumentalist when learning new music on her own. She thoughtfully reflected:
“Solfege and sight reading are really wonderful skills, but I think a lot of adult singers
that can play piano do, to plunk out their part. Like, it's faster, even though I'm a good
sight reader. If I have to sight read and I'm doing it in a large group setting, I will, but it's
pretty rare that if I'm in real life, given a new piece of music, that I'm going to just try to
see if I can sight read the whole thing. I'm probably going to sit down at the piano and
just play it because it's faster. But as far as helping me to be a better sight-reader back in
the day, maybe, I don't know.” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020)
When asked why she teaches sight-singing to her choir students, Julia mentioned that few of her students play instruments, since her school’s schedule does not allow students to take band or orchestra and choir at the same time (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). She expanded, “I 54 have very few students in my choirs that also played instruments unless they take piano” (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020). Julia said what when her students are proficient at reading music, they don’t have to rely on the piano “plunk[ing] out every note over and over and play[ing] their part a hundred times until they learn it,” and they become more independent musicians (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020).
Julia used her Clavinova piano keyboard frequently throughout her observed lessons
(Observations, February 13, 2020). During each class’s warm-ups at the start of the hour, she accompanied them on the piano (Observations, February 13, 2020). During her 6th grade choir’s lesson on solfege, hand signs, and improvisation on “do,” “re,” and “mi,” she only used the piano to play a starting pitch and reestablish the key several minutes afterward. When they worked on
“The Star-Spangled Banner” later in the class, she played along with their parts when both the parts were singing at the same time (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). While teaching sight-singing in SmartMusic with her 8th grade tenor/bass choir as well as her 8th grade treble choir, Julia periodically would use the keyboard to reestablish the key or play a starting note if the class was not starting at the beginning of the exercise and running it all the way through (8th Grade Choir Observations, February 13, 2020). She also used the keyboard to play both the rhythmic and melodic dictations, either on a single note or on changing notes (8th Grade
Choir Observations, February 13, 2020).
Instrumental Music Connections – Sarah Ross
As mentioned above, while Sarah did not recall many strong memories of learning music literacy in a choral setting, her experience as a pianist formed many of her earliest memories of learning to read music. She said, “I've been taking piano lessons since I was very little… [in choir class], I just relied on a mix of piano skills to figure stuff out.” (Initial Interview, February 55
9, 2020). Her time as a pianist piqued her interest to learn more about music theory, particularly when she would play hymns and chord charts at church. Sarah said that she “very vividly remember[ed] getting fluent at chord charts” at church, and continued, “I learned to read [music] by playing the piano. And then when I was when I was singing, I was really connecting to my literacy as a pianist. I would say that's still at least partially true” (Initial Interview, February 9,
2020).
Sarah’s awareness that many of her students are not instrumentalists was one of her main rationales for why she teaches sight-singing (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She passionately explained, “I get so secondhand anxious on behalf of people who don't have piano skills, because then, how are you supposed to figure [notes] out? And it really stresses me out that if you don't know how to play piano, that is barred from you” (Initial Interview, February 9,
2020). She further explained that instrumentalists who are not pianists also have the advantage of their instruments being “tangible,” unlike the “intangible” and “invisible” quality of vocal music.
“You can look at a clarinetist,” Sarah explained. “You can look at the fingering. You can look at the hand position. You can say, ‘Oh, here's why you're playing there.’ But you can't do that when you're singing in terms of the actual pitch. And that is something that stresses me. So I project that stress onto students and then I teach them!” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020).
Sarah used the piano in her classroom throughout the lessons that were observed, primarily to establish the key. At the beginning of each lesson, she played the triad on the piano before asking her students to sing it, and would play the triad again through the lesson if the class needed to establish the key again (ViVo Observation, February 17, 2020). She would also play high do and low do alternating on the piano at the same tempo as the metronome while students sang the interval sheet (Women’s Chorale and Symphonic Choir), and in one class (Women’s 56
Chorale), a student played the alternating high do and low do on the piano as the class sang the interval sheet when Sarah was briefly out of the room. In her lesson with ViVo, her intermediate treble choir, Sarah also used the piano as a tool to assist the class with staying in tune during two different challenging intervals (ViVo Observation, February 17, 2020). Notably, the only time
Sarah played the piano during her advanced mixed Symphonic Choir’s sight-singing lesson was to play the triad at the beginning of class (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020).
Perception of Self – Julia Higgins
Julia spoke of her own teaching with quiet confidence (Initial Interview, February 13,
2020). Although she did not seem eager to boast about her expertise, if she felt as though she was skilled and experienced in a particular area, she honestly acknowledged it (Initial Interview,
February 13, 2020). She stated,
“I think, generally speaking, I am a pretty solid choir director. I think I have a good mix
of musical skills myself and knowledge and I think I'm a strong vocally and my piano
skills are decent and those kinds of things. But I mean, I think I also... the mixed part is
that I also feel like I have a good sense of how to teach those things to students. I think
I'm good at picking repertoire and I'm generally a pretty smart person, so I gather lessons
that make sense. And thinking on the fly and helping students be successful. I also think I
have pretty good rapport with students, and I understand this age group after 16 years
pretty well and what things they will like and what will help concepts click. I'm not
overly sugary, as far as teaching goes. But I'm not, like, super mean all the time either.”
(Initial Interview, February 13, 2020)
Julia recalled that as a young singer, she “had a pretty decent sense of relative pitch,” and that as an adult, she considered herself to be “a good sight-reader” (Initial Interview, February 57
13, 2020). After teaching her lessons, she reported being proud of her past and present teaching, saying, “I thought there was some nice building of skills and scaffolding to get them to that point, not just in that lesson, but in previous lessons to be able to do something like
[improvisation]” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). When asked if she changed her instructional approach over time, she answered, “I think [sight-singing instruction has] always been important to me, I just think I've gotten better at it” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
Perception of Self – Sarah Ross
Sarah is a self-described perfectionist, and spoke critically and self-deprecatingly of her own teaching (Initial interview, February 9, 2020). She confessed, “I always feel like a failure. I always feel like, why do I work so hard? I'm never going to get any better. So do I change all the time? Yes. Do the results change? Never!” (laughs) (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She described how her mode is to analyze a personal teaching error and then “try ten different ways to address it,” thus making her “10 years, 10 ways less bad at teaching” (Initial Interview,
February 9, 2020). She reiterated, “I'm always seeing a thing that I can do better and always going, oh, this is a smarter way to do it” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). Later, she admonished her own self-perceived lack of motivation to practice sight-singing on a daily basis:
“I made a commitment to do it every day, but my kids will do it every day. And I'm the
person who's going to not be committed. The person who's going to be lazy and not want
to do it is not them, it's me. Because when I go, ‘I'm too tired to do this,’ then I look over
and they all have their books out and I go, ‘Here we go.’ Because it's routine and we do it
every day, they all have their books out. And I don't know... I am the problem!” (Initial
Interview, February 9, 2020) 58
While teaching, Sarah repeatedly emphasized the inherent difficulty of sight-singing, both for her students and for herself as a singer (Observations, February 17, 2020). To her
Women’s Chorale, she asked, “Question, was [keeping the beat and simultaneously singing on solfege] hard? . . . . That’s ok. Can we do it again? It’s a lot to do” (Women’s Chorale
Observation, February 17, 2020). To her Symphonic Choir, she exclaimed mid-exercise, ““This is hard! Yes, that’s good! Wait, is it hard for you guys? Is it hard for you?” (the students laugh and nod) “That’s good! Hard is good” (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020). After they practiced a difficult section multiple times, she said to her class, “Good, I need to do that again, for me… I did much better with my notes when I did solfege than when I did counting.
Alright, can we do the middle part? Because I don’t know how it goes” (Symphonic Choir
Observation, February 17, 2020). At the end of the class, she referred to the exercise as “freaking hard,” but told her class, “But well done” (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020).
While speaking of the lesson in her post-observation vlog, Sarah explained, “The exercise we did with the advanced mixed group was very, very difficult. But that's fine. I like doing the difficult stuff. And I really like stretching them and kind of pushing them beyond where we're comfortable” (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020).
Relationship to Students – Julia Higgins
Julia’s relationship with her middle school choir students was a common thread between her interviews and observations, and she found it important to “make the process clear for students” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). She referenced speaking directly to her students about her rationale for teaching multiple facets of music literacy: “I tell my students – you know,
I was telling my seventh graders this morning – that I'm trying to build as many connections as possible in their brain that says, ‘This is what those notes look like, sound like, feel like in my 59 voice’” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). She also reported that using a variety of approaches during her sight-singing lessons “keeps things from getting old” and that “they think it’s fun” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). To capture the attention of competitive students and students who enjoy sports, Julia does a “March Madness” tournament of individual sight- singing competitions every year (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). She explained, smiling,
“They get super into it… And it’s all just trying to keep [sight-singing] fun and different” (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020).
Julia’s positive relationship with her students was evident through the many encouragements that she gave classes or individuals while she was teaching (Observations,
February 13, 2020). When her 6th grade students were singing solfege patterns on their own, Julia gave each of them positive feedback (e.g. “Oh my gosh, so good! Give her a hand,” “Really clear!”, “Nice!”, etc.), and had the rest of the class applaud after each individual student modeled on their own (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). When students worried aloud about the difficulty of a later activity, Julia encouraged them, “I know, but you can do it! And if you mess up,” she whispered, “who cares!” (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
During her 8th grade lessons, Julia bantered back and forth with the class, or with individuals (8th Grade Observations, February 13, 2020). When she called for a volunteer to count a measure aloud in her tenor/bass class, a student excitedly called out, “I got you!” Julia called on him, but then the student expressed nervousness. “I thought you said you had me!” joked Julia, and the student laughed and followed through with counting the measure (8th Grade
Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). In the 8th grade treble choir, Julia tossed a student a piece of candy as a reward for singing an exercise on her own, and when the other students reacted with excitement, Julia joked, “Oh, now other people want to go! I see how it is!” 60 and took another volunteer (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). In her post-observation vlog, Julia acknowledged, “There's all different types of learners. So I don't want [sight-singing instruction] to just always be the same way” (Post-Observation Vlog,
February 26, 2020).
Relationship to Students – Sarah Ross
Throughout her interviews and observations, it was evident that Sarah had a strong relationship with her high school choir students. In her initial interview (February 9, 2020), she said that one of her motivations to teach sight-singing was for her students to be comfortable.
She explained, “I would like my kids to be comfortable, so we talk all the time about like, well, you can find ‘do,’ you can play ‘do’ and then you can walk to your note and then you can know that you know that you know that you're right. And you don't have to guess, ‘Is this right?’ You can just know if it's right” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). Sarah was also able to relate to her students by talking about sight-singing using metaphors that would be meaningful to them, such as Rock Band “or any sort of ‘jump and hit the thing that goes by’” game (Initial Interview,
February 9, 2020).
When students entered the classroom during the days Sarah was observed, she would smile at each of them, greet them by name, and sincerely ask them how they were doing
(Observations, February 17, 2020). Her teaching flowed conversationally between teacher and students, and she would frequently check in on her students’ feelings and progress, both as a class and individually. She asked them questions such as, “Do you want to try it one more time?”, “Do you know where that is?”, “Everybody ready now?”, or “How do you feel?”
(Observations, February 17, 2020). With every question, her students gave audible replies, and
Sarah either moved forward or gave additional help based on the response she received 61
(Observations, February 17, 2020). Sarah was also honest with her students about how she herself was feeling throughout her teaching. She reported feeling ill on the day that her observations occurred, and she told her Symphonic Choir that she felt like she was “about to pass out,” which they audibly reacted to with concern (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17,
2020). She also checked in with her students about their own physical health, referencing that the topic was an ongoing discussion:
“Ok, raise your hand if your body is dead.” (She raises her hand. Most of the students
raise their hands too.) “Wait, don’t be dramatic. If you’re actually - ‘I am unwell in some
capacity.’” (Some students put their hands down.) “And ‘I stayed up late last night
binging Netflix on my bed, on my phone even though Ms. Ross told me not to’ doesn’t
count.” (Students laugh; some put their hands down.) “I’m just checking!” (Women’s
Chorale Observation, February 17, 2020)
Throughout Sarah’s teaching, there was a noticeable camaraderie between her and her students, particularly her Symphonic Choir. As they struggled to sing a particularly challenging exercise, she walked around the room, singing and struggling along with them, and openly acknowledged that the exercise was difficult for her too (Symphonic Choir Observation,
February 17, 2020). The following moment exemplified Sarah’s solidarity with her students:
“I am also… like, working. I’m working right now. This is freaking hard. I’m also
working really hard, and also go, ‘Oh, where’s ‘do’? Where’s ‘do’? Oh, there it is!’ I
don’t know.” (they laugh). “So it’s okay. We’re all working together. That’s good. That’s
where we should live.” (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020)
At the end of each class’s sight-singing lesson, Sarah engaged in a debriefing period with the choir. She asked them how they felt about their performance, and how the issues that they 62 worked through might affect the rest of their rehearsal (Observations, February 17, 2020). In her post-observation vlog, Sarah referenced the communal nature of sight-singing instruction class, using “we” instead of “they” when she described the process of the lesson (e.g. “We are really working at intervals,” “We start together,” “We work on it all together,” etc.) (Post-Observation
Vlog, March 15, 2020). She referenced this commonality in her final advice to a student teacher or new choral educator:
“I work on it with them and we work on it all together. And so you have to set up the
‘why.’ Because kids are people, and they need a reason why to do something. So if you
give them a good reason why then they'll do it, but if it's not working, they probably don't
know why. And you should back up and say, here's why we're doing this every day…
part of the routine is to give them the ownership.” (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15,
2020)
Theme 2: Musical Systems and Curriculum
The second theme centered around which pre-established musical systems and curriculum each teacher used. The subcategories that arose were: solfege, hand signs, establishing the key, tuning and intervals, beat and rhythm, and curriculum choices.
Solfege – Julia Higgins
Julia stated, “My [pitch] system is solfege” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020).
Solfege use was a major theme in all of Julia’s collected data; she mentioned or used solfege 16 times in her initial interview, 38 times in her observed lessons, and 9 times in her post- observation vlog. Julia stated in her initial interview that her “junior high choir teacher was very big on solfege and music reading stuff,” and that she also remembered using solfege while sight- reading in her high school choir classes (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). She clarified that 63 she did not remember learning repertoire on solfege until college, where she said, “We had a director in [the University of Arizona] Symphonic [Choir] - a grad student one year that made us sing almost everything on solfege… I feel like it was really at that point in my life, I was ready to do that and it was definitely helpful as far as like reinforcing a lot of the things that I had learned in high school” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
In terms of applying this past experience to her current approach as a teacher, Julia said,
“My directors used solfege. But I feel like I have a lot more variety in my approach… I do other things like dictation and ear training. And we do interval sequences on solfege. I feel like I tried to incorporate a lot of other music reading skills besides just, "Can you sing this single line on solfege?" (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). Her lessons used solfege constantly throughout every step, from warm-ups through sight-singing activities (Observations, February 13, 2020).
She also had posters and visual aids in her room that referenced solfege (for example, one poster had the notes of the scale in solfege with graphics of their respective Kodály hand signs)
(Observations, February 13, 2020). In her 6th grade class, Julia ended the warm-up sequence with a scale on solfege, then transitioned into a variety of echo patterns with the first three notes of the scale (“do,” “re,” and “mi”) using solfege and hand signs (6th Grade Observation, February
13, 2020). The final exercise in the echo-pattern segment of the lesson was when each individual student improvised a pattern, singing on “do,” “re,” and “mi,” and the rest of the students would echo them (6th Grade Observation, February 13, 2020). This exercise had the goal of “[getting] just those pitches really comfortable in their ears and [identifying] what the different combinations might sound like with those three notes” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26,
2020). When Julia transitioned over to working on repertoire with her 6th grade students, she continued to use solfege, showing them what key the piece was in, asking them, “On what note 64 or syllable did we sing ‘do’?”, then used solfege to teach the different starting pitches in a section that split into two parts: “You guys,” indicating the Soprano 2 section, “are going to sing ‘do do do,’ and you guys,” she indicates the Soprano 1 section, “are going to sing ‘mi mi mi,’ at the same time” (6th Grade Observation, February 13, 2020). After they sung the entrance, Julia turned on her document camera and walked the two parts through writing the solfege into each of their parts in the sheet music.
Julia also frequently used solfege in her two 8th grade choir classes. As they sang warm- ups, she paused and asked, “What do you think the solfege is for that warm-up?” (8th Grade
Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). Students in each class correctly identified the solfege for two to four separate warmups (8th Grade Observations, February 13, 2020).
When they moved on to sight-singing using the SmartMusic software, Julia began by asking for the key, and had her students identify where “do” would be on the staff (8th Grade Observations,
February 13, 2020), in an effort to “get their brains already thinking in solfege mode” (Post-
Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). As they were individually practicing the exercises, Julia wrote in the solfege for a few notes on the SmartBoard, and when her students sang, they used solfege syllables (8th Grade Observations, February 13, 2020). At the end of class, when they did melodic dictations, Julia told them that the first note was “do,” modeled the pitch, played the dictation example on the piano, and asked her students to identify the notes on solfege (8th
Grade Observations, February 13, 2020). In Julia’s 8th grade treble class, she also asked them to sing their interval sheet, which used solfege syllables (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation,
February 13, 2020). Many of the additional skills that Julia encourages in her students during sight-singing instruction also center around solfege – she uses a memory trick called the “do mi sol snowman” to help orient her students on the triad as “home base notes” while they are sight- 65 singing, and she also has them write solfege into the repertoire they are singing (Initial Interview,
February 13, 2020; Observations, February 13, 2020). Although solfege is central to Julia’s instruction, she told her 8th grade treble class that if they didn’t know what the solfege was for a part, they should continue singing on “la:” “Do the solfege you know and keep singing no matter what. Don’t go, ‘do, do…’” she pauses, in mock uncertainty, ‘don’t know it.’ Keep going, no matter what. Keep singing!” (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
Solfege – Sarah Ross
Sarah explicitly stated that sight-singing was very connected with solfege for her, and that that when she is sight-singing herself, she “can’t do it in tune unless [she] uses solfege”
(Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). Sarah mentioned or used solfege frequently throughout all points of data gathered – 26 times in her initial interview, 34 times throughout her three observed lessons, and 9 times in her post-observation vlog. In her initial interview, she said she didn’t remember using solfege before she was in college, but once there, she had strong memories of discussing moveable do and la-based minor (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She stressed the importance of “finding ‘do’” and also training her students to “walk to their note” using solfege. She also mentioned using an online resource, musictheory.net, specifically to practice identifying solfege with her students, given the key and note (Initial Interview, February 9,
2020). When describing her daily process of sight-singing instruction, solfege use was present in nearly every step (with the exception of the count-singing and neutral syllable steps): singing the interval sheet, singing the major triad (do-mi-sol-mi-do-sol-do), singing the solfege of the exercise in isolation, and singing the solfege in rhythm.
When asked if she had changed anything about her process in her years teaching, Sarah responded that she now insists that her students consistently use solfege every time. She 66 elaborated, “I do not think it's ‘whatever works for you is fine.’ I think that they were actually not very good readers. They were good guessers. And now I'm making all of my advanced kids read on solfege all the time and they are much better” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020).
Moreover, Sarah explained that using solfege throughout the process of working on repertoire with her choirs “allows us to have a conversation about the music… it just opens up these doors for us to be musical in a way that would be really limited without it” (Initial Interview, February
9, 2020). She specified, “I have a really hard time being able to fix stuff, if I can't say, "No, that's
'do fa.' And you keep singing 'do mi,' so you've got to think like 'do mi' and then go up to fa like that." I can fix that because that's tangible” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020).
Sarah’s observed sight-singing lessons (February 17, 2020) used solfege in exactly the way she described in her interview. Each class began by singing her interval sheet in the key of the day’s exercise, on solfege. Next, she played the triad on the piano and students “walked to their first note” by singing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do,” in the key of the exercise they were about to sing, then singing each note of the scale up to the starting note of the exercise. Next, they sang each note of the exercise on solfege, free of rhythm, with one note on each beat of the metronome. After count-singing the exercise, they switched back to singing on solfege, this time in rhythm. This process was the same for every class that I observed (Observations, February 17,
2020). Throughout the sequence, Sarah used solfege as she gave feedback, explained intervals, and described musical concepts such as major and minor (Observations, February 17, 2020). In her post-observation vlog, she mentioned solfege fluency as a major objective in these lessons
(Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020).
Establishing the Key – Julia Higgins 67
At the beginning of each sight-singing exercise, Julia established the key, using a few different techniques (Observations, February 13, 2020). In the 6th grade class, she played “do” on the piano, sang the pitch, and had her students echo her before singing patterns on solfege (6th
Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). If her students strayed from the key while improvising their own patterns on solfege, she would either vocally model “do” or stop and “get a fresh note” from the piano to reestablish the tonic (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13,
2020). When they were working on repertoire, she played their first entrance on the piano to establish the key (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). She later drew the key signature on the board, and asked them to find where in their music their part sang “do” (6th
Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
Julia’s 8th grade classes knew how to identify key signatures; she asked them to determine the key before they began sight-singing each example in SmartMusic, and she drew the key signature and identified high and low “do” on the whiteboard to help them as they read
(8th Grade Observations, February 13, 2020). Before they practiced or ran through the example,
SmartMusic automatically played the triad to establish the key (8th Grade Observations, February
13, 2020). Throughout the practice of the sight-singing examples, Julia asked the class to “sing
‘do’” or played the triad on the piano herself (8th Grade Observations, February 13, 2020). Before they did melodic dictations at the end of class, Julia drew the key signature on the board, asked the class to identify the key, drew “do” on the board on the appropriate space, played “do” on the piano, and vocally modeled “do” (8th Grade Observations, February 13, 2020).
Establishing the Key – Sarah Ross
A process that was closely connected with solfege in Sarah’s teaching was establishing the key. In her initial interview, she repeatedly spoke of the importance of “finding ‘do,’” 68
“identifying the first solfege,” and “walking to the first note” (Initial Interview, February 9,
2020). She spoke passionately about the reason that this was a high priority to her:
“My kids were getting horrible scores because they weren’t getting the first note right. So
they weren't able to identify the first note, singing or identifying it. And if you can't give
the first note, you can't get anything. So I said I wanted to do an all-out attack on this first
note business, and try every way possible. So I did key signature testing. But then I
thought about it. Why am I doing this? No one is saying, ‘Is this E or E flat?’ No one is
saying that. Who cares? So now we just do ‘I.F.S.,’ which is ‘identify the first solfege,’
and given the key, they have to find the solfege. And we talk about keys a lot - they come
up all the time. They ask about the order of the sharps and flats. And actually it's pretty
handy because we do – sorry, I'm really passionate about this boring thing –we do, ‘The
last flat is fa, the last sharp is ti, no sharps, no flats, like the wide-open C.’ This is the way
I teach my very, very beginners. And then they have to know ‘FACEs for spaces and
ACEG for basses.’ That's it. That's all I teach.” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020)
Sarah began her teaching of each one of her choir classes by establishing the key
(Observations, February 17, 2020). She played the triad on the piano, then the students sang, “Do mi sol mi do sol do,” and if the exercise did not begin on “do,” following the singing of the triad, they would then “walk” stepwise from “do” to their starting pitch (Observations, February 17,
2020). In every class, she would then reestablish the key by repeating the triad process at a later point in the lesson. Singing the interval sheet at the start of the lesson was also connected to a desire to establish the key (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020).
Tuning and Intervals – Julia Higgins 69
Interval accuracy was a high priority in Julia’s teaching objectives during all three of her observed lessons (Observations, February 13, 2020; Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020).
In her 6th grade class, “objectives that day [involved] a lot of ear training – so, to be able to echo, recognize, and sing patterns that included ‘do,’ ‘re,’ and ‘mi.’ And then they also had to improvise on those pitches” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). When she called for student volunteers in the 6th grade class to model hand signs for the class to echo, she instructed them not to add any interval skips (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). When a student later added a skip, Julia quietly exclaimed, “Oh, she gave us a skip! Keep going.” The class had some trouble finding the notes in the skip, but Julia sang “do” and they found the notes again (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). At a later stage of the echo pattern lesson, Julia vocally modeled do-re-mi patterns of notes, but only sang them on a neutral syllable
(“la, la, la”); her students closed their eyes and had to show the hand signs for each pattern, thus demonstrating if they could correctly identify the intervals (6th Grade Choir Observation,
February 13, 2020).
Julia referred to interval patterns when her 8th grade classes sight-sang on SmartMusic (8th
Grade Observations, February 13, 2020). In one instance, she pointed to a measure and asked,
“What do we have here?” A student called out, “Thirds!” and Julia confirmed, ““It’s going up by thirds, yeah!” (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir, February 13, 2020). Later, she described how the exercise used intervals of an octave: “The focus of Lesson 10 is doing octave jumps. So the exercise you did a couple minutes ago had the octave jump at the end, the high do to low do.
This one, you’re having to jump between sol and sol” (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir, February 13,
2020). To help them sing the interval accurately, she walked them stepwise up the scale to “sol,” 70 walked them stepwise down to low “sol,” vocally modeled the leap, and had the students echo her (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir, February 13, 2020).
Julia uses a self-created interval sheet with her classes, which she demonstrated in her 8th grade treble class (Initial Interview and 8th Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
The class had already worked on intervals up to a sixth, and they learned the sixths sequence on the observation day (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). She told the class,
“The sixths sequence is kind of fun because it does a sixth up, so ‘do re mi fa sol la, do, la,’” she explained, singing the solfege notes, “then it goes down one note to ‘sol,’ then it does a sixth going down. ‘Sol’ down to ‘ti’ is a sixth down” (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation, February
13, 2020). After the class read the new sequence, Julia played a fresh chord on the piano to
“make sure” they were still in tune, and when they repeated the entire sequence, she played along with them on the piano to ensure the tuning remained accurate (8th Grade Treble Choir
Observation, February 13, 2020). Afterward, Julia said to the choir, “We will go over this sixths pattern a whole bunch of times over the next few weeks, and this will be a singing test at the end of this quarter. So probably the first week of March, we’ll do a singing test on the sixths” (8th
Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
Tuning and Intervals – Sarah Ross
Sarah also indicated the importance of intervals and tuning throughout the collected data.
In her initial interview, she claimed that she was a “much better” sight-reader than she used to be, with the evidence being “intervals and tuning – I’m very far from perfect pitch, but I’m developing the sense. I'm getting better and I'm getting better at intervals” (Initial Interview,
February 9, 2020). She also mentioned that her students sing through an interval sheet at the start of every sight-singing lesson (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). 71
Intervals and tuning were discussed in every lesson that Sarah taught, but her lesson with
ViVo prioritized “tuning and trying to maintain tonal memory” as a goal (Post-Observation
Vlog, March 15, 2020). When students struggled to sing an interval correctly (“do” to “fa”),
Sarah stopped them, asked them to sing stepwise from “do” to “fa,” and then had them practice the leap (ViVo Observation, February 17, 2020). When they ran the section again, she played alternating low and high “do” on the piano to maintain the tuning, and when they still struggled on the leap, she stopped them and remarked, “Yeah, we’re just not in tune” (ViVo Observation,
February 17, 2020). They continued to struggle with tuning for the rest of the lesson. After they had completed the exercise, Sarah debriefed the class, “So given what you know about yourself, knowing how you’re singing now, what will that mean for the other things we’re singing today?
Are we going to be in tune or out of tune?” They answered, “Out of tune.” She asked, “And what kind of out of tune?” A student responded, “Flat.” Sarah confirmed, “Flat, yes” (ViVo
Observation, February 17, 2020). In the other classes, Sarah began by having them sing the interval sheet and stopped periodically during the sight-singing to correct interval errors, but general tuning was not mentioned as frequently as it was in ViVo (Women’s Chorale and
Symphonic Choir Observations, February 17, 2020).
Beat and Rhythm – Julia Higgins
Julia said that as a young singer, playing French horn and piano significantly helped her rhythm reading skills (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). She said, “There were very rarely rhythms [in choir] that that were scary or challenging to me… the songs we were doing in choir or the things that we had to sight-read in choir wouldn't have as challenging of rhythms as things
I had to play in band or on the piano” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). As a teacher, Julia said the rhythmic system she taught her students was “numbers for counting” (Post-Observation 72
Vlog, February 26, 2020). She referenced two different online resources that she used to practice rhythm specifically: The Rhythm Trainer and Rhythm Randomizer (Initial Interview, February
13, 2020). She explained, “Therhythmtrainer.com is basically rhythmic dictation, but it's one measure at a time. They're one measure examples and you can decide what types of notes will be options” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
Rhythm Randomizer, which simply provides a random two-bar rhythmic example (with the ability to customize which notes are used), was the main tool used for rhythmic practice her in 8th grade tenor/bass choir lesson (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13,
2020). She opened the website, customized the note values to add sixteenth notes and dotted quarter notes, and clicked on the screen for a new example. As soon as the example appeared on the board, students began quietly counting it to themselves (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir
Observation, February 13, 2020). She asked for the students to put a hand on their head if they knew how to count measure 1, then said, ““Okay, now all of you with your hands on your heads, do count measure 1 together. One, two, just measure 1” (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir
Observation, February 13, 2020). The students who had put their hands on their heads counted,
“One, and three and,” mostly together and mostly correctly (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir
Observation, February 13, 2020). Next, she asked for a volunteer to count out the second measure, and after the volunteer counted correctly, she asked for the rest of the class to count the second measure (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). On the next rhythmic example, Julia clapped the beat, and the class counted together (8th Grade Tenor/Bass
Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). She stopped to give feedback, and then asked them to count it again, while she snapped the beat (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February
13, 2020). After they had accurately counted through both measures again, she asked the tenors 73 to count one measure while the basses simultaneously counted the other measure, instructing them, “Make sure your beats line up” (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13,
2020). Later, while sight-singing a melodic example in SmartMusic, Julia pointed to the notes on the screen with one hand and snapped the beat with her other hand (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir
Observation, February 13, 2020). As they read, a green line on the screen indicated where they were in the exercise, and a metronome clicked the beat (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir
Observation, February 13, 2020).
When the class did rhythmic dictations near the end of the hour, Julia gave the following instructions: “I’m going to play a rhythm on the piano. It’s going to be four measures long and you’re going to write what you hear. So for example, if I played this on the piano…” She patted a beat on her leg and plays four measures of rhythm on the piano on a single pitch, and rejoined,
“Okay, so that was four measures of rhythm.” She walked to the SmartBoard, and wrote out the rhythms using the marker tool. “I played two half notes to start. I think I played four quarter notes. The next measure, I went one-and-two, three-and-four, then I had three beats of rest, then a note.” She stepped back and allows them to read the rhythm on the board, then instructed them to do the same as she gave them a new example (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation,
February 13, 2020). After she played the example three times in a row, allowing them time to listen and write, she asked individual members of the class to raise their hand and say what the rhythms were example (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). This process was nearly identical in the 8th grade treble class (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation,
February 13, 2020).
Beat and Rhythm – Sarah Ross 74
Rhythm (including count-singing) and keeping the beat were prominent components in
Sarah’s established sight-singing sequence (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). At the start of class, Sarah typically sets the metronome, playing through her computer speakers, at 120 beats per minute for the singing of the interval sheet and 80 beats per minute for the rest of the process
(although she did mention using different tempi at times) and the metronome plays for the entirety of the sight-singing lesson (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). In Sarah’s initial interview, she stated, “The metronome is going the whole time. I feel like the metronome is going for like 20 minutes of each class period. So it's like my whole life now. I like it because it gives me the same tempo every day” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). During her observed lessons, the metronome was playing from the start of class until the end of the sight-singing lesson, which ranged from 11 to 35 minutes in length (Observations, February 17, 2020). The only times that she paused the metronome were if she knew that she was about to give a longer sequence of instruction (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020). This occurred in Women’s
Chorale (wherein Sarah explained how sight-singing should become “automatic”) (Women’s
Chorale Observation, February 17, 2020) and in Symphonic Choir, where she stopped the metronome to explain do-based minor in greater detail (Symphonic Choir Observation, February
17, 2020). To further establish the beat, Sarah encourages her students to pat the beats in the air in a box formation while they count-sing (Observations, February 17, 2020). She explained, “I'm really encouraging them to keep the pattern so that they know where they are in the meter all the time, which I think is really valuable” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020).
Sarah’s daily sight-singing sequence includes rhythm at multiple stages:
“[Students] find the first note and then we just do the solfege alone with no rhythm. So
we keep a steady beat and basically do one note head per beat and go through and just 75
identify the solfege, at a set pace, totally ignoring any of the rhythm. And that just gives
them a sense of, ‘What are the notes involved?’ Then we go back and we count sing,
depending on what we're doing. So now we're doing a little bit more difficult stuff, we
might count-speak. But on this day we count-sang. So they are keeping the beat on their
body. They might do a pattern with their hand or keep the beat somewhere, counting the
rhythm on [numbers]. And then after we count-sing, then we read the solfege in rhythm.”
(Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020)
Count-singing (singing the numerical counts of the rhythmic number system on the pitches of the sight-singing exercise) is the most rhythm-centric part of the sight-singing process
(Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). In the count-singing, the students are encouraged to “guess the note because the primary point is to really get the rhythm correct” (Initial Interview, February
9, 2020), although she does stop the class to correct pitch errors occasionally while count-singing
(ViVo Observation, February 17, 2020). If there is a sustained note while count-singing, the students will hold out the number for the first count of the note while Sarah counts the intervening numbers aloud (ViVo Observation, February 17, 2020). In Symphonic Choir, she isolated a difficult syncopated rhythm and discussed it with the class before their count-singing
(Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020). She counted it aloud (“– and, – and, – and,
– and 1”), had the students echo her, and then connected the rhythm to a section of a piece that they had sung in the past (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020). Throughout the lesson, she also made mention of specific rhythmic features such as ties and cutoffs (Symphonic
Choir Observation, February 17, 2020).
Curriculum Choices – Julia Higgins 76
Julia’s focus on variety in sight-singing instruction also informed her curriculum choices.
When asked what resources she used, she said:
“I use Smart Music and within Smart Music, I mostly use this book Sing at First Sight,
which is a book that is in the program. I also sometimes within Smart Music use a book
called Patterns of Sound. I use sightreadingfactory.com. I use rhythm randomizer.com to
give some practice. I use my interval sequence sheet. There's a Sing at First Sight
supplemental book. It's like a reproducible book that that's where it kind of correlates
with Sing at First Sight that's in Smart Music. But there's different examples and it's
reproducible. So that's where these come from. And then I don't know if this counts, but I
use like I use things like therhythmtrainer.com and musictheory.net to learn to practice
things like key signatures. There are some ear training exercises on musictheory.net that I
use. Therhythmtrainer.com is basically rhythmic dictation, but it's one measure at a time.
They're one measure examples and you can decide what types of notes will be options.”
(Initial Interview, February 13, 2020)
Julia’s rationale for using so many resources lay in the variety central to her philosophy.
She explained:
“Most of those resources I've used for many years because I have found them to be
successful in working with students. I like to use a variety of resources and strategies
because I think it's more holistic that way and more organic than just always using the
exact same book or pattern. I want students to realize that in sight-reading is there's all
different ways that you can approach it. And there's all different types of learners. So I
don't want it to just always be the same way.” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26,
2020) 77
Many of these resources utilize technology that did not exist yet or was not easily accessible when Julia first began teaching. She described how her resource choices had changed over time: “There are certainly a lot more resources available now than there were when I first started teaching. I didn't have a document camera. I didn't have an interactive whiteboard.
SmartMusic didn't exist… there's this stuff [now] that just makes the whole process clear for students and easier to teach. It certainly requires in some ways less prep work because you're not having to, like, come up with and write your own examples up on the board every day like I had to when I was student teaching.”
In the lessons that were observed, Julia used Rhythm Randomizer with her 8th grade tenor/bass choir and the Sing at First Sight book within SmartMusic for both 8th grade classes
(Observations, February 13, 2020). She also used resources of her own creation: an interval sheet
(8th Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020) and a dictation worksheet (8th Grade
Choir Observations, February 13, 2020). For her 6th grade choir, she did not rely on a book, website, or other formal resource; the echo pattern exercise, she said, was just “something I do”
(Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). In terms of her curriculum choices, Julia summarized, “I have probably 5 different books that I draw from and other strategies that I've learned from professional development that I've gone to – conferences that I've gone to – and I just figure out kind of what works and what makes sense for my kids” (Post-Observation Vlog,
February 26, 2020).
Curriculum Choices – Sarah Ross
Sarah’s preferred sight-singing teaching resources are a series of books from
Masterworks press, including the interval exercise book Melodia. She also stated that she used
Bach chorales and musictheory.net as sight-singing instructional tools, and that she had chosen 78 all of these because they established good habits with her singers and were classic, tried-and-true resources (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She joked, “The original Melodia is really kind of old and not cool.” (laughs) “It doesn't have cool graphics... it seems timeless to me, I guess”
(Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). Sarah also highlighted the accessibility of these resources:
“You just can get reproducible PDFs, boom, buy it one time, and then I make these class sets until they wear out. Then I make new ones. For books, covers get lost. So the format is less stressful for me” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She also praised how “musical” the
Masterworks Press books were (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020), highlighting how
“they make actual music and the music is pleasant to listen to… the exercises are artistic” (Initial
Interview, February 9, 2020). Sarah’s interval sheet is self-created, as she elaborated upon in her post-observation vlog: “I use the solfege interval sheet and I made those. Google Docs has a notation software in it, and that's what I use, but you could use anything. I just wrote those in all the keys and if I could do it again, I would put the syllables in C major and then take them out for everything else” (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020).
Theme 3: Pedagogical Strategies
In addition to relying on pre-established musical systems and curricula, each teacher also drew upon various teaching methods in their instruction of sight-singing. The subcategories analyzed were: sequence and structure, repetition and practice, modeling, and feedback and assessment.
Structure and Repetition – Julia Higgins
Julia dedicates the entire class on Wednesdays to sight-singing for her choirs, but on the other days, she continues to build music literacy skills (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). She explained that dedicated sight-singing practice happens “once a week for like 33 minutes, but 79 we're doing music reading, building music reading skills and doing other things that directly contribute to sight-reading pretty much every day” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). When asked if she has a standard routine for sight-singing practice, she answered, “Yes and no. I mean, my standard routine is that I try to mix it up and on Wednesdays we do it the whole time” (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020). She also mentioned that if she spends a lot of time on sight- singing early on in the year, her students are able to sing a higher level of music overall (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020).
Within the lessons that were observed, Julia often used repetition and practice to solidify concepts for her students (Observations, February 13, 2020). She or her students repeated instructions, modeling, sung exercises, counting, starting pitches, echo patterns, sections of repertoire, and dictation examples more than 70 times over the course of three hours of lessons
(Observations, February 13, 2020). Repetition was used for practicing a skill (6th Grade Choir and 8th Grade Treble Choir Observations, February 13, 2020), checking that a mistake had been corrected (8th Grade Choir Observations, February 13, 2020), reminding the students of an earlier concept (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020), changing the range or voicing of a given exercise (Observations, February 13, 2020), and giving students additional opportunities to listen to, process, and write down a segment of music (8th Grade Choir Observations, February
13, 2020). In her post-observation vlog, Julia explained that repetition could help her students to see patterns in the music, the same way that they would as they were learning to read words
(Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). She explained,
“I want students to recognize from certain patterns. Like, "do re mi" is a pattern that
you're going to see over and over and over. And if you see that and immediately know
what it sounds like without having to think about it, it's kind of the same thing as seeing 80
the word where you don't have to sound it out or think about it. You just know that that's
what it is.” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020)
Structure and Repetition – Sarah Ross
Sarah’s teaching is highly structured, to the point that she believes firmly in doing the same sight-singing sequence at the start of every rehearsal, with every choir class, from beginning to advanced. She reflected, “I am a big advocate of structure and when we do the same thing every day in every class it builds and it sets expectations. It is my classroom management. I don't have to call everyone's attention. They just come in and get their books and get going”
(Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020). She further expanded that this routine sets the mood for the day, creates clear expectations for her choristers, and builds a homogenous culture between her different levels of choir classes (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020). When asked for the first piece of advice that she would give to a student teacher or new choral educator, she stated, “Have a routine and do it every day and do it every single day and don't feel like you need to change it,” and repeated, “Have a good routine. Do it every day” (Post-
Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020).
Sarah’s routine follows a pre-set structure, per her explanation in her initial interview as well as the format followed in all three of her observed lessons. When her students come into the room, the book page, exercise number, and key of the exercise are written on the board. She turns on the metronome at 120 bpm and plays the tonic chord on the piano in the key of the exercise for the day, then her students begin to sing the interval sheet for the given key as she plays the octave tonic on the piano. Next, the students look at the exercise, identify the first solfege (referenced by Sarah as I.F.S.), sing the triad, and “walk to the starting note.” They sing the entire exercise on solfege only, independent of the written rhythm (one note per beat). 81
Afterward, the students count-sing the exercise, patting the beat on their body or in the box in the air, approximating the pitch as they go along. Next, they sing on solfege again, adding the rhythm. The final step is to sing on a neutral syllable (typically “doo”) (Initial Interview,
February 9, 2020; Observations, February 17, 2020; Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020).
Throughout these highly sequenced steps, Sarah also relies on repetition and practice as a tool to reinforce accuracy (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). When asked for her philosophy toward sight-singing, she immediately said, “Do it. Do it all the time… practice in [sight- singing] practice, practice in the literature, practice in that everything that we do” (Initial
Interview, February 9, 2020). In all of her observed lessons, “Let’s try it again” and “One more time” were frequent refrains; those phrases or similar variants occurred 41 times in her three observed lessons (Observations, February 17, 2020). When her students sang something incorrectly, Sarah did not continue with the lesson until they were able to sing it again, correctly.
Asking the students to sing a section again was often posed as an opportunity to fix an issue on their own (Observations, February 17, 2020). For example, when ViVo struggled with an interval in their sight-singing, Sarah paused and said, “Oh, let’s do that again, and I think you can fix that, right, when we get there? One more time, and go” (ViVo Observation, February 17,
2020). In other instances, repetition was used to draw the students’ attention to a particular feature of the music. In Symphonic Choir, Sarah asked her students to sing the fifths sequence on the interval sheet twice, and afterward questioned the students on why she had asked them to do it again. One student correctly identified that their sight-singing exercise that day began with interval leaps of a fifth (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020). In other moments, repetition was used to solidify and connect smaller sections of the exercise to the larger whole.
This was particularly true in Symphonic Choir, where the difficulty of the exercise made it 82 necessary for Sarah to isolate challenging moments, explain and practice them with her students, and then run the entire example again (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020). The structured format of Sarah’s daily sight-singing lesson plan also naturally led to a high degree of repetition; after following the sequence of isolated solfege, count-singing, solfege in rhythm, and neutral syllable singing for a particular exercise, the students had sung through the entire exercise a minimum of four times (Observations, February 17, 2020).
Variety in Approach – Julia Higgins
Variety was at the heart of Julia’s philosophy and practice of sight-singing instruction
(Initial Interview and Observations, February 13, 2020; Post-Observation Vlog, February 26,
2020). When discussing how her style of instruction compared to her past choir teachers, Julia said, “I have a lot more variety in my approach. It's not just like we're gonna do two or three examples every day and then that's the end of it,” adding that she does “other things like dictation,” “ear training,” “interval sequences on solfege,” etc. in an effort to “incorporate a lot of other music reading skills besides just, ‘Can you sing this single line on solfege?’” (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020). Variety was woven through all of Julia’s instructional choices in the lessons she taught, as she explained, “I want students to realize that in sight-reading is there's all different ways that you can approach it. And there's all different types of learners. So I don't want it to just always be the same way” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). With her
6th grade choir, her lesson included warm-ups, the singing of a scale on solfege, echo patterns on solfege (including Curwen hand signs, pure aural recall, identifying the solfege of neutral- syllable notes, and improvisation), and application to repertoire (6th Grade Choir Observation,
February 13, 2020). With her 8th grade choirs, Julia used warm-ups, singing of the interval sheet, counting aloud of random rhythmic examples on Rhythm Randomizer, melodic sight-singing on 83
SmartMusic, and both rhythmic and melodic dictation (8th Grade Choir Observations, February
13, 2020). Julia later described why she employs so much variety in her choice of resources and activities: “I like to use a variety of resources and strategies because I think it's more holistic that way and more organic than just always using the exact same book or pattern” (Post-Observation
Vlog, February 26, 2020). She also reflected that for choir teachers, “it’s nice to be consistent with your system, but I don't think that you have to be super consistent with your approach or your strategies that you're using;” she continued:
“I think my students do well because I mix it up, because some days we're doing it on the
SmartBoard and some days we're doing sight-reading from a book and other days we're
doing ear training exercises; other days we're just practicing singing our intervals.
Sometimes we do games. We're learning theory at the same time. I have probably 5
different books that I draw from and other strategies that I've learned from professional
development that I've gone to, conferences that I've gone to, and just figure out kind of
what works and what makes sense for your kids. I think over time, I've seen so many
students get it in different ways that I'm like, "Okay, if I teach it like this, and like this,
and like this, then most of them will get it eventually." (Post-Observation Vlog, February
26, 2020)
Variety in Approach – Sarah Ross
Although Sarah’s teaching is highly structured and intentionally repetitive, she explained that the major steps of her daily sequence (interval sheet, isolated solfege, count-singing, solfege in rhythm, and neutral syllable singing) are chosen to build different specific elements of musicality (pitch, tuning, rhythm, physicality, etc.) (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). In her
Women’s Chorale lesson, Sarah asked her students to pat the beat in the air and sing on solfege 84 at the same time, a combination that they had not tried before. She asked them, “So, can you do
[the box] with your hand and also sing on solfege? That’s like, all parts of your brain. That’s what conductors do a lot. Because you’re always keeping the beat, but also doing other things”
(Women’s Chorale Observation, February 9, 2020). After they tried it, Sarah paused the metronome to explain how the more they built fluency in both pitch and rhythm, the easier it would be to make those technical elements of music “automatic” and be able to focus on the melody that they were singing (Women’s Chorale Observation, February 9, 2020). As Sarah explained, she also told a funny story about trying to walk and read at the same time, which connected to the metaphor of the lesson and added spontaneous variety to the routine (Women’s
Chorale Observation, February 9, 2020).
Modeling – Julia Higgins
Julia modeled frequently for her students using her voice, her body, and the piano as she taught each lesson (Observations, February 13, 2020). As she led warm-ups, she sang each vocalise and played the entrance on the piano before the class sang, and she also added gestures designed to bring out specific types of vocal techniques, such as a slicing motion to mimic the shape of the phrase and swooping arms to imitate a leap in the notes (6th Grade Observation,
February 13, 2020). The solfege echo pattern exercise was based entirely on Julia’s vocal and physical modeling, which the students would then repeat, and her students also became the ones who were modeling when she took volunteers to model hand signs for the class to sing as well as when they went around the room and improvised patterns on “do,” “re,” and “mi” (6th Grade
Observation, February 13, 2020). When the class worked on “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Julia vocally modeled the phrases before the class sang them, on text as well as on solfege (6th Grade
Observation, February 13, 2020). 85
In the 8th grade tenor/bass class, Julia modeled the warm-ups similarly with voice, piano, and physical gestures (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). While she let the students figure out the counts for the examples on Rhythm Randomizer before she indicated the correct answer, she did model the correct counting when the class made an error
(“Whoa, watch out! One, and three and”) as well as when one section was unsure of the counts
(“Yeah! ‘Two and…’ rest on count 4”) (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13,
2020). She also occasionally modeled trouble spots and periodically sang along with the class as they sight-read on SmartMusic (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
When the class did rhythmic and melodic dictation, Julia used the document camera to write the time and/or key signature on the dictation worksheet for the class to copy, and then played the example on the piano, patting the beat along on her leg with her other hand. (8th Grade
Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
Modeling – Sarah Ross
Sarah used modeling sparingly as a strategy to correct errors in her observed lessons
(Observations, February 17, 2020). When ViVo struggled repeatedly to sing an interval from
“do” to “fa” in tune, she stopped them and vocally modeled the flat pitch that they were singing for “fa,” then played the correct note on the piano underneath so that they could hear the difference (ViVo Observation, February 17, 2020). Later, she vocally modeled the same section on a neutral syllable when the class again struggled to find the correct pitch (ViVo Observation,
February 17, 2020). In the same class, she used an individual student’s vocal modeling to indicate the correct way to sing a different interval to “la” (ViVo Observation, February 17,
2020). Sarah also used modeling jokingly to exaggeratedly imitate the class’s under-energy singing (by singing “do” in an off-pitch groan), which the class responded to with laughter and 86 self-acknowledgment (ViVo Observation, February 17, 2020). In Symphonic Choir, Sarah sang the sight-singing along with the class in its entirety, jumping from one part to another when there were difficult sections where the students needed support (Symphonic Choir Observation,
February 17, 2020). On a challenging section that shifted to minor, Sarah modeled the section on la-based minor solfege, then walked them through the process of reading the notes in both do- based minor and la-based minor (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020). As the 8th grade treble class’s lesson was similar to the 8th grade tenor/bass class’s lesson, Julia’s use of modeling was comparable in both classes (8th Grade Choir Observations, February 13, 2020).
Feedback and Assessment – Julia Higgins
Julia described how she strategically used both informal and formal assessment throughout her teaching of sight-singing (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). During her observed lessons, as she led each class in warm-ups, she would pause periodically to give informal verbal vocal feedback (“Get your sound traveling forward, all the way to the front of the room,” “Get your air moving,” “I’m hearing some ‘vee-uh.’ Can I have ‘vee-ah’?” etc.) and also used her body as she gave feedback about her students’ posture and physical singing mechanisms (“Make sure that you’re not moving your head up like this:” juts her chin forward and models the exercise to demonstrate the strain created; “Bend your knees like this:” models the correct posture) (6th Grade Observations, February 13, 2020). During the echo pattern exercise in the 6th grade class, Julia asked for volunteers to demonstrate hand sign patterns for the class to echo; later, she went in a circle around the room and every student improvised patterns using “do,” “re,” and “mi” for the class to sing back (6th Grade Observations, February 13, 2020).
She used these exercises as opportunities for informal assessment, and later explained: 87
“I had them do the same thing [that I had modeled], but with just showing me their hand
signs so that so that I could kind of informally assess and see which students were really
getting it and be able to hear the difference between do, re, and mi in a pattern. And then
finally, I had them improvise their own pattern, and again, just did a really easy informal
assessment of what I could tell which students were able to come up with their own
pattern and sing it accurately.” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020)
Julia also had volunteers from the 8th grade classes count or sing sections alone, and gave them verbal feedback and encouragement as they did so (“Good job!”, “Try it one more time,”
“Way to take a risk!”, “You did great!”) (8th Grade Choir Observations, February 13, 2020). Her assessment of individuals also occurred as she walked around the room during the various parts of the lesson, listening to individual students as they practiced counting or singing, and looking over their papers as they wrote down the dictations (8th Grade Choir Observations, February 13,
2020). Furthermore, Julia assessed the students as a group and gave feedback throughout the process of working together through the rhythmic sight-reading (e.g. “You have to think, ‘two and three and’ to get it together...”) (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir, February 13, 2020), singing the interval sheet (e.g. “I see like half of you going from memory or just following my hands. That’s awesome! Good job!”) (8th Grade Treble Choir, February 13, 2020), melodic sight-singing (e.g.
“I heard a lot of really accurate singing! But I felt like we were not prepared for this eighth note right here…”) (8th Grade Treble Choir, February 13, 2020), and dictations (e.g. “Show me on your fingers how many measures you got right… okay, I’m seeing a lot of threes. Perhaps that first measure caught us by surprise. Okay, pretty good!”) (8th Grade Treble Choir, February 13,
2020). After the classes were over, Julia’s reflections on how they performed that day indicated her ongoing informal assessment of the groups: 88
“I am really proud of my men for how well they did on their rhythm reading because
we've really worked on a lot of those rhythms throughout the course of the year. And I
think that many of them are getting to the point where they feel really confident in their
rhythm reading ability. And I'm also proud in my women's class of how accurately they
sang their interval sequence sheet, because that's also something that we've worked on
throughout the year.” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020)
Julia mentioned that she also includes formal, summative assessment such as quizzes, performance assessments, and competitions as a part of her sight-singing curriculum as well
(Initial Interview, February 13, 2020; 8th Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
She mentioned specifically that there would be a singing test on the sixths section of the interval sheet for the eighth graders the first week of March (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation,
February 13, 2020) and also explained the March Madness sight-singing tournament that she holds for her classes as a fun competition that also assesses their individual sight-singing skills
(Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). During some individual singing tests, such as March
Madness, Julia uses her computer microphone and the automatic scoring system on SmartMusic to impartially grade student accuracy (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
Feedback and Assessment – Sarah Ross
Feedback was an ongoing process throughout Sarah’s instruction of sight-singing (Initial
Interview, February 9, 2020; Observations, February 17, 2020; Post-Observation Vlog, March
15, 2020). Her students would sing a section, and then she would stop and give feedback that was positive, constructive, or both. Her feedback was both verbal (“You’re just a little behind.
Go faster”, “That was so close!”, “You’re flat now”, “Match your ‘la’ to hers”, “Pretty good! 89
Keep going”, “Think ahead! Really high!”, “Ah! Beautiful!”, “Don’t stop, and don’t talk”,
“Make sure you put two feet on the floor and our arms and books off our laps. That’ll help”,
“Thank you!”, etc.) and nonverbal (pointing in the air when a note needed to be higher, gesturing toward a student who was singing a correct pitch so that others would match hers, etc.)
(Observations, February 17, 2020). Each time feedback was given, it was followed by an instruction either to go back and try again, or to go onto the next step of the process
(Observations, February 17, 2020).
Sarah said that the feedback that she gives as she teaches forms the bulk of the informal assessment in her class (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). Formal assessment is present in her classes in the forms of tests and quizzes on musical concepts, such as keys and solfege (Initial
Interview, February 9, 2020) as well as the scored sight-singing component of the regionals audition process (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). Sarah said that the regional audition was her “primary year-over-year metric just because [her students] do it every year and it's always the same,” but that she had been rethinking her use of this metric in recent years. She said, “I actually came away from the process this year going, "I need to make my own metric because
I'm over this. It's ridiculous,” due to the intense difficulty of the sight-singing audition (Initial
Interview, February 9, 2020). Sarah debated the use of a standardized scored assessment like the regional audition, positing that she knew her students’ progress better than any audition would reflect (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She reflected:
“[Last year] I said, "Oh my gosh, we've done the best sight-reading ever." And that was
the hardest sight-singing is that there's been in 10 years, and all the kids’ scores dropped.
And so who the heck cares? But I can feel in my classroom that they're better. And [my
students and I] talked about that a lot. That these kinds of scores, in the end of the day, 90
they don't really matter because in the classroom, in our music reading, we can feel that
we know what we're doing.” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020)
Theme 4: Philosophy
The data in this theme pertained to each teacher’s philosophy toward teaching sight- singing as well as the rationale and larger goals behind their pedagogical choices. The subcategories were: efficiency and fluency, connecting the mind and the voice, artistic significance and application to repertoire, fun, and student independence and growth over time.
Efficiency and Fluency – Julia Higgins
Julia mentioned that one of the primary benefits of her students being able to sight-sing was the improved efficiency and speed at which they could learn new music – she explained,
“They're going to be able to do more challenging music later and they're going to learn it faster, which is always a which is always more fun. I mean, my eighth graders [were] able to learn four pieces in five weeks. A lot of that is because they are fairly proficient at reading music” (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020). In her observed lessons, the process usually began with direct instruction, transitioned into class/choral work, and ended with individual performance and feedback, with the goal of helping each student develop fluency with music literacy
(Observations, February 13, 2020; Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). Julia spoke to the fluency that many of her older and more advanced students developed in their time learning to read music under her instruction:
“My older students or students who have been in choir longer, they're able to learn a
piece of music so much faster, even if they're not like amazing sight readers yet, they just
have so much more understanding of what they're looking at. And so it's more obvious to
them when they have to sing a harmony part or when they're you know, if they're no 91
different than the other part, they're just more prepared to do it. They sing with a lot more
accuracy. They don't need to be spoon fed every single thing that they sing.” (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020)
Efficiency and Fluency – Sarah Ross
Sarah explicitly stated that saving time and moving quickly through learning music was a significant reason that she prioritized sight-singing instruction (Initial Interview, February 9,
2020). She stated that knowing how to sight-sing facilitated the learning of “good music” (i.e. high-quality choral repertoire) because “it saves time. It's faster… You can move on to the rehearsal part, and you can program more music, and you can just do more. And the kids can read, and you can do more [repertoire] and harder [repertoire]” (Initial Interview, February 9,
2020). She also equated accelerated speed of music-learning with “fluency”: “You hit a level of fluency. Like as a pianist, you hit a level of fluency to play anything, and then you can just play anything… When your choir can read, then you can just give them something and they can do it”
(Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). Sarah prioritized efficiency in her selection of curriculum resources as well. She spoke positively about how the Masterworks Press books were available as reproducible PDFs, meaning that she could make new ones anytime the old books wore out, a format at she found “less stressful” than other alternatives (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020).
Sarah also found that using musictheory.net to practice solfege identification was “way easier than paper” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). While discussing her philosophy on key signature versus solfege identification practice, she explained, “I'm not testing, ‘Do you know the name of this key?’ I don't care. I do care if they know the solfege of this note. And don't take forever!” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). 92
Sarah explained her prioritization of musical fluency again while teaching Women’s
Chorale (Women’s Chorale Observation, February 17, 2020). After asking the class to sing on solfege and simultaneously pat the beat in the box in the air, she explained that the goal was to make “everything automatic,” and used a metaphor to illustrate her point:
“Ideally – it’s like walking and reading, which maybe is unsafe, but bear with me for a
minute.” (The students laugh.) “Walking is something you do without thinking about it,
it’s a physical movement that’s a pattern, and you do it without thinking about it, Reading
is something that if you’re fluent, you do without thinking about it – you’re thinking
about what you’re reading, you’re not thinking about reading. So ideally, this would be
like walking and reading a book… ideally, what you should be listening for is the
melody. That’s why we sing on ‘doo doo doo.’ You’re not thinking about the solfege,
you’re not thinking about the counts, you’re thinking about the melody. But that is a big
step.” (Women’s Chorale Observation, February 17, 2020)
In other words, Sarah encouraged her students to develop their musical literacy to the same level of fluency that they would develop their non-musical literacy. In her post-observation vlog, she also reiterated the goal of “building fluency” in students’ solfege reading skills (Post-
Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020).
Connecting the Mind and the Voice – Julia Higgins
Julia stated that the purpose of the high degree of variety that she uses in her sight- singing instruction was “to build as many connections as possible in their brain that say, ‘This is what those notes look like, sound like, feel like in my voice’” (Initial Interview, February 13,
2020). When she did the echo-singing exercises with her 6th grade students, she varied the process between singing on solfege, Curwen hand signs, and singing on a neutral syllable, both 93 in her modeling and in the student response she requested (6th Grade Observation, February 13,
2020). She described how in this process, her students were “internalizing and being able to hear and differentiate between those three notes” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). In both of Julia’s 8th grade classes, as they sang warm-ups on neutral syllables, she asked them, “What do you think the solfege is for that warmup?” (8th Grade Observations, February 13, 2020). She later explained the purpose of this exercise: “In some of those warmups, just to get their brains already thinking in solfege mode, I would ask them to think about what the solfege would be. So for example, if they were singing, "I love to sing" (she sings 1-5-3-1), being able to recognize that that's, "Do sol mi do" (sings). So they're just kind of already in that mindset” (Post-
Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020).
Julia directly asked her students to “think about” how a rhythmic or a melodic example ought to go as she allowed them time to practice on their own before speaking or singing the example as a class (8th Grade Observations, February 13, 2020). In one instance, she directed,
“Put your hand on your head if you know how to count measure 1.” Several students put their hands on their heads. “I’m not going to call on anybody, I just want to get an idea of how many of you think you know how to count measure 1,” she clarified, demonstrating her desired outcome for students to demonstrate “head knowledge” of music literacy as well demonstrating accurate vocal performance while sight-reading (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir Observation,
February 13, 2020). Later in the same class, she explained how the purpose of the dictation exercises that she introduced to the class was to continue to make these connections between disciplines and techniques:
“Dictation is basically writing what you hear. It’s a good skill because it makes a new
connection in your brain as a music reading skill. We are very used to seeing music and 94
being able to sing what we see. This is now being able to imagine what we hear – what
that would look like on the page. So, it’s kind of like in English class, where you learn
how to read, but you also learn how to write. So if you have an idea of something in your
head, you could write it down. In music, same thing. If you have an idea of what
something sounds like, you’re able to write it on paper.” (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir
Observation, February 13, 2020).
In Julia’s 8th grade treble class, she gave a similar statement that compared learning to read, write, and perform music to learning to read, write, and speak in a language:
“It’s building a new connection in your brain as far as music-reading skills, kind of like
in English class, where you both read and write, or in Spanish, where you read and write
and speak and listen. You do all four of those things to become really fluent in Spanish.
To be really fluent as a music-reader and a musician means that you can both read it, like
sight-reading, and write it, which is what we’re going to be doing today.” (8th Grade
Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020)
In her reflection vlog, Julia reiterated the connection between sight-singing and music literacy, and again compared the learning of music to learning a language, using the example of her own children’s experiences as they learned to read (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26,
2020). She stated that forming these connections was a prominent part of her philosophy as a choir teacher. In her own words:
“One of my philosophies is just that I think it's important for students to understand that
to me, it's not just sight-singing, it's music reading as a whole. So being a proficient
music reader means that you can sing what you see. But you can also hear in your head
what you're seeing. You can also visualize what you hear… I think some of my 95
philosophy of teaching music reading has evolved as I've had my own kids learning how
to read. I have a 7-year-old and an 8-year-old, and watching them learn how to read
words, going from learning the alphabet to putting sounds together and then whole words
and sentences and learning how to write, I think, has kind of changed the way that I teach
sight-reading a little bit because I see some of those same strategies… When you're
learning English and learning how to read, you learn how to read, but you also learn how
to write, and you also learn how to speak. And you also learn how to listen when you're
learning a language. And I think music is really similar. So I try to kind of incorporate all
of those things in music reading, that they're not only learning how to read it, but they're
learning how to write it, they're learning how to sing it, and learning how to listen to it
and know what that is that they're hearing.” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020)
Connecting the Mind and the Voice – Sarah Ross
Sarah stated that she found sight-singing to be only one avenue toward music literacy, which she saw as the greater goal (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). In her words: “We call it sight-singing, but I don't think the primary skill is, "Can you read this the first time?" The primary skill is, "Can you read this?" Although reading it the first time is nice (laughs), I would rather my kids take all day and be able to read something. Even if it takes you an hour, but you can figure it out, hooray!” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). Sarah reflected on the challenge of ensuring that her students could both sight-sing accurately and also cognitively understand their own music literacy, saying that many of her beginning students might be able to “muddle through” and execute a vocal exercise accurately, but might not be able to explain the musical concepts involved (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She connected this phenomenon to how one might learn a new language: “I haven't been in an immersion program for language, but I 96 assume it's kind of like that where people can kind of muddle their way through, but they don't actually know what any of the words mean. But they can just kind of guess from the gestures.
And then eventually it clicks. Sometimes it takes a really long time” (Initial Interview, February
9, 2020).
Sarah asked her students to think critically, connecting their vocal activity to cognitive understanding, throughout her lessons (Observations, February 17, 2020). While working with
ViVo, they made an error, and Sarah stopped them, calling out, “Wait. Think about it in your head. You just sang it like five times.” She allowed them a few seconds to think. “The counts were right. The 5-6 was right. But you forgot we already sang this” (ViVo Observation, February
17, 2020). When they returned to the same section in a run-through of the exercise, she instructed them, “Remember, think, think, think!” (ViVo Observation, February 17, 2020). In her lesson with Symphonic Choir, she gave them a brief vocabulary lesson, asking, “Ok, look at where it modulates,” she observes. “What does ‘modulate’ mean?” A student correctly answered,
“When the key changes.” Sarah acknowledged the correct student and said, “Yes, when the key changes. So be ready for that” (Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020).
In her post-observation vlog, Sarah also referenced the connection between her singers’ head knowledge and vocal execution (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020). While discussing the interval sheet, she explained, “I'm asking them to cover the solfege syllables so that they just look at the note heads and can kind of connect what they say and the pitch they sing, the certain syllable they say and the notehead that they read, just building fluency” Post-
Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020). She also pointed out that the step of her daily sight-singing routine where students sing on a neutral syllable serves to “work on their ear training and 97
[connect] ‘what does it look like’ to ‘what does it sound like’” Post-Observation Vlog, March 15,
2020).
Artistic Significance and Application to Repertoire – Julia Higgins
One of Julia’s strongest rationales for the teaching of sight-singing, or, as she said, music literacy as a whole, was how it affected the way that her students learned repertoire. She commented, “I know from experience that if I spend a lot of time on sight-reading early on, the level of music that they're going to be able to sing later is going to be higher. They're going to be able to do more challenging music later and they're going to learn it faster, which is always a which is always more fun” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). Consequentially, applying sight-singing techniques to the rehearsal of repertoire was a top priority; she explained that she wanted students to see how “it all connects” to “what it looks like in the song[s] that we are doing” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). Although she typically uses Wednesdays specifically for sight-singing lessons, Julia emphasized that “we're doing music reading, building music reading skills and doing other things that directly contribute to sight-reading pretty much every day” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020).
The section of Julia’s observed lessons that had the most direct application to repertoire was her 6th grade choir class, where one of Julia’s lesson objectives was to “appl[y] some of the skills that they've learned with solfege and sight-reading to learning the next portion of their arrangement of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ that they're learning” (Post-Observation Vlog,
February 26, 2020). Julia spent a large amount of time singing echo patterns on “do,” “re,” and
“mi” back and forth with her students, then showed them a new section of their repertoire piece
(“The Star-Spangled Banner”) that also featured entrances on the same three notes (6th Grade
Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). In the same lesson, she referenced and gave further 98 explanation on several other elements of music literacy (key signatures, letter names on a treble clef staff, starting notes on solfege, singing in thirds in two parts, writing solfege into the choral score, identifying and singing leaps, etc.) (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). Julia stated that this observed lesson was typical for a Wednesday sight-singing lesson (Post-
Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020); her inclusion of repertoire work as part of this lesson indicated that learning sight-singing was also connected to the learning of repertoire in Julia’s classroom.
Artistic Significance and Application to Repertoire – Sarah Ross
As aforementioned in the subcategory “Efficiency and Fluency,” Sarah explained in her initial interview that one of the major benefits of consistent sight-singing instruction was the way it facilitated the learning of excellent repertoire for her choirs (Initial Interview, February 9,
2020). Sight-singing, she said, “just opens up these doors for us to be musical in a way that would be really limited without” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). When asked for her philosophy toward sight-singing instruction, she answered, “We should learn to read because we want to do good music and good music takes time… for me, the reward for everything should be more good music. And you don't need any other reward” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020).
Sarah also sought “good music” in her curriculum choices, as evidenced in her view of the Masterworks Press series (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She liked that the exercises in these books “make actual music and the music is pleasant to listen to.” She continued, “The exercises are artistic, which will drive me nuts if they weren't” (Initial Interview, February 9,
2020). She also uses a series of Bach chorales as a sight-singing tool, stating, “I think it's important to connect from exercises to real music. And also the Bach chorales are just good” 99
(Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She clarified that the chorales’ phrasing, musicality, harmony, and modulations indicated their musical value (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020).
While teaching, Sarah reminded her students to “think about the melody” that they were singing, rather than merely the notes and rhythms (Women’s Chorale Observation, February 17,
2020). In her Symphonic Choir sight-singing lesson, she referenced a piece that they had sung in the past when they encountered a difficult syncopated rhythm (Symphonic Choir Observation,
February 17, 2020). In the lesson, she paused, pointed to the rhythm and said, “Look at it right now. You’re going to mess that up. Here’s why.” Sarah counted: “– and, – and, – and, – and 1.”
After the students echoed the counts, she rejoined, “So actually, if you thought about it like this:
‘how this – day – is – goin’ – to – end.” The students reacted in realization, recognizing the phrase as a reference to “Spiritual,” by Ysaye Barnwell, which they had previously sung
(Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020). Sarah later concluded, “[Sight-singing] is something we use in every element of the rehearsal, and they will use it their whole time with me” (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020).
Fun – Julia Higgins
One of the benefits that Julia found in keeping her sight-singing instruction varied was her students’ increased level of engagement – she explained, “I like to use a variety of materials because I think kids get bored otherwise if you always use the same... it could be done, it’s very comprehensive, but I think they would get bored” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). She explained a plethora of activities and games that she would use to keep class interesting (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020). Some of these were full competitions or extra activities, such as
Choir Olympics or her March Madness sight-singing tournament (Initial Interview, February 13,
2020). Some of these were simply variants on a basic SmartMusic sight-singing rehearsal: 100
“I’ll have couple of students sing alone. Sometimes I write in the solfege for them up on
the screen. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I'll add lyrics… so after we've sung it on
solfege, I'll write in – because I can do that on the SmartBoard – I’ll write in made-up
lyrics and have them sing it on text. We'll take away the green line [indicating progress
within the example]. We can increase the tempo, which they would sometimes think is
fun. My sixth graders have really gotten into doing their counting examples in Spanish,
just, like, it's stupid (laughs). But these things are again, what keeps it from getting old.”
(Initial Interview, February 13, 2020)
Another tool that Julia uses to increase students’ interest and engagement is rewards, such as candy, stickers, or smelly stamps, which she will sometimes give to students who are “really singing out or that are willing to try it on their own” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). In
Julia’s SmartMusic lesson with her 8th grade treble choir, she asked for a volunteer to sing alone
(8th Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). After a student volunteered and sang the exercise accurately, Julia threw her a piece of candy from her desk (8th Grade Treble Choir
Observation, February 13, 2020). When the other students saw this, they reacted with visible and audible excitement, and many more hands shot up to volunteer (8th Grade Treble Choir
Observation, February 13, 2020). Julia lightheartedly teased, “Oh, now other people want to go! I see how it is!”, and her students giggled (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13,
2020).
Julia’s lessons were highly structured and carefully planned, but she and her students still found plenty of time for laughter; she and her students laughed 16 times in the lessons observed
(Observations, February 13, 2020). Julia laughed when students in each class made funny remarks (for example, when a student in the 6th grade class stood up in front of the class to model 101 hand signs, looked out at the class from a new angle, and emphatically commented, “This is weird!”) (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). Julia also made jokes based on what was happening in the music, such when the tenor/bass class encountered a fermata and Julia explained that when there was no director, a singer could hold a fermata “as long as you want,” then jokingly added, “I mean, you might run out of air at some point;” many of her students laughed and pretended to dramatically sing a note until they had no breath left (8th Grade
Tenor/Bass Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). Julia also lightly laughed at herself if she made a mistake, such as a voice crack or wrong note on the piano, and it was clear that her students were so comfortable in her class that any passing mistakes were inconsequential (8th
Grade Treble Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
Fun – Sarah Ross
Sarah said in her first interview that she wanted her students to feel comfortable in her classroom while sight-singing (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). As mentioned previously in the “Relationship with Students” subcategory of Theme 1, “Teacher Identity,” Sarah uses a variety of metaphors to connect with her students. She said that sight-singing is “like a videogame, like Rock Band… or any sort of ‘jump and hit the thing that goes by’ [game]”
(Initial Interview, February 9, 2020), and told her Women’s Chorale that correctly executing pitch and rhythm simultaneously was “like walking and reading a book” (Women’s Chorale
Observation, February 17, 2020). After the latter metaphor, Sarah went on a short tangent to tell her students a funny story from her childhood about how she had been walking while reading a book on the way to a bus stop, and had walked into a mailbox (Women’s Chorale Observation,
February 17, 2020). The students laughed along with Sarah and they moved on with the rehearsal, fully engaged and singing (Women’s Chorale Observation, February 17, 2020). 102
Laughter was a frequent presence in Sarah’s classroom during the lessons that were observe; she and her students laughed 25 times in the three observed lessons (Observations,
February 17, 2020). Sometimes, Sarah would poke lighthearted fun at her students (one example: she exaggeratedly imitated ViVo’s under-energy singing by singing “do” in an off-pitch groan while playing several dissonant notes on the piano; they laughed) (ViVo Observation, February
17, 2020). Sarah also referred to inside jokes and previous conversations between herself and her students (e.g. at the beginning of class, Sarah asked Women’s Chorale, “Ok, raise your hand if your body is dead… and ‘I stayed up late last night binging Netflix on my bed, on my phone, even though Ms. Ross told me not to’ doesn’t count;” students laughed) (Women’s Chorale
Observation, February 17, 2020). Even one instance of instructing her students not to laugh had the tone of a joke – when Symphonic Choir struggled to complete their difficult sight-singing exercise, Sarah told them, “Hey… you can’t all just laugh and stop singing.” They laughed good- naturedly in response. She teased them, “You all went, ‘Ha, ha, ha!’ and stopped singing!”
(Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020). Although she was delivering constructive feedback, the class still had a comfortable, light-hearted atmosphere (Symphonic Choir
Observation, February 17, 2020).
Student Independence and Growth Over Time – Julia Higgins
A key part of Julia’s philosophy for sight-singing instruction revolved around student independence, and their ability to grow and develop their skills over their time in her choirs
(Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). Much of this discussion related to the rate at which students could learn choral repertoire (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). She explained that before students learn how to sight-sing, they need to be “spoon-fed” the music, and they are “just trying to memorize what they hear” when learning parts; as a result, when the class returns to a 103 piece a few days later, these students forget their harmonies and she as a teacher has to “start from scratch again” (Initial Interview, February 13, 2020). Julia continued that when students have developed a basic level of sight-singing, “even if they can’t read super well yet,” they have enough knowledge to look at a piece of music and be able to basically recall their part (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020). For students at a higher level of sight-singing experience, such as her more advanced 8th grade students, Julia said, “They're able to learn a piece of music so much faster… they just have so much more understanding of what they're looking at” (Initial
Interview, February 13, 2020).
Julia frequently encouraged students to develop independence throughout her lessons
(Observations, February 13, 2020). On the day she was observed, she had a “Quote of the Day” written on the whiteboard, which remained prominently visible throughout all of her classes: “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in his life (Muhammed
Ali).” Julia drew her students’ attention to this quote when students volunteered to perform or lead alone in front of the class (6th Grade Choir Observation; 8th Grade Treble Choir Observation,
February 13, 2020). Every class featured several opportunities for solo student volunteers. Every member of the 6th grade choir sang and hand-signed alone when they went around the room to perform do-re-mi patterns for the class to echo, and other individual students also led the class in other elements of the lesson where they sang or performed hand signs on their own (6th Grade
Choir Observation, February 13, 2020). Julia also asked her 8th grade tenor/bass class to perform a rhythmic example in a small group of volunteers, then she took individual volunteers to count the following measures (8th Grade Tenor/Bass Class, February 13, 2020). In her 8th grade treble class, she called for a volunteer to sing an example on SmartMusic, and when a student volunteered and correctly performed the example, Julia threw her a piece of candy as a reward, 104 which made other students eager to volunteer as well (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation,
February 13, 2020). Every time a student spoke, sang, or signed on their own, Julia gave them plentiful instructions beforehand and encouragement and positive feedback afterward
(Observations, February 13, 2020).
Even when the classes were performing or completing an activity as a whole, there was still a focus on individual accountability. Julia asked her 6th grade choir to close their eyes, and she sang patterns on a neutral syllable that they then had to echo back, singing a neutral syllable but performing the correct solfege hand signs (6th Grade Choir Observation, February 13, 2020).
Julia explained later that this gave her an opportunity to informally assess student understanding on an individual basis (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). In the 8th grade classes, students had the opportunity to practice on their own before singing or counting an exercise (8th
Grade Choir Observations, February 13, 2020). While they practiced, Julia walked around the room, listening to individuals (8th Grade Choir Observations, February 13, 2020). Later, while her students were writing down rhythmic dictations, Julia also walked around the room, looking at their papers, and also used this as an individual informal assessment tool (8th Grade Choir
Observations, February 13, 2020).
When asked what parts of the lessons Julia was most proud of during her post- observation reflection vlog, her answers focused on the growth she saw in her individual classes, and the individual students within those classes, throughout the year:
“I think that with the sixth graders, I'm proud of the fact that a lot of them felt confident
and comfortable to improvise their own pattern on do, re, and mi. And I thought there
was some nice building of skills and scaffolding to get them to that point, not just in that
lesson, but in previous lessons to be able to do something like that. I am really proud of 105
my men for how well they did on their rhythm reading because we've really worked on a
lot of those rhythms throughout the course of the year. And I think that many of them are
getting to the point where they feel really confident in their rhythm reading ability. And
I'm also proud in my women's class of how accurately they sang their interval sequence
sheet, because that's also something that we've worked on throughout the year.” (Post-
Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020)
Furthermore, Julia stated that one of the motivations between her varied instruction choices was to meet students in their own personal learning styles and development, and encourage them toward growth (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). She said, “There's all different types of learners. So I don't want it to just always be the same way… I think over time, I've seen so many students get it in different ways that I'm like, ‘Okay, if I teach it like this and like this and like this, then most of them will get it eventually’” (Post-Observation Vlog,
February 26, 2020).
Student Independence and Growth Over Time – Sarah Ross
A prominent goal of Sarah’s teaching was for her students to gain ownership over the sight-singing material. She explained, “Part of the routine is to give them the ownership. So wherever possible, teach them to lead and teach them to find their stuff and talk about. I want you to be an autonomous lifelong music learner, and that requires you being able to navigate this notation on your own” (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020). She emphasized that she wanted her students to be able to “know” that they could sing music accurately, without anyone else to help them (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She explained, “It'll take a long time, but then [they’ll] know, and [they] don't have to be held back because [they’re] relying on someone else to feed [them] the information” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). 106
Sarah continually restated that sight-singing was a difficult process, but one that students could and did improve in over time (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). She said, “[It] that is something that they are bad at, but we'll get better at. And we just work on it all the time. And I work on it with them and we work on it all together” (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020).
Sarah acknowledged the struggle while celebrating the progress that her students made over time, both within each lesson (Observations, February 17, 2020) and on a semester-to-semester or even year-to-year scale. As she taught, her students made frequent mistakes, but Sarah continually encouraged them, and took joy in the difficulty of the process (Women’s Chorale
Observation; Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020). When Symphonic Choir made repeated mistakes, she stopped and exclaimed, “This is hard! Yes, that’s good! Wait, is it hard for you guys? Is it hard for you?” The students laughed and nodded. “That’s good! Hard is good”
(Symphonic Choir Observation, February 17, 2020.
Sarah claimed that the group perception of sight-singing being difficult was a unifying factor in her program, across all levels of singers, and encouraged them to work hard to make progress over time:
“[Sight-singing is] both a tool and a unifier. So what I mean by that is, it is a tool where
you can you can differentiate between levels, but it also is a unifier because we do the
same process in every single class. And whether you're a brand new or you're advanced,
we do the same thing. My beginning kids are way better at following through and doing
every single step. My advanced kids skip the steps and make mistakes, even though it's
harder stuff. And so it builds equality through the whole program because it's the white
whale we're all fighting. And everyone has frustrations but also successes.” (Initial
Interview, February 9, 2020) 107
Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusions
Discussion
The primary purposes of this study were to examine two teacher’s philosophies and pedagogical practices as they related to sight-singing instruction. Although these findings are not generalizable, as they pertain only to the two subjects of the case study, the findings are still noteworthy, interesting, and relevant to choral educators both within and outside of the Tucson community. Observing and analyzing these two teachers may provide other choral educators with a specific lens for self-reflection, and lead to further discussions about why and how they teach sight-singing.
The discussion section will be organized in terms of the original research questions. The research questions were as follows:
Research question one. What are the teachers’ music teaching philosophies, especially
as they relate to sight-singing?
Research question two. What are the pedagogical strategies used when teaching sight-
singing?
Research question three. What is the nature of the relationship between the teaching
philosophy and the teaching strategies regarding sight-singing?
Question One: Teaching Philosophies
In order to effectively discuss Sarah Ross’s and Julia Higgins’s teaching philosophies, it is imperative to first acknowledge their own personal experiences and identities as both students and teachers of sight-singing. Julia clearly recalled her experiences as a young music student, sight-singing in middle school and high school choirs and playing French horn and piano, and then applying the skills she had learned at a higher level in college choir. She spoke of past 108 directors with respect and acknowledgement for the ways that their teaching had affected hers.
Her comprehensive education as both a singer and an instrumentalist made her a confident musician in the present, and she takes well-earned quiet pride in her abilities as a singer and teacher after her 16 years of experience, while also recognizing areas where she can strive to continue improving.
Sarah’s memories of her own musical background were much more scattered, and she struggled to recall experiences that pertained to music literacy before her college years. Like
Julia, she is an instrumentalist as well as a singer, and credited moments from her years of learning to play worship piano with piquing her interest toward music literacy. She mentioned that her past music teachers “didn’t know how to teach” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020), and as a result, her current teaching style was quite different than theirs in regard to sight- singing. Sarah continually referred to herself as a current student of singing, saying that she was working on her skills along with her students. Despite her 13 successful years of building a choir program, she was remarkably self-deprecating whenever discussing her own teaching abilities, repeatedly referring to herself as lazy, unskilled, and “bad at teaching” (Initial Interview,
February 9, 2020). Although this may reflect my personal bias as a researcher with a preexisting relationship with Sarah, her self-degrading remarks came across to me as a combination of false humility and a reflection of her own intensely perfectionistic tendencies. Both Julia and Sarah’s experiences as choir students relate to their current success as musicians, as Demorest and May found that years of school choral experience was the strongest indicator of sight-singing skill development (Demorest & May, 1995).
Sarah and Julia’s observed teachings were testaments to their relationships with their students. They both demonstrated a strong rapport and genuine relationship with each of their 109 students, and during sight-singing instruction, the vast majority of the students were fully engaged and participating eagerly. Both teachers clearly desired for their students to be comfortable, happy, and enjoying themselves while learning to sight-sing. Sarah and Julia both made their students laugh and laughed themselves as they were teaching, through goofy moments, friendly teasing of their students, telling funny stories, and even laughing at themselves when they made mistakes. Button (2010) found that empathy toward pupils was a key factor in teacher effectiveness, and Sarah and Julia’s ability to relate to and laugh with their students demonstrated this principle decisively.
While Sarah and Julia’s methods were somewhat different (see next section), the sight- singing goals and rationales that they each touted had much in common. They both rated sight- singing highly as a skill taught in the music classroom (Julia’s rating was an 8 out of 10; Sarah’s was a 9), which might indicate why they have both found success as teachers of sight-singing; as
Daniels stated, “the attitude the teacher brings to the teaching of sight-reading is of greater significance to the development of sight-reading ability among students than specific teaching methods or curriculum content” (Daniels, 1986, p. 67). Notably, both teachers were adamant that the true goal of sight-singing practice was music literacy, calling back to McClung’s assertion that “music literacy is a primary instructional goal in the music classroom,” but “sight-singing, a specialized component of music literacy, is a skill that remains a challenge to many young musicians” (McClung, 2008, p. 255). They both used the metaphor of learning a new language to explain this challenging process of forming connections in students’ minds between reading the notes on the page and being able to sing them. In relation to music literacy’s connection to language literacy, Phillips (2013) also noticed that “music teachers often repeat the adage that 110 children learn music the way they learn language” (p. 59), and similarly used this as evidence for how teachers ought to teach music clearly and sequentially (Phillips, 2013).
Sarah and Julia also both expressed that when their students were adept at sight-singing, rehearsal was a more efficient process, and their choirs were able to learn and perform music at a faster rate and higher caliber. In Sarah’s words, the reward for time spent dedicated to sight- singing is always “more good music” (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). This supports
Demorest’s (1998) finding that teachers who develop music literacy skills in their students often find that they save time overall and are able to introduce more difficult music to their choirs.
Furthermore, both Sarah and Julia spoke to the value of growing students’ individual skills over time so that they developed independence and ownership of the musical material. The study by
Hamann, Baker, McAllister, and Bauer (2000) showed the importance of student ownership over the material, and emphasized that teachers are the most effective when their strategies support the goal of student independence; therefore, both Sarah and Julia’s effectiveness as teachers was evidenced by their goal for their students to become independent music readers. As Henry and
Demorest (1994) noticed that group success alone was not a valid indicator of individual sight- singing achievement and recommended that teachers incorporate more individual testing into their sight-reading programs, the emphasis that both Sarah and Julia placed on growing students’ sight-singing abilities on an individual level, including solo testing (JH Initial Interview,
February 13, 2020), rewards for student volunteers (8th Grade Treble Choir Observation,
February 13, 2020), and preparing students for individual assessment through regional and all- state auditions (SR Initial Interview, February 9, 2020) might lead these students toward success.
Question Two: Pedagogical Strategies and Systems 111
Julia’s advice to a theoretical student teacher or new choral educator was, first and foremost, to “have a system” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). Both she and Sarah relied on highly structured musical systems in their sight-singing instruction. They both used solfege – a system set into motion by Guido of Arezzo and used and refined by other music education visionaries such as Sarah Anne Glover, John Curwen, and Zoltan Kodály (Furby,
2008) – as their primary pitch system. Solfege was used for clarity in singing, hearing, writing, and discussing pitches and intervals. Both Sarah and Julia used the moveable-do system
(Bentley, 1959), and frequently analyzed key signatures with their students with the goal of
“finding ‘do’” in a given key. Julia and Sarah also both use la-based minor, and like Conrad
(2007), they agreed that it is simpler and more logical for students to learn. However, in the context of a particularly challenging sight-reading example with Sarah’s Symphonic Choir, she did explain and use do-based minor briefly to explain how the tonality of the example shifted for a few measures. Either system can be successful if implemented by an effective teacher (Conrad,
2007). Julia’s students faithfully used Curwen hand signs in conjunction with their singing of solfege syllables, particularly in her 6th grade class. She explained that hand signs helped them to physicalize the pitch, aiding their sight-singing accuracy (Post-Reflection Vlog, February 26,
2020), consistent with Phillips’s finding that “can also “give a singer a tangible way to locate each abstract pitch” at the middle school level (Phillips, 2013, p. 71). While Sarah and her students occasionally used Curwen hand signs to refer to specific solfege pitches, she did not directly instruct them in the use of these hand signs. As she explained in her initial interview, she did not dedicate focused time to Curwen hand signs at the high school level, explaining that the teacher at her school’s feeder middle school taught hand signs and that if students did not use them by high school, it was “too late” to go back to the rudimentary instruction of hand signs 112
(Initial Interview, February 9, 2020). As McClung (2008) found that the use of hand signs contributed to high-school singers’ sight-singing success, it may be worth asking whether or not it truly is “too late” for students to learn and use Curwen hand signs when they are in high school.
Julia and Sarah both used metronomes in their classroom to keep a steady beat while sight-singing, and they both used the measure counting system whenever their students spoke rhythms in isolation, wherein students are instructed to count each beat and sub-divide each beat depending on where it is placed in a measure (e.g., four quarter notes in 4/4 time might be counted, “1, 2, 3, 4”) (Chosky, 1976). Along with this counting system, Julia patted the beat on her body and Sarah encouraged her students to physicalize the beat by patting a 4-beat box pattern in the air. Physicalizing the beat is an instructional choice that Conrad (2007) found that many music teachers employ.
Julia and Sarah were very consistent with the musical systems that they used, following
Phillips’s (2013) assertion that being consistent in musical systems “helps everyone speak the same language” (p. 60). However, they made a variety of different choices in the pedagogical strategies they used to implement these systems. Julia explained the rationale for this choice: “It's nice to be consistent with your system, but I don't think that you have to be super consistent with your approach or your strategies that you're using. I think my students do well because I mix it up” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). Julia’s emphasis on using variety in her approach with the goal of reaching all different kinds of learners reflected Lowell Mason’s belief
“that all people had a degree of musical talent, and that singing was a skill to be generally developed” (Furby, 2008, pg. 15). Julia used a vast array of different activities, games, software programs, and exercises to reach her individual students and keep her instruction engaging, and 113
Sarah ensured that her students were engaging in the gamut of sight-singing methods, including interval practice, singing on solfege without rhythm, count-singing, singing on solfege in rhythm, and singing on a neutral syllable, in their daily practice.
Julia and Sarah both utilized structure as they taught sight-singing, but in very different ways. Julia dedicated Wednesdays to focused sight-singing practice but said she referred to and used music literacy concepts on a daily basis; Sarah used the first 10-20 minutes of every single class period for focused sight-singing instruction. This discrepancy might speak to Killian and
Henry’s finding that the amount of rehearsal time devoted to sight-singing as reported by directors or as observed by researchers did not seem to be related to sight-singing accuracy, and whether or not the director rehearsed sight-singing during every rehearsal made no significant difference in the scores of study participants (Killian & Henry, 2005).
The ways that Julia and Sarah each used their sight-singing lesson times were also quite dissimilar. Julia stated, “My standard routine is that I try to mix it up” (Initial Interview,
February 13, 2020), and in her observed lessons, she covered a variety of activities, including identifying solfege patterns by ear, echoing patterns using hand signs or voice, using neutral syllables, speaking rhythms on counts, singing an interval sheet, sight-reading in SmartMusic, and doing rhythmic and melodic dictations. During the lessons, students had opportunities to perform chorally with the entire class, in sections, in small groups, and alone. As Justus (1969) encouraged teachers to create opportunities for students to “go it alone,” Julia’s periodic calls for individual volunteers might contribute to students’ growth. While Julia specifically planned these lessons to exemplify what “typical” sight-singing instruction looked like in her room, she was clear that these activities were only a few examples of the wide variety of strategies she 114 employed. As Phillips (2013) said, varying the routine at the middle school or junior high level can avoid monotony and make sight-singing fun.
Unlike Julia’s highly varied approach, Sarah firmly believed in adhering to an unchanging daily routine when it came to sight-singing. She emphasized, “I am a big advocate of structure and when we do the same thing every day in every class, it builds and it sets expectations… Have a routine and do it every day and do it every single day and don't feel like you need to change it” (Post-Observation Vlog, March 15, 2020). As her classes completed the steps of the daily sight-singing routine, she also asked for a high degree of repetition within these steps to provide frequent feedback, practice good habits, and encourage repeated accuracy. Sarah also explained that reinforcing desirable sight-singing habits during daily practice helped students to be more accurate, and thus score higher, when they sight-sang alone in their regional audition (Initial Interview, February 9, 2020), which is consistent with Killian and Henry’s 2005 finding that the specific individual strategies singers exhibit while sight-singing and preparing to sight-sing were the best indicators of success.
The teacher’s choices of curriculum also spoke to their penchants for variety as well as structure. Julia used a wide variety of resources in her lessons, including exercise books, free online tools, purchased music software, self-created documents, and various other strategies that
Julia said she learned at music education professional development workshops. Sarah’s lessons used only her self-created interval sheet, the exercise book Melodia, and the Masterworks Press series of sight-singing exercise books, and she stated that she uses these three materials nearly every day. Based on their different curriculum choices, the finding that no single approach has emerged as consistently superior in terms of sight-singing curriculum appears to be supported
(Bowyer, 2015; Killian & Henry, 2005). 115
Question 3: Relationship Between Philosophy and Pedagogical Strategy
Based on the findings of this case study, it is evident that a relationship does exist between the two educators’ sight-singing teaching philosophies and the pedagogical strategies they chose in their instruction.
Julia drew upon her musical background and past experience, not with the goal of copying her past teachers, but with the desire to use the strategies that she found effective while also improving upon and modernizing the older methods. Julia’s philosophy of developing student independence through highly varied instruction informed the way that she planned sight- singing lessons with a strong degree of diversity in instructional strategy. She understood and appreciated that her students were individuals with many different learning styles, as well as being middle schoolers with a need for engagement and interest. As a result, she sought to make connections between their eyes, ears, voices, and minds through many different activities and approaches in her instruction. One of her top priorities was keeping her students attentive and participatory, which she encouraged through planning engaging activities as well as rewarding and praising individual students when they volunteered to perform a task alone. The goal of student independence factored greatly in the way that Julia taught; she clearly wanted to provide every avenue possible to help each student understand the material and be able to perform at the highest level within their reach.
Much of Sarah’s attitude toward her own instruction was a reaction against the pitfalls of other teachers’ instruction that she had experienced in her music classes at a young age. It was evident that she wanted better for her students than what she had received in music learning at a young age, and this propelled her to develop a methodology designed toward lead her students to success. Sarah’s philosophy of student growth through routine and repetition led her to create 116 highly structured daily sight-singing lessons for her students. She prepared them for her goal of learning music at a challenging level and an accelerated pace by employing these same standards in their sight-singing practice, moving through instructional steps rapidly while not compromising on pitch and rhythmic accuracy. She set the expectation of focused work time with a high degree of rigor through her sight-singing lessons, but also demonstrated the empathetic camaraderie she shared with her students by allowing time for relationship-building and laughter throughout the process. The relationship Sarah had with her students enabled her to see sight-singing practice through their eyes, leading her to provide them with a rationale for each element of the instruction, and also personally engage in growing as a singer and sight- reader along with them.
Both teachers’ past experiences, personalities, teaching strengths, and warmth and care toward their students play into their high degree of effectiveness as educators. The information that they shared through their interviews and vlogs, as well as the data conveyed through their observed lessons, may prove to be an exciting springboard for other choir teachers to dive into the process of analyzing their own philosophies and methods as instructors of sight-singing.
Limitations and Recommendations
This study was firstly limited in the time restrictions for interviewing and observing the study participants. As I, the researcher, am a full-time high school choir teacher myself, it was not possible to observe more than one day of lessons per participant, and the participants’ busy schedules also made it difficult to keep communication frequent during the course of study.
Future researchers without these restrictions might be able to gather a more comprehensive set of data with a higher number of interviews and observations, over a more extended period of time.
This study was also limited in terms of the nature of the research – case studies are small in 117 sample size, and the findings are not generalizable. It is particularly crucial to note that all of the research was conducted within a Western classical music framework, which has vastly different expectations of music notation literacy than would other musics in disparate cultures throughout the world. For example, learning by ear and teaching by rote are central to the sharing of music in many traditional African, Indian, Mi, cultures; musicians of these traditions likely would not strongly prioritize notation-based music literacy in the same way that musicians in the Western choral tradition would. Furthermore, as we look to the future, it is the hope of many educators and researchers alike that we consider the issue of diversity, even within the construct of Western choral music, and use and study sight-singing resources generated by a more diverse group of musicians of every gender and race.
If future researchers wish to examine how some of the ideas that have come to the forefront of this study might apply to a wider population of choral educators, it would be advisable to include a larger, more diverse group of study subjects, including individuals of different genders, ages, geographic locations, teaching populations, etc. Notably, both participants, as well as I the researcher, studied music education at the University of Arizona, which might indicate a significant limitation on the scope of the pedagogical choices, background knowledge, and teaching philosophies of everyone involved. Furthermore, the geographical limitation of this study inherently restricts the findings – similar case studies in other locations would contribute to the body of understanding on individual teachers’ instructional choices. Additionally, the timing of this study calls into question how sight-singing instruction has shifted this year, as many teachers are leading choir classes virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. Research that investigates online platforms such as Sight Reading
Factory, S-Cubed/Prodigy, and SmartMusic more deeply would be a much-needed addition to 118 the field. Nevertheless, the findings of case studies such as this one are still meaningful, as they tell individuals’ stories and open up the scholarly conversation to hitherto unexpected possibilities.
Conclusions
Discussing sight-singing instruction in the secondary choral classroom, as Sarah said,
“opens the door” to analyzing a wide variety of other topics within music education (Initial
Interview, February 9, 2020). These include teacher’s backgrounds, pedagogical strategies, curriculum choices, and philosophies. As Julia explained, “It’s not just sight-singing; it’s music as a whole” (Post-Observation Vlog, February 26, 2020). Sight-singing provides a context to learn and grow in music literacy, but it also provides an opportunity for teachers to convey key lessons about singing as a collective whole, for students to push themselves to grow in newfound independence as musicians, and often, for teachers and students alike to laugh together, struggle together, and share in the truth that there is always more learning to be done. This study will hopefully open up further conversations and reflections from choir teachers and students alike to consider what shaped them as musicians and what role those influences play on their current and future choices as singers and educators. While sight-singing might seem like “the white whale” of classical choral education, effective teachers like Sarah and Julia understand that helping their students become fully-fledged, confident musicians is a battle they can all fight side by side.
119
APPENDIX A
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Teaching Philosophy
1. What do you teach (grade, subject, etc.) and how long have you been teaching?
2. Tell me about yourself as a choir teacher.
3. What was your own personal background experience like as a singer and choir student in
terms of music literacy and sight-singing?
4. Did you play any instruments as a young musician, and if so, how did that affect the
process of learning to sight-sing?
5. Why do you teach sight-singing to your choir students? What is your philosophy when it
comes to sight-singing practice?
6. Do you teach sight-singing the same way you were taught or a different way? Why?
Curriculum Choices
7. Are there any resources (textbooks, workbooks, software, websites, etc.) that you use to
teach sight-singing?
8. Why did you choose these resources?
Instructional Strategies
9. How often do you practice sight-singing in your choir classes?
10. Do you have a standard routine when it comes to sight-singing practice?
11. Are there any habits or tricks that you encourage in your singers when they sight-sing?
Teacher Effectiveness 120
12. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “not at all important” and 10 being “of the highest
importance,” where do you prioritize sight-singing in terms of skills taught in the choral
classroom?
13. Have your methods of teaching sight-singing changed throughout your time teaching?
Could you describe those changes and their results?
14. Does teaching sight-singing affect the overall success of your choral program? If so, what
effects have you seen result from sight-singing instruction?
15. What else would you want me to know regarding your philosophy or practices as a
teacher of sight-singing?
121
APPENDIX B
POST-OBSERVATION VLOG QUESTIONS
Instructional Strategies
1. What level and voicings are the choirs observed today?
2. What were the primary objectives of each lesson?
3. Describe the process of this lesson. What steps did you and the students go through from
start to finish?
Teacher Effectiveness
4. What part of these lessons are you the proudest of?
5. Are there any parts of these lessons that you would have changed or eliminated? What
parts, and why?
6. In your years of experience as a choir teacher, have you ever reevaluated or changed the
way you teach sight-singing? How, and why?
Curriculum Choices
7. Did you use any sight-singing books, pre-established curriculum, or online resources
during these lessons or in preparation for this lesson? If so, how did you select these
resources?
Teaching Philosophy
8. Did your teaching philosophy inform any of the instructional choices that you made in
the lessons I observed? If so, please describe how the instructional choice, and how your
teaching philosophy informed that choice.
9. What advice would you give to a new choir teacher on how best to teach sight-singing?
122
APPENDIX C
INITIAL INTERVIEW (SARAH ROSS), FEBRUARY 9, 2020
Researcher
Thank you for agreeing to be a part of this sight-singing case study. Today we will be completing your initial interview. The purpose of this interview is to gather some background information on your teaching philosophy, curriculum choices, instructional strategies and instructional strategies with the goal of telling your story as an effective teacher sightseeing. Please answer these questions as candidly as possible and feel free to elaborate as much as you like. I may ask clarifying questions along the way. You're welcome to do the same. This interview will be recorded for analysis purposes. Do you agree to these parameters?
Sarah Ross
I agree.
Researcher
First of all, what do you teach? Grade, subject etc., and how long have you been teaching?
Sarah Ross
I teach choir, 9 through 12th grade, and it's my 13th year.
Researcher 123
OK. What was your own personal background experience like as a singer and choir student in terms of music literacy and singing?
Sarah Ross
I've been taking piano lessons since I was very little. So I don't remember being in a choir class. I didn't already know how to read music. But that being said, I don't remember much of any teaching at all. So I don't remember. I don't I don't remember doing theory worksheets. I don't remember having sight reading books. I don't remember doing any of that. I remember that we had to sight read to get into All State in New Mexico because there's no regionals there. And like, I don't remember prepping for it. I just went and did it. But I had a different teacher here. They didn't know how to teach.
Researcher
So that leads well into my next question. Did you play an instrument?
Sarah Ross
As a young musician?
Researcher
Yes. And if so, how did that affect the process of learning, to sight-sing?
Sarah Ross 124
I don't remember a time where I didn't know how to read music, so I remember like taking piano lessons, but I don't remember that. And I'm trying to think if I ever use solfege before college. And I think the answer, because I was kind of going to college and doing sight reading and stuff. I don't know. I don't remember ever using it or I don't remember posters on the wall or anything either remember any of it. So I feel like I would feel like if I remember songs that we did... I don't remember any of that. So I don't know. I think, like, I remember when I got wrong on my theory exam going into U of A and you know, so I knew what kind of theory I knew. And then I just relied on a mix of piano skills to figure stuff out and also just being able to read. Like I can read hymns and stuff. So also training their eyes. I started reading off of chord charts when I was like twelve, I think. I think we didn't do it. I remember very vividly that I could play well.
And then I started being asked to play at church and they would give me music that had piano parts and the chord symbol written. And I remember like basically learning by osmosis. What do the chords mean? Because you would see what the chord was written by... like, "That says A2. And what am I playing in the A2?" And then go from there.
And I very vividly remember like getting fluent at chord charts, but I don't ever remember doing any [music reading].
Researcher
So what I'm hearing you say is that you related the chords that you're playing the piano on to, eventually, what you were reading in your other experience as a musician.
Sarah Ross 125
Yeah. So, like what you're saying, I learned to read by playing the piano. And then when
I was when I was singing, I was really connecting to my literacy as a pianist. I would say that's still at least partially true. Although I sight-read a lot more now.
Researcher
Do you remember learning solfege in college or what it was like using solfege in college?
Sarah Ross
OK, well, we didn't use it in choir, so I'm thinking, "Where did I learn this?" It's weird. I don't know. And I think in one of my classes I think we talked about "fixed do" versus
"movable do" versus "la-based minor." And I have some paperwork from college where I was super passionate about movable do and la-based minor. I'm not sure how I got there - if it was in methods class or in a theory class. I have no idea. But it wasn't in choir. It was nothing practical and I didn't have real world experience. I only have like theoretical experience, I guess. So I don't know. I've never thought about this before. So very it's really interesting.
Researcher
Ok, so why do you teach sight-singing to your choir students?
Sarah Ross
OK. Actually, it's very connected to this. I know the answer. I hate being in a situation where I can't know if I'm right or wrong. And I get so secondhand anxious on behalf of 126 people who don't have piano skills or because then how are you supposed to figure stuff out? And I think, like, if I were in an environment where I couldn't figure this out for myself or couldn't check to know if I'm right... like, that's the biggest thing I say is that you don't have to guess or wonder. You can know that you're right. And the pianist can go "bonk" and hear it and know that they're right. And it's really stresses me out that if you don't know how to play piano, that is barred from you. Because I feel like I'm very uncomfortable in those environments, so I would like my kids to be comfortable, so we talk all the time about like, well, you can find do, you can play do and then you can walk to your note and then you can know that you know that you know that you're right. And you don't have to guess, "Is this right?" You can just know if it's right. And maybe it'll take a long time, but then you to know and you don't have to be held back because you're relying on someone else to feed you the information. Does it make sense? Well, I'm just going to keep talking. I feel that vocal music is so intangible and it's so, like, invisible.
And so it's really, really hard. You can look at a clarinetist. You can look at the fingering.
You can look at the hand position. You can say, oh, here's why you're playing there. No.
But you can't do that when you're singing in terms of the actual pitch. And that is something that stresses me. So I project that stress onto students and then I teach them!
Researcher
Just to clarify, do you think that being an instrumentalist is better than being a really good sight-singer?
Sarah Ross 127
No, because I am much better than I used to be.
Researcher
How so?
Sarah Ross
Intervals and tuning. Like, I am very, very, very far from perfect pitch, but developing the sense. I don't know what to call this, but if I'm listening to a piano piece like I can tell what key it's in most of the time because like notes have, not a color, but kind of like a personality. But only on the piano, not on the saxophone, not on the strings, just the piano. I can kind of tell like, "This note sounds like this." I feel like I'm developing a little bit. But I'm getting better and I'm getting better at intervals. I tell my kids that we're reading some hard stuff and like, I can't do it. I can't do it in tune unless I use solfege. So in in my if I said to you, oh this is "A C D," I know what it is, and I could play it. But to sing it successfully, I have to use my voice.
Researcher
So is sight-singing very connected with solfege for you?
Sarah Ross
Yeah, I think so for me. Yeah. So it's like if there's a difference between literacy in terms of "know what that says" and execution. So like obviously, I know what it says, but 128 executing it well... It's not enough to be an instrumentalist. I've gotten better from practicing.
Researcher
What is your philosophy when it comes to sight-singing practice?
Sarah Ross
I'm going to answer several different ways. I would say just to do it and do it all the time is one. So practice in practice, practice in the literature, practice in that everything that we do is connected. And then I guess the other thing that I must think about would say a lot is that there is no secret code for good musicians that we withhold from new musicians where we say, "You're brand new and so you don't get the good stuff, you get the leftover." This is baby English, not grown up English, no, it's just English. And your vocabulary gets bigger, "boy" for little ones is the same word for grown-ups. And so you the tools that we use are the tools and there aren't like new tools. It's just getting better at using the tools. So we just work on the tools. Is that a philosophy? And just to do it a lot and that we should. And I guess the other thing is, though, we should learn to read because we want to do good music and good music takes time. We're out of time.
Researcher
How does knowing how to sight-read facilitate learning good music?
Sarah Ross 129
Because it saves time. It's faster. It's like because then you think you can move on to the rehearsal part and you can program more music and you can just do more. And the kids can read, and you can do more in less time and harder, but also just more good stuff, which isn't necessarily hard. And I think that's a goal. Like for me, the reward for everything should be more good music. And you don't need any other reward. But in the same way that you know, you hit a level of fluency, like as a pianist, you hit a level of fluency to play anything, and then you can just play anything. And when you play something, you just do and that's kind of when you can when your choir can read, then you can just give them something and they can do it. You don't have to worry about how much time they have.
Researcher
Well, this question isn't super relevant to you, but do you teach sight-singing the same way you were taught or a different way? Why?
Sarah Ross
A different way because I teach it! That's it.
Researcher
So moving on to curriculum choices. Are there any resources or textbooks, workbooks, software, websites, etc. that you use to teach sight-singing?
Sarah Ross 130
Only two - I use the Masterworks Press series and I use many of their books, primarily
Melodia and then the three- and four-part Renaissance. I think I have Renaissance,
Classical and Romantic. And then the only other literature I've ever used has been the
Bach chorales. And then we use musictheory.net just to identify solfege.
Researcher
Why did you choose these resources?
Sarah Ross
I just really like Masterworks Press, but I think I chose it because honestly, in part because it's very like the original Melodia is really kind of old and not cool. It doesn't have cool graphics... it seems timeless to me, I guess. And I like that. So it never feels dated. I don't know where I got it from. I just had a Melodia somewhere and really liked it and then found other stuff. And I really like the other books because they make actual music and the music is pleasant to listen to. So the exercises are artistic, which will drive me nuts if they weren't. And then. You just can get reproducible PDFs, boom, buy it one time and then I make these basically like class sets until they wear out. Then I make new ones. For books, covers get lost. So the format is less stressful for me.
Researcher
What about musictheory.net?
Sarah Ross 131
Well, you can use it for lots of things, but I use it for this one specific tool, which is like identifying, given the key, given the note, what solfege is that. And I like it because you can time it. And you can customize it exactly to that. And it's just like way easier than paper.
Researcher
So what about the Bach chorales?
Sarah Ross
We don't do a lot. One year we did it a lot. But this year I won't do until fourth quarter. I think it's important to connect from exercises to real music. So. And also the Bach chorales are just good and it's good. It's a good aural habit to learn.
Researcher
What makes them good?
Sarah Ross
Phrasing, musicality, harmony. Modulations for more advanced students are good. And yeah, I think it's really good. What we ended up doing the year that we did them... we would have three parts, or all of the kids pick one of the three parts. And so because there's two treble clef, one date laid out the alto tenor and then the bass. And they can read bass clef, but I don't care. Pick one of the three parts. And then we had a soloist read the melody line, which is easy. So they're all this hymn tune, which is very 132 straightforward and easy. And then the harmonization underneath is very difficult. So you could test like an individual on something not very hard. Meanwhile, everyone else is working on something harder. I really like that.
Researcher
How often do you practice sight-singing in your choir classes?
Sarah Ross
Okay, this year I think we didn't do it the week before our fall concert. And the week after regional auditions, because I just had a concert and we were really, really behind on music. And I made a very strong commitment with myself that even if this concert is coming, we're still going to do this. And for the most part, did it. So I would say almost every day. But not quite. I really, really, really tried to do it every day.
Researcher
Do you have a standard routine when it comes to sight-singing practice?
Sarah Ross
Yes.
Researcher
And what is it?
133
Sarah Ross
OK. They come in and the key of the exercise is on the board and the exercise number's on the board. And then we start with the interval sheet in that key and they sing through all their intervals. It's like all the way to sixth and then a chromatic. So, little exercises at
"quarter note equals 120." Like this was a metronome marking. And then it depends on if they're in one part or two. I only have two groups that are reading in two part right now because I really pulled back this year and kind of changed my style a bit. But most of them are in one part. So we do the interval sheet in the key that we're in that day. And then we look at the exercise, they walk to their first note, which if it's major is the major triad, then low sol, and then they walk to it. If it's minor, it's la do mi and then si and then they walk to it. And then we had the metronome set at 80. But sometimes we make it go faster. We sing the solfege in isolation. So we isolate the pitches from the rhythm and do not sing the rhythm. We just sing the pitches and especially when they're beginner, they like touch each note head as they go or like touch with a pencil or something. A lot of them in ninth grade - they learn hard times with Chelsea - so if they know their hand signs. So they'll do that. I don't teach hand signs, though, because if you don't know it, it's too late. Like I encourage their use if you already know them. But I don't spend time building fluency in the hand signs. So we do pitches alone. So it's just one note per beat, regardless of rhythm. And then if there's a tied note - like the note is tied to the same note
- you only sing the first because it counts as one. And if there's big rests, you just skip them and go right on. And we talked a lot about how it's like a videogame, like Rock
Band or something like that or any sort of like "jump and hit the thing that goes by," you know, just look at the note and sing it. And that's all we're doing is just looking at the 134 notes and singing them. So you do that first and then we count sing. Chelsea started doing this and I like love it. I did not come up with this. They do like a hand pattern. You ever seen this? I've never seen it. I know like this Takadimi thing. It's the same pattern, but it's not Takadimi. But they just do like a Z. But like it's like a one, two, three, four. So it's like a Z or a 3 is like a triangle. One, two, three or 6 is like a swing. One, two, three, four, five, six. That's it. And so they keep the beat. And then we count-sing. So they've already sung all the solfege. And then they do the counts. We go all the way through with the metronome on, keeping the beat. And I tell them, like my advanced kids are doing some pretty hard stuff. It's like, I can't even do it, like. OK. In the count-singing, you're guessing the note because the primary point is to really get the rhythm correct. And if you note is not right, it's like, okay. But not to get stuck on it. So if there's like crazy intervals, it's OK, just do the just do the rhythm, you're just approximating the pitch and that's okay.
Researcher
When you're running through the whole thing, you have them pat a beat on their body or do hand signs or do anything with their hands?
Sarah Ross
So after we count-sing then the third time they either - if they're really beginners they get lost really fast. So I say it's okay. Just touch each note as you go. That's okay. Because they literally just can't know where are we on the page. But if they can, I'm really encouraging them to keep the pattern so that they know where they are in the meter all the time, which I think is really valuable. Or they can tap somewhere. And so, yeah, we 135 do it three times. Every time they walk to their first note and then the third time, we do it solfege in rhythm. So it's solfege alone, then rhythm alone, then solfege in rhythm and go all the way through it. And then the fourth time they sing on a neutral syllable. And sometimes in the neutral syllable, I'll play the tonic in octaves so they can hear how it connects in that key, and the metronome is going the whole time. I feel like the metronome is going for like 20 minutes of each class period. So it's like my whole life now. I like it because it gives me the same tempo every day. And actually, I really liked, going into regionals, that the kids who were really faithful and doing this thing, physical gesture. We talked a lot about like going in there and doing a physical gesture because you are you've been trained to be at about 80 [bpm]. Because we literally do 80 every day. And so if you trust your body, you will go to appropriate speed, not too fast, because when you get nervous, you go really fast. So I like that. But I also can, like, bump it up.
So the other day, I made my advanced class do 120 for the interval sheet. And then I left it on 120 and said, read all your solfege at 120. Normally we're doing 80. So like really fast. But like, whatever! That's how I used to do it. When you have 10 seconds to practice, you have to go that fast. And actually, it's not that fast.
Researcher
Are there any other habits or tricks that you encourage in your singers?
Sarah Ross
Yeah, we do a lot. Couple of things. First thing I decided was that I was a really bad teacher for a long time because I would have these kids come in and go like, "I am good 136 at reading, but I just get tripped up on the solfege. And I was like, "OK, well, whatever works for you is fine." And I think that that was really bad advice and that that was me being lazy. And I do not think it's "whatever works for you is fine." I think that they were actually not very good readers. They were good guessers. And I'm making all of my advanced kids read on solfege all the time and they are much better. And it's like they're both worse but also better. Because they totally get tripped up on it, because like my poor seniors, I'm like, "I failed you. I'm sorry." But they are also one hundred percent better.
Like they get tripped up, but they're guessing less. And I just think that the solfege is the most important thing. So... if you're an instrumentalist, maybe you're OK. But probably honestly, you're not. You probably know what's going on. But your singing is out of tune.
Researcher
Any other habits or tricks?
Sarah Ross
I feel like there's a lot. I think we constantly are walking to our first note. Which again, you don't have to guess that that's your first note, you can know, because a lot of times, even though we walk every day, when they don't walk, they don't know. So like Tyler
Crockett the other day, I'm like, "Here's your key. And he's like, "Do" (sings note), and I was like, "No, that's sol." So I said, "Yeah, walk to it." And he went, "Oh!" You know, they just they think that they're right, but they're wrong. My answer is, "Always do it every day." The consistency means that you do get better over time, even if you don't feel like it. 137
Researcher
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being "not at all important" and 10 being "of highest importance," where do you prioritize in terms of skills taught in the choral classroom?
Sarah Ross
10, 9, maybe? I guess being a good human is probably 10 and then being able to sight- read is just under.
Researcher
And why is that?
Sarah Ross
Well, can I clarify though?
Researcher
Yes.
Sarah Ross
I would give that rating to music literacy, not necessarily sight reading, which is, "The very first time you see this, can you sing it?" Instead, it's, "Can you read this music?"
Because it allows us to have a conversation about the music. And what is your part and why is this happening on this note? And why is that note flat? It just opens up these doors 138 for us to be musical in a way that would be really limited without. I have a really hard time being able to fix stuff, if I can't say, "No, that's 'do fa.' And you keep singing 'do mi,' so you've got to think like 'do mi' and then go up to fa like that." I can fix that because that's tangible. But if it's not tangible, it's like, "Sing this: ba ba." (sings two pitches)
That's not tangible. And how do I know if I'm getting it wrong? How do I know I'm getting it right? And if I'm not very good at aural recall, how will I know I know how to do that? So I think it's very, very important to just be able to function.
Researcher
So would you say that sight-singing is kind of a gateway to talking about music literacy?
Sarah Ross
Yeah. And we call it sight-singing, but I don't think the primary skill is, "Can you read this the first time?" The primary skill is, "Can you read this?" Although reading it the first time is nice (laughs), but I would rather my kids take all day and be able to read something and even if it takes you an hour, but you can figure it out, hooray!
Researcher
Has the way you teach sight-singing changed throughout your time teaching?
Sarah Ross
Yes, a lot.
139
Researcher
And could you describe those changes and their results?
Sarah Ross
Yes, the results are that I'm still bad. I'm always bad. Nothing ever changes. I always feel like a failure. I always feel like, why do I work so hard? I'm never going to get any better.
So do I change all the time? Yes. Do the results change? Never. (laughs) Can I have proof to back that up? But I do think I am getting better. I think I care more about some things I didn't used to care about. I care way less about some things. I will never test for key signatures ever again. But I spent a long time doing that. And that is stupid! So why did I do that? And, you know, like you just try. I think I do a lot of. "Oh, we're bad at that. Let me try ten different ways to address it." So now I am maybe 10 years, 10 ways less bad at teaching. But sometimes I think, "That was horrible." So I think the biggest thing I did this year was... So I always have these kids in advanced that are really good singers, really good at picking up notes, but actually not very good readers, particularly boys. And when we do sight-reading, I've got my excellent readers and then these others, and they're in the advanced class. And I'm thinking about this boy, Jonathan, who moved in late, and absolutely should be in the advanced class in every way, but never had any sight-reading training. And what was happening is if you didn't have this foundation, you were just lost, and I never went back and taught it. And I never filled in the gaps. And then the other thing is that I've been talking to the kids a lot who would feel like the regional audition, which don't even get me started, I have lots of thoughts, which is my primary year over year metric just because we do it every year and it's always the same. I 140 actually came away from the process this year going, "I need to make my own metric because I'm over this. It's ridiculous." But that's what's there. But if that's like a calculus...
So if you if you think about a kid who knows nothing, never taken a music class before, and then you have to go in a room and you're going to read this in 6/8 with all these skips and stuff? This is outrageous, right? Like, it's so wildly inappropriate. So I talk to them all time and say, "This is like a calculus test and you're in Algebra 1. If I give you a calculus test, you sitting in Algebra 1, you would laugh and go, well, in this part of this question, I kind of know how to solve for X, but you wouldn't be able to get anywhere and you wouldn't be able to get a right answer. But no one would think that's weird because you're not in calculus." But this is like a calculus test, right? So but I think in the past, I've been really concerned that I would at least touch all of the concepts that are on the regional level sight-reading before we get to the audition so that nothing is new. So that means accidentals, variety of intervals, singing in parts. All that stuff. And this year I said, "We're not doing that. We're starting at the beginning, not skipping." Normally we'd be in our third book right now because we do like every five exercises or something. So we're normally I'd be like my third or fourth book but I'm a page eighty-seven of the first book, which is never happened to me. Many of my students never read in parts until we started practicing with the [regional] practice things and they went, "What is that?" And I went, "Oh, we haven't done that." And so, totally different. Like totally different. And I think it will be better. So in some ways they're really bad. My beginning kids are really bad at singing parts, really bad because we've never done it. But what I see is in my older kids, like juniors and seniors who were mediocre to poor readers are now decent readers.
And that wasn't happening before, because you were junior or senior and you weren't 141 very good, you never got any better because we were doing stuff that the good kids could do. And you were lost. And I think even my good kids are getting better. That's why I like these books so much. And they have to do solfege and I just make it go faster. And these books, before you add any intervals, you get super crazy chromatics and then you start adding intervals. Some elements are still easy, but it gets really hard. And we would never do the whole spectrum. We would do like 4 and then move on. You don't have time to practice. You don't have enough time to actually develop that skill. So we weren't developing a skill. We were, like, touching it, but again, I don't remember learning. So it's really hard for me to go, "We touch this now you know it." They don't know it. You need years to know it. So I'm trying not to skip. Trying to go every day and go really slow.
And maybe it will get better, but probably not (laughs). And then I said, "Oh my gosh, we've done the best sight-reading ever." And that was the hardest sight-singing is that there's been in 10 years and all the kids scores drop. And so who the heck cares? But I can feel in my classroom that they're better. Like we talked about that a lot. That these kinds of scores, in the end of the day, they don't really matter because in the classroom, in our music reading, we can feel that we know what we're doing.
Researcher
So to go back a little bit. You kind of briefly mention testing for key signatures that you used to use. So can you elaborate on that a little bit - why do you not do it?
Sarah Ross 142
My kids were getting horrible scores because they were getting the first note right. So they weren't able to identify the first note. Singing or identifying it. And if you can't give the first note, you can't get anything. So I said I wanted to do an all-out attack on this first note business and try every way possible. So you did key signature testing. That's what you do. But then I thought about it. Why am I doing this? No one is saying, "Is this E or
E flat?" No one is saying that. Who cares? So now we just do. We called "I.F.S." which is identify the first solfege and we have like all these tools that we use. And given the key, they have to find the solfege. And we talk about keys a lot, like they come up all the time.
They ask about the order of the sharps and flats. And actually it's pretty handy because we do... Sorry, I'm really passionate about this boring thing. So we do, "The last flat is fa, the last sharp is ti, no sharps, no flats, like the wide-open C." This is the way I teach my very very beginners. And then they have to know "FACEs for spaces and ACEG for basses." That's it. That's all I teach. But it is really hard to know that this is the last flat, not the lowest, because we always go to the lowest one. But it's not the lowest, it's the last. There's a lot of steps we take for granted. So that's where we start. And that's all we did the first quarter, and then I gave them timed assessments where you have to get 20 in five minutes or you have to get 20 in three, or 20 in two minutes, and then if they couldn't do that, then we would work. Then it's like, "Oh, you've a problem because you're doing your solfege the wrong way." And so that was helpful. But then we started really testing ourselves, getting ready for regionals and going faster because it's so fast. And we learned more specific skills. But we didn't do that until after. But they had the scaffolding. They had the pieces together and then practice with it so that when we drew that connection, this is the name of the key. 143
Researcher
So you're still teaching key signatures.
Sarah Ross
Yeah. But I'm not testing, "Do you know the name of this key?" I don't care. I do care if they know the solfege of this note. And don't take forever. I think it's just really hard.
Like we do this every day, but if you ask them how to walk to their first note, they wouldn't know what to tell you. But you literally just did it! "Can you tell me what solfege you just sang?" "Nope, can't do it." I haven't been in an immersion program for language, but I assume it's kind of like that where people can kind of muddle their way through, but they don't actually know what any of the words mean. But they can just kind of guess from the gestures. And then eventually it clicks. Sometimes it takes a really long time. So I try and do less, like here's how you find your first note, and then we solfege, count, read nothing else. And then people ask questions because stuff comes up. But that's all extra. So rather than be sure we do all these things.
Researcher
Does teaching sight-singing affect the overall success of your choral program?
Sarah Ross
Yes.
144
Researcher
So, what effects have you seen through teaching sight-singing?
Sarah Ross
OK. Number one, I like it because it's both a tool and a unifier. So what I mean by that is it is a tool where you can you can differentiate between levels, but it also is a unifier because we do the same process in every single class. And whether you're a brand new or you're advanced, we do the same thing. My beginning kids are way better at following through and doing every single step. My advanced kids skip the steps and they make mistakes, even though it's harder stuff. And so it builds equality through the whole program because it's the white whale we're all fighting. And everyone has frustrations but also successes. And so it's a big unifier, which I really like. And the other big thing is just how much routine matters. And part of what I've noticed this year is that I made a commitment to do it every day, but my kids will do it every day. And I'm the person who's going to not be committed, and the person who's going to be lazy and not want to do it is not them, it's me. Because when I go, "I'm too tired to do this," then I look over and they all have their books out and I go, "Here we go." Because it's routine and we do it every day, they all have their books out. And I don't know... I am the problem! So it's a big motivator for culture and behavior and discipline and being disciplined. Right. "I'll do this even though I don't feel like it," which is probably more true for me than for them.
Researcher 145
Last question is sort of open-ended. What else would you want me to know regarding your philosophy or practices in regard to sight-singing?
Sarah Ross
I feel like I'm really bad at it.
Researcher
Why?!
Sarah Ross
I'm always seeing a thing that I can do better and always going, oh, this is a smarter way to do it. This is a side comment, but it relates. I have this boy. After they sang something,
I said, "Oh, that was good." He's a junior in Symphonic and he went, "Are you saying that's good, like how in Men's Chorale, when you said we were good? And then the next semester you said remember how bad you were last semester and you're good now?" And
I said, "Yeah. I meant that." Like, I meant it. I thought they were good. And then I meant in the future that you were bad and now you're better. Like I'm not lying to you when I say that was really good. But also, I know it's not. And there's there is just something about that where it is good. Actually, we talked about this in our department, that in assessment that there is progress and benchmarks. So you can be really good at progress and not hit the benchmark. And that doesn't mean you weren't good. It just means you didn't hit this benchmark. That doesn't mean you weren't good. And so I feel like I am never hitting any benchmarks. I want to also feel pretty good about the progress. Also, 146
I'm very lucky to have Chelsea because I could do none of this without her. They come into high school ready.
Researcher
Any last thoughts?
Sarah Ross
No, I don't think so.
147
APPENDIX D
INITIAL INTERVIEW (JULIA HIGGINS), FEBRUARY 13, 2020
Researcher
Thank you for agreeing to be part of this sight-singing narrative case study. Today we will be completing your initial interview. The purpose of this interview is to gather some background information on your teaching philosophy, curriculum choices, and instructional strategies with the goal of telling your story as an effective teacher of sight- singing. Please answer these questions as candidly as possible and feel free to elaborate as much as you like. I may ask clarifying questions along the way and you are welcome to do the same. This interview will be recorded for analysis purposes. Do you agree to these parameters?
Julia Higgins
I agree.
Researcher
All right. So first of all, what do you teach? Grade, subject, etc., and how long have you been teaching?
Julia Higgins
I teach sixth, seventh and eighth grade choir. And this is my 16th year doing so.
Researcher 148
Tell me about yourself as a choir teacher.
Julia Higgins
Well, I think... I think, generally speaking, I am a pretty solid choir director. I think I have a good mix of musical skills myself and knowledge and I think I'm a strong vocally and my piano skills are decent and those kinds of things. But I mean, I think I also... the mixed part is that I also feel like I have a good sense of how to teach those things to students. I think I'm good at picking repertoire and I'm generally a pretty smart person, so
I gather lessons that make sense. And thinking on the fly and helping students be successful. I also think I have pretty good rapport with students, and I understand this age group after 16 years pretty well and what things they will like and what will help concepts click. I'm not overly sugary, as far as teaching goes. But I'm not, like, super mean all the time either.
Researcher
What was your own personal background experience like as a singer and choir student in terms of music literacy and sight-singing?
Julia Higgins
I think I was pretty lucky. I joined choir in eighth grade and my junior high choir teacher was very big on solfege and music reading stuff. I know that not every director is that way, especially twenty-five years ago. But I remember doing solfege exercises and things, probably not as much as I do with my students. But at least we did some. And 149 then in high school, we sight-read almost every day in the choirs that I was in. And it was pretty old school. That was like two or two, maybe three single line exercises a day that probably got progressively harder. But I don't really remember, like, you know, if there was a rhyme or reason or sequence to it. I just know that we did two or three examples a day and I was in like the more advanced choirs like all through high school. So I don't know if the younger choirs spent more time doing things more sequentially or if they did easier examples than we did as the more advanced group. We used solfege. And there was always some focus on getting ready for regionals so we would do some in minor and some in 6/8 and some with some accidentals in there so that we would be ready for when we saw those things on the regional audition, because the regional audition, back then was not exactly the same, but very similar to how it is now with the single lines and block and contrapuntal. I don't really remember in high school applying a lot of those skills though to our actual repertoire. Like I don't remember learning pieces on solfege. The first time I ever really remember doing that was in college and I had we had a director in
Symphonic - a grad student one year that made us sing almost everything on solfege, which I feel like was really at that point in my life. I was ready to do that, and it was definitely helpful as far as like reinforcing a lot of the things that I had learned in high school.
Researcher
Did you play any instruments as a young musician? And if so, how did that affect the process of learning to sing?
150
Julia Higgins
I played French horn in band from fourth grade, the fourth from fourth grade to 12th grade, and I played piano to piano lessons from about the age of five until probably middle school. Sometimes I quit. And so I think both of those things definitely helped my rhythm reading skills a lot. There weren't there were very rarely rhythms that that were scary or challenging to me because used typically. Anyway, the songs you were doing in choir were things that we had to sight-read in choir wouldn't have as challenging of rhythms as things I had to play in band or on the piano. Pitch-wise, you know, solfege was a new thing, but I think I had a pretty decent sense of relative pitch because I played a brass instrument. So I had to kind of have an idea in my mind of, you know, on French horn on a double horn, thumb, one, and two is both the note A and the second space and the note D on the fourth line. And the only difference is what you do with your lips. So I had to have a pretty good sense, whether I was doing it consciously or not. Like subconsciously, I know I knew kind of about how far apart those like those two notes would be because I would have to do it on my instrument. So I'm sure that helped when I was sight-reading, sight-singing as a vocalist. But at the time, it wasn't something that I was really thinking that much about in middle school and high school.
Researcher
What about piano?
Julia Higgins 151
Solfege and sight reading are really wonderful skills, but I think a lot of adult singers that can play piano do, to plunk out their part. Like it's faster, even though I'm a good sight reader and if I have to sight read and I'm doing it like in a large group setting, I will, but it's pretty rare that if I'm in real life, given a new piece of music that I'm going to just try to see if I can sight read the whole thing. I'm probably going to sit down at the piano and just play it because it's faster. But as far as helping me to be a better sight-reader back in the day, maybe, I don't know. I'm sure it helped, but I couldn't tell you that I was really thinking about it.
Researcher
Why do you teach sight-singing to your choir students? What is your philosophy when it comes to sight-singing practice?
Julia Higgins
Well, you know, I think that every musician should know how to read music. And most of them don't play an instrument, too. I'm at a school where you can't take band or orchestra and choir at the same time. You have to choose. So I have very few students in my choirs that also played instrument unless they take piano. And I know from experience that if I spend a lot of time on sight-reading early on, that the level of music that they're going to be able to sing later is going to be higher. They're going to be able to do more challenging music later and they're going to learn it faster, which is always a which is always more fun. I mean, my eighth graders being able to learn four pieces in five weeks. A lot of that is because they are fairly proficient at reading music. I don't 152 have to plunk out every note over and over and over and play their part 100 hundred times until they learn it. I want them to be more independent musicians.
Researcher
Do you teach sight-singing the same way you were taught? Or a different way? Why?
Julia Higgins
Somewhat. I mean, some things are similar. My directors used solfege. But I feel like I have a lot more variety in my approach. It's not just like we're gonna do two or three examples every day and then that's the end of it. You know, I do other things like dictation and ear training. And, you know, we do interval sequences on solfege. I feel like
I tried to incorporate a lot of other music reading skills besides just, "Can you sing this single line on solfege?"
Researcher
And why do you why do you do things that way instead of doing just the standard couple of exercises every day?
Julia Higgins
Because I think it's more comprehensive. There's a lot more transfer if you can hit it from a lot of different angles. I tell my students, you know, I was telling my seventh graders this morning that I'm trying to build as many connections as possible in their brain that says, "This is what those notes look like, sound like, feel like in my voice." And so, you 153 know, doing hand signs or singing it on solfege, but then we're also looking at it and we're also doing interval practice and then we're doing dictation. It's just it's all it all connects. Oh, now this is what it looks like in the song that we are doing.
Julia Higgins
OK. Are there any resources, textbooks, workbooks, software, Websites, et cetera, that you use to teach sight-singing?
Julia Higgins
I use Smart Music and within Smart Music, I mostly use this book Sing at First Sight, which is a book that is in the program. I also sometimes within Smart Music use a book called Patterns of Sound. OK, I use sightreadingfactory.com. I use rhythm randomizer.com to give some practice. I use my interval sequence sheet. There's a Sing at
First Sight supplemental book. It's like a reproducible book that that's where it kind of correlates with Sing at First Sight that's in Smart Music. But there's different examples and it's reproducible. So that's where these come from. And then I don't know if this counts, but I use like I use things like therhythmtrainer.com and musictheory.net to learn to practice things like key signatures. There are some ear training exercises on musictheory.net that I use. Therhythmtrainer.com is basically rhythmic dictation, but it's one measure at a time. They're one measure examples and you can decide what types of notes will be options.
Researcher 154
Why did you choose these resources?
Julia Higgins
Some of it is because, well, some of them I use because they're good and they're free or they're web based. Some of them I just, you know, trial and error over the years. I used to use the Sing at First Sight actual books. And then when our district started purchasing
Smart Music and I found that [Sing at First Sight] was in Smart Music, it was just more convenient to do it on the screen as opposed to passing out books that get destroyed.
There are some other sight-reading books that I think are great also. But that one happens to be in SmartMusic, so it's just easier. And then I guess I also like to use a variety of materials because I think kids get bored otherwise if you use the same... like if we only used the Sing at First Sight book, and that was the only thing we ever used to teach music reading skills in it. It could be done. It has. It's very comprehensive, but I think they would get bored. And even within SmartMusic, there are a lot of different things that I do with it even more than what you'll see in class. I mean, I had, you know, those couple of girls sing alone. Sometimes I write in the solfege for them up on the screen. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I'll add lyrics. So after we've sung it on solfege I'll write in because I can do that on the SmartBoard, I'll write in made up lyrics and have them sing it on text.
We'll take away the green line. We can increase the tempo, which they would sometimes think is fun. My sixth graders have really gotten into this year doing their counting examples in Spanish, just like it's stupid. But these things are again, what keeps it from getting old. You know, sometimes there's candy involved. Sometimes there are stickers or smelly stamps involved with students that are really singing out or that are willing to 155 try it by themselves. My 8th graders next month we do March Madness every year. So I make a bracket with the whole eighth grade. And well, what we do, a class by class will be there'll be a bracket for the boys and bracket for the girls. But we do SmartMusic and they go like head to head. So the first bracket there's, you know, like twenty-six or whatever people. And so, you know, I'll pick we'll use like either Sight Reading Factory or SmartMusic for it and I'll set up parameters or we start off super easy. It'll be like a sixth-grade super easy example for round one. But whoever gets smart music scores you.
If the microphone is working properly and when only one person is singing, it scores a lot more accurately. When the whole class is singing it kind of scores like the majority of what it's hearing. But when only one person, that person is singing, it actually scores pretty accurately. So I'll give like a super easy sixth grade example for round one. But you know, two people in the bracket, they go against each other. Whoever gets the higher score gets to move on and it keeps going, you know. And each round I try to do slightly more challenging examples. So by the time we get to the finals, it's like the two best sight readers in the class. And it's like a super difficult example. You know, and one person to keep it fair, you know, one person will go in the pod while the other person does the example. And so they can't see or hear it in advance. And then the other person will come out and do the exact same one and they get super into it. I give them like some kind of prize if they win. It takes like three days of class in March. We usually do it like the week before spring break. And it's just all like trying to keep it fun and different.
Researcher
How often do you practice sight-singing in your choir classes? 156
Julia Higgins
That's a difficult question because it... like, what would... like what people would consider to be like "practicing sight-singing"... mostly on Wednesdays. So once a week for like 33 minutes, but we're doing music reading, building music reading skills and doing other things that directly contribute to, say, reading like pretty much every day.
Researcher
Do you have a standard routine when it comes to sight-singing practice?
Julia Higgins
Yes and no. I mean, my standard routine is that I try to mix it up and on Wednesdays we do it the whole time.
Researcher
Are there any habits or tricks that you encourage in your singers when they sight-sing?
Julia Higgins
Always look ahead. Always be looking ahead. Don't worry if you can't get every count or every syllable like I was talking about today with the girls. If you need to sing some of it on just "la la la" like this, keep going, keep singing and get back on the solfege when you can. Anything else we do the "do mi sol snow man."
157
Researcher
I liked that! So can you explain that?
Julia Higgins
I didn't talk about it that much today, but basically, you know, wherever your low do is, you imagine in your mind your "do mi sol snowman," your major triad. And those are like your home base notes, like throughout the example. So no matter where, no matter what happens later, like, even if you can't think of every solfege note, you should always have "do mi sol" in your head. And then those can be your, you know, get back-on-track spots. And we call him the "do mi sol snowman."
Researcher
OK. On a scale of 1 to 10, with one being not at all important and 10 being of the highest importance, where do you prioritize sight-singing in terms of skills taught in the choral classroom?
Julia Higgins
8.
Researcher
And why?
Julia Higgins 158
I just think music literacy is really important. I want them to be able to go on to singing other places and know what they're looking at. They're looking at a piece of music. They might not be able to sight read everything perfectly without help, but they're at least building those foundational skills to know what it is they're looking at on the page to notice if their part is the same or different. In another part, to be able to generally follow if their notes are going up or down and what the... you know, if they're supposed to be holding the note or not.
Researcher
Have your methods of teaching sight-singing changed throughout your time teaching?
Can you describe those changes in their results?
Julia Higgins
Yeah, it's changed, but I think it's always been important to me, I just think I've gotten better at it. And mostly because of my students, because I see what works for them and what is confusing to them over time. So I'm able to anticipate more like what where they're going to need help or what's going to work and what will likely not work. There's certainly a lot more... there are certainly a lot more resources available now than there were when I first started teaching. I didn't have a document camera. I didn't have an interactive whiteboard. SmartMusic didn't exist. You know, being able to put stuff up on the screen and write on it in erase it and do some things... like there's this stuff that just makes the whole process clear for students and easier to teach. It certainly requires in some ways less prep work because you're not having to, like, come up with and write 159 your own examples up on the board every day like I had to when I was student teaching.
My high school director that used an overhead projector transparency sheets sent me the examples.
Researcher
Does teaching sight-singing affect the overall success of your choral program? If so, what effects have you seen result from sight-singing instruction?
Julia Higgins
Definitely, definitely. Yeah. I mean, again, my older students are students who have been in choir longer. They're just they're able to learn a piece of music so much faster, even if they're not like amazing sight readers yet, they just have so much more understanding of what they're looking at. And so it's more obvious to them when they have to sing a harmony part or when they're you know, if they're no different than the other part, they're just more prepared to do it and sing with more. They sing with a lot more accuracy. They don't need to be spoon fed every single thing that they sing. They're not trying to.
Essentially a lot of students that don't know how to read music at all... they're essentially trying to memorize it from the get-go. You know, because they're listening to me or their neighbor and trying to just memorize what they hear. So then if we don't look at that piece again for a couple of days, they forget they forget how their harmony goes or they forget how anything, what anything was. If they don't know how to read well and then you have to, like, start over from scratch again the next time you pull out that piece of music, it seems the kids who know how to read their part better, even if it's not... even if 160 they can't read super well yet they at least read well enough to be able to look at and go, oh yeah, it goes like this. I'm so sorry, I have to go get the boys.
Researcher
It's OK. We're on the last question. What else would you want me to know regarding your philosophy or practices as a teacher of sight-sing? Anything that we didn't cover.
Julia Higgins
I don't think so.
Researcher
Ok.
161
APPENDIX E
OBSERVATIONS (JULIA HIGGINS), FEBRUARY 13, 2020
6th Grade Choir
Julia Higgins’s classroom is a bright space, teeming with bulletin boards and theatre props and sets from past musicals. The walls are light blue with a ring of darker blue around the top, and they are splashed with colorful posters. Some feature musical concepts, such as the notes of the scale in solfege, with graphics of their respective Kodály hand sign accompanying each one.
Another one bears the title, “What to Do When I’m Not Singing,” and multicolored boxes list helpful behaviors for students to follow. At the center of the front of the room, a SmartBoard is mounted on the back wall, over which is a projector. To its left is a black Clavinova piano keyboard. To its right is a whiteboard. Written on the board is the agenda for the day, a drawing of a piano keyboard with multicolored note names on the keys, and a “Quote of the Day,” reading, “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in his life
(Muhammed Ali).” A desk sits in front of the whiteboard, and two stools and a black music stand surround it. Along the right side of the room, a countertop runs, with cabinets underneath. On the wall above, a set of guitars are mounted. In the center of the classroom, black chairs are set up in three rows. I pull a chair off to the back of the room, and prepare to take notes.
The students enter the classroom, talking with those around them, and find their seats before the bell rings. Mrs. Higgins moves to the front of the room, and indicates that the students should stand. They follow suit. She reaches up in the air with both arms and the students mimic her.
She says to me, “Feel free to move around the room too, whatever you want to do! Oh great, a video of my very messy desk, front and center.” 162
I laugh and adjust the camera. Mrs. Higgins continues with the stretching component of her warm-up sequence, rolling her shoulders, then twisting her torso back and forth with her arms raised and bent in. The students follow and mimic her motions.
She begins a series of sighs and whoops, and the students repeat the sighs, matching her pitch.
She repeats the sigh higher and higher, and the students echo her each time. She does a big slow sigh on “ah,” from the top of her range to the bottom of her range, and pointing up high above her head, then down low to the ground to demonstrate the pitch.
She tells her students, “Huge breath, here you go.” They repeat her sigh, and again, she points high and follows the sigh down with her hands.
Mrs. Higgins walks over to the piano and plays a major chord. “Arms, down, standing tall and proud, here we go.” She sings a lip trill (1-5-1). From the piano, she leads them in a series of lip trills, moving up and down around the piano. “Get your air moving!” she says, then, “Two more!” and finally, “Last one!”
She sighs again, and again, they mimic her.
She plays a new major chord and sings, “Ee-eh-ahh,” (1-3-2-4-3-5-4-2-1). “Take your hand, I want you to do this while you’re singing.” She stands up and takes her hand in a slicing motion, vertically down. “Get your sound traveling forward, all the way to the front of the room. One, two, here we go.” The students sing the exercise, moving their hands in the same way that Mrs.
Higgins demonstrated. She accompanies them on piano, ascending by half-steps.
“So while you’re doing that, make sure that you’re not moving your head up, like this.” She juts her chin forward and sings the exercise so that they can hear the strain created. “Just keep your head looking normal, straight ahead.” She walks back to the piano and keeps leading them up the scale by half steps. “Last one!” she calls out. 163
Mrs. Higgins does a lip trill down, and they imitate it.
She plays a new chord on the piano. “Vee-ah-vee-ah-vee-ah-vee-ah-vee,” she sings (5-3-4-2-3-1-
2-7-1). They sing the exercise back to her.
“I’m hearing some ‘vee-uh,’” she tells them. “Can I have ‘vee-ah’?” She models the exercise again, singing with tall vowels. They sing it back to her. “More ‘v,’” she directs. They sing again. “Kee-ah!” she calls out. They continue singing the exercise, this time changing the initial consonant to a “k.” “Mee-ah!” she calls out. They sing the exercise again, changing the initial consonant to an “m.” “Last one,” she calls. They sing again, and she holds out the chord on the piano.
“Whoo-whoo-whoo!” she sighs. They echo her.
Mrs. Higgins plays a new chord, and sings, “Shee-ahh-shee-ahh-ee” (5-1^-5-3-5-3-1). They echo her. She walks out from behind the piano. “Big arms!” she calls out, and swoops her arms down and up to imitate the leap in the exercise. They sing again.
“Can you make sure that you have tons of space between your back teeth?” she asks, and vocally models the exercise again. They echo her. “Bend your knees, keep it loose,” she directs. They sing again. “Good, with piano.” She walks back to the piano and begins accompanying, going up by half steps, and the students sing along with her. “Send your sound out. Two more, high note you’ve got it. Last one, if you can!” she interjects in between transition points up the scale.
“Whoo-whoo-whoo!” Mrs. Higgins whoops, and the students echo her.
“Alright, sit on the edge of your chair. Major scale, with me, with hand signs,” she says, playing a new major chord and coming out from around the piano to face the class. 164
The class sings “do re mi fa sol la ti do” up the scale, and then “do ti la sol fa mi re do” down the scale. They perform the Kodály hand signs along with each note. Mrs. Higgins does not sing with them, but models the hand signs in front of the class.
“Can you try it again, a little quicker tempo? One, two, ready, go,” she counts off. They sing the scale again at the faster tempo she indicated.
“Follow my hands, sing what you see. One, two, ready, go,” Mrs. Higgins instructs. She shows the class the hand sign for a series of notes (only using do, re, mi, and fa) and they sing the note to match each time.
When she shows them “do re do” instead of the “do re mi” they just sang in the scale, she leans forward and gently says, “I’m not going to do what you expect!” She continues to show them a series of hand signs and they continue to do the hand signs and sing the notes that are shown.
“All right! Do I have someone who wants to do what I was just doing? So notice, what are some things that I didn’t do?” Mrs. Higgins asks.
A student chimes in, “You didn’t just do ‘do re mi fa sol.’”
Mrs. Higgins affirms, “I didn’t just go straight up.”
Another student says, “You didn’t skip.”
Mrs. Higgins repeats, “I didn’t skip anything. I didn’t go from like, do to fa, or something. I went up and down, but sometimes back and forth, or whatever, okay. And my hands continued to go up when I was going higher, and continue down when I was going lower. It’s more confusing if you do this.” She models, showing the hand signs for “do,” “re,” and “mi,” but all in the same low plane in front of her stomach instead of moving up the scale with her hands. “Right, if you keep it all in the same place, it’s harder to follow,” she explains. “So whoever does my job, you have to go up, down, do the whole thing. Ok, we’re going to try [Student 1] up here first.” 165
A student stands and walks up to the front. “Give her a hand!” Mrs. Higgins encourages. The class applauds.
Another student good-naturedly catcalls, “Yes, [Student 1], sing!”
“No!” Mrs. Higgins tells the other student. “The person up here doesn’t have to sing, they just do the hand signs. We sing! Sit up tall. Follow [Student 1]. Ready, go,” and she sings the last pitch, then walks out to sit in an empty seat along with the class.
Student 1 clearly models a sequence of hand signs using do, re, mi, and fa, exactly as Mrs.
Higgins did. The class, including Mrs. Higgins, follows along in the same way, singing the notes to match her hand signs and performing the hand signs as well.
When Student 1 is done, Mrs. Higgins exclaims, “Oh my gosh, so good! Give her a hand.” The class applauds, and Student 1 sits back in her chair.
“Really clear! Another volunteer! Ok, [Student 2], get out there,” Mrs. Higgins says, selecting another volunteer.
Student 2 stands and walks to the front of the room, and self-consciously comments, “Oh, this is really weird.”
Mrs. Higgins laughs, and says, “Ready, start on ‘do.’ Here you go,” she sings.
Student 2 also models a sequence of hand signs using do, re, mi, and fa. The class follows along in the same way, singing the notes to match her hand signs and performing the hand signs as well.
“Nice, give her a hand!” The class applauds and Student 2 returns to her seat.
“One more person!” Mrs. Higgins calls out. “Alright, [Student 3].”
Student 3 walks up to the front.
“Start on ‘do,’” Mrs. Higgins sings on the ‘do’ pitch. “Everybody, ready, go.” 166
Student 3 repeats the process, showing hand signs as the class, along with Mrs. Higgins, sings the notes indicated and performs the hand signs at the same time.
Student 3 adds a skip from mi down to do, and Mrs. Higgins quietly exclaims, “Oh, she gave us a skip! Keep going.” The class has some trouble finding the notes in the skip, but Mrs. Higgins sings “do”, and they find the notes again.
When Student 3 is done, Mrs. Higgins stands, walks back to the front of the room, and says,
“Alright, give her a hand!” The class applauds.
“Ok, next one. Now you’re just going to be repeating after me. Let me tell you what I’m doing.
I’m doing one measure of 4/4 at a time, so it’ll be 4 beats. I could do 4 quarter notes, I could do two half notes, I could do two quarter notes and then a half note, or… I could do a whole note,” she suggests, lightly jokingly, and some of the class laughs. “But I’m going to do 4 beats of notes, and I’m only going to use do, re, mi, and you’re just going to echo back with the hand signs. Let’s get a fresh note.”
She plays a note on the piano, and sings, “Do re mi mi,” also performing the hand signs. They hesitate, and she says, “And you go right away! Ready, go.” They echo her with singing and hand signs. In this manner, she sings a series of patterns using only do, re, and mi, varying the rhythm between quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes, with an occasional dotted quarter note.
“So there’s like, so many different combinations you can do! Right, like, practically unlimited combinations you can do with just those three notes and one measure of time. Ok. We’ve done it before, but we’re going to do the thing now, where I’m still only using do, re, and mi, but I’m going to sing it on ‘la la la’ and you’re going to sing it back on solfege. You ready?” There is some light groaning – it is clear that this activity is one that they find challenging. 167
“That’s hard,” says one student.
“I know, but you can do it,” Mrs. Higgins replies. She plays a fresh chord on the piano, and walks back to the front. “Still in 4/4, one measure at a time. So if I sing, ‘La la la,’” she says, singing 1-1-2 at the end, “you would sing back, ‘Do do re,’ with the hand signs. And if you mess up,” she whispers, “who cares! Here we go.”
She sings a series of notes on “la” with no hand signs, and the students echo back on solfege with hand signs. They are fairly unified and accurate until Mrs. Higgins sings a pattern of 1-2-3-1.
Some of the class sings, “Do re mi do,” correctly, and some of the class sings, “Do re mi re,” incorrectly.
“So is it ‘do re mi do’ or ‘do re mi re’?” Mrs. Higgins asks. They call out answers, but there is not consensus.
“Listen to it one more time,” Mrs. Higgins says, and sings “la la la la,” on 1-2-3-1.
The students murmur answers to each other, trying to figure it out.
Mrs. Higgins looks over at Student 1 and comments, “[Student 1] is convinced that it’s ‘do re mi do.’ I’ll do one and then the other.” She sings, “la la la la” (1-2-3-1), and says, “That’s the one I did,” then sings “la la la la” (1-2-3-2). The students clearly recognize the “re,” and say, “Oh!” or clap in excitement that they had been correct.
“Well, it sounded like ‘re’!” one student persists.
Mrs. Higgins laughs. “So, it was ‘do re mi do.’ And as soon as you heard what ‘do re mi re,’ was, you were like, ‘Oh yeah, okay.’ So it’s good! Good job. Okay, now for the really hard part.
You have to close your eyes. I sing on ‘la la la.’ You sing on ‘la la la.’ But you show me that you know what it is with your hand signs. Ok, look at me. Open your eyes,” she says to a student who closed their eyes too early. “So if I sing, ‘La la la,’” she explains, singing 1-2-3, “you would 168 go, ‘la la la,’” she finishes, closing her eyes, singing 1-2-3, and showing the hand signs for do, re, and mi. The students murmur in worry. “So you’re showing me really clearly with your hand signs that you know it’s ‘do re mi,’ but you’re singing on ‘la la la.’ Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” students call out.
“Ready?” she asks, and the students close their eyes. “La la la,” she sings on 1-1-1. The students sing, “La la la,” and many show the hand signs for “do do do.”
“So, that was, ‘Do do do,’” Mrs. Higgins says, singing the notes. The students react with realization if they didn’t understand before, and with excitement if they were correct. “Here’s the next one,” she continues. “Everyone singing “la,” but the notes are dos, res, and mis, and you’re showing me with the hands.”
Mrs. Higgins sings several more sets of three notes in this manner as the students keep their eyes closed, repeating back the notes on “la la la” and showing the appropriate hand signs. Although this exercise is clearly more of a challenge to the students than the previous ones, they are largely accurate in their hand signs. She scans the room with her eyes as she sings each new set of notes to informally assess students’ individual accuracy.
She sings 1-2-3-1, the pattern that had given some students difficulty before. Some show the correct hand signs for “do re mi do,” but others show “do re mi re,” the same error as before.
“I’m going to do it again,” she says, and then whispers, “It’s the one we did before!” Students react with realization. She sings 1-2-3-1 again on “la,” and students echo the notes and show the hand signs. More of them correctly sign the last note as “do.”
“It’s ‘do re mi do,’” Mrs. Higgins sings to the students, and they react with excitement. “Alright, good job. Open your eyes back up. Last exercise today. We have not done this before, but Period
3 [the other 6th grade choir class] was very successful. We’re going to take turns, go around the 169 room, and you are going to sing a do-re-mi pattern that is one measure long, and everyone else in the class is going to echo you. So [Student 4] might go, ‘Do re do do,’” she sings and performs the hand signs, “And then the everybody would go, ‘Do re do do,’” she sings and performs the hand signs again. “Or [Student 5] might go, ‘Do, mi,’ and then everyone would go, ‘Do, mi,’” and she sings and performs the hand signs for the solfege again. “So, we’re taking turns, and then everybody echoes you. You can do four quarter notes, you can do two half notes, you can go quarter-quarter-half, you can go half-quarter-quarter, you could do a whole note. If you’re a little nervous, you could do a whole note on do. Now, I hope you don’t all do a whole note on do. But, if you’re feeling like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m ready for this!’ then you could something a little more tricky. Your choice. Some options, here are some options,” and she sings and performs the hand signs: “‘Do re mi mi,’ ‘mi re do do,’ ‘do do re re,’ ‘do re do re,’ ‘do mi do mi,’ ‘mi re mi re,’ ‘do mi re do,’ ‘do,’ ‘do do do do.’ Okay? You can pick whatever you want, those three notes.
Everyone understand?”
A student raises her hand and asks, “Do you have to start on do?”
Mrs. Higgins answers, “You do not have to start on do.” Students begin to practice their patterns on their own using their voices and hand signs. “Dos, res, and mis, and everyone echoes,” Mrs.
Higgins clarifies. “Do I have a volunteer to go first?”
Students raise their hands, but most volunteers are on the right side of the room. Mrs. Higgins walks over to the left side, where there are fewer volunteers.
“What’s up with this side of the room?!” she jokingly exclaims. The students laugh. “Ok, we’ll start with [Student 6], and we’ll go like this.” She draws a swooping line around the room with her hand to indicate the order that the individual students will sing. “Alright, [Student 6], ready, go.” 170
Student 6 sings one measure using the notes do, re, and mi, and their appropriate hand signs. The class echoes her.
The next student in order hesitates.
Mrs. Higgins sings, “This is do.”
The next student sings, “Re mi fa,” and sings 1 on “re” when the correct note would have been 2.
“We’re not doing fas,” Mrs. Higgins reminds the student. “Just dos, res, and mis. Do you want to start on ‘re’?” On the last word, she sings “re” correctly on 2 to reorient the student.
The student sings, “Re mi re,” but sings on 1-2-3 this time.
“So if you want re-mi-re, it’s got to go back down to re,” Mrs. Higgins explains, and sings, “Re mi re” on 2-3-2 with hand signs. “Try it one more time.”
“Re mi re,” the student sings on the correct notes.
“Everybody!” Mrs. Higgins calls out, and the class echoes with voices and hand signs.
The class continues in order, with each new student selecting their own pattern of notes to sing.
On a few occasions, the student struggles to match the pitch of their notes to the appropriate solfege, and Mrs. Higgins helps them by singing their pattern back to them correctly before moving on. She also gives small comments of feedback, such as, “Good!”, “There you go!”, and
“Can you show me the hands?” as appropriate. When it is the turn of a student with significant developmental disabilities, who has an aide with him, Mrs. Higgins walks over to him, asks him what notes he wants, and gently guides his hands to the hand signs. The class echoes the pattern as normal. As each student sings on their own, Mrs. Higgins watches them and smiles encouragingly.
“Awesome! Everybody give your neighbor a high five and say ‘good job’!” Mrs. Higgins says brightly. The students do as directed. 171
“Alright, I want to draw your attention to our quote of the day today,” Mrs. Higgins says, gesturing toward the white board, and reads the sentence written at the top of the board: “‘He or she who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.’ Thank you for taking a risk today and singing by yourself! It’s how you can grow, by taking risks. Good job!
Take out your music for ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’”
Students take out their folders and prepare their music to sing, some singing the song as they gather materials.
“Okay, so for this class since we are singing this combined with the 7th grade, we are just doing soprano 1 and soprano 2.” She walks over to the piano and plays their first entrance. “Soprano 2, here we go.”
The Soprano 2 students sing the first page of the song, largely accurately but singing incorrect notes on “proud” and the “ram-” syllable of the word “ramparts.”
“Remember, we have a not-so-high ‘proud’ and a not-so-high ‘ram.’ Try it again.” They sing it again, accurately this time.
“Okay, let’s put it together with Part 1,” she directs, singing their starting notes. All the students start to sing both parts together, but quickly lose confidence.
“What happened?!” Mrs. Higgins asks the students.
“Sorry!” a student says.
“Okay, let me hear just you guys. One and two,” Mrs. Higgins says, indicating the Soprano 1 section. They sing their first section accurately. “Now just do that while they’re doing the other thing,” she tells them, gesturing toward the Soprano 2 section. She counts them off and both parts sing together. In the middle, Mrs. Higgins walks over and plays along with their parts on the piano. 172
“Stop,” Mrs. Higgins says, holding her hand up. “We have not learned the next section yet. It’s different. Today, we are hoping to learn the next section. Look at your music. That’s the goal.
But I want to talk about a couple of things before we get there. Look up at the board please.” She walks over to the whiteboard. “In this song, we are in the key of B flat…” she draws a small staff with a treble clef and the appropriate key signature, “…which means that do is this note down here.” She draws a whole note on Bb4. “On what note or syllable did we sing do?”
The students look at their music. A student raises her hand and Mrs. Higgins calls on her.
“The ‘-ing,’” says the student.
“Yes, the ‘-ing,’” affirms Mrs. Higgins. “We ended on the do. Now this is do. All eyes on the board. If this note is do, let’s find our high do note. Let’s count up.” She counts the lines and spaces on solfege, all the way up to high do. “Tell me, which part sings do on ‘and the rock-’?
Which part?”
A Soprano 2 student raises her hand and says, “We do.”
“Yes, your part,” Mrs. Higgins acknowledges. “Do you see it? Right here.” She walks over and points to the appropriate measure in one student’s music. “Sing ‘do, do’” she says, singing low do and then high do. The students echo her. “With hand signs now,” she directs. They sing low do and high do again with the appropriate hand signs. “Now sing ‘-lently streaming. And the rock-,’” she sings. They echo her on the text.
“Girls over here,” Mrs. Higgins says, walking over to the Soprano 1 section. “If do is on that middle line B, what note do you sing on ‘and the rock-’?” They murmur together, uncertain.
“You sing mi,” she says. “Sing ‘do re mi,’” she sings. They echo her. “Now sing ‘mi mi mi,’” she sings. They echo her. “Now sing ‘and the rock-,’” she sings on 3-3-3. They echo her. 173
She walks over to the Soprano 2 section. “Sing ‘and the rock-,’” she sings on 1-1-1. They echo her. She walks back to the front of the room.
“Now sit up tall, and both parts together,” she directs. “You guys,” she indicates the Soprano 2 section, “are going to sing ‘do do do,’ and you guys,” she indicates the Soprano 1 section, “are going to sing ‘mi mi mi,’ at the same time.” She smiles at them. “Ready, go.” They sing together.
“Do it again,” she says, and they sing again, more confidently.
“Now think ‘do do do,’ think ‘mi mi mi,’ and sing, ‘and the rock-’” Mrs. Higgins tells them.
They sing the text, accurately and in tune.
“That sounds, like, really good,” marvels a student.
Mrs. Higgins laughs and says, “Yeah, it’s really good! Now, here’s what’s going to be really tricky. You’re going to have to sing together…” and she vocally models, “-lently streaming. And the rock-’” for each part individually. “Let me hear it.” The two parts sing individually, then together, as Mrs. Higgins walks to each section and points. “Yes! One more time!” They sing again, and Mrs. Higgins plays along with their parts on the piano.
“Now, take out your pencil, please. Quickly.” The students scurry to grab their pencils as Mrs.
Higgins sets up the document camera at the front of the room.
“If you are on this side of the room,” she says to the Soprano 1 singers, “above ‘and the rock-,’ write ‘mi mi mi.’ What’s your note on ‘-kets’?”
They answer, “Fa.”
“What’s your ‘red’ note?” she asks.
“Sol,” they answer.
“What’s your ‘glare’ note?” 174
“Sol,” they answer. Mrs. Higgins continues to walk them through the solfege for the rest of the phrase in this way, and then asks them, “Can we sing this on solfege?”
Mrs. Higgins sings “mi,” but her voice cracks a bit. “That was terrible!” she laughs, and the students laugh with her. She sings “mi mi mi” again, clearly now.
She points along to each note on the music, using the document camera, and the students read all the notes on solfege that they had just written into their music.
She turns to the Soprano 2 section, and repeats the process, pointing to each note and asking for the solfege. They repeat it back, and they quickly notice that the first three notes are “do re mi.”
“Have we sung some ‘do re mis’ today?” Mrs. Higgins asks them knowingly.
“Yes,” they respond.
“Yeah, like 500!” Mrs. Higgins jokes, and vocally models, “Do do do re mi mi.”
They echo, and she continues to ask them for the solfege for each note following the phrase.
They go back and sing the phrase on solfege, just as the Soprano 2 part had done before.
“Let’s try singing all of it! Girls on this side, you can sing it too, just for funsies,” she says, indicating the Soprano 1 part. Both parts sing together on solfege, and the bell rings to end the class. They exit out the doors on the front left side of the classroom.
8th Grade Tenor/Bass Choir
The next class enters. It is immediately evident that this class is a more boisterous one than the class before it. The students are engaged in loud conversations as they enter the room, joking with one another and playfully pushing their friends around as they find their seats.
“Alright, stand please,” Mrs. Higgins says. The class stands, but not all at the same time, and they continue talking. “Sit back down. Let’s try that again,” she says. They sit quietly. “Stand please.” 175
Mrs. Higgins begins leading them in a series of stretches, first on their torso, then their heads and necks, then down their bodies. She leads them in a series of whoops, sighs, and lip trills in various ranges, and they repeat after her, in the same range.
Mrs. Higgins sits at the piano and plays a chord. “Alright, in falsetto, please.” She sings, “Loo”
(5-4-3-2-1), and they echo her in falsetto. She accompanies them on the piano, and they continue in a descending motion. When they reach a transition point, she has them continue on “loh,” giving them occasional feedback such as, “Transitioning out of falsetto now!”, “Round vowels!”, and “Transitioning into chest voice.” When they descend into their chest voice, she asks them to continue on “lee,” and tells the tenors, “Tenors, drop out when it gets too low.” When it gets too low for some of the basses, she says, “Basses, drop out when it gets too low.”
Mrs. Higgins plays a new chord. “We’re here. ‘Dee dee dee dee, dee dee dee dee dee, yah,’” she sings (1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5, 5-1^-5-3-1). They echo her, and continue moving up by half steps as she accompanies, still standing up.
Mrs. Higgins plays a new chord. “Max, over here. Everybody, ‘ee-eh-ah,’” she sings (1-2-3, 1-2-
3, 1-2-3). They repeat after her, and she accompanies as they sing, moving up by half steps. Mrs.
Higgins pauses on a chord.
“What do you think the solfege is for that warmup?” she asks the class, and plays 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-
2-3 on the piano.
A student raises his hand and Mrs. Higgins says, “[Student 7], what do you think?”
“Sol-la-ti?” Student 7 suggests hesitantly.
“No, I’ll give you a hint. It starts on ‘do.’” Mrs. Higgins plays the pattern again, and then one more time, more slowly. The students murmur, trying to figure out the answer. Student 7 raises his hand again, and as Mrs. Higgins continues playing, more hands in the class raise up. 176
Mrs. Higgins calls on another student. “What do you think, [Student 8]?” she asks.
“Do-re-mi,” the student answers.
“Yes! Three times. ‘Do-re-mi, do-re-mi, do-re-mi,’” Mrs. Higgins sings, playing along with herself on the piano. “Sing it on the vowels. One, two, go.” They sing the exercise two more times as Mrs. Higgins accompanies.
“Okay, coming back down, we’re going to sing this.” Mrs. Higgins plays 3-2-1, 3-2-1, 3-2-1 on the piano, in the same rhythm as before. “So what are we singing now?”
The students immediately catch on, and sing, “Mi-re-do, mi-re-do, mi-re-do,” together.
“Good, on ee-eh,” Mrs. Higgins instructs. They continue singing on the vowels.
“Good, have a seat please,” Mrs. Higgins says, and the students sit in their chairs. Mrs. Higgins turns on the projector, and the Rhythm Randomizer website appears.
“Okay, we’re going to do some Rhythm Randomizer today. It’s been a while. [Student 9], would you come sit here?” Mrs. Higgins asks a student, and he moves to a different seat. “So Rhythm
Randomizer, we haven’t done in a while, so we’re going to start kind of simple. Just two measures of rhythm at a time. Let’s change some of our note options. This was for another class earlier today.”
As she manipulates the website, some students quietly talk with their neighbors.
“Excuse me,” Mrs. Higgins says simply, and the chatter dies down.
“So I’m going to add sixteenth notes as an option. I’m going to add a dotted quarter note as an option. And… that’s it for now. Still in 4/4 time.”
As she finishes selecting the notes, their first two-bar exercise appears on the board. As soon as it appears, some students begin quietly counting it to themselves. 177
“So think about it,” Mrs. Higgins says, and walks around the room listening to and watching the students. A moment later, she tells them, “Put your hand on your head if you know how to count measure 1.” Several students put their hands on their heads. “I’m not going to call on anybody, I just want to get an idea of how many of you think you know how to count measure 1.” She pauses again, and a few more students put their hands on their heads. “Okay, now all of you with your hands on your heads, do count measure 1 together. One, two, just measure 1.”
The students who had put their hands on their heads count, “One, and three and,” mostly together and mostly correctly. “One more time. It was close!” she encourages them, and counts them off again. The same group counts again, more unified and confidently.
“Thank you!” Mrs. Higgins says, and asks, “Do I have a volunteer to count measure 2 for us?”
She raises her hand to indicate to the students that they should volunteer by raising their hand.
A student excitedly calls out, “I got you!” Mrs. Higgins smiles. “Great [Student 10], let’s hear it.”
“Oh wait!” Student 10 says.
“I thought you said you had it!” Mrs. Higgins exclaims jokingly, and a moment later, counts him off, “One, two, just measure 2.”
Student 10 counts, “– Two three – and.”
“Good job,” Mrs. Higgins says, and walks back to the front. The class exclaims excitedly, clapping for the student and giving him high fives.
“Everybody do measure 2!” she says, and the class counts together. “Cool, now do the whole thing. One, two, try the whole thing, go,” she says, and all the students count both measures together. They stumble at the end. “Whoa! One, and three and,” she models. They count again, and successfully complete it the second time. 178
“Let’s try another one,” Mrs. Higgins says, and walks up to her computer to adjust the website to a new exercise. The students talk amongst themselves. Mrs. Higgins moves two students to new seats, and the students begin practicing the exercise.
“Okay, let’s try it,” she says, and counts them off. They count the new exercise together as a class as Mrs. Higgins claps the beat. “Pretty good! I like that first measure, that ‘one, and three and,’ you guys actually did a really nice job with that. ‘One-ee-and-a two-and three, four-ee-and- a,’ try it one more time. One, two, the whole thing, go.” The class counts the exercise again.
“Nice!” Mrs. Higgins says, and brings up a new exercise. This time, she gives them very little practice time before saying, “Okay, try it.” She counts them off and the class counts the new exercise. They are mostly accurate but struggle slightly on the second measure.
“This ‘and’ was not together,” Mrs. Higgins says, circling the trouble spot on the SmartBoard.
They count again as she snaps the beat. She walks to the other side of the room, continuing to monitor. They count again, but still struggle on the last “and.”
“You have to think, ‘two and three and’ to get it together. ‘One and two,’” she claps three times,
“- and.’ Try that measure.” They count again. “[Student 11], why don’t you wait outside until you’re ready to not make faces at everybody when we’re doing this. Come back when you’re ready.” Student 11 stands and walks out the door to stand outside.
Mrs. Higgins continues teaching: “Can I have just the tenors do measure 1, and the basses do measure 2 at the same time? Make sure your beats line up. Do you all know what we’re doing?”
They nod and say “yes.” She counts them off, and the tenors count measure 1 while the basses count measure 2. 179
“Switch!” Mrs. Higgins calls out when they are done. They count again on the opposite parts from the time before. “Tenors had a hard time,” she comments, and models the counts for the second measure. They count again, much more successfully.
“Thank you! Let’s do one more example,” she instructs, and pulls up a new two-bar example. “I don’t like that one.” She refreshes the screen for a new example. Students casually talk in the background.
“This one’s good,” Mrs. Higgins says. “[Student 12], do measure one. [Student 13] move over two seats.” She walks to the right side of the room, next to Student 13. She addresses the class:
“If I had to move your seat, it’s because you were not doing what you were supposed to be doing.” She pauses, and there is total silence in the room. “We haven’t done anything like this in quite some time. I need your level of focus to go up right now. Stop moving around or seeing if somebody… I don’t even know what you guys are doing over there. Whatever it is, cut it out.”
She walks back to the front of the room, over to the board. “Tenors, please do the first measure.
Look at it for a moment.” She waits, allowing the students to study the example.
“One, two, just tenors, here you go,” she counts off, snapping the beat.
“One… three-ee-and-a,” the tenors count loudly and accurately.
“Thank you. Basses, let’s do measure two. One, two, ready, and…” she counts.
“… two and,” the basses count, slightly less confidently.
“Yeah! ‘Two and…’ rest on count 4,” Mrs. Higgins models, and walks to the side of the room by the basses. “Everybody count together.” She counts them off, and they all count the exercise in unison as she snaps the beat. The counting for the second measure sounds less accurate than the first. 180
“Your ‘two and’ is kind of lazy,” Mrs. Higgins says. “I want it to be like, ‘two and’” she models energetically. “Be accurate. One, two, be accurate, do it again.”
The students count the exercise again as Mrs. Higgins walks around, snapping the beat.
“Thank you! That was much better.” She walks back to the SmartBoard. “Transitioning to some
SmartMusic today…” She opens SmartMusic on the SmartBoard and the program plays a broken triad (1-3-5-3-1-5-1). There is a light murmur of chatter in the class.
“Turn around,” Mrs. Higgins tells a student who was talking and making faces. She addresses the whole class: “This is the last warning. I think it’s kind of ridiculous I’ve had to move as many people as I’ve had to move today. Stop screwing around. This is the last warning before I have to send people to ISS [in-school suspension], which I really don’t want to do and you know that I rarely have to do that. But it’s out of control, your behavior today. Get it together, gentlemen.”
The room is quiet.
She refreshes the screen. “Let’s pull up this example again. There were two flats in the key signature, so what key are we in?”
Some students murmur, “B flat.”
“What is it?” she asks again.
“B flat!” they call out.
She walks to the whiteboard and draws a treble clef. “Our low do is going to be here – ” she draws a whole note on B4 – “and our high do is going to be here – ” she draws a whole note on
B5. “Okay?” She clicks the laptop, and the triad plays again. “Thirty seconds to practice.”
The students all begin singing on their own, their voices all entering and overlapping at different times as they practice the exercise. As they sing, Mrs. Higgins walks to the board and writes in the solfege for a few notes. At the end of the thirty seconds, the triad plays again. 181
“Those low dos are going to be low for the tenors,” Mrs. Higgins calls out. “You can sing it up the octave if you need to. ‘Do,’” she sings on the appropriate pitch, and counts them off: “One, two, ready, go.”
The students sight-read the exercise as the SmartBoard clicks the beat in the background and scores their accuracy. Mrs. Higgins sings with them and walks around the side of the room to listen and observe different groups of students.
“Not bad! It’s showing a lot of notes down the octave, because you were singing down the octave,” she says, acknowledging the SmartBoard’s assessment. “Let’s switch to tenor/bass, so it’s expecting to hear it down the octave. If you were singing up the octave, you can continue singing up the octave.” The triad plays. “Okay, do it again. I’m not singing with you this time.
We’re in 3/4 time. Sit up tall, sing well.” She counts off, and they sing the exercise again. The last three notes of the exercise are low dos, which some students struggle to reach due to the lowness of the pitch.
Mrs. Higgins laughs. “That’s a pretty low do!” Students laugh. “Can I hear just basses on it?”
She counts them off and the basses sing the exercise. They struggle on a dotted rhythm in the middle but sing the low notes at the end strongly. When they finish, the tenors loudly clap and cheer. Mrs. Higgins smiles.
“It’s not in a great range for tenors, so I won’t make you do it alone this time. I’ll make you do a different one alone at some point. Let’s move on!” She walks back to the computer and pulls up a new exercise. The new triad plays.
“What key are we in?” Mrs. Higgins asks.
“F,” some students answer.
“We’re in the key of F. Do we start on F?” 182
Students murmur, trying to figure out the answer. “Ti,” one student says.
“Yes, we start on ti!” Mrs. Higgins affirms. “Here’s do.”
She walks to the piano and plays a unison F in two octaves. “But it starts –” she plays an E – “on ti. It starts, ‘Ti do,’” she sings, and points at the notes on the board. She gives them a moment to think.
“Sing the first thing,” she says, and counts them off, snapping the beat.
The students sing the exercise as Mrs. Higgins points to the notes with her right hand and snaps the beats of rest with her left. When they reach “ti la ti do,” she points to the notes and also sings along with them.
They pause, and she points to the next line. “What do we have here?”
“Thirds!” a student calls out.
“It’s going up by thirds, yeah. Do mi sol, sing it,” she says. They attempt to sing “do mi sol,” but the notes are incorrect.
“Well, that was… less than stellar,” Mrs. Higgins chuckles, and plays the triad on the piano. “Sit up and try it again.” She plays do on the piano, and the students sing, “Do mi sol,” on the correct pitches this time.
“Thank you! Coming down the scale, ready, go.” They sing the next measure, but miss the last note, which breaks the stepwise downward pattern.
“It goes up at the end, try it again,” Mrs. Higgins instructs, and they sing again, more accurately, and continue working through the exercise.
“Yeah, so we’re in Lesson 10. The focus of Lesson 10 is doing octave jumps. So the exercise you did a couple minutes ago had the octave jump at the end, the high do to low do. This one, 183 you’re having to jump between sol and sol.” As she says the names of the notes, she shows their
Kodály hand signs. “So would you sing ‘do’ for me please? In your octave is fine.”
The students sing, “Do,” and then, using hand signs, Mrs. Higgins walks them stepwise up the scale to sol. “Now sing ‘do’ again,” she says. This time, she uses hand signs to walk them from do, stepwise down, to low sol.
“Now sing, ‘sol, sol,’” she models, singing high sol and then low sol. The students echo her.
“So in this spot… look at it, don’t talk, look at the screen,” Mrs. Higgins says, pointing to the board. She vocally models the second line of the exercise, and then says, “Would you just sing that chunk, starting on the eighth notes? One, two, ready, go.” She snaps the beat and sings along with them, pointing to the notes on the board with her opposite hand.
“Let’s try the whole thing!” Mrs. Higgins says, and the triad plays again on the SmartBoard.
“Ready to follow the screen? One, two, sit tall, sing well.” The students sing the entire exercise as the SmartBoard clicks the beat. Mrs. Higgins sings with them and walks around the room.
When they reach the last note, where there is a fermata, Mrs. Higgins holds up her hand, and has them hold out the note for an exaggerated length of time.
“Tell your neighbor why we held that note so long,” she says. There is a hum of conversation as the students tell each other the answer.
“Why did we hold it so long?” Mrs. Higgins asks a student. He answers, “There was a fermata.”
She says, “Right, when there’s a fermata, you hold it until the director cuts you off. What do you do if you don’t have a conductor – if you’re a soloist?”
Students jump in with answers: “You choose!” “As long as you want!” “You are the conductor!”
Mrs. Higgins nods. “You hold it longer. You choose! You hold it longer than you normally would.” 184
“As long as you want?!” a student asks incredulously.
“As long as you want!” Mrs. Higgins confirms.
The students laugh and discuss with their neighbors.
“I mean, you might run out of air at some point,” Mrs. Higgins adds.
Students jokingly sing out notes for as long as their lungs will allow.
“Okay, you will need a pencil and a clipboard,” Mrs. Higgins rejoins, moving onto the next activity. “Be back in your seats in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1.” The students grab their materials and return to their seats, talking with their classmates as they go. Mrs. Higgins gathers a stack of dictation worksheets and begins to pass them out.
“Everybody has a paper?” she asks, and moves up to the front of the room. She starts up the document camera and projects the dictation worksheet onto the board.
“All right, conversations need to stop,” she says. The room grows quiet.
“Thank you. Okay, we did some dictation in 7th grade. It’s been a while since we’ve done any in this class. Dictation is basically writing what you hear. It’s a good skill because it makes a new connection in your brain as a music reading skill. We are very used to seeing music and being able to sing what we see. This is now being able to imagine what we hear – what that would look like on the page. So, it’s kind of like in English class, where you learn how to read, but you also learn how to write. So if you have an idea of something in your head, you could write it down. In music, same thing. If you have an idea of what something sounds like, you’re able to write it on paper. The first one we’re going to do will be rhythmic dictation, so it’s just a rhythm. We just practiced some rhythms. I’m going to play a rhythm on the piano. It’s going to be four measures long and you’re going to write what you hear. So for example, if I played this on the piano…”
She pats a beat on her leg and plays four measures of rhythm on the piano on a single pitch. 185
“Okay, so that was four measures of rhythm.” She walks to the SmartBoard, and writes out the rhythms using the marker tool as she goes through them. “I played two half notes to start. I think
I played four quarter notes. The next measure, I went one-and-two, three-and-four, then I had three beats of rest, then a note.” She steps back and allows them to read the rhythm on the board.
“That’s super sloppy. But that’s what I played. Okay, now I am going to play one, and you are going to write down what you hear. I’m going to play the whole thing three times, and I’m going to give you a little bit of time in between to write. Don’t feel like you have to write down the entire thing after the first time I play it. Just write as much as you can, and try to get more the next time. Okay?”
A student raises his hand and asks, “Is it four or eight measures?”
Mrs. Higgins answers, “It’s four measures. It looks like eight measures on your paper, but we’re going to do two different examples. So for the first one, just do the top line. Okay, here we go.
Ready? Here’s the beat.” She pats the beat on her leg. “I’ll try to make it really obvious if there’s a rest. One, two, here’s the first one.”
Mrs. Higgins plays a four-bar rhythm on the piano, using only one note. As she plays, she continues to pat the beat on her leg. Afterward, she pauses, and the students quietly write the rhythm on their papers.
“Write down what you heard. Think of the counting in your head. Now I’ve got to write down what I did too.” She walks over to the desk, and writes on a piece of paper. She walks back to the piano.
“Second time through. This is the same rhythm as before, you’re just adding more or checking what you already have. One, two, here’s the second time.” 186
Mrs. Higgins plays the rhythm on the piano again, continuing to pat the beat as she does so. The students continue to quietly write.
“This is just practice, this is not for a grade,” Mrs. Higgins says to them. She walks around the room and looks at various students’ papers. “So you gain nothing by just copying what your friend did.” She continues to circulate around the room, then walks back to the piano.
“Alright, here’s the last time. One, two, here it is.”
She plays the same rhythm on the piano a third time, patting the beat on her leg at the same time.
As the students continue to write, she walks around and quietly gives feedback to individual students.
After a brief time of individual feedback, Mrs. Higgins returns to the front of the room and asks,
“Okay, who thinks they got the first measure?” Several students raise their hands. “[Student 14], what did you get?”
Student 14 says, “I put an eighth note, another eighth note, a quarter note, and then a half note.”
Mrs. Higgins writes the rhythm on the SmartBoard projection of the worksheet and tells the class, “That is correct!” The students react to the answer with excitement or disappointment.
“Okay, measure 2! What did you get, [Student 15]?” Mrs. Higgins asks.
“I got a quarter note and three rests,” responds Student 15.
“So, I tried to make it obvious, but it was holding. I didn’t let go of the note on the piano. So what did I actually want in that measure? I can see why you would put that, but what did I actually have?”
“A whole note,” he answers.
“A whole note,” Mrs. Higgins affirms, and writes it on the board. “It was supposed to sustain.
Okay, third measure! [Student 8]?” 187
“A whole rest,” Student 8 replies.
“A whole rest!” Mrs. Higgins verifies, writing it on the board. “If you put four quarter rests, that’s okay too. Last measure! [Student 2]?”
“Four quarter notes,” Student 2 says.
“Four quarter notes,” Mrs. Higgins finishes, and writes them on the board. The students exclaim and react with their neighbors.
Mrs. Higgins makes a “ch” rhythm as a cue to regain their attention, and the students echo it and fall silent, clearly used to responding to the cue.
“[Student 11] asked a good question,” she tells them. “‘For the whole note, if you put two half notes tied together, would that be accepted on a test?’ The answer would be yes. It means exactly the same thing. Okay, one more example.”
Mrs. Higgins walks back to the piano and repeats the same process for a new four-bar rhythm.
She pats the beat, counts off, plays the example, and gives them time to write.
“Hint: there are only rests in measure 3. Guys, don’t talk. If you have a question, raise your hand.
One, two, here’s the second time.”
Mrs. Higgins plays the rhythm again, then walks around to look at their papers.
“I tried to be tricky on that second measure,” she says mischievously as she returns to the front.
“But the third measure is the only one that has rests. Last time. One, two, please stop talking, here we go.”
Mrs. Higgins plays the rhythm a final time on the piano, and the students quietly continue writing. She walks around to look at their papers again.
“Okay, first measure. What did you get, [Student 7]?”
“Half note, half note,” he says. 188
Mrs. Higgins repeats his answer, and writes the rhythm on the board. Students react with excitement.
“Now, I could be wrong, but as I walked around the room, the only person I saw who got measure 2 right was [Student 16],” Mrs. Higgins says. “So [Student 16], could you tell us what you got for measure 2?”
“A dotted quarter note,” Student 16 answers.
“A dotted quarter note!” Mrs. Higgins exclaims. Students react loudly. “And then?”
“And then an eighth note and two quarter notes, right?”
Mrs. Higgins nods and writes it on the board.
Students continue to react, and one loudly calls out, “That’s what I put!”
Mrs. Higgins hushes the shouts and continues, “And then measure 3?”
“A half rest, and then two eighth notes,” answers Student 16.
“Two pairs of eighths,” clarifies Mrs. Higgins. “Okay, then last measure, everybody?”
“A whole note,” a few students shout.
“Good job, [Student 16],” another student calls out.
Mrs. Higgins finishes writing and then turns back to the class. “Good job. Don’t talk. We don’t really have time to do a complete melodic dictation, so I’m only going to do one measure. Please write the following things on your paper. All you’re going to do is put in the key signature and the time signature. For the key signature, put a flat on the middle line. So what key are we in?”
“F,” a student says.
“F,” Mrs. Higgins confirms, and writes the flat on B. “Now give yourself a 4/4 time signature.
It’s going to start on a quarter note do. So copy what I just did. I’m only going to play one measure and you already know the first note. Write what you hear.” 189
Mrs. Higgins walks over to the piano and plays an F major chord. “Here’s your do,” she sings.
“One, two, here we go.” She plays a measure and waits a few moments for students to write, then repeats the process three times. She walks around the room to check students’ papers.
“Do, re re mi, mi,” she sings. “Clearly, there is still more to be done on this. We’ll do it a different day. Put your paper and your pencil in your choir folder, then put it away for the day.”
Students scurry to pack up before the bell rings.
8th Grade Treble Choir
The class enters the room, chatting quietly, and finds their seats. Nearly all of the students are quietly seated, looking attentively up to the front, before the bell rings.
“Alright, go ahead and stand up, ladies,” Mrs. Higgins says. She leads them in a series of stretches, reaching up, then down, and rolling their heads and shoulders. She does a series of whoops, sighs, and sirens, and the students echo her.
Mrs. Higgins walks back to the piano and plays a chord. “Ee, eh, ah,” she sings (1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-
2-3). The students echo her, and accompanied by Mrs. Higgins on the piano, they continue singing the vocalise, higher by a half step on each new repetition. After several repetitions, Mrs.
Higgins pauses on the piano.
“Can someone tell me what the solfege is for that warm-up?” she asks, playing the notes for the exercise on the piano. “Starting on do,” she adds, playing the notes again.
“Do re mi?” a student suggests.
“Right, it’s just do re mi. ‘Do-re-mi, do-re-mi, do-re-mi,’” Mrs. Higgins sings, on the same rhythm and pitches as the warm-up. “One more time.” The students continue singing the exercise until Mrs. Higgins pauses. 190
“Coming back down. ‘Ee, eh, ah,’” Mrs. Higgins sings (3-2-1, 3-2-1, 3-2-1). “What’s the solfege there?” she asks the class.
“Mi re do,” a few students answer.
“Mi re do!” Mrs. Higgins confirms, playing the notes again on the piano. “Keep going.”
The students sing the new version of the vocalise, and as Mrs. Higgins accompanies, they repeat the exercise several more times, moving down by half steps.
Mrs. Higgins rolls up a new chord on the piano.
“Shee-ah-ee-ah-ee,” she sings (5-1^-5-3-5-3-1). The students echo her.
“With arms!” she calls out, still playing the piano. The students continue to sing the vocalise, but they add vertical swooping motions with both arms as they sing. They repeat the exercise several more times as Mrs. Higgins accompanies, leading them up by half steps.
Mrs. Higgins pauses, and plays a lower chord.
“Vee-ah-vee-ah-vee-ah-vee-ah-vee,” she sings (5-3-4-2-3-1-2-7-1). The students echo her.
Mrs. Higgins plays the first note of the exercise, and sings on that pitch, “The starting note is sol
– think about what the solfege would be.” She slowly plays the notes of the exercise. The students begin to quietly sing or hum to themselves as they figure out the solfege.
“Listen again,” Mrs. Higgins says, and plays the notes slowly one more time. “Starts on sol and ends on do.”
She calls on a student, who hesitantly answers, “Sol mi fa re mi do re ti do?”
“Right,” Mrs. Higgins says, “which is a sequence of what? What kind of sequence is that?” She pauses, and a few students murmur answers.
“Thirds,” Mrs. Higgins rejoins. She sings, “Sol mi fa re mi do re ti do,” then says, “It’s the end of our thirds sequence!” She quickly sings through the thirds sequence from their interval sheet, 191 ending in the notes of the vocalise. She plays the chord on the piano, and sings the vocalise on neutral syllables again. The students copy her, and continue down in descending half steps.
“Great, take out your interval sequence sheet,” Mrs. Higgins instructs, and the students quietly take out their papers.
“It’s been a while since we’ve sung these on this sheet. We learned the thirds sequence at the beginning of the year, then they each sang it as a singing assessment, then we did the triads, same thing, then we did the fourths, same thing, then we did the fifths, same thing, then we put it away for a while, and we’re taking it back out today. So let’s just review, ladies. We’ll do the thirds sequence first. If you need to use your sheet, use it, if you can just do it by looking at the solfege major scale on the wall, that’s great, or if you have it memorized, then that’s great.”
She sings, “Do re mi, so do mi is our first third.” She counts them off, and they sing the intervals of thirds on their sheet.
At the beginning of the descending thirds, they struggle slightly to find the interval from high do to la, so Mrs. Higgins stops them and asks them to sing “do ti la,” then “do, la.” They continue singing the descending thirds as Mrs. Higgins walks over to help an individual student follow the notes on the paper.
“Okay, triads time,” Mrs. Higgins tells the class, and sings, “Do mi sol.” She walks back to the front of the room, and counts them off. The class sings the triad sequence on the interval sheet, and Mrs. Higgins walks to the opposite side of the room to sing with them, holding up the solfege hand signs as she does so.
“Awesome. Fourths! Let’s go stepwise up to fa,” she says, and the students sing, “Do re mi fa, do, fa.” Mrs. Higgins counts them off, and they sing the fourths sequence. Mrs. Higgins sings with them and holds up the hand signs for each note. 192
“I see like half of you going from memory or just following my hands. That’s awesome! Good job. Last one that we learned is fifths.” She sings, “Do sol do sol do,” and counts them off. The class sings the fifths interval sequence.
Before they sing “fa ti fa ti,” Mrs. Higgins jokes, “Your favorite one!” The students finish the exercise, and Mrs. Higgins chuckles, “Fa ti fa ti.” The class giggles, and Mrs. Higgins walks back to the piano.
“Great, take a look at your sheet now, everybody look. The new one is going to be sixths. Now the sixths sequence is kind of fun because it does a sixth up, so ‘do re mi fa sol la, do, la,’” she explains, singing the solfege notes, “then it goes down one note to sol, then it does a sixth going down. Sol down to ti is a sixth down. Then it repeats it.” She vocally models both intervals.
“Let’s try that much,” Mrs. Higgins says to the class. “Let’s make sure we’re still in tune.” She walks over and plays a fresh chord on the piano. “Pretty close!” She plays the entire line, and then just the starting pitch of the exercise. She says, “Do to la is a sixth, and sol to ti is a sixth.
Okay? Here we go. Actually, why don’t you listen to the whole thing once?”
Mrs. Higgins sings the entire sixths interval exercise a cappella, and the students follow along.
Some quietly sing the notes along with their teacher.
“It’s so long. But you can do it! Here we go,” Mrs. Higgins says, and sings, “Do re mi fa sol la, do, la.” She counts them off at a slower tempo than the one she sang, and plays the notes on the piano as the class sings the intervals of sixths. At one point, she plays an incorrect note on the piano, and grimacing, sings, “Sorry!” The class continues singing until the end of the exercise.
“Good job!” Mrs. Higgins says. “So we will go over this sixths pattern a whole bunch of times over the next few weeks, and this will be a singing test at the end of this quarter. So probably the first week of March, we’ll do a singing test on the sixths. Very few students memorize the sixths, 193
I’m just going to be honest with you. You can memorize it if you want to, but most students end up using the paper, which is just fine, for the test. Go ahead and put your green sheet away.”
Students put their papers away, and Mrs. Higgins walks over to the SmartBoard to pull up
SmartMusic.
“It’s been quite some time since we’ve done any SmartMusic. I know you’ve missed it,” Mrs.
Higgins says sarcastically, with a smile. “Our first example is going to have two flats in the key signature. If we have two flats in the key, what key are we in?” She walks back over to the whiteboard, and begins drawing five lines and a treble clef, accompanied by the B flat and E flat of their key.
“B flat,” a student answers.
“B flat, I heard somebody say,” Mrs. Higgins says, completing the staff. “So B flat and E flat, second to last, so we’re in the key of B flat. Do is on the middle line –” she draws a whole note on B5 “– where would my low do be? Where’s the lower do?”
A student raises her hand and quietly describes the location of low do. Mrs. Higgins listens, draws a whole note on B4, and says, “Yes, it’s below that ledger line. So there’s our low do and there’s our high do,” pointing to each whole note. “This is going to be in 3/4 time, so three beats per measure. You’re going to have thirty seconds to practice. I’ll write in a little bit of the solfege for you, but try to get as much as you can on your own. Here we go.”
Mrs. Higgins clicks the laptop and the SmartBoard plays the triad. The students begin practicing the exercise on their own. Mrs. Higgins writes the solfege for a few notes under the exercise on the SmartBoard, and then walks around the room to answer a student’s question. After thirty seconds, the SmartBoard plays the triad again. 194
“Sing out!” Mrs. Higgins calls. She starts the SmartMusic click track, counts them off, and walks to the back of the room. The students sing the exercise together, and Mrs. Higgins sings with them from the back. They are largely accurate.
“Okay, not bad! I was singing with you. Do it without me singing with you.” She walks back to the front of the room. “What’s our rhythm in the third measure?”
Some students begin to count quietly aloud. “Who just did that?” Mrs. Higgins asks. A student raises her hand. “Do it again,” Mrs. Higgins says.
“One, and three,” the student counts.
“Great. ‘One, and three.’ And it’s on ‘la, sol fa,’” Mrs. Higgins models. “Ready, and go.”
The students all sing, “La, sol fa,” and some sing on to their next note, “sol.”
“Do you want to sing the next note? Okay. Ready, and –” Mrs. Higgins cues.
“La, sol fa sol,” the class sings.
“Most of you got this ‘mi sol’ situation,” Mrs. Higgins says, pointing to the last two measures.
“From the start, without me singing with you!” She presses the button on the laptop, and the
SmartMusic triad plays.
“Do, do re,” Mrs. Higgins sings, modeling their first entrance. She counts them off as the click track plays. They sing the exercise all the way through. Mrs. Higgins refreshes the screen, and the solfege that she wrote in disappears.
“Can you do it without all the solfege written in? What if you get to a part and you don’t know what the solfege is?”
“Sing it on ‘la,’” some students respond.
“Sing it on ‘la,’” Mrs. Higgins confirms. “You just keep going. I would rather hear this…” She sings the exercise, alternating between solfege and neutral syllables. The class giggles. “Right? 195
I’m totally fine with that! Do the solfege you know and keep singing no matter what. Don’t go,
‘do, do… don’t know it.’ Keep going, no matter what. Keep singing!”
She clicks the laptop to play the triad again, and after the click starts, she counts the class off, and walks around the room. They sing the entire exercise accurately. After they are done, she walks back to the front.
“What if I take away the green line?” Mrs. Higgins suggests, indicating the line on the screen that was tracking along with the beat on the exercise as they sang. “Why do we take away the green line sometimes?”
“Because it’s not in the music,” a student says.
“Say that again?”
“Because it’s not in our real music,” she repeats.
“Exactly! Because it’s not in your real music!” Mrs. Higgins laughs. “There’s no green line, saying, ‘Here’s where you are, ladies!’ So you’ve got to know how to do it without. Here we go, no green line.”
Mrs. Higgins plays the triad again, and the click track begins. She counts off the class, and they sing the exercise as she walks around the room.
“Nice. I’m going to put the green line back. Is there anybody who is brave and wants to try it on their own?” Mrs. Higgins asks.
A student raises her hand.
“[Student 17] is brave!” Mrs. Higgins praises. “Do you like my quote today, [Student 17]?” She points to the quote of the day on the whiteboard.
“Oh yes, I love it,” says Student 17. 196
“Way to take a risk!” Mrs. Higgins tells her. “Okay, [Student 17] alone.” She starts SmartMusic, which plays the triad and click track. Mrs. Higgins counts her off, and [Student 17] sings the exercise. The click track cuts off midway through, and Student 17 uncertainly stops.
“Oh, she was doing so well, and then it just stopped for no reason!” Mrs. Higgins bemoans.
“Okay, one more time, [Student 17]. You’ve got it!”
Mrs. Higgins clicks the laptop and the triad plays, but no click track starts. She waits, and dramatically gestures her arms toward the SmartBoard in expectation. The class laughs. The click track starts. Student 17 sings the exercise all the way through, accurately, without stopping.
“Give her a hand!” Mrs. Higgins exclaims. The class applauds.
“It’s stuck. It didn’t grade you. But you did great! Ready?” Mrs. Higgins tosses a piece of candy from her desk toward Student 17. Students react with excitement.
“Oh, now other people want to go! I see how it is!” Mrs. Higgins teases them. “Okay [Student
18], your turn.” She starts SmartMusic, and Student 18 sings the exercise.
“Give her a hand!” Mrs. Higgins exclaims again, and the class claps for Student 2. Mrs. Higgins throws Student 18 a piece of candy.
“Nice job. New example ladies, if this ever unfreezes. Here it goes. I don’t know why it’s doing that.” Mrs. Higgins pulls up a new example on SmartMusic. “What key are we in? Say it if you know it.”
“F,” a few students say.
“And do we start on do? What note do we start on?” Mrs. Higgins asks.
Some students murmur answers.
“What?” Mrs. Higgins asks, holding her hand up to her ear. “What?”
“Ti!” the students call out loudly. 197
“Ti, thank you! We start on ti. Here’s your do, on F, the first space.” She plays an F on the piano.
She sings, “Do,” then “Ti” on their respective pitches. “Try it.”
The students sing the exercise as Mrs. Higgins snaps the beat and points to the board, but they fumble over the third measure.
“Oh! Switching it up on you. What do you have there?” Mrs. Higgins asks. “Ti la ti.”
They sing the measure slowly, isolating each note.
“Thank you. This eighth note at the end of the line is going to feel like a pickup into the next line. The rhythm would be ‘one… and,’” Mrs. Higgins counts. “So over there, ‘One… and one, two, one.’ It’s going to feel like it’s leading into the next line.” She sings the last measure of the first line and the first measure of the second line on solfege, patting her leg on the beat of rest.
“What do we have here?” she says, pointing to the second line.
“A do-mi-sol snowman,” a student calls out.
“Yeah, a do-mi-sol snowman! We’ve got a triad. Then what?” She allows students to call out answers. “A rest and then? Sol fa mi re, coming down the scale. Then?”
The students look at the board and murmur.
“Stop, sing do. Go stepwise up to sol.” The students sing do, then stepwise up to high sol, then from do leaping up to sol as Mrs. Higgins sings with them and shows hand signs.
“Now stepwise down to low sol.” The students sing do, then stepwise down to low sol, then from do leaping down to sol as Mrs. Higgins sings with them and shows hand signs. She leads them in several echo patterns using do and sol, leaping between the upper and the lower octave.
“So this is Lesson 10 in our book, and the main focus is practicing an octave jump. So in the previous example, you have high do to low do at the end, right, so this one you’re doing sol to 198 sol, which is still an octave jump. So you’ve got:” she models the last few measures, and the students echo her. “Cool. Try the whole thing.”
The SmartBoard plays the triad, then the starting note.
“Sit tall, sing loud,” Mrs. Higgins says. “Follow the notes with your eyes. It’ll start when it decides to. For some reason it’s being slow.” The click track eventually starts, and the students sing the exercise. Mrs. Higgins walks around the back of the room and sings with them. On the last note, which carries a fermata, Mrs. Higgins sings exaggeratedly long, and indicates that they should hold out the note with her. She cuts them off with her hand.
“Tell your neighbor why we did that.”
The students turn to their neighbors and say, “Fermata.”
“Why?” Mrs. Higgins calls out.
“Fermata,” answers the class.
“There’s a fermata! [Student 19], what’s a fermata?”
Student 19 replies, “Hold it out until the conductor says.”
“Okay, what if you’re doing a solo and there’s no conductor?” Mrs. Higgins asks.
Student 19 is uncertain.
“What if there’s no conductor to tell you when to stop?” Mrs. Higgins repeats. A few students call out answers. “You hold it until you want to!” Mrs. Higgins rejoins, smiling. “Longer than it normally would be, right? So if you’re doing this as a solo and there’s no conductor, you would hold this half note longer than two beats. But it’s kind of up to your discretion. Just hold it longer. I heard a lot of really accurate singing!” she continues. “But I felt like we were not prepared for this eighth note right here.” She points to a measure on the SmartBoard. “So if we’re going along, ‘one and two, one, and one.’ Ready? Speaking.” 199
The students echo the rhythm.
Mrs. Higgins says, “Ready, again.” They speak the counts again.
“Now speak the solfege of that rhythm.” She models speaking the solfege in rhythm, and the students echo her.
“Now sing it.” She vocally models the section, singing on solfege, and the students copy her.
“Ok, we’re going to do it one more time. I’m challenging you to follow the dynamics this time!”
She vocally models the exercise, using exaggerated dynamics. “Alright? Your turn.”
Mrs. Higgins starts SmartMusic. She adjusts the program, and the triad plays.
“Try to follow the dynamics,” she directs. The click track begins, and Mrs. Higgins walks around the room to listen and monitor, but does not sing with them.
“Good job! You need a pencil and a writing surface.” Students move around the room to gather supplies. Once they are seated, Mrs. Higgins moves around the room, passing out worksheets.
She walks back to the front of the room and turns on the document camera on the SmartBoard, projecting a blank copy of the dictation worksheet.
“Did anyone not get one? Okay girls. So, how many of you have done dictation before, maybe in seventh grade? Do you remember? Kinda-sorta? So dictation is writing what you hear. Now some of you think you have done it?”
Students nod and say, “Yeah.”
Mrs. Higgins continues, “It’s building a new connection in your brain as far as music-reading skills, kind of like in English class, where you both read and write, or in Spanish, where you read and write and speak and listen. You do all four of those things to become really fluent in
Spanish. To be really fluent as a music-reader and a musician, means that you can both read it, like sight-reading, and write it, which is what we’re going to be doing today. 200
“So, first we’re going to do rhythmic dictation. Rhythmic dictation means you’re just going to be listening to the rhythm. So I’m going to be playing a rhythm on the piano, but all on the same note though, so you’re not going to be listening for, like, is it going from do to mi or anything, it’s all going to be on one note. You’re just listening for the rhythm, and you’re going to write down the rhythm that you hear.
“Now for some students, it’s easier if they write the counting first. So if they heard this –” she pats four beats of rhythm on her lap – “they would write very quickly, ‘One, two, three-and four.’ Other students do kind of like a shorthand the first time around. So if they heard that rhythm, they might write this –” she takes a marker, walks over to the SmartBoard and on the projection of the worksheet, and writes just the stems for two quarter notes, a set of eighth notes, and a final quarter note. “Do you understand how that would be a quick way to write ‘one, two, three-and four’? And then they might go back later and write out it more nicely.
“But the first example that you hear is going to be four measures long, so you’re just writing rhythm for the top line – the second line will be a different one. It will be four measures long, in
4/4 time, and I’m going to play the entire thing three times. So don’t feel like you have to get the whole thing on the first listen. Maybe you only get the first measure or two on the first time you hear it, and then the next time you hear it you get another measure, and then the last time you hear it, you finish it off. So, just whatever you can get in your first listen.”
A student, who has been waiting by the pencil sharpener, takes advantage of the pause in instruction and sharpens her pencil. Other students turn and look, surprised by the loud sound, and the first student looks guiltily at Mrs. Higgins.
“Sorry,” the student says.
Mrs. Higgins smiles. “You’re okay!” The student returns to her seat. 201
“So, this is the beat on my body,” Mrs. Higgins continues, patting a beat on her leg. “And I’m going to play it on the piano. “Here’s the first example.”
She plays four measures of rhythm on the piano on a single note while keeping the beat on her body, then pauses as students silently write on their papers. She walks around the room to observe, then makes her way back up to the front.
“I’m going to play the exact same thing again. It’s the same one again,” Mrs. Higgins says, walking behind the piano and patting the beat again. “One, two, here it is.” She plays the same rhythm on the piano a second time, then walks around the room again as students silently write.
“The exact same one, last time. So check your work if you think you have the whole thing already, or finish what you haven’t gotten yet.” She pats the beat, plays the rhythm on the piano, and waits behind the piano as students finish writing.
“Who thinks they have measure 1 and wants to be brave?” Mrs. Higgins pauses, and a few students raise their hands. “[Student 19], what do you have for measure 1?”
“Eighth note, eighth note, eighth note, dotted quarter note?” Student 19 suggests.
“Not quite,” Mrs. Higgins replies. “It did start with eighth notes. Who else thinks they may have gotten measure 1? [Student 20], what do you think?”
“An eighth note, a quarter note, and a half note?” answers Student 20.
Using her pencil on the worksheet on the document camera, Mrs. Higgins fills in the rhythm for the first measure, saying as she writes, “It is a pair of eighth notes, a quarter note, and a half note.” Students react with realization. “Who thinks they got the next measure? [Student 21]?”
“A whole note,” says Student 21.
“A whole note!” echoes Mrs. Higgins, writing the whole note in measure 2. “The next measure?
[Student 22].” 202
Student 23 says, “A whole rest.”
“A whole rest!” Mrs. Higgins repeats, filling in the rest in the third measure. “You could have also put four quarter rests, or two half rests. In the last measure – what did you get for the last measure? [Student 24].”
“Uh, four quarter notes,” says Student 7 hesitantly, and then, more confidently, repeats, “Four quarter notes.”
“Four quarter notes,” agrees Mrs. Higgins, filling in the rhythm. “Show me on your fingers how many measures you got right. So, if you got the whole thing, show me four. If you got three out of the four measures, two measures, one measure, no measures,” she explains, holding up the respective number of fingers each time. “Let’s see how we did.”
The students hold up numbers on their fingers.
“I’m seeing a lot of threes. Perhaps that first measure caught us by surprise. Okay, pretty good!
Let’s do another one,” says Mrs. Higgins, moving back to the piano. “We’re looking at the next line down, and it’s a new rhythm now. A new rhythm now! I will tell you that the only measure that has any rests in it is measure 3. Here we go. One, two, new example.”
Mrs. Higgins repeats the same process as before, patting the beat and playing a new four- measure rhythmic example on a single note of the piano. She remains at the piano and scans the room with her eyes as the students silently write.
“Here’s the same one again,” she says, repeating the process a second time, then waiting as students write.
“Last time, here we go,” she says, repeating the process one last time. She stands and walks around the room to look at students’ papers, then walks back to the front. 203
“Okay! What do we have in measure 1?” Mrs. Higgins asks. “Someone who hasn’t shared yet today. How about [Student 25]?”
“I got ‘one, three,’” says Student 25.
“Awesome. ‘One, three,’ or two half notes,” Mrs. Higgins confirms, writing the answer on the worksheet. “As I was walking around, I didn’t see anybody who had measure 2 right! Last class,
I think only [Student 16] and [Student 7] got it right. It’s a dotted quarter note, followed by an eighth, and then two quarter notes.” She writes the rhythm, and the students react with quiet frustration. “I think some of the boys were more successful in that because we did a whole bunch more rhythm before doing this dictation in the boys’ class, so they kind of already had these rhythms in their brains. The third measure was ‘rest, two-and, rest, four-and,’” she continues, writing in the next measure of rhythm. “And then what was in the last measure? [Student 26]?”
“A whole note,” answers Student 26.
“A whole note,” echoes Mrs. Higgins, writing in the note on the final measure. “Last thing we’re going to do today, girls. On this melodic dictation, we’re only doing one measure. Give yourself a flat in the key signature. Give yourself a 4/4-time signature. F is do, in the first space. Give yourself an F quarter note on do.” She writes the key signature, time signature, and first note on the worksheet, then walks to the piano. “And I’m just going to give one measure of notes, but the pitch is going to change this time. The first note is do, but then it might go up or down or stay the same from there. Okay? Write what you hear, it’s just one measure long.”
She plays an F major chord, and on an F, sings, “That’s your do. One, two, ready go.” She pats a beat and on all quarter notes, plays 1-2-3-1. She pauses, and plays it two more times. The students write on their papers, some quietly singing as they do so. 204
Mrs. Higgins walks out from behind the piano and asks, “What did I play? Sing it on solfege.
One, two, three, go.”
“Do re mi do,” sings the class.
“In quarter notes! Good job. So it should look like this,” Mrs. Higgins says, walking back to the worksheet and writing the notes in their appropriate locations. “Okay! Please put this paper in your choir folder. We’ll do some other examples another day. Make sure your name is on it, and you can go ahead and pack up. If you borrowed a pencil, make sure you return it.” The class packs up.
205
APPENDIX F
OBSERVATIONS (SARAH ROSS), FEBRUARY 17, 2020
ViVo (Intermediate Women’s Choir)
Mrs. Ross’s classroom is within the Fine Arts building at Marana High School, toward the end of a long hallway. The walls of the room are sand-colored brick, covered in posters featuring musical concepts and concert themes, and stretch up toward blue sound panels around the top of the room. The floor is tan and concrete, and black chairs are set up in rows that nearly fill the room. At the front, a wide whiteboard stretches across the wall, upon which the day’s sight- singing pages and example numbers as well as lists of repertoire are written. On the left of the whiteboard, a gray desk houses a computer and a set of speakers. On the right is a brown wooden grand piano.
Students enter the classroom, each collecting a black binder from the bins at the back of the room, and, chattering with their friends, find their seats.
Mrs. Ross starts the metronome at quarter note = 80. She sits at the piano.
Mrs. Ross plays the triad on the piano. “Walk to your first note.”
Students sing “Do mi sol mi do sol do.”
“Ready, go.”
Students read through exercise, one note at a time, on solfege, but struggling slightly to find each note.
“Oh, wait, stop. I was going to let you keep going, but this time, don’t stop. Walk to your first note.”
Students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do,” establishing the triad and finding their first note. 206
“One, ready, go.”
Students start singing the exercise one note at a time, but have trouble singing fa accurately.
“Wait, try again. You’re almost there. Sing do.”
Students sing do accurately.
Mrs. Ross points at her ear, encouraging them to listen. “Walk to fa.”
Students sing, “Do re mi fa.”
Mrs. Ross points in the air when they accurately sing fa. “There you go. Ok. One, two, and ready, sing.”
Students sing exercise one note at a time, following the metronome.
“Stop. Good. Do you hear that?” She points at the air, toward the sound of the metronome.
Students say, “Oh,” realizing their singing is not lining up with the metronome.
“You’re just behind. Go a little faster. Do you hear the pattern? Do it again and find the pattern.”
Students sing exercise again, more accurately, following the beat of the metronome. They stumble on a note.
“Oh, that was so close! We’re at the end. You’ve got what? Sol. And then what? Ti.” The students answer the questions in some unison.
“Yes. Again.” Mrs. Ross plays triad on the piano. “Walk to your first note.”
Students sing “Do mi sol mi do sol do.”
“One two, again, go.”
The students sing and are mostly accurate, but are flat on the last note.
“Close. You’re just really flat now.” Mrs. Ross plays the starting pitch on the piano. “Do you want to try it one more time? Try it one more time.” 207
The students sing the exercise, and while they sing, Mrs. Ross plays low do and high do, alternating, as quarter notes along with the metronome underneath.
“Good. Yeah, okay,” she says. She rolls the triad on the piano underneath their last do.
“Let’s count. We’re in 6. Walk to your note.”
The students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do.”
“One two three four five, count.”
The students begin to count-sing the exercise, but quickly make errors on the pitches.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Mrs. Ross calls out, and the students pause. “Think about it in your head. You just sang it like five times.” She allows them a few seconds to think. “The counts were right. The
5-6 was right. But you forgot we already sang this.”
They sing again, more accurately, on counts. Whenever there is a sustained note, Mrs. Ross counts all the intervening numbers aloud. Students continue until the end of the exercise, but make a mistake near the end.
“Wait. Is that ‘do’ or ‘re’? Yeah, it’s ‘re,’” Mrs. Ross instructs.
The students sing, “Re.”
“Yes, that’s it. Can you start on re?”
The students sing the exercise, beginning on the note that had been incorrect before. When they reach a leap down to “la ti do,” Mrs. Ross plays the notes along with them on the piano. They make another error on a re in the next measure. Mrs. Ross laughs.
“Wait, is that do or re?” She plays it on the piano. “Ok, go back to the first re. Do you know where that is?”
They murmur yes. 208
The students count-sing again, Mrs. Ross continuing to count intervening beats and occasionally saying, “Yes,” or “good” when they correctly sing notes that had been trouble spots before.
“Yeah, that was right,” she tells them at the end of the exercise. “Walk to your first note.”
Students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do,” with some exasperation.
Mrs. Ross laughs. “It sounds like, ‘Do,’” she sings, groaning dramatically. The students laugh.
“Sorry, go,” she rejoins. “On the solfege. Four and five and go.”
The students sing the exercise
“[Student 27], you’re overshooting.”
Student 27 says, “Oh, it wasn’t me.”
Another student next to her admits, “It was me.”
Mrs. Ross says, “Oh, ok,” and counts off the students again.
The students attempt the exercise again.
“Yeah, we’re just not in tune,” Mrs. Ross tells them. “Try it again.”
They sing again, and Mrs. Ross stops them on a “fa.”
“Think higher.” She points up as they sing, and gradually the pitch rises.
“But not ‘sol!’” They laugh. “Listen! You’re singing ‘do fa.’” She sings “fa” under pitch, while playing the correct pitch on the piano, then sings the pitches accurately. “I know it’s first period.
I know it’s Monday. I know you’re dying [referencing students who said they were sick]. Let’s try it again. First note, go ahead.”
Students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do.”
Students sing exercise again on solfege, but still struggle with a large leap in the middle.
“Oh, let’s do that again, and I think you can fix that, right, when we get there? One more time, and go.” 209
Mrs. Ross walks back and forth across front of the room, looking at the exercise in the book but listening to individual students, still counting through sustained notes. They make the same error again.
She stops them by raising her hand in the air. “Let’s sing ‘la sol fa do re mi.’ Actually, let’s just sing ‘do re mi.’”
They sing “do re mi” accurately.
“Do it again.”
They sing “do re mi” again.
Mrs. Ross says to a student near her, “[Student 28], yours is a little too high,” then directs her attention back to the class: “Now sing ‘la sol fa do re mi.’”
They sing, but their “la” is not accurate.
“Hold out ‘la,’” Mrs. Ross insists.
Students sing “la,” but most are under pitch. One student on the opposite side of the room from where Mrs. Ross is standing is singing the note accurate. Mrs. Ross points to the accurate student, and the other students match their pitch to hers.
Mrs. Ross cuts them off with her hand, and points to the accurate student. “That’s ‘la.’”
The student, alone, sings, “La.”
Mrs. Ross, to the class, says, “Match your ‘la’ to hers.”
They sing “la.”
Mrs. Ross says, “Good. Let’s do it again.”
They start the exercise again, but still struggle with the same “la sol fa do re mi” sequence.
Mrs. Ross commands, “Stop! Sing ‘do re mi.’”
Students sing “do re mi” accurately. 210
Mrs. Ross: “Sing ‘la sol fa do re mi.’”
The students sing “la sol fa do re mi,” but do not sing do accurately.
Mrs. Ross collapses in joking frustration. Students laugh.
“No, it’s just ‘do’!” she insists. “Do it again.”
The students sing “la sol fa do re mi” accurately this time.
Mrs. Ross “Good! We’re going to do it again and we’re going to get it this time!”
She plays alternating high do and low do on the piano again. Students sing the exercise.
“Think ahead! Really high!”
They sing the trouble spot fairly accurately.
“Pretty good! Keep going.”
They finish accurately.
“Ok, walk to your first note!”
Students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do.”
Mrs. Ross tells them, “Remember, think, think, think! One, two, ready, go.”
Students sing the exercise again on a neutral syllable (“doo”), while she plays high do and low do alternating on the piano. They are accurate until they reach the trouble spot. When they struggle again to find the accurate pitches, some students groan or laugh in frustration.
Mrs. Ross holds up her hand. “Stop, stop, stop. This is what you’re doing.” She plays the notes of the trouble spot on the piano, but then slams multiple dissonant notes on the part that they have been struggling on. Students burst into laughter.
Mrs. Ross vocally models the passage accurately on “doo.” 211
“It’s not so low! A lot of you want to go too low, like –” She sings trouble pitch comically low.
“Try it again.”
Students sing it again, still going too low.
“No, hold it out.”
They sing again, holding out do. There are multiple pitches heard on the held note.
“No, just hold do. I hear two notes. I should hear one note. Try it again. Lots of space [models].”
Students sing again, holding do more accurately.
“Do it again. From the beginning.”
They sing as Mrs. Ross plays alternating low do and high do on the piano. Before the trouble pitch, Mrs. Ross calls out, “Think!” They sing it fairly accurately, but stumble again slightly at the end.
“Ok. So, some of us are like, ‘It’s Monday, we’re sick.’ So given what you know about yourself, knowing how you’re singing now, what will that mean for the other things we’re singing today?
Are we going to be in tune or out of tune?” They answer, “Out of tune.” Mrs. Ross: “And what kind of out of tune?” Student: “Flat.” Mrs. Ross: “Flat, yes. So we’re going to warm up and we’re going to address that.”
She moves into a series of warm-ups, and then begins rehearsing their repertoire for their performance without further specific mention of sight-singing or music literacy concepts.
Women’s Chorale (Freshmen Treble)
The students enter the room, chatting with others and gathering materials. Mrs. Ross starts the metronome at quarter note = 120 and walks away to talk to another teacher. 212
A student plays alternating high do and low do on the piano. A different student stands in front of the class and leads the class as they sing the interval sheet. Students are mostly seated and singing out of their books, but some students walk around the room gathering materials
Mrs. Ross walks into the room and smiles at the students.
Mrs. Ross asks, “Are those chairs taken?” The students adjust and find seats. Mrs. Ross changes the metronome to quarter note = 80.
Mrs. Ross: “Did you do your interval sheet already? Oh, you already did it!” She waves hello to the class. “Ok, raise your hand if your body is dead.” She raises her hand. Most of the students raise their hands too. “Wait, don’t be dramatic. If you’re actually - ‘I am unwell in some capacity.’” Some students reconsider and put their hands down. “And ‘I stayed up late last night binging Netflix on my bed, on my phone even though Ms. Ross told me not to’ doesn’t count.”
Students laugh, some put their hands down. “I’m just checking!”
Students laugh and chatter with others around them, one jokingly calling out, “Shame, shame!”
Mrs. Ross grabs a sight-singing book and looks at the example for the day.
“Ok, number 81. What’s happening back here?” She points at a corner of the room where students are clustered together. “Well, we don’t have voicing. Like that’s happening today! Back row, scoot down. Scoot over.”
“Can you do it again? Can you start there?” She plays the “do sol do sol do” section on the piano. “Just very quickly. Ready?” She turns off the metronome and plays alternating high do and low do on the piano. The students sing the interval sheet again, starting at the section she indicated.
“Good, ok. 81, please. Walk to your first note.” Students are still murmuring to their classmates and finding the spot in the book. Mrs. Ross repeats, “Walk to your first note.” Students sing, “Do 213 mi sol mi do sol do,” albeit a bit halfheartedly and not all at the same time. Mrs. Ross walks up to a few individual students and asks three of them, in turn, “Are you singing?” She turns back to the full class. “Walk to your first note, everybody go now!” Students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do,” in greater unison this time.
Mrs. Ross says, “Ah! Beautiful. Can you please look at the first measure and answer – why did I just have you redo that thing,” referring to the section of the interval sheet. A student answers,
“Because of do sol!” Mrs. Ross: “Oh! Good, here we go. Solfege only please. Ready, go.”
Students begin singing the section on solfege, but three notes in, they stumble over finding the notes.
Mrs. Ross asks, “Everybody ready now? Ok. One, two, ready, go.”
The students sing the section on solfege only, singing about half of the notes accurately but stumbling over the larger leaps.
“Wait, stop,” Mrs. Ross says, “No matter what, you over here –” she gestures to a group of students – “don’t stop. Don’t stop and don’t talk. Walk to your first note.” Students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do,” and begin singing the exercise again, on solfege, one note at a time, and this time they sing all the way to the end.
Mrs. Ross praises, “Ok, very good. Now that we’ve made it through, let’s do it one more time.
One note at a time. We’re doing just 81. Walk to your first note.”
The students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do.”
Mrs. Ross: “Good. Make sure you put two feet on the floor and our arms and books off our lap.
That’ll help.” Students shift into the posture that she requested. “Ok. One, two, ready, go.” The students sing the exercise all the way through again. 214
“Thank you. Count. Get your hand ready.” She holds her hand in the air, indicating the “box” of four beats, and the students mimic her. “One, two, counting, and, ready, go.”
The students count-sing the exercise all the way through, fairly accurately, without stopping.
“Ok, walk to your first note again and we’ll sing on solfege.”
The students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do.”
Mrs. Ross: “So, can you do [the box] with your hand and also sing on solfege? That’s like, all parts of your brain. That’s what conductors do a lot. Because you’re always keeping the beat, but also doing other things. One, two, ready, go.” The students sing the exercise again on solfege, while keeping the beat in a box in the air with their hands.
“Question, was that hard?”
Students murmur, “No.”
“To keep the beat? You think it’s pretty easy?”
Students murmur a few different answers, and one says, “It’s hard.”
Mrs. Ross rejoins, “That’s okay. Can we do it again? It’s a lot to do. But the more you can make this automatic, so you’re not like thinking about it – I mean, ideally, everything will be automatic.” She stops the metronome. “Ideally – it’s like walking and reading, which maybe is unsafe, but bear with me for a minute.” The students laugh. “Walking is something you do without thinking about it, it’s a physical movement that’s a pattern, and you do it without thinking about it, and reading is something if you’re fluent, you do without thinking about it – you’re thinking about what you’re reading, you’re not thinking about reading. So ideally, this would be like walking and reading… a book.” Students chuckle. “But don’t run into anything.
One time, I used to walk to the bus stop when I was in school, and one time I was reading, and I walked right into a mailbox.” She mimes a mailbox hitting the book, and then hitting her in the 215 head. Students laugh. “So don’t do that. But, that sort of sense of like, ‘I’m just doing these things and I’m not thinking about it,’ so ideally what you should be listening for is the melody.
That’s why we sing on ‘doo doo doo.’ You’re not thinking about the solfege, you’re not thinking about the counts, you’re thinking about the melody. But that is a big step. Let’s do it again. Walk to your first note.”
The students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do.”
Mrs. Ross restarts the metronome. “Ok, using your hand, singing on solfege again. One, two, ready, and go.”
The students sing the exercise again as directed, with a high level of accuracy.
“Good,” Mrs. Ross tells them. “‘Doo doo doo.’ One and two and ready, go.”
The students sing the exercise again, on pitch, in rhythm, on the neutral syllable. They make few mistakes.
Mrs. Ross happily says, “Ok! How do you feel?”
The students nod or give a thumbs up.
“Ok, pass your books,” she says, and they move onto the next part of their rehearsal.
Symphonic Choir (Advanced Mixed Choir)
The students enter the classroom and begin chatting with each other and gathering materials.
Mrs. Ross calls out, “Our interval sheet first, please.”
The students continue gradually moving to place, still talking.
Mrs. Ross starts the metronome at quarter note = 120. Seeing how many students still aren’t ready, she says, “Guys, are we done yet? Come on, let’s go, let’s go! I’ve been watching you walk back and forth for like five minutes. Let’s go!” 216
Two students walk into the classroom, and Mrs. Ross greets them with a warm, “Hi!”, then turns back to the class: “Here we go! B major, please.” She begins playing alternating low do and high do on the piano along with the beat kept by the metronome.
The students sing the interval sheet, although there is still a flurry of activity as they continue to gather materials and get to their seats.
“Stop, do the last line again, but cover the syllables so you’re just reading the notes. One, two, ready, go.”
The students sing the last line again.
“Thank you. 122,” Mrs. Ross instructs, indicating the page number of the exercise.
The students turn in their books to the appropriate page, continuing to chat with those around them.
Mrs. Ross asks, “How fast should we go?”
A student calls out, somewhat jokingly, “200!”
Mrs. Ross turns the metronome to 200 and students jokingly begin to sing along, although the tempo is clearly too fast. Mrs. Ross laughs and says, “I’m going to say 95.” She adjusts the metronome to quarter note = 95.
“Ok, look at where it modulates,” she observes. “What does ‘modulate’ mean?”
A few students answer at the same time, but one clearly says, “When the key changes.”
Mrs. Ross acknowledges the correct student and says, “Yes, when the key changes. So be ready for that. Ok, walk to your first note.”
The students sing, “Do mi sol mi do sol do,” and some students continue singing stepwise up to
“mi,” “sol,” or high “do” at the end.
Mrs. Ross says, “Bass clef! Not sol. Mi.” 217
The basses in the back adjust to singing “mi,” and one sings, on the “mi” pitch, “Mi, my bad!”
Mrs. Ross says, “Ok, ready? We’re doing the whole thing. If you didn’t know what B major was, you’ll know by the end. Okay? Here we go. And guess what? Lots of skips and thirds.”
She walks to a student and asks, “Are you singing bass or treble right now?”
He answers, “Treble right now.”
She replies, “Ok, you should sing whatever clef is prepping you for your all-state audition.”
Mrs. Ross sings “do” and “mi” on the appropriate pitches, and counts off, “One, two, ready, go.”
The students begin singing the exercise, one beat a time, on solfege. The exercise is in two parts, with the women and some tenors singing in treble clef and the basses singing in bass clef. The exercise is clearly very chromatic and while the students valiantly try to keep going no matter what, they struggle to find the appropriate pitches throughout the exercise. At one point, the basses drop out altogether, and Mrs. Ross walks over to sing with them and help them find their part again, but even she struggles to sing the notes correctly. Eventually, both parts stumble to an uncertain stop, and dissolve into laughter.
Mrs. Ross stops, and looks at the class in horror. “Good, um, okay.”
Students burst into laughter.
“So what’s happening in that one part? So in this key, with all these sharps, naturals are lower.
Oh, I’m literally going to pass out.”
She grabs a stool and sits down. Students murmur concern.
She continues, “You have ‘me,’ and ‘te,’ and ‘le,’ and all that stuff. We’re all going to try the treble clef, the fifth measure, the third system. Sing ‘do.’”
In unison, they sing, “Do.” 218
Mrs. Ross says, “You’ve got it. So every natural would be a flat – a lowered pitch. And we’re going fast. Here we go. Ready? Everyone is in treble clef. Bass clef, yours is the same, but opposite. Here we go. One, two, start on do, good luck.”
She sings along with them as they read the section.
Mrs. Ross stops them, and says, “Wait, idea! Sing ‘do.’ Look at the treble clef. Listen.”
She sings the line, but starting the solfege on “la” instead of do. The solfege is far less chromatic and easier to follow.
Students say, “Oh,” in realization.
Mrs. Ross continues, “Really, all that is happening there, is that we treat it like it’s D major. We just keep two of the sharps, F and C sharp. All the other sharps are gone. So if you think B becomes a la, you can do it. Because it’s like do-based minor, but we use la-based minor usually.”
Students nod and murmur to each other, clearly working to understand the concept.
Mrs. Ross walks over to the metronome and turns it off. “So in our world, when it’s in a minor key, you call the tonic ‘la,’ so we sing, ‘La do mi do la’” (she sings the minor triad), “but in do- based minor, you would sing, ‘Do me sol me do.’” She sings the major triad, and then sings the entire natural minor scale on solfege, starting on do. “Can you sing la to la, in a minor scale?
Let’s do natural minor. So no accidentals.”
The students sing a la-based natural minor scale. Mrs. Ross writes the solfege vertically on the white board, first in la-based minor, then in do-based minor next to it.
“Do it again.”
They sing the la-based minor scale again.
“Ok, now sing this one.” She points to the do-based minor scale she just wrote on the board. 219
The students sing the do-based natural minor scale.
“Ok, now this one.”
She has them sing both scales, alternating, three times.
“Good, now look at that measure. We’re all in treble clef. Ready?” She sings “do” and says,
“We’ll go slower. Ready, go.”
The students sing the section again as Mrs. Ross sings and snaps the beat along with them, and they are much more successful than before. However, after the scale section is sung, they struggle to find the next set of chromatic notes.
She stops them, “Oh, wait, what is that?” A few students begin to answer. “Yes, ‘fa fi sol fa, me re do,’” Mrs. Ross responds. “Because the E natural is not fa-flat, it’s fi-flat. It’s reminding you to go back. That’s confusing. That E natural doesn’t need to be there. It’s just a reminder. Okay.
So did that help a little?”
One student decisively says, “Yes.”
Mrs. Ross returns, “A little? Ok. So when you get to that section, it’s just a minor scale. So don’t overthink it. Just sing minor. You can do it. Let’s go slower. We’ll do the whole song. Can you sing the B pitch?”
The students sing, “Do.”
Mrs. Ross says to the basses, “And now the bass clef, do re mi.”
They sing, “Do re mi.”
Mrs. Ross restarts the metronome. “From the beginning on solfege. I slowed it down. Ok. One, two, ready, go.”
The students sing the exercise in two parts from the beginning again, more successfully than before initially, but still struggle on the chromaticism. However, they keep singing. Mrs. Ross 220 walks over and sings with the basses again, but everyone, including Mrs. Ross, struggles to find the correct notes as the exercise goes on.
“Stop. Where did you guys get stuck?”
One student says, “Second to last measure, third line.”
Mrs. Ross asks, “Was that the big jump?”
They murmur yes.
“Can I say something? I think for this number, because of the modulation, it’s very difficult to do not in rhythm. Because we’re not modulating together. When we’re in the same ‘other’ key at the same time, it’s easier. So shall we try – can we just do some chunks at a time? Let’s do the first two and a half lines.”
She stops, and exclaims, “This is hard! That’s good! Wait, is it hard for you guys? Is it hard for you?” The students laugh and nod. “That’s good! Hard is good. Let’s do the first half. Here we go.”
She stops the metronome. “Actually, we’re gonna count this. Here’s why. Look at the second system, first measure.”
They look at the measure.
“Look at it right now. You’re going to mess that up. Here’s why.” She counts it, “– and, – and, – and, – and 1,” and repeats the counting. The students quietly repeat the counts to themselves.
Mrs. Ross rejoins, “So actually, if you thought about it like this: ‘how this – day – is – goin’ – to
– end,” referencing a piece they had sung in the past (“Spiritual”).
Students laugh and murmur in understanding.
Mrs. Ross: “Ok. First note.”
They sing their starting pitch. 221
“Let’s count, ready?”
She sings, “Mi,” points to the basses in the back, starts the metronome again, and continues,
“We’re counting. One, two, and three, four – ready?”
Some students are still talking to each other. They look up and sing, “Yes” on their starting pitch.
She laughs and says, “Very good. Ok, one, two, and ready and go.”
The students begin to sing, but some are singing on solfege and some are singing on counts.
Mrs. Ross stops them: “Sorry - we’re counting! One, two, and ready, go.”
The students start singing again; this time they all sing on counts. Mrs. Ross sings along with whichever part needs the most help, and for the most part, they manage to successfully make it through the exercise. At the end of the melodically difficult section they earlier analyzed as a class, Mrs. Ross remarks, “Good,” and they continue singing. As they go on, they encounter three separate parts in which they struggle to find the correct notes, due to the modulation and chromaticism of the exercise. Each time, a few students and Mrs. Ross lightly chuckle, but they all keep singing and striving to find the next notes.
As they near the end of the exercise, Mrs. Ross calls out, “Back to the original key!” The exercise modulates back to B major, and the students sing with more confidence. When they reach the syncopated section that Mrs. Ross commented on previously, she pats the beat on her leg as she sings along to help them feel the rhythm. They struggle to find the notes, and some laugh, but Mrs. Ross calmly calls, “Keep going!” They continue singing the exercise, imperfectly but persistently.
When they reach a large leap and sing it incorrectly, Mrs. Ross briefly stops them: “Whoa, whoa, whoa! It goes to mi. Sing ‘mi,’” and she sings the pitch as they match it. 222
She looks at them and casually asks, “Do you know where we are? Pick up to the last measure.
Right there. One, two, and ready, go.”
They start singing on the correct pitch and sing the exercise through to the end. They stumble and both parts make frequent errors, but they persist and continue to sing until they have reached the end of the exercise.
Students break into side conversations with their classmates about the exercise. Amidst the rumble of conversation, a student raises her hand and asks Mrs. Ross to count the difficult rhythm again. Mrs. Ross walks over and counts, “– and, – and, – and, – and 1.”
A student remarks on the difficulty of the exercise. Mrs. Ross nods, and responds, “Actually, your minor was – it’s much better together, because you go, ‘Oh, music!’ and then you can do it.
Guess what? You’re going to do it on solfege one time.”
The students groan.
Mrs. Ross smiles and encourages them: “Yes you will! Yes, you will. And then we’ll go to ‘doo doo doo,’ and it’ll be great. Hey, when you get to the ‘1 – and, – and, – and, – and’ section, you can’t all just laugh and stop singing.”
They laugh good-naturedly in response.
She ribs them, “You all went, ‘Ha ha ha!’ and stopped singing! Ok, first note?”
The trebles sing their first note correctly.
“Ok, first note, bass clef?” She points to the bass students in the back, and they sing their pitch together.
“Good,” Mrs. Ross tells them. She pauses. “Um - I, am also… like, working. I’m working right now. This is freaking hard. I’m also working really hard, and also go, ‘Oh, where’s ‘do’?
Where’s ‘do’? Oh, there it is!’ I don’t know.” 223
They laugh.
“So it’s okay. We’re all working together. That’s good. That’s where we should live. Ok. Here we go. Solfege, in rhythm. Hold onto your butts. One, two, good luck, and go.”
The students sing the entire exercise on solfege and Mrs. Ross continues to sing along with the basses. The students reading treble clef are mostly successful, but the basses struggle. When the students come in strongly on a new minor section, Mrs. Ross says, “Good, thank you!” They continue singing and generally are more successful than the previous time, even singing the syncopated rhythm with a fairly high level of accuracy.
When they have almost reached the end, the treble and bass parts get slightly off rhythmically from each other.
Mrs. Ross laughs and says, “Whoa! You just missed your tie, right? It’s just a rhythm thing. We were so close! Can we do that spot, the last measure, second to last system?” She sings “mi fa sol” for the trebles, and “do re mi” for the basses to find their respective starting pitches.
“Ok, ready? So second to last line, last measure. One, two, ready, count.”
The students start singing the section indicated.
“Good, I need to do that again, for me,” Mrs. Ross tells them at the end. “You felt good? Hey.”
She gives a thumbs up. “Actually, I thought your solfege was really good! And I did much better with my notes when I did solfege than when I did counting. Alright, can we do the middle part?
Because I don’t know how it goes.”
They laugh and nod.
“Ok, it starts on the ‘do re me,’ that part. Two part, please. Ready? Third system. Is that right?
Yes? I just want to do these two and a half lines. Good, good, ready? Go.”
They sing the section indicated again, but sing one note incorrectly. 224
“No, no, not ti, te. Right?” She sings, “Ti do te,” and holds out the last note. “Try again. One, two, ready, go.”
She sings along with the “ti do te” when the treble singers reach that section, but they still struggle.
“Stop, stop,” she says. “Just treble clef, ready? One, two, ready, go.” All the students read the section on treble clef. When they reach the “te,” Mrs. Ross points down with the pencil in her hand. When they reach a rest, she counts and taps the beat in the air: “One, two, three, four.”
They continue singing to the end of the section, and then Mrs. Ross responds, “Yeah, yeah. So when you’re going down, you’re doing too many half steps where there aren’t half steps. Do you want to try ‘doo doo doo’ now? Are you ready?”
A student confidently says, “Yeah.”
Mrs. Ross says, “Ok! First note.”
The treble singers sing “do” and the basses sing “mi,” and Mrs. Ross sings both pitches along with them in succession. “The whole thing! ‘Doo doo doo.’ The whole thing, from the very beginning. One, two, ‘doo doo doo,’ and go.”
The students sing the entire exercise on the neutral syllable. Mrs. Ross walks over to the basses and sings along with them.
They nearly reach the end when the same “te” gives the treble singers difficulty. “Wait, it’s not right, because you keep singing ‘ti.’ Go back. What?”
A treble singer begins to say, “Well, I think the basses…”
Mrs. Ross interjects, “No, we were off, but the problem is, we sing a ‘te’ right there, but you sing a ‘ti’ right there,” holding up her book and pointing to each spot with the eraser of her pencil. 225
“So I know for sure I did not get it. That part again. On ‘doo doo doo.’ Ready? One, two, treble clef starts, go.”
The students start singing again, but still stumble on “te.” They stop singing.
“Low, low! So what is it?” Mrs. Ross asks. The students sing “doo” on the “te” pitch.
“Ok. Here’s the start of the next line. Do it one more time. Get it right.”
They begin singing again, but doubt themselves and stop.
“Wait, was that right? Someone will start very loudly singing ‘ti’ is the problem.” She vocally models the section on solfege. “That sounds like ‘mi re do,’ that measure. Same spot. Ready, go.”
They sing again, with slightly more accuracy. Mrs. Ross sings along with the treble singers, but sings an exposed entrance with the basses.
“No no no. Start on beat 3. And one, two.”
They sing again.
“No, no. That is ‘ti.’ Try again. One and two.”
When the key changes back to B major, Mrs. Ross says, “Here we go!” The students continue singing. When they sing a measure clearly inaccurately, she remarks, “Oh my gosh.”
The basses struggle to find the starting note at the beginning of a new section.
“No, start on ‘mi.’ Ready, go.”
They continue singing, and they finish the exercise.
Mrs. Ross sighs. “Whew, that was hard. Wait, what do you think? What did you notice?”
A student says, “I don’t think we’ve done this one before.”
Mrs. Ross answers, “No, I certainly don’t remember it. What did you notice about what works for you?” 226
A student says, “Because I wasn’t singing solfege, I could switch keys in my head.”
Mrs. Ross says, “Yeah. You were able to go, ‘This is minor now, and that’s ‘la.’ With this one, I think it’s almost impossible to navigate without at least recognizing what you’re doing.” She points to the two minor solfege scales that she wrote on the whiteboard. “Yeah, I agree.
Sometimes, in severe modulations, it’s not worth it. It’s actually better to look at what is functioning as do and call that ‘do’ for a little bit and then go back. There’s whole schools of thought that do that in the music, where they say, ‘Now we’re in this key,’ and they call ‘do’ whatever the key area is, instead of the key. Which totally makes sense, it’s just hard. It takes a level of knowing what is functioning as the tone. I felt, number one… oh, here’s something I noticed. Look at the second to last line. In the bass part, at least, there’s this ‘te’ and I felt like, ‘I know what ‘te’ sounds like so I can get it.’ And then, two measures later, there’s another jump up a fifth in the pattern and I missed that one. But I know what ‘te’ is and that’s an anchor note.
But again, the bass clef comes in on a D and I never got that. I could get it after! Because we got the ‘re,’ and then we can sing ‘mi.’ So, ugh! How do you feel about your rhythm? Better?” They murmur agreement. “Like the ‘da – ba, – ba, – ba, – ba,’” she says, acknowledging the rhythm they discussed before. “We know what that looks like. Boy, that was freaking hard. But well done. Pass your books.”
They move into the next part of their rehearsal, preparing for a performance later that day.
227
APPENDIX G
POST-OBSERVATION VLOG (JULIA HIGGINS), FEBRUARY 26, 2020
Julia Higgins:
Hi, so I'm Julia Higgins and Jenny Brobeck observed me teaching. And this is my reflection on what she saw.
So the first question was, "What are the voicings and level of requires that she observed?"
The first class that she observed was a sixth grade beginning treble choir. The second choir that she observed was an eighth-grade men's ensemble, tenor/bass voicing. And then the last class that she observed was an eighth-grade women's ensemble, treble choir,
SSA voicing.
The next question is, "For each choir, what were the primary objectives?" For the sixth grade beginning treble class, their objectives that day [involved] a lot of ear training. So to be able to echo, recognize, and sing patterns that included do, re, and mi. And then they also had to improvise on those pitches and their additional objective was to learn the next section in their song, The Star-Spangled Banner. For the eighth-grade boy's class and the eighth-grade girl's class. Their objectives were to review rhythms and to be able to accurately count rhythms that included dotted quarter notes followed by an eighth.
They also worked on sight-reading solfege examples that included skips of an octave, and they also doing dictation for the first time, so, to be able to write the rhythms and pitches that they heard for each choir.
228
"Briefly describe the process of the lesson." So for the sixth-grade beginning class, the steps that we went through, we started with warm-ups at the beginning of class. Then we did some echo-singing. So for their do, re and mi patterns, the first thing that we did was
I would sing a do, re, and mi pattern and they would sing it back on solfege so they could get just those pitches really comfortable in their ears and what the different combinations might sound like with those three notes. Then I would sing a pattern with those three pitches on a neutral syllable and they would sing them back on solfege. So they're internalizing and being able to hear and differentiate between those three notes. And then
I had them do the same thing, but with just showing me their hand signs so that I could kind of informally assess and see which students were really getting it and be able to hear the difference between do, re, and mi in a pattern. And then finally, I had them improvise their own pattern, and again, just did a really easy informal assessment of what I could tell which students were able to come up with their own pattern and sing it accurately.
And then we applied some of the skills that they've learned with solfege and sight- reading to learning the next portion of their arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner that they're learning. In the men's class, we also, again, started off with warm-ups. In some of those warmups, just to get their brains already thinking in solfege mode, I would ask them to think about what the pitches would be for that warmup, what the solfege would be. So for example, if they were singing, "I love to sing." (sings 1-5-3-1), being able to recognize that that's, "Do sol mi do" (sings). So they're just kind of already in that mindset. We went over some rhythms using Rhythm Randomizer, and I purposely included a lot of rhythms that used dotted quarter notes followed by an eighth or a single eighth note followed by a dotted quarter note, because that's a rhythm that we've been 229 working on a lot this year. They did some sight-reading examples in SmartMusic in the level that they're all at right now. The main concept was to be able to sight-read something that used an interval of an octave jump. So then we did some dictation where I would play a rhythm and they had to write the rhythm that they heard. And then I would play a short melodic example and they had to write the melody that they heard. The women's class did almost all the same things that the men's class did, except that they also reviewed and sang through an interval sequence sheet that I have that uses solfege where they have to sing a whole bunch of different patterns using solfege and intervals.
"What parts of your instruction would you say are you most proud of?" I think that with the sixth graders, I'm proud of the fact that a lot of them felt confident and comfortable to improvise their own pattern on do, re, and mi. And I thought there was some nice building of skills and scaffolding to get them to that point, not just in that lesson, but in previous lessons to be able to do something like that. I am really proud of my men for how well they did on their rhythm reading because we've really worked on a lot of those rhythms throughout the course of the year. And I think that many of them are getting to the point where they feel really confident in their rhythm reading ability. And I'm also proud in my women's class of how accurately they sang their interval sequence sheet, because that's also something that we've worked on throughout the year.
"Parts of the lessons that I would have changed or eliminated..." I think I maybe would have given a little bit more instruction and scaffolding to the dictation. And I've actually been doing some more dictation with those classes, with the men's and women's classes, 230 since that lesson and kind of had to back up a little bit and give them more tools and strategies to be successful in writing down the rhythms that they hear or the melodies that they hear.
"Did I use any sight-singing books, pre-established curriculum or online resources?" So in the sixth grade beginning class, no, none of that was through a book or a resource.
That's just something that I do. For the men's class, I used rhythmrandomizer.com. I also used SmartMusic program and then I created my own dictation practice sheet in the women's class. They also used SmartMusic. Both classes are using the book "Sing at
First Sight" within the Smart Music Program. And then in the women's class they also used the interval sequence sheet. That is something that I have created.
"How do I select the resources?" Most of those resources I've used for many years because I have found them to be successful in working with students. I like to use a variety of resources and strategies because I think it's more holistic that way and more organic than just always using the exact same book or pattern. I want students to realize that in sight-reading is there's all different ways that you can approach it. And there's all different types of learners. So I don't want it to just always be the same way.
"Briefly summarize your philosophy behind teaching sight-singing. Did your philosophy inform specific instructional choices?" Yeah, I think kind of what I was just saying about one of my philosophies is just that students. I think it's important for students to understand. To me, it's not just sight-singing, it's music reading as a whole. So being a 231 proficient music reader means that you can sing what you see. But you can also hear in your head what you're seeing. You can also visualize what you hear. That's like the dictation part. Visualize what you're hearing. There's rhythm involved. There's pitch involved. There are musical terms and symbols. I didn't really do that in the lesson that
Jenny observed, but we'll work a lot on just recognizing musical symbols and terms and patterns. I think some of my philosophy of teaching music reading has evolved as I've had my own kids learning how to read. I have a 7-year-old and an 8-year-old, and watching them learn how to read words, going from learning the alphabet to putting sounds together and then whole words and sentences and learning how to write, I think, has kind of changed the way that I teach sight-reading a little bit because I see some of those same strategies. Like when you first learn how to read learning like sight words so you might learn the "can," and "and," and "it" as "sight words" in kindergarten. I have a little bit of that with my sight-reading too - I want students to recognize from certain patterns. Like, "do re mi" is a pattern that you're going to see over and over and over.
And if you see that and immediately know what it sounds like without having to think about it, it's kind of the same thing as seeing the word where you don't have to sound it out or think about it. You just know that that's what it is. Also when you're learning
English and learning how to read, you learn how to read, but you also learn how to write, and you also learn how to speak. And you also learn how to listen when you're learning a language. And I think music is really similar. So I try to kind of incorporate all of those things in music reading, that they're not only learning how to read it, but they're learning how to write it, they're learning how to sing it, and learning how to listen to it and know what that is that they're hearing. 232
"Advice I would give to a new choir teacher on how best to teach sight-singing": have a system. So my system is solfege and then numbers for counting. It's nice to be consistent with your system, but I don't think that you have to be super consistent with your approach or your strategies that you're using. I think my students do well because because
I mix it up, because some days we're doing it on the SmartBoard and some days we're doing sight-reading from a book and other days we're doing ear training exercises; other days we're just practicing singing our intervals. Sometimes we do games. We're learning theory at the same time. I have probably 5 different books that I draw from and other strategies that I've learned from professional development that I've gone to, conferences that I've gone to, and just figure out kind of what works and what makes sense for your kids. I think over time, I've seen so many students get it in different ways that I'm like,
"Okay, if I teach it like this and like this and like this, then most of them will get it eventually." So that's it! Thanks.
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APPENDIX H
POST-OBSERVATION VLOG (SARAH ROSS), MARCH 15, 2020
Sarah Ross:
Hi, this is the vlog for the post reflection from Jennifer Brobeck's observation at Marana
High School. I'm Sarah Ross.
The levels and voices of the choirs observed were a beginning intermediate group with treble voices, so sopranos and altos with very beginning level music reading skills. And then a large freshman ensemble with a mixture. We have brand new singers and then some pretty advanced music readers in there. And then the advanced mixed ensemble, which is juniors and seniors who all have some level of reading already.
So for each choir, the primary objectives are to read the next the next entry in the book.
And we're working specifically - well, each choir is a little different. My first period is working a lot on tuning and trying to maintain tonal memory. So is the "do" that we end on the same "do" that we started on? My second period class is a lot of solfege fluency.
Those are the freshmen, but they're pretty solid. And then my my advanced class, we are really working at intervals - larger intervals and reading very quickly and a lot more complex rhythms, and they read in parts as well.
The process of the lesson - so, all three of the choirs were the same process. So we start together, we look at the key of the exercise and we do this solfege interval sheet where you have the octave tonic played on the piano and the metronome set at 120 and we do 234 the interval sheet all together and I'm asking them to cover the solfege syllables so that they just look at the note heads and can kind of connect what they say and the pitch they sing, the certain syllable they say and the notehead that they read, just building fluency.
So then we go to the exercise of the day and they identify their first solfege. They walk to their first note by centering themselves in the key using the 1 3 5 chord. And then they find the first note and then we just do the solfege alone with no rhythm. So we we keep a steady beat and basically do one note head per beat and go through and just identify the solfege, at a set pace, totally ignoring any of the rhythm. And that just gives them a sense of, "What are the notes involved?" Then we go back, and we count sing, depending on what we're doing. So now we're doing a little bit more difficult stuff, we might count- speak. But on this day, we count-sang. So they are keeping the beat on their body. They might do a pattern with their hand or keep the beat somewhere, counting the rhythm on
[numbers]. And then after we count-sing, then we read the solfege in rhythm. So they find their first note and then they kind of put the two together and sing the solfege but in the rhythm. And then the last step, we sing on a neutral syllable, so typically "doo doo doo" just to work on their ear training and connecting "what does it look like" to "what does it sound like." And that's it. So we do that in every class, every day, at every level, even the most easy and the most difficult.
"What am I most proud of?" I guess I am a big advocate of structure and when we do the same thing every day in every class and builds and it sets expectations. It is my classroom management. I don't have to call everyone's attention. They just come in and get their books and get going. And it sets the mood for the day because we immediately start 235 working hard on our music literacy, which is this academic skill. And they want to get better and they can track their progress. And because we do it at every level, there's an equity element where all of the choirs have an equal experience, not in level, but in the procedure. So there is a shared common language between my freshman and my seniors and between my brand-new singers and my very advanced singers, which are not always the same in terms of grade spread. And so I really - I really like that. It's just the most useful tool. Everyone knows what to expect. Everyone knows what to do. There's no question, there's no uncertainty. And it's just the routine that makes it happen. So I think that's what I'm proud of the most.
"Is there any part of these lessons you would have changed or eliminated?" I don't think so. The exercise we did with the advanced mixed group was very, very difficult. But that's fine. I like doing the difficult stuff. And I really like stretching them and kind of pushing them beyond where we're comfortable. Those kids, especially because I have some moderately advanced and some super advanced, that I'm always making sure that my super advanced kids get stretched. So that was good.
[in response to the question, "Did you use any resources, and how did you select them?"]
Yes. I use the solfege interval sheet and I made those. Google Docs has a notation software in it, and that's what I use. But you could use anything, and I just wrote those in all the keys and if I could do it again, I would put the syllables in C major and then take them out for everything else. But that's fine. And then the books that we use all come from Masterworks Press. So I think this day we were in Melodia, either single line or or 236 two-part exercises. But I also have Renaissance in SSA, TTB, and SATB. I have
Romantic. I have Classical. And the Bach. The Bach Chorales. But I like Masterworks
Press and I always use them. I've stuck to them because I like that you can do reproducible PDFs. So you purchased them once and you can kind of design your own book rather than a book that comes pre-made. And maybe it has pages I don't want, or I want to add something, so I like I can customize it. And I just find them very musical, which is why I like them so much.
My philosophy behind teaching sight-reading is that it's a grammar level skill, so we use grammar level. What I mean grammar is like classical education: grammar, and then logic, and then rhetoric, so it's a basic basic of a skill. And so we do repetition and memorization and more repetition and mostly repetition. And that is the little skill building on that that creates the big result. So it's really important to do every single day.
"Did this philosophy inform the instruction?" I just think it's very important we should do it. So, I mean, I guess, yeah, we do it every day. And I think you can see the effects of the kids wanting to get better. They see it as important. I don't think I have a sentiment of
"This is stupid," or "a waste of time." I think in general it's a respected process and the goal is to get better. And that's kind of held across the board. And it's sort of in their routine. So it's fine.
The advice, I would give [to a student teacher or new choral educator] - I would give two pieces of advice. The first is, guess what? Have have a routine and do it every day and do 237 it every single day and don't feel like you need to change it. Have a good routine. Do it every day. The second advice, though, is that no routine will work if you don't have a good "why." And so it's been really important for me to set up the "why" with my students and they know that I am not giving them busywork and I'm not giving them something to do that I don't care about or that we don't ever use again. But they know that this is something we use in every element of the rehearsal, and they will use it their whole time with me. And that is something that they are bad at, but we'll get better at. And we just work on it all the time. And I work on it with them and we work on it all together.
And so you have to set up the "why." Because kids are people, and they need a reason why to do something. So if you give them a good reason why then they'll do it, but if it's not working, they probably don't know why. And you should back up and say, here's why we're doing this every day. And also, part of the routine is to give them the ownership. So wherever possible, teach them to lead and teach them to find their stuff and talk about. I want you to be an autonomous lifelong music learner, and that requires you being able to navigate this notation on your own. So, yeah, that's hard to say. Routine is the most important thing for me. And I know it's not for everyone, I guess, but it is. It has been for me, though, that the structure is very clear and that's where we live. So, all right, thanks.
238
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