Mastering "CHAOS" in S-Cubed Sight Singing Program from Day 1- A Pop Quiz for your student

In Lesson 6 of S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners, we introduce one of the most important skill sets in the entire program, and it is critical to teach it well the very first day. Not doing so can result in timid "CHAOS" sessions all year. If you are new to the program or if you've struggled with teaching "CHAOS" to your students, this product is for you. In this product, you will get a link to the video of me teaching "CHAOS" to my beginners. Your students will watch the video and then you will give them the 10-question quiz to make sure they've got it!

Then, the next day, you will review the concepts, and have them do it for the first time. Make sure you have fun with them that day when you try to make them lose "DO"! S-Cubed must always have the fun factor that allows you to use your personality in ways that connect you to the students. Remember...S-Cubed is part method and part philosophy!

Go get it here!

Hamilton the Musical- Assessment Questions for Music Class and Social Studies Class

My students loved Hamilton the Musical from the moment it came out on Broadway in 2015.

When that happens, I always work to take the energy and excitement and turn it into learning, and in my case since I was in the chorus classroom, passionate singing, and in the case of Hamilton the Musical, rapping that comes from the heart and is performed with conviction.

Hamilton the Musical is a valuable tool for teaching about and discussing American history, and it is appropriate for upper middle school and high school students to see.  Students who are in chorus class will take it to the next level while learning about history.  Most students from 5th grade up absolutely love the music from this show.

This was a passion project for the creator of this show, Lin Manuel Miranda, because of his own background, and it followed his amazing show called "In the Heights" earlier in his career.

Lin Manuel's parents came here from Puerto Rico.  

He was born in 1980 in NYC.  

He has an understanding of America and all of the opportunity that comes from the realness of what America really is and always was supposed to be all about- People from all over the world coming to the melting pot and achieving the America Dream.

Many of us who've lived here for a long time have lost touch with that.  

He has not, and it is reflected in his work on both "In the Heights" and "Hamilton".

I highly recommend that you watch Hamilton with your students on Disney Plus, where it is currently available exclusively as of this writing (2/27/2024).

Discuss the events of the musical.  Create new projects around it to spur more interest.  If you are a chorus teacher, by all means, sing songs from the show.  The music in this show appeals very strongly to students from upper elementary through high school and beyond.  

I created some assessment questions that you can use once students have finished watching the show.

It includes the answer key.

Click here.

I hope it helps you in your classroom!

Listen to Great Choirs- New One Day Lesson Plan for you, your music or non-music sub!

I just finished conducting the Colorado Middle Allstate Choir.  

I studied and prepared really hard for it because I chose music I'd never conducted before.

I blogged about it here.

I decided to create a one-day lesson that you can use for you and your students or you can use it for a substitute (music or non-music).  Click here to see it in my TpT store.

It has links to the performances I studied as I prepared.  

I included questions for the students to answer with you in discussion or in writing with a substitute.

The total listening time is about 25 minutes, so the rest will be discussing/writing about the performances.

The goal is to have your students hear and see really strong choirs that have strong technical skills with diction, intonation, dynamic control, and all of the other seven criteria of a great choir.

I included those seven criteria in the Google Slide Deck along with a link to a google doc for the students.  

I hope it helps you and leads to great discussions and stronger technical and artistic results from your students!  Click here to get it in my TpT store!

Goosebumps- Colorado Middle Allstate Choir- Out of the comfort zone.

They say the growth happens outside of our comfort zone.

And I was WAY outside my comfort zone.

In February of 2023, I presented some sessions at the annual Colorado Music Educator's Convention.  

At the end of one of my sessions, two energetic teachers came up to me and asked if I would be interested in conducting their 2024 Middle School Allstate Choir.  

What an honor!  So, I immediately said yes.  

This would be my third Allstate Chorus conducting experience of my post-retirement career, and I have loved every single one.   I am so grateful for each opportunity to work with such high-level students who've worked hard to get their spots.  

Being the third, I've learned which questions to ask so that I can help the students reach their peaks in the rehearsal time we've got.  

For me, it was always the third year in a new school when things turned around, and I guess the same is true for this sort of endeavor because this experience was beyond magical.  I definitely haven't gotten goosebumps while conducting this many times since 2019/pre-covid, and I think this experience gave me more goosebumps than I've ever had.  

Last summer, when it was time to send in my music choices, I was paralyzed.  I couldn't get over the hump.  I'm not sure why exactly...other than the fact that I had actually been to Colorado's Music Convention and saw how well run it was?!  So, maybe I felt extra pressure?  Not sure.  Or maybe it was because I was conducting the SSAA Treble Choir (mostly female), and I knew I needed to find all literature that was brand new to me so I could grow and stretch my own skills.  

I had chosen three of the six songs.  It was turning out to be a girl power concert for sure, but I couldn't find the other three songs.  

Enter Alicia Moreno Mulloy from Alabama.  I had adjudicated her choirs in March 2023, and I was blown away by her work with them...so much so, that I, for a quick fleeting moment, thought I wanted to get back into the classroom.  I interviewed her in July 2023 for "Ask Mr. D".  She gave lots of great insights about how she works her magic.  If you missed it, here is the link.  She is authentically Alicia, and middle school kids love that.  

Then, I came to my senses!  Loved that chapter...Next.  No regrets.

I messaged her and asked if she'd help me finish out the program, and she sent me a ton of options until we finally came up with this.

I loved every piece.  I loved the flow...the message...

I sent it in.

And then, I started to question myself.  Were they going to be able to do Sisters?  I picked it because I found this video, and loved the choreography.  I went back and looked at the video after I sent it in, and the song was performed by a University Choir.  I am conducting 7th and 8th graders!  

I'm talking to myself...Ok...I'll just cut it if I have to.  That way we can make magic with the other songs...

But the flow of the concert won't be the same?!  

And I kept having more thoughts like this about the other songs.  "Those dissonances...Those Sondheim rhythms..."   And on and on.

November approached, and I knew I had to start preparing.  My Mississippi Allstate conducting gig was just 14 days ahead of this one, so I had two things going at once.  

I dug in.  I loved every second of the preparation process for both events, but this music...this concert flow...oh how I wanted it to work.

I started emailing the organizers.

How are the students screened?

When did they get the music?

Are they expected to walk in memorized?

Who checks?

Anxiety...mixed with excitement.  

The day arrives when I meet the singers.

I did my a capella vocal warm-up.   Tone quality is very nice.  They respond well to my conducting cues.  The energy is definitely good.

Then, I do my normal thing.  I have them pretend that it's the night of the concert.  They, the collaborative pianist whom I've just met and I sing straight through the concert.  I told them that no matter what happens, we are not stopping.  We will recover and move on.

First song...very nice!  It is clear they are prepared with all pitches and rhythms.

Same for second and third.  

Fourth is Sisters.

I don't tell them I'm scared, but I am shaking a bit.

It's a capella, and I've told the collaborative pianist that if she needed to bang a pitch or five half way through to save them, then she should do it.

She didn't have to do it AND they stayed in tune throughout...not missing anything.

After they sang Sisters, I broke my rule, and talked to them.  I let them know how scared I'd been, and thanked them for prepping so well.

The final two pieces went great.

I don't 'have to cut anything!  And...I don't have to do any remediation of pitches/rhythms.  YIPPEE!

Instead, I get to take them straight to the magic of creating meaningful choral art and give them and the audience an experience they'll always remember because of how it made them feel, and they can take that excitement back to their classrooms and lead.  

It truly was magical.

Here are some samples of dress rehearsal.

Sisters

I am.

Lineage.

I think we will have professional recordings within 2 weeks, and I'll try to find a way to share.

I am so grateful for this experience, and I hoping to have more opportunities like this in coming years.

Thank you to all of the S-Cubed teachers who invite me to to Allstates and Honor's Choirs.  It gives me the opportunity to keep working with children since I am not doing it daily any longer, and I love it.  It makes me push myself outside of my comfort zone.   I am so grateful for S-Cubed because no one would know anything about my work without it, but these opportunities give me the chance to show that I'm not a one-trick pony, and that means a lot to me at this point in my career.

Thank you!

ACDA Choral Journal Article on Sight Singing Requirements at Allstate Auditions~ Lift Every Voice

I just read an article in the Choral Journal written by Marshaun R. Hyman about the manner in which various states weigh sight singing scores at Allstate Auditions.  

The premise~ why are many states weighing the sight singing component of Allstate auditions so heavily?   In most states, they learn the music with tracks.   

I’m simplifying.    

You can read it here…. https://choralnet.org/archives/780507

In my view, annual choral assessments and adjudications are where sight singing should be evaluated.   Allstate chorus is not the place…especially if Allstate prep occurs as it does in most states where students are given tracks to learn basically by rote.  

As a clinician who has had the honor and privilege of conducting two Allstate Chorus events thus far in 2024, my wish is simple when I walk in the door to prepare the students  ~ please know every pitch and every rhythm perfectly and preferably have it memorized.   That way, I’m not doing remediation, and I’m not having to make the difficult decision to cut a song so we can create artistic memorable moments.  As a conductor who has the privilege so conducting the highest achieving choral music students in your state, I want to create experiences for the students, their parents, and their teachers to FEEL because the feelings are what art is about.  Maya Angelou~. People forget what you say.   They forget what you do.   They don’t forget how you made them feel.   The art we create if they know pitches, rhythms and words will ignite passion for the students to take back and create a hunger to experience and create more…and we will truly change our art form because we served the highest young achievers in our art form.  

In my own state of Georgia, sight singing is weighted very heavily for Allstate auditions.  … Too heavily in my opinion.  But in the past, (and maybe currently… I retired in 2022 after 30 years) they’ve included an audition to “check” the music and they cut students who weren’t ready.  

This is ideal. 

The time to create your sight singing standards for teachers to try to accomplish is at annual state choral assessments.  

Two prepared pieces and choral group sight singing.   

During my career, I taught in three states.  North Carolinas requirement for middle school sight singing was unison stepwise with no syncopations.  

New Jersey had no sight singing requirement at choral assessment.  

Georgia, where I spent 20 of the 30 years, had such a high requirement that I called a colleague and said-  “Is this for real?   I couldn’t have done this a capella in my junior year of college.   Seriously.”   

I had to find a way to address the high standards so my beginners could avoid walking out of the sight singing room dejected and wanting to quit chorus and that’s what I did.  

So thank you for this article.  It is sure to ignite conversation.  

I hope our national organizations will continue to guide states on standards and best practices as they relate to sight singing so our beginning students walk out of chorus classes literate musically.   

I waited for 30 years for my little middle school Mozart to show up and lead the alto section. 

It never happened.  

In public school especially, we’ve got to serve the students who land before us.  

Thank you,  

Dale Duncan

Creator o S~Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners