Singing Alone and with others... But not necessarily alone in front of others...

I taught middle school for 30 years in public schools.

I never forced children to sing alone in front of their peers.  

It just felt wrong.

Singing is quite an intimate experience. 

It comes out of our bodies.

Our voices are ours.

We get to share our voices if/when we want, and we get to decide how, when and where we want to share it.  

So, during my career, I followed my gut instinct and I never required students to sing alone in front of their peers unless THEY decided they wanted to do it.

Sometimes my students, for some reason...probably my lack of clear instruction in the moment... believed that I was going to require them to sing alone in front of their peers...and I remember them coming up to me and saying... "Are we going to have to sing this by ourselves in front of the class to get this grade?"

And all I remember is the fear in their faces and the relief when I said "Oh NO!  Absolutely not."

And during recruiting events, have you ever had a potential chorus student ask you the question "Will I have to sing alone if I join chorus?"

It's called "choir" for a reason.   Here is the definition of choir that I found on google.

It's a group activity.  

It is currently October 8, 2022.  Choir programs around the world are all rebuilding right now. Any activity or approach that could possibly deter potential growth should be relinquished, and I believe that forcing people to sing alone in front of their peers not only terrifies the people who have to do it, but that it has a high potential to shrink your program.

People talk about what goes on in our programs.  Word spreads quickly.  If a teacher is forcing children to sing alone in front of their peers, the children who aren't in choir are going to hear about it, and you will lose the chance to get them into your program.

You now ask...How do I assess the children?  How do I check their ranges and place them into their appropriate vocal section?  How do I assess their ability to sight sing?  How do I make sure they know their parts?

If you feel that you absolutely have to listen to all of your students sing in a setting that isn't the large group choral setting for these reasons or any other reasons, here are some possible approaches-

1).  Set up a time before or after school or on your planning period and give them specific time slots so that it's just you and the individual singer.

2).  Rather than have a child sing alone, have them sing in pairs or trios or quartets.  We are all trained musicians with good ears.  We can gather a lot of information quickly in a duet, trio or quartet situation.  For those folks with large programs, using quartets is a time-saver anyway.  And if we aren't terrifying the children by forcing them to sing alone in front of their peers, our programs are more likely to grow!

3).  If you decide to use class time to listen to your children individually or in very small groups, find ways to creatively make sure that the entire focus of the choral class isn't on the student(s) who are singing alone or in the very small groups.  There are so many ways to do this.  Give the students who aren't singing for you a different activity to do while you are listening.   Or take the student(s) who are singing for you into a different part of the room further away from the rest of the class.  Or make it a combo of these two ideas.  I'm sure there are many other ways to make this happen.  Just think about your individual classroom set ups and find a solution that allows you to get what you need while respecting the fact that for most folks who want to be in choir, singing alone is terrifying.  

Creating opportunities for soloists who WANT to sing alone is a completely different topic.  I believe that solo auditions should definitely be done in front of the class.  If you want to be a soloist, you have to be able to build up the courage to sing in front of people.  

Do you have a "top group" that students choose to audition for and they understand the requirements and are voluntarily being a part of it?  That's a completely different situation...

...But for the general population of potential choristers, the thought of having to sing alone is scary, and I believe it is a program killer...and in 2022, none of us needs to be doing things that kill our programs.

Some people may find this shocking or even appalling to learn, but in my career of 30 years, I never checked voices individually or even in small groups to place them or to assess them.  I just walked around the room and listened, and I did it in such a way that they rarely could tell what I was doing because I didn't want them to get nervous or to feel like it was some sort of test.   I had too many students in my program to take the time to listen individually or in small groups...and it was too big of a time suck for the program I was running.  

If I heard vocal issues in my students that I needed to address, I would ask the student to come see me one-on-one, and I would help them.  While that was probably also scary for some of them, doing it one-on-one was way less frightening, and it gave me the chance to really help that individual sing better, so the whole experience felt completely different than forcing them to sing alone in front of a class of their peers. 

I am going to get off of my soap box!  

I do hope that the 2022-2023 school year is going well for you.  If you taught before the pandemic, I hope the year is feeling more normal.  If you started teaching chorus during the 2020-2021 school year, bless you...you made it...and you finally get to really teach chorus.  If this is your first year teaching, you're lucky!  First years are always hard though.  I've got tons of videos on YouTube and many blog posts about classroom management, working with the changing male voice, song suggestions, and of course...sight singing!