I am a Band Geek. I have been a Band Geek over thirty years. After high school and a four year stint in the Army I went to college and majored in Music Ed. I had the idealistic vision of being a middle school band director who would impact young lives in much the same way my own middle school band director had impacted my life. A band geek mentor. Well, the short story is I have been a band director for 14 years. I have never had more than 25 in my band and I have only been to large group festival a few times. I haven't had a large enough group to take to festival in ten years. My bands have averaged about eight members in the last 5 or 6 years.
In addition to band I have been the choir director at my school for 12 years. My previous choir experience is minimal. As I said, I am a band geek. For reasons I'll not go into just yet, my choir has been much larger then the band over the years. We usually have around 40 students in the one choir we offer. So, we come to the reason for the birth of this blog.
This blog is part of my efforts to gain the knowledge to become a better choir director. I hope to collect and share ideas. Ideas that will help me and other band geeks like me in the world of vocal music.
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Hey Tim,
ReplyDeleteIn my undergrad choral methods classes, we used a great combination of books. Each of these are easy reads, and have proven effective in the long run. If I were to pick two for the "outsider," I would choose the texts by Brinson and Collins.
The last book that I have included effectively covers how to teach sight-singing from day one. If you can make this part of your everyday routine (that is, teaching the basics of music to inexperienced musicians through at-sight reading), your rehearsal of performance literature will be much less cumbersome.
Here's the list:
"Choral Music Methods and Materials: Developing Successful Choral Programs" by Barbara A. Brinson
"Choral Music Education (2nd Ed.)" by Paul F. Roe
"Teaching Choral Music (2nd Edition)" by Don L. Collins
"The Choral Experience: Literature, Materials, and Methods" by Robinson and Winhold
"Conducting Choral Music (8th Edition)" by Robert L. Garretson
"Directing the Choral Music Program" by Kenneth H. Phillips
"Building Choral Excellence: Teaching Sight-Singing in the Choral Rehearsal" by Steven M. Demorest
What would you suggest for a choir that is constantly adding new people throughout the year?
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