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Hello!

I need your advice, please. I am the new elementary choir teacher at a school system in middle America that offers band, orchestra, and choir in the elementary grades as a class. Because of this, choir is a very low draw, and will probably continue to be low.

This year I have 6 4th graders and 8 5th graders, who each get their own 45 minute choir class each week during the school day.

They haven't studied part singing at all in general music, and they haven't been taught to sing well from their previous general music teachers.

What would you do? Of course, I HAVE to have them all sing together as a group when we do our winter and spring concerts. There's only 14 of them combined. I get 10-15 minutes to have them perform.

I'm considering doing current pop music and letting the better singers sing some of the verses solo. Possibly adding an easy harmony on the choruses. The student body would probably love that at the concert. I would ...See More
fwiw I think it's ok to do one pop piece like you've described. But what is "easy harmony"?

If these kids have had no real choral training or part singing experience - - that really needs to be the focus at this point.

For first choral experiences rounds, partner songs and simple ostinato parts are the most appropriate. Trying to get t...See More
Aug 4, 2014
John Yes, agreed.

Since I have such a short period of performance time, I was thinking of having the whole group sing 2-3 pop songs for the performance.

Then I can focus most of my class on what you stated: rounds, partner songs, and ostinati.

I have a LOT of partner song collections and a few round collections.

If ...See More
Aug 4, 2014
bec In my opinion, most pop songs are not appropriate for children - pitched too low, impossible ranges, and if they emulate the original singers, too much yelling. Accompaniment tracks for these songs often drown out the singers. You owe it to your students to teach them quality music where they can learn to sing in their head voices, with good techni...See More
Aug 10, 2014


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