May/June 2016 Ala Breve

ala breve

The Official Publication of the Alabama Music Educators Association

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ala breve

of the Alabama Music Educators Association

7AMEA Governing Board Directory

10AMEA Past Presidents

13News from Phi Beta Mu

13Meet the New AMEA Governing Board

15ABA All-State Photos

18AVA All-State Photos

20AMEA Industry Members

25Collegiate-Level Music Theory - Am I Prepared? by Amir Zaheri, Ph.D

26Mind the Gap! : edTPATM byJohn Wayman, Ph.D

29 Choir as Community: Lessons from the Field by Sarah Bartolome, Ph.D

32Engaging Campus and Community: A Successful Ensemble by Jason Cooper and Becky Halliday, Ph.D

39Teaching Sight-Singing: Finding Your Way by Jane Kuehne, Ph.D

Farewell and thank you!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

With this final column, I want to take a moment to say thank you to all of you for your support and trust. I will be forever grateful for the opportunities you gave me to serve––beginning as Collegiate Advisor in 2008, Research Chair in 2010, President-elect in 2012, and finally, in 2014, as the 36th President of the Alabama Music Educators Association. I have thoroughly enjoyed serving the AMEA and I am looking forward to what the future has in store for our great organization as I take on my next role as immediate past president.

Since I first took office, I have been surrounded by a remarkable group of dedicated educators who have worked tirelessly in their support of music education and I want to specifically recognize the members of the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 Governing Boards who were there with me every step of the way. It has been a genuine pleasure serving with Rusty Courson, Stacy Daniels, Carl Davis, Becky Lightfoot, Carla Gallahan, Karla Hodges, Ted Hoffman, Mike Holmes, Cliff Huckabee, Andy Meadows, Sarah Schrader, Susan Smith, Pat Stegall, Garry Taylor, Thad Walker, Sara Womack, and Jim Zingara. I have come to believe that there isn’t another state president in NAfME who has received as much support as I have nor has been

as proud as I am. Many of the initiatives we undertook would have been impossible without their faithful service to our organization. Thank you to every board member for putting your time, talent, and energy into achieving these milestones.

Across the past two years our annual conference has headed into new waters, growing into a vibrant professional development experience. Thank you to every presenter, audience member, performer, business member, and volunteer. Through your participation, we brought together nationally recognized clinicians, invited engaging keynote speakers, and booked world-class performers to truly add more “professional” to our professional development. Moreover, your faith in us bolstered the governing board’s creativity, which we channeled into building collaborations with music businesses, expanding our conference offerings, and branding our conference to compliment the artistry of music and emphasize the professional growth experienced by our members.

Beginning with goals we set back in 2014, AMEA has opened up new pathways and positioned itself to make meaningful changes in how we advocate for music education, run our organization, serve our members, and, most importantly, teach our students. Thank you to the entire membership for

embracing this growth. Achieving these milestones allowed us to explore new options and experiment with different approaches. Accomplishing so much together in just a few years is a direct result of your faithful service to the music educators of Alabama and our organization.

Finally, to our Executive Director and Ala Breve Editor, Garry Taylor. Thank you for managing the AMEA so it continues to be a strong organization that is a model for others. I was so fortunate to have your experience and wisdom guiding me along the way.

In closing, I am very optimistic about the future of the Alabama Music Educators Association. It is an exciting time for our association. We have accomplished so much and made many memories together by doing something different and taking risks. I am truly honored to call you my friends and colleagues. On June 1, Susan Smith will take office and her presidency will be met with great enthusiasm from all music educators in Alabama, but especially from those of us who have been members of the AMEA for many years. I hope you will join me for what I know will be an exciting new direction for our organization.

All the best,

Carl B. Hancock, President Alabama Music Educators Association

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” - James Baldwin

President Carl Hancock University of Alabama Box 870366 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 (205) 348-6335 chancock@bama.ua.edu

President, ABA Micheal MountainHolmes Brook Junior High School 205 Overbrook Rd. Birmingham, AL 35213 (205) 871-3516 x8525 thetubaman@charter.net

Past President Sara GreystoneWomack Elementary School 300 Village Birmingham,Street AL 35242 (205) 439-3200 saratwomack@gmail.com

President, AOA Sarah Schrader P.O. Box 2221 Foley, AL 36536 (334) 728-2855 burkart_sarah@yahoo.com

President-Elect Susan Smith Saint James School 6010 Vaughn Road Montgomery, AL 36116 ssmith@stjweb.org

Executive Director Editor, Ala Breve Garry Taylor 1600 Manor Dr. NE Cullman, AL 35055 (256) 636-2754

amea@bellsouth.net

President, AVA Carl Davis Decatur High School 1011 Prospect Drive Decatur, AL 35601 (256) 559-0407

carlbethemeryellen@gmail.com

Industry Representative Becky Lightfoot Arts Music Shop 3030 East Blvd. Montgomery, AL 36116 334/271-2787

beckyl@artsmusicshop.com

AMEA Collegiate Advisor Ted UnivesityHoffman of Montevallo Station 6670 Davis Music Building 308 Montevallo, AL 35115 (205) 665-6668

ehoffman@montevallo.edu

Treasurer/RegistrarPat POAMEAStegallRegistration Box 3385 Muscle Shoals, AL pstegall@mscs.k12.al.us35661

President, Higher Education James Zingara UAB 231 Hulsey Center Birmingham, AL 35294 (205) 934-7376 jzingara@uab.edu

Recording Secretary Carla Gallahan 212 Smith Hall Troy University Troy, AL 36082 (334) 670-3502 cgallahan@troy.edu

President, AMEA Collegiate Joshua UniversityMeyer of Alabama (256) 566-1265

jpmeyer@crimson.ua.edu

President, Elem/Gen Cliff Huckabee The Montgomery Academy Lower School Campus 1550 Perry Hill Road Montgomery, AL 36106 334-462-3790

cliffhuckabee@gmail.com

Unless otherwise indicated, permission is granted to NAfME members to reprint articles for educational purposes. Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of AMEA or the Editor. All announcements & submissions are subject to editorial judgement/revision.The Alabama Music Educators Association is a state unit of NAfME: The National Association for Music

a voluntary, nonprofit organization representing all phases of music education in schools, colleges, universities, and teacher-education institutions. Active

membership is open to all persons engaged in music teaching or other music

As the school year comes to an end, take a moment and reflect on all the amazing things you accomplished this year. As you reflect, I hope you are thinking on how you and your students have grown, developed, bonded, and had a great time through music.

AOA has had an amazing year and I am proud to have been a part of it! We had stellar turnout for All State Orchestra, held the VERY FIRST Orchestra Music Performance Assessment, and elected rock star officers for 2016-2018.

AOA took a huge step forward this year and held the its first statewide Orchestra Music Performance Assessment (OMPA). The festival was a huge success! We had 14 ensembles from around the state travel to Auburn University on April 22nd and 23rd to perform in front of judges and peers. Full Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Guitar Ensembles from all ends of the state participated coming from as far away as Florence and Mobile. I am so thrilled that so many teachers took advantage of this opportunity to perform away from their home town. It was a joy to listen to each and every one of the orchestras and I am so proud of what our talented directors are accomplishing with their students. You should all be commended for the jobs you are doing and for taking the initiative to bring your students across the state to experience this type of competition. I hope your experience was better than expected! Thank you Dr. Guy Harrison for your leadership in spearheading the planning of and hosting this event. Thank you also Dr. Anne Witt, Dr. Howard Goldstein, Dr. Blake Richardson and Melissa Dufrechou for making

yourselves available to judge this event. Thank you Sam Nordlund, Julie Hornstein, Dr. Kathy King, Amy Nice, April MacDonald, and the Auburn University Music Ambassadors for all your help during the Festival. It would not have been a success without you.

OMPA is open to all Full Orchestras, String Orchestras, and Guitar ensembles. All State Orchestra 2016 was a huge success! The students and conductors did an AMAZING job! I am so proud of all the students and teachers of the students who participated this year.

Groups receiving a superior rating at the 2016 OMPA were:

*BTW Strings Magnet, MontgomeryChin Mei Li

*Dunbar Magnet School Guitar Ensemble, Mobile - Felicia Lett

*Tiger Strings Youth Orchestra, Sinfonia Strings, Auburn - Dr. Guy Harrison

*Montgomery Music Project - Noemi Oeding

Gadsden City High School Titan Orchestra - Keith LaBenne

Dunbar Magnet School Orchestra, Mobile - Felicia Lett

Tuscaloosa City Schools High School Orchestra - Stephen Finley

Fairhope Quartet - Kim Shannon

(*denotes straight ones received)

AOA will be holding OMPA again next year. Look for information on the particulars to come out this summer or early fall. We hope to see all groups return and hopefully more groups to take advantage of this opportunity. AOA’s

Competition to get in was high this year and it showed because you all were top notch! Thank you to all the parent volunteers and sectional coaches/judges who helped make this All State Orchestra great. We couldn’t have done it without you!

All State Orchestra 2017will be February 9th through 12th and held at the University of Alabama Music Building. Music excerpts will be posted online on August 15th and auditions will be held the first two weeks of October. The 2017 Festival Orchestra conductor will be Dr. Sandra Dackow. Sandra is an active conductor, arranger, and clinician and is the music director of the Hershey Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania. Sinfonia Orchestra Conductor Dr. Foster Beyers is the Director of Orchestras at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. He was recently appointed Director of Orchestral Activities at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA beginning in the 2016-2017 academic year. Consort String Orchestra Conductor Dr. Christina Yi-Ping ChenBeyers cur rently ser ves as the Orchestra Director of the University Orchestra in Fargo-Moorhead, and was recently invited to lead the European Middle School Honors Orchestra in Berlin which is organized by AMIS (The

Sarah Schrader - President, Alabama Orchestra Association

AOA’s OMPA is open to all full orchestras, string orchestras, and guitar ensembles.

Association of Music in International Schools). I hope your students will join us again for another amazing year of music!

AOA moved its2017 composition contest deadline up to June 1, 2016. T his competition is open to any composers who have written a piece for full orchestra between January 1, 2014 and the deadline. Submissions for this contest are received from around the world. The winning composition will be performed by the 2017 All State Festival Orchestra at All State in February. The composer will receive $1,500 and travel (from a point within the USA) and lodging expenses to attend the 2017 All State Festival as the Composer in Residence.For more information on this competition and for application forms, please visit www.alabamaorchestra association.org.

I am honored that I was elected to serve as President of AOA and I have enjoyed my two years in this office. It has been a joy to be on the planning side of All State

and AMEA, two events in which I greatly benefited from as a high school student attending All State or as a college student and young professional attending the AMEA conferences. Serving in this capacity has given me a huge appreciation for all the people who make these functions happen each year. Thank you all for trusting me to do this job and giving me this opportunity to serve. I am very excited that we will have a stellar group of incoming officers to the AOA board. I know GREAT things are in store for our organization under the direction of these individuals. This is an exciting time in Alabama when Orchestra Education is growing. I am confident that this group of officers will enhance the opportunities for students around the state to participate in string education.

Your AOA Officers for 2016-2018 are:

President: Samuel Nordlund

President-Elect: Dr. Guy Harrison

Secretary: Dr. Daniel Stevens

Treasurer: Jacob Frank

Immediate Past President: Sarah Schrader

Executive Director: Julie Hornstein

UPCOMING DATES:

June 1, 2016: AOA Composition Contest Deadline

June 1, 2016: AMEA Session proposals and Ensemble Performance Applications due

August 15, 2016: All State Orchestra Excerpts posted

February 9-12, 2017: All State Orchestra Festival

As I leave this office, I would like to share a few thoughts regarding the importance of an organization such as AMEA to those of us who work in higher education. Participation and recruitment to HED has been the emphasis of this term, and in partnership with Mildred Lanier and Becky Halliday, I have tried to increase awareness and membership through new conference activities such as the President’s Panel Discussion and the Student Ensemble Showcase Recital. I believe that these are a start, but there are many other reasons to be involved with AMEA as a higher education professional:

Recruitment of students is a large part of what we do in higher education. Membership in AMEA not only helps in this area by allowing us to network with active and motivated middle and high school directors, but will also allow us to have access to mailing lists which we can use to promote events available for them and their students.

1946Yale H. Ellis

Professional development and creative activity is a big portion of the tenure/promotion process, and the annual AMEA Conference provides many opportunities through holding office as well as participation in conference sessions, panel discussions,and recitals.

Membership in HED helps create a support network of people with similar backgrounds and situations in which to discuss issues endemic to Higher Education including promotion/tenure, the future of college music programs, recruitment/ retention, dealing with budgetary constraints, and our individual rolesand futures in an ever-increasing online teaching environment.

Developing a support network to address problems in the workplace. If there are individuals who have the unfortunate happenstance to experience academic bullying and/or negative departmental politics, there may colleagues from other institutions that can offer advice and support without the fear of in-house reprisal.

Developing a unified group to speak for Higher Education music programs in the current political climate of budget and program slashing. With the recent examples of draconian higher education cuts in such states as Wisconsin and Louisiana, members

of the higher education community will need to justify and sell their programs in a much more emphatic way than ever before. Unity of institutions can provide strength of message to political and academic entities.

Begin dialogues and share ideas between programs from various institutions. Great ideas are often an amalgamation of shared visions. HED can provide a “think tank” to nurture and hone ideas.

To eventually expand HED to preside over independent activities and sessions other than the annual conference. This will not only provide additional opportunities for professional growth and development, but will further strengthen HED as a Division and voice in the state.

If you are already a member, please renew in the coming year. If you are not a member, I encourage you to join a growing group of like-minded and enthusiastic professionals throughout the state. In closing, I would like to extend to the current HED Team of Becky Halliday (President), Mildred Lanier (President-Elect), and Katrina Phillips (Secretary-Treasurer), all my best wishesin their continued endeavors to grow and expand the Higher Education Division.

AMEA Presidents - Past to Present

1948Walter A. Mason

1950Vernon Skoog

1952John J. Hoover

1954Lamar Triplett

1956Carleton K. Butler

1958Mort Glosser

1960Wilbur Hinton

1962Lacey Powell, Jr.

1964G. Truman Welch

1966Jerry Countryman

1968Floyd C. McClure

1970Jerry Bobo

1972Frances P. Moss

1974George Hammett

1975Frances P. Moss

1976S. J. Allen

1978W. Frank McArthur, Jr.

1980Paul Hall

1982Lacey Powell, Jr.

1984Johnny Jacobs

1986Merilyn Jones

1988Ronald D. Hooten

1990Ken Williams

1992Dianne Johnson

1994James K. Simpson

1996Johnnie Vinson

1998Michael Meeks

2000John McAphee, Jr.

2002Tony Pike

2004Becky Rodgers

2006John Baker

2008Pat Stegall

2010Steve McLendon

2012Sara Womack

2014 Carl Hancock

The 2016-2017 AMEA Governing Board*

Congratulations!

* The new Board will take office June 1, 2016

Susan Smith, President

Carl Hancock, Immediate Past President **********, President-Elect ***********, Recording Secretary

Garry Taylor, Executive Director and Editor

Pat Stegall, Treasurer/Registrar

Micheal Holmes, ABA President

Sam Nordlund, AOA President

Ginny Coleman, AVA President

Edward “Ted” Hoffman, AMEA Collegiate Advisor

Joshua Meyer, AMEA Collegiate President

Cliff Huckabee, Elementary/General President

Becky Halliday, Higher Education President

Becky Lightfoot, Industry Representative

Andy Meadows, ASDOE, Arts Education Specialist

Donald Dowdy, David Raney and Theo Vernon congratulate Phi Beta Mu new member Regina Raney.

Phi Beta Mu new member Joel Henson (Center) and sponsors Jon Bubbett (L) and David Allinder (R)

David Raney (L) is presented the Phi Beta Mu Outstanding Bandmaster Award by Tommy Brannan

We began this “process” in the summer of 2015. Setting goals, making plans to ensure that the goals are met, and we hit the ground running. We have now reached a point that we can evaluate our level of success. It has been a great year, and as they all do,it has passed quickly. There are points along the way that seem to never end, but they do. It puts a smile on my face when I look back to where we started and see how far we have come. The sound of beginnersare now the sounds of young musicians; the middle school band members are maturing as young musicians;and we aren’t looking forward to having to say goodbye to our seniors. It is a great feeling to know that goals have been met and our students have had a successful, positive,and rewarding experience. And now it is time to get ready for another great year of band!

All-State Solo Festival was once again hosted by The University of South Alabama Department of Music and what gracious hosts they were. Department Head Dr. Greg Grunner and Director of Bands Dr. Will Petersen could not have provided us with a more welcoming environment for our students, directors,and parents for this Festival. We had 80+ of Alabama’s finest young musicians participate. The judges somehow managed to choose seven to participate in the Finals (finalists are pictured in this issue). The Friday night Wind Ensemble performance somehow managed to top their outstanding performance of 2015.It was fantastic! This is a band program that I would be proud to have any of my students join.

All-State Band Festival 2016 was once again a successful musical experience. It

is very interesting to get the opportunity to experience this event from different perspectives. I have attended All-State Festival as a participant, a young band director, as a more seasoned band director with several students participating, as an ABA District officer and now as an ABA Vice-President and

President. I can truly say that attending All-State in any capacity is extremely rewarding. I would encourage all directors to attend when possible whether you have students participating or not. All four band’s performances were impressive. Professor Cramer stated in an email I receive a few days after All-State, “All-State was great fun; the students displayed a wonderful attitude and were very polite and eager to do better with each rehearsal,” and “I was impressed with each ensemble’s performance.” Professor Ray Cramer, Dr. David Willson, Mr. Carlton Wright, andDr. Deborah Confredo were a pleasure to have as guest clinicians.

Thank you!! All-State Festival is a huge event for our organization. The District VII directors led by All-State site coordinator David Pryorwent above and beyond what was required, and District chair William Mixon provided us with two consecutive years of a wellorganized event. If you enjoy hard work, you should volunteer to serve as “Band

Host.”James Ed Champion, Damon McAllister, Heather Henson, and Connie Hammond (and Tim) did a masterful job of taking care of the needs of our students and clinicians. ABA Executive Officers Doug Farris, Terry Ownby, Rusty Courson, Mark Foster, and Harry McAfee worked together,along with our District Chairs and Vice-Chairs,to see to it that our students could count on a positive All-State experience. I would also like to thank all of our directors that were present to judge chair auditions, work the tabulation room,and be on call if needed. All of the directors throughout our state are commended for the assistance provided to all of the students that auditioned. The 647 students participating was only the tip of the iceberg compared to the hundreds more who auditioned and participated in their District Honor bands. You make me proud! A special debt of gratitude is owed to our graduating District Chairs- Taylor Cash (II), Joel Henson (IV), Dale Bloodworth (VI),and Trent Burkett (VIII). You are to be commended for the work you have done. It has been an honor to serve alongside you.

Summer Conference 2016 will be here before you know it (June 22-23, 2016). Register now - http://alabamamea.org/ bandmasters/Summer%202016%20Regi stration%20Form.pdf. Information regarding lodging at the host hotel is also available at abafest.com.Join us at the Hampton Inn Orange Beach to celebrate the end of a successful year and the kickoff to another year. We have a great schedule of events, including the Wednesday evening Social Hour (low country boil and chicken fingers) that will feature “Old Fogey” Steve McLendon of Dothan HS (retired) as guest speaker. Visit abafest for a complete line-up of clinics and sessions. It will be hot; there will be plenty of Orange Beach sunshine, so DON’T FORGET THE SUNSCREEN!!

Process- a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end

Blue Band Conductor Carleton Wright with ABA President Mike Holmes

Micheal Holmes- President, Alabama BandmastersAssociation

ABA All-State

All-State Solo Festival Finalists

7th Place: Wyatt Detrick, Grissom HS, 6th Place: Jackson Vaughan, Oak Mtn. HS, 5th Place: John Paul Williams, Spanish Fort HS, 4th Place: Adam Thomas, Mtn. Brook HS, 3rd Place: Karen An, Auburn HS, 2nd Place: Katherine Mackenzie, Huntsville HS, 1st Place: Blake Adams, Shades Valley HS

ABA All-State 1st Chair Red Band

Piccolo: Aaron Nottingham, Sparkman High School

Flute: Serin Baek, Dothan High School

Oboe: Lian Remley, Shades Valley High School

Bassoon: Katherine Mackenzie, Huntsville High School

Eb Clarinet: Kimberly Waggener, James Clemens High School

Bb Clarinet: Patrick Mills, Vestavia Hills High School

Alto Clarinet: Max Feinstein, Baker High School

Bass Clarinet: Sarah Nguyen, Sparkman High School

Contrabass Clarinet: Beth Vaughan, Montgomery Catholic

Alto Saxophone: Blake Adams, Shades Valley High School

Tenor Saxophone: Quentin Moffet, Randolph School

Baritone Saxophone: Devin Hale, Guntersville High School

Trumpet: Danteus Brown, Minor High School

French Horn: Camron Bryant, Smiths Station High School

Trombone: Dylan Mashburn, West Limestone High School

Baritone: Kunal Tiwari, Vestavia Hills High School

Tuba: Ryan McKinney, White Plains High School

String Bass: Jamie Newsome, Davidson High School

Percussion: John Paul Williams, Spanish Fort High School

All-State Conductors: Deborah ConfredoMiddle School Band, Ray Cramer - Red Band, David Willson - White Band, and Carleton Wright - Blue Band

James Champion presents the Phi Beta Mu Lamar Triplett Scholarship to Chance Taylor of Vinemont High School

Corey Spurlin, National Band Association State Chair and Rusty Courson present the NBA Citation of Excellence to James Camron Bryant, Smiths Station High School.

David Pryor and Rusty Courson congratulate James Camron Bryant, recipient of the ABA/Photography by Suzanne Scholarship

Teachers,

We are in the final stretch of our school year. Many of you are probably preparing for end of the year performances and trying to get those last few lessons in before school is out. We wish all of you the very best as you finish up your school year!

We have exciting news about our 10th Annual Elementary Music Festival. We are pleased to announce that we will continue our association with Samford University as they host our 10th Annual Elementary Music Festival. It will be Friday, October 21st and our clinicians will be Roger Sams and Vicki Portis. Many of you will remember Roger Sams from our 2016 AMEA In-service. He presented several sessions and also brought us some amazing materials through his partnership with “Music is Elementary.”

Vicki Portis is no stranger to our Elementary

Division. She is a world-class elementary music educator who was just recently inducted in the AMEA Hall of Fame. She was also our first clinician for our festival, so it is fitting that she returns to celebrate our 10th year. Our festival directors, Ben and Kristina Sisco, have emailed out information about the festival,and we are looking to have around 450 students participate in this special 10th year anniversary music festival.

We also are in the planning stages of our Annual Fall Workshop following the festival on Saturday, October 22nd. We hope to have both our festival clinicians share from their wealth of knowledge of elementary music methods. We will keep you informed of the place and time of this workshop as we finalize these details.

There are several summer opportunities for professional development that I want to share with you as well. We have Orff Level I and Level II Certification Courses being offered at Samford University on June 20July 1.We also have the Kodaly Levels 1 & 2 Certificationsclasses at Vestavia Hills Elementary School East hosted by Deanna Bell on July 11-22. Lastly, we have the 2nd Annual East Alabama Music Workshopbeing

held at Grace UMC in Auburn on August 27th. We hope you will take advantage of these opportunities to grow as a music educator. If you have any questions about any of these workshops, please contact us at elementaryamea@gmail.com and we will be glad to forward you specific information on any of these three workshops.

Lastly, if you are not receiving emails from our Elementary Division, please send us an email at elementaryamea@gmail.com and we will be glad to add you to our email list. We want to keep in touch with you, so sign up today for our email list.

Again, I wish all of you the very best as you finish this school year!

Sincerely,

Cliff Huckabee, President AMEA Elementary Division

Greetings

Collegiate Members,

Summer break is upon us! I am sure you are all continuing your musical improvement while catching up on some much needed rest and relaxation. However, as we are enjoying our time off, I would like to quickly inform you of the exciting developments that are occurring within the Collegiate Division.

The first development you should be aware of is the induction of our new state officers! I will be succeeding Thad Walker as he takes on the role of Past-President, and Madison

Baldwin will be moving from Treasurer to Vice President-Elect. New to the board are Brenton Nash and Latrice Green who will be serving as Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

Secondly, the board is currently in the process of recruiting additional higher education institutions to join NAfME. Glenn Nierman, NAfME’s National President and Board Chair, has put forth the objective of 100% participation of accredited institutions offering music education degrees. We intend to meet this goal and have already begun contacting some of the previously uninvolved schools throughout the state.

For those already involved with Collegiate NAfME, mark your calendars! I’m excited to announce that this year’s Collegiate Fall Summit will be held on October 9th in Tuscaloosa. It is going to be an amazing

professional development event that will give everyone the chance to both grow as a preservice educator and make valuable connections across the state.

Lastly, I would like to remind everyone that NAfME memberships expire in June. Be sure to renew as soon as possible so that you are ready to go when the semester starts back up!

I’m very excited to serve you as President and Ilook forward to the further growth and development of the Collegiate Division.

Sincerely,

Joshua Meyer AMEA Collegiate Division President jpmeyer@crimson.ua.edu (256)566-1265

Cliff Huckabee - President, Elementary/General Division

Joshua Meyer- President, AMEA Collegiate Division

COLLEGE of FINE ARTS

DEPARTMENT of MUSIC

COLLEGE of FINE ARTS

DEPARTMENT of MUSIC

AUDITION DATES:

NOV. 14, 2015

JAN. 30, 2016

MARCH 12, 2016

For more information, visit www.montevallo.edu/music

AUDITION DATES:

NOV. 14, 2015

JAN. 30, 2016

MARCH 12, 2016

For more information, visit www.montevallo.edu/music

Beginning, Middle, End. As I begin this last article for the Ala Breve, I’m reminded of Ecclesiastes 7:8. “The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.” Remembering All-State Festival reminds me also that the end is in sight. The Spring Concert is over and only our performance at Baccalaureate remains, quickening the planning for the next school year. I love the cyclical nature of our profession.

I consider All-State Festival as the crest of our year. The conductors were outstanding and offered our students a wealth of instruction. Not only for students, but professional development for teachers was second to none. Meg Rudolph planned an excellent array of sessions, for which many of you afforded yourselves the opportunity of attending. I hope this is a tradition that Meg is willing to continue. The best inservice occurs when we watch a master teacher at work. We were afforded this opportunity for approximately twelve hours

during the festival. Watching the conductors has always been my favorite aspect of attending the All-State festival. I hope this year you were able to spend time after the festival evaluating your own rehearsals in light of the good teaching that you were able to witness over the course of the festival. Thank you Kenny Gannon and Tim Banks. Our organization has never felt so welcomed to Samford University. Your selfless patience with us has not gone unnoticed. Your willingness to address all the needs that we bring to the venue are appreciated. I hope the relationship that we enjoy at Samford is in the “middle” category of a cycle and that we can continue this relationship for years to come.

The cyclical nature of our profession has impacted the makeup of our AVA board. As my tenure as AVA president ends and Ginny Coleman’s presidency begins, Districts I, III, IV, V, and VII begin next year with new district chairmen. The executive board will also change—adding Cathy Spence as the recording secretary. Support Ginny Coleman as your new president. She is a great organizational planner and I think that you will be proud to be a member of the organization of which she is president.

Please submit to perform at the AMEA

Conference. We are going to remain in the alternative performance venue within the conference center for one more year. Then the conference will move to the civic center in Birmingham. We then can enjoy the better acoustics of the concert hall. Hopefully, we will successfully address the issues which were noted in the ball room this year in Montgomery. We are meeting in June with Garry Taylor to address these concerns. I think that the hall provides a good facility acoustically for our ensembles. Submissions are due by June 1.

The AVA summer board meeting is June 4–8 in Tuscaloosa. Should you have anything you would like the board to discuss, please forward your communication before the meeting in June.

Your NAfME membership is ending June 30th. Remember to renew your NAfME membership before the end of school. I wish you all the best as you end the school year.

I appreciate the opportunity to have served as AVA president for the past two years. I consider that we all have a responsibility to serve the organization that has served all of our individual school programs. See you at Fall Workshop.

Carl Davis- President, Alabama Vocal Association

District

Amari Gamble

District II: Alex Freeman

District IV: Gavin Reid

District V: Tyler Dye

District VII: Adam Kelley

District I: Emma O’Steen

District II: Jada Foster

District III: Macey Carter

District IV: Faith Lenard

District V: Leah Boyd

District VI: Charlcie Hathorn

District VII: Gabrielle Corlett

Outstanding Accompanists

SATB: Brittany Lee

TTBB: Xavier Streety

MS Mixed: Rebecca Wilson

Female OCS

Male OCS

I:

AMEA Industry/Institutional Membership

AMEA would like to express appreciation to the following partners who have joined AMEA in our efforts to promote music education in Alabama. Please support these industry/institutional members who support you as music educators!

Arts Music Shop Inc., 3030 E. Blvd., Montgomery, AL 36116

AWB Apparel, 206 Potomac Ct., Woodstock, GA 30188

Beau Vinci Violins, 116 N. Main Street, Alpharetta, GA 30009

Custom Fundraising Solutions, 225 Distribution Drive, Homewood, AL 35209

Eastman Music Company, 2158 Pamona Blvd., Pomona, CA 91768

Gadsden Music Company Inc., P.O. Box 132, Gadsden, AL 35902

Group Travel Network, Inc., 410 N. Dillard Street, Suite 104, Winter Haven, FL 34787

Huntingdon College Bands, 1500 E. Fairview Ave., Montgomery, AL 36106

John M. Long School of Music, School of Music, Troy, AL 36082

JW Pepper, 9053 Riverside Pkwy, Lithia Springs, GA 30122

Landmark Tour and Travel, 704 37th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35222

Marchmaster Inc., P.O. Box 73379, Newnan, GA 30271

Mouchette Enterprises, Inc., P.O. Box 394, Northport, AL 35476

Musical Destinations, PO Box 771060, Winter Garden, FL 34777

OrlandoFest, 7081 Grand National Drive, Suite 111, Orlando, FL 32819

QuaverMusic.com, 1706 Grand Ave., Nashville, TN 37212

Simply Sheets Fundrasing, LLC, 3065 Heatherbrook Trace, Canton, GA 30114

Southeastern Performance Apparel, 142 S. Woodburn Drive, Dothan, AL 36305

Southern Performances, P.O. Box 6852, Gulf Shores, AL 36547

Sunburst Indian River Citrus, 4960 Meadow Brook Rd., Birmingham, AL 35242

Super Holiday Tours, 116 Gatlin Ave., Orlando, FL 32806

Superior Travel and Tour, 1270 Coronado Terrace, Deltona, ,FL 32725

Thomas Tours, Inc., 2405 12th Ave. South, Nashville, TN 37204

UAH Department of Music, 301 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35899

University of Alabama Bands, Box 870368, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487

University of Alabama School of Music, Box 870368, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487

University of North Alabama Dept. of Music, UNA Box 5040, Florence, AL 35632

University of South Alabama, LPAC 1072, 5751 USA Drive South, Mobile, AL 36688

Collegiate-Level Music TheoryAm I Prepared?

Graduation is just around the corner and high school seniors all over the country are feverishly awaiting the transition to learning and living in a whole new world: college. For many seniors, there is an added excitement that arises from the possibility of pursuing any number of careers in music: performance, composition, recording, technology, theory, therapy, arts administration, and - of coursemusic education. Each of these disciplines promises to every student a uniquely crafted and invigorating experience. What is not unique, what they all have in common, is the necessity to enter these programs with fluency in the language of music; that is, students must be prepared to pursue their chosen musical paths with a strong foundation in our common language of music fundamentals, so that the student’s experience in music theory studies will be most beneficial. My goal is to address this matter of preparation and to help provide an estimation of what a student might expect in a first semester college-level music theory class.

Prior to addressing these expectations, let’s first consider what is meant by the term “music fundamentals.” When we discuss components of music such as pitch, key signatures, scales, intervals, time signatures, and triads, we are referring to the fundamentals of music. This is not music theory. Music theory is a broad discipline which studies and observes the behavior and communication of music; in order to take part in such studies and observations (in a classroom, for instance), a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of music (pitch, key signatures, etc.) is required. Allow me to offer what I believe is a great analogy, one which I have shared several times, but one which may help make more clear this particular distinction. In her article “Music Literacy and Language Literacy: Parallel Connections,” (Cooper 2014) Shelly Cooper writes: “just as we do not teach our

youngest students to identify subjects and predicates on the first day of any elementary language course, having no prior knowledge of the letters of the alphabet, we should not expect our musical students to engage in collegiate-level theory courses without the equivalent preparation.”

When we are equipped with a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of music, we are able to begin preparing for our first semester of music theory. At my home institution, The University of Alabama School of Music, we offer the following recommendation to students who are preparing for their first semester in a music theory classroom: students should work to possess the musical skills found below, at minimum, before beginning their first semester of music theory.

Using treble and bass clefs, be able to read and write notes on the staff.

Be able to quickly identify and write signatures for all major and minor keys. Know the relative and parallel minor of each major key; know the relative and parallel major of each minor key.

Be able to quickly identify and write all major and minor (natural, harmonic and melodic) scales.

Be able to write and identify major, minor, perfect, augmented, and diminished intervals. Know the inversion of any interval.

Be able to write, clap, and count simple rhythm patterns.

Be able to sing major scales using letter names or scale-degree numbers.

For students who have experience in sight singing and ear training, practice singing and dictating simple diatonic melodies. Practice singing major and minor scales in all keys.

For students who wish to master these

by Amir Zaheri, Ph.D

musical skills, there are several excellent resources to be accessed. A popular online aid can be found at musictheory.net. This is a great tool that is designed to provide a wide range of lessons and exercises, covering information from a purely introductory musical level through beginning theoretical assignments. Additionally, I oftentimes refer students to what I believe is an excellent programmed-text in music fundamentals: “Scales, Intervals, Keys, Triads, Rhythm, and Meter.” This text, authored by Claire Boge, John Clough, and Joyce Conley is currently in its third edition and is widely available at most online bookstores (ISBN-10: 0393973697).

This may all seem a bit overwhelming, particularly if this information is being encountered for the first time. What is important to realize, however, is that entering a first semester music theory class, without this information, will not only be overwhelming, it will likely be a disheartening experience for the student. It is true that knowledge is power, and this particular knowledge may well empower a student to prepare for and succeed in her or his first semester collegiate-level music theory course.

Works Cited

Cooper, Shelly. “Music Literacy and Language Literacy: Parallel Connections” ala breve February/March 2015: 52-53.

Amir Zaheri is Assistant Professor of Music Compositionat The University of Alabama and serves as AMEA Advanced Placement Theory Chair.

Mind the Gap! : edTPATM

Mind the Gap! At this time of year all professors, preservice teachers, and administrators alike seem to be maneuvering as carefully as possible through the gaps. The gaps in curriculum, assessments, and most abundantly the gap in time (or the lack thereof). How do we get everything done in the time given…preservice teachers performing at advanced levels, developing proficient pedagogy skills, reflecting and assessing themselves and the classroom students they’re teaching,not to mention writing lesson plans for each class, tracking high order thinking skills, and advocating for future programs while explaining to administration and non-music teachersthat music classes are equal to other core classes in cognitive and social development?

First of all, breathe! Teacher education preparation programs are often faced with navigating the implementation of these new requirements set forth by their institution, state and national agencies. In the state of Alabama, edTPATM (Education Teacher Performance Assessment) is one of the newly required assessments for teacher candidates along the pathway to certification. This assessment focuses on three major areas (Planning for Instruction and Assessment; Instructing and Engaging Students in Learning; and Assessing Student Learning) and the supportive commentary/video evidence of choices and actions made during the teaching process. Research has been conducted on the process of implementing edTPATM into traditional classroom programs (Peck, Gallucci and Sloan, 2010).

The above listed challenges are common for everyonegoing through the implementation process of edTPATM, both professors and preservice teachers. What has brought me some comfort is knowing that I am not alone, and that this is actually the norm. Although the edTPATM process may feel a bit clouded at this point, I feel the outcomes focus on in increased effective communication by music teachers with those that are not, assessments that assist creative minds in tracking concrete and esthetic goals in more specific manner, and assisting with validation of cognitive, emotional, and esthetic development of our students through music teachers being able to convey the effectiveness of their teaching through tracked

student outcomes. However, the real question for most of is: How can I make it through the year with greater success for my students and program, track what I need to change in the future, and maintain the hair I have left?

Step 1: Mindset!

The mind is a powerful tool. If we allow ourselves to be negatively influenced, you will have a much harder time achieving success in the implementation of edTPATM Note, I did not say this made it an easy process, but a bearable process. Taking the time to reminisce the past assessment processes can be useful, but primarily for the reasons of making cross connections to the new system. Teachers guiding the minds of future music educators have a wealth of knowledge and convey the same information assessed in a multitude of ways, which allows for a vast pallet of differentiated instruction to help guide the specific outcomes needed for the edTPATM assessment process.

Preservice teachers, you are a novice teacher and edTPATM can be seen as a toolto help you develop a process of engaging classroom students in successful learning. What does that mean? When a preservice teacher is growing in the art and science of teaching it often takes on a cyclical process of self-centered focus - to curriculum focus - to classroom student focus then back again. Highly successful teachers spend more of their time in the realm of classroom student success (Fuller, 1969; Fuller & Bown, 1975; Killian, Dye, & Wayman, 2013). Therefore, using edTPATM as a tool to assure student focused teaching, and placing the idea of student outcome success as the primary. This challenged my preservice student’s thinking from the direction of placing curriculum first to students first by asking: How do my students learn (visual/aural/kinesthetic)? What are some of their interest in which I may connect the curriculum? and How do my students think and process information? By answering these questions, preservice teachers may have greater insight on how to differentiate instruction to assure student success. Then providing specific feedback through formative and summative assessments to determine the amount of student success in obtaining the learning objective.

John B.

Step 2: Know Your Handbook!

This sounds simple, but most people overlook or assume they know what they need for edTPATM. Do NOT fall into this trap. Know your handbook forwards and backwards as if it were a music score. Write in the definitions of unfamiliar terms, and those that are defined a bit differently than we’re accustomed. Remember the glossary is not suggestive in its defining of terminology. Write out music curriculum examples of each of the different section to assure effective communication and understanding. Chart a plan of action by working backwards from your completed edTPATM rubric goals.

Step 3: Big Picture

This is currently a new process for many, and will always be a new process to incoming preservice educators. It is important that everyone keep a perspective of the overall picture. This is not a music evaluation. It is a teaching evaluation, and is from the perspective of a tradition subject classroom; therefore, effective communication connecting the world of music and education must be maintained from that perspective. Error on the side of using edTPATM academic language.

Task 1 – Context & Preplanning

a Know your students! What is important about your students that will help you teach them more effectively?

a Where are you starting from, and what is your curricular destination?

a How will you know if the students are meeting the objective?

Task 2 – Instruction & Student Engagement

a Objective

a Student Focused – Action

Verb/Measurable

Wayman, Ph.D. Editor’s Note: Thisarticle appears as one of a series written especially for Ala Breve by experts in the field of music education.

a Does it relate to your Preplanning / Unit?

a What are you doing as the Teacher?

a What should your students be doing?

a How are you assessing your students (Formative / Summative)?

Task 3 – Assessment

a Assessment of student outcome, NOT teacher delivery.

a Formative Assessment – We do this all the time, but must provide evidence (predictions of pitfalls, and evidence of small victories along the path).

a Summative Assessments- How do you know the students met the overall objective of the lesson? Unit?

a Note – Assessments must have a student feedback component (written/verbal). How can they know where they are if they are not told?

Step 4: Work/Plan Backwards

Remember this is a new process for many including preservice teachers and teacher educators. I highly recommend working backwards knowing the necessary outcomes and justifications needed to be successful according to edTPATM. Again, I encourage all to keep in mind this is NOT a curriculum it is a teaching assessment to assure student focused teaching and assessment. Familiarize yourselves with the rubrics. Level 3 is passing. Even if you have components from the higher levels, but do not accomplish everything from level 3 you risk receiving a no pass rating.

Ask… How can I accomplish components needed for successful completion of edTPATM in my unit? Yes, this is a manipulated situation, but isn’t every class? As good teachers, we present new information and manufacture situations or experiences for our students to embody the new concepts. The video evidence for the edTPATM assessment is cause for the dissection of several good teaching habits, student responses, and assessment to occur in a small amount of time; therefore, planning is essential. I would recommend recording as much as possible. It is beneficial to review the footage as a best practice, but also finding the best uncut representative footage is essential. Effective communication is very important. Although graders are told not to reduce scores due to poor writing, many times scores are lowered because of the lack of effective communication. Assume the grader know little about your curriculum, and set the

scene for the grader in clear simple sentences using key terms from the rubrics and glossary. Identify the evidence (Artifacts, Commentary, video) and make clear connections from preplanning through the assessment. Above all, speak the obvious. What is obvious to the writer may not be to the grader after grading several projects. It is important to note that reflecting on what should have happened only means that it did not happen and does not add to overall score.

Areas most often not addressed with success:

As with every project this large, certain common areas are overlooked. Task 1 - Context & Preplanning, in my experience, often presents great information about the background of our classroom students, their prior knowledge, the accommodations needed to meet individual education plans, the curriculum objects and academic language goals. The challenge is whatever information is presented here it must be threaded throughout the rest of the student commentary. Therefore, be careful in what you consider important information. If that particular bit of information does not alter your teaching and assessment then it can be left out.

Task 2 - Instruction & Student Engagement often presents the challenge of effective communication. I know this has been stated previously, but please remember to write from an educational jargon perspective. It is our duty to connect the world of music and the field of education/administration for the edTPATM grader. This is a challenge that will serve you well when advocating for your program. Two additional areas that are often overlooked are tracking accommodations/modifications and implementation of formative assessments. Make clear connections to the accommodations/modifications made to the curriculum and/or instructions to address the needs of your students. I encourage all to think of formative assessment erroring on the more formal side. Collect hard data. Performance based classes are often evaluated through listening and visual cues, but this process if hard to track. This type of assessment can be done, but possible reflect the results in a rubric form.

Task 3 – Assessmentsare based on the collected data. This sounds obvious, but many times reflections are made not based on

the data collected. This section is to ensure that preservice teachers can track individual and groups of students while modifying instruction to meet the needs based on the interpretation of collected data. Assessments must also contain two facets: 1) Information received by the instructor, and 2) feedback given to the classroom students. Gathering information does not seem to be the challenge, it is the feedback given to the classroom student. Feedback can be in either verbal or written form, but remember to capture the verbal feedback on video if you are going to use it as an exemplar for the grader.

Wow! This is a huge project with lots of components. BUT, it is manageable and will assist in producing future teachers with student focused learning concepts and data driven assessments. More importantly, it will assist future music teachers in bridging the gap between the science and the art of the teaching in the music classroom.

Fuller F. (1969). Concerns of teachers: A developmental conceptualization. American Educational Research Journal, 6, 201–226. 10.3102/00028312006002207

Fuller F., Bown O. (1975). Becoming a teacher. In Ryan K. (Ed.), Teacher education, Part II: The 74th yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (pp. 25–52). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Killian, J., Dye, K. & Wayman J.B. (2013). Music student teachers: Pre–student teaching concerns and post–student teaching perceptions over a 5-year period. Journal of Research in Music Education.

Peck, C., Gallucci, C., & Sloan, T. (2010). Negotiating implementation of high-stakes performance assessment polices in teacher education: From compliance to inquiry. Journal of teacher Education, 61(5), 451-563.

John B. Wayman, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education at the University of Texas at Arlington

Choir as Community: Lessons from the Field

In the United States, choir singing is the most popular form of engagement in the arts, with 42.6 million singers participating in 270,000 choirs nationwide (Chorus America, 2009).Over the last 35 years, scholars have pursued research to better understand the choral singing phenomenon and why people choose collective singing as a leisure activity. These research efforts have generated a large pool of data suggesting a wide range of benefits attributed to choir participation for children and youth. While musical benefits have consistently emerged as a valued outcome of choir singing, researchers have also identified additional social, emotional, personal, and academic benefits for school age choristers (Adderly,Kennedy,& Berz, 2003; Bartolome, 2013; Chorus America, 2009; Hylton, 1981; Kennedy, 2002; Rohwer & Rohwer, 2009). The documented positive outcomes of choir singing are not limited to children and youth, but have also been found among adults (Judd & Pooley, 2014; Joseph, 2009; Kennedy, 2009;) and the elderly (Southcott, 2009; Southcott & Joseph, 2013; 2015). Choir has also been found to serve important emotional and psychological needs among individuals who are homeless (Bailey & Davidson, 2005), incarcerated (Cohen, 2012), or suffering from mental illness (Dingle, Brander, Ballantyne, & Baker, 2013), highlighting the therapeutic benefits of group singing for marginalized populations. In medicine, choir participation has been linked with gains in health and well-being (Clift et al, 2008) and has had positive outcomes for patients with Alzheimer’s disease (Harris & Caporella, 2014), dementia (Davidson & Fedele, 2011),and chronic pain (Hopper et al, 2016).

This brief overview of some of the research related to the value of choral singing highlights the notion that choir singing remains a valued part of the human experience for many and provides multifaceted benefits for a wide variety of different kinds of people. From a music education perspective, it is a motivating reminder of the strong, positive impact our work potentially has on the lives of our choristers. It also requires us to reflect on the multiplicity of benefits associated with choral singing and the implications these findings have for our own practice in schools and

communities. What are our roles as choral music educators? How can we have the greatest impact on our students as both musicians and citizens? As a researcher, I study the culture of choirs with the aim of answering these questions for myself and improving my own practice.

In the past 10 years I have had the unique opportunity to conduct ethnographic fieldwork with choirs in a variety of geographic contexts, including South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Lithuania. While many of the values associated with choral singing are consistent across these contexts, I have learned particular lessons through my extended participation in each of these choral communities. Here I offer what I consider to be some of the primary lessons from the field that have inspired changes in my own approach to choral music making here in the United States. Through a deeper understanding of the choral culture in other places, I continue to refine my thinking about how to best serve my choir singers and the communities in which we function.

A Lesson from Pretoria: Building Choirs and Building Audiences

When I planned my first research trip to South Africa, I hoped to learn more about South African choral music in in general and more about the incredibly rich and thriving choral culture in Pretoria in particular. I spent a month observing local choirs, attending choir concerts, festivals, and competitions, and interviewing conductors in Pretoria East. The most striking feature of my first visit was the strong emotional response I had during the more than 20 hours of choral performance I attended. Sitting in the hall, I was astounded by the diversity and quality of repertoire performed and the commitment to conveying an emotional message through the performance. The programming featured South African music, including Western compositions in Afrikaans and English (many by local composers) and arrangements of songs drawn from Black South African cultures. I was also struck by a certain emphasis of modern and experimental genres, including quality arrangements of popular music and interesting experimental compositions by South African, Asian, and Scandinavian composers. For me,it was

Sarah J. Bartolome,

incredibly refreshing to sit through a program of music that was entirely unknown and also feel emotionally connected to every choir throughout the performances.

In talking about this phenomenon with conductors, they described a desire to do new music that no one else had done before and create new sonic experiences for the audiences. They also discussed an effort to appeal to their very diverse choristers and audiences while stretching and educating them musically. A sincere emphasis on high quality repertoire was evident and I witnessed some incredibly satisfying arrangements of popular music that both surprised and delighted me. In fact, many of the most impressive arrangements were done by the conductors themselves in response to a perceived lack of quality popular choral music. Every concert I attended was full to capacity and audiences clapped, danced, and ululated throughout the concerts. It was truly a joyful and participatory concert-going experience. In Pretoria East, the attention to providing relevant musical experiences for singers and the community through diverse, quality programming was an effective mechanism for recruiting both choir members and audiences.

When I returned home, I spent a long time pondering the role of the audience in my work as a choral conductor and the importance of thoughtful programming in building a choir community. How could programming provide more meaningful and relevant musical experiences for both singers and audiences? How is it possible to balance the critical educational goals of the curriculum with creative, diverse programming including high-quality popular and multicultural music? By committing fully to honoring all genres of music through the programming of diverse and high-quality repertoire, we might successfully recruit and retain more and more diverse students to our programs, grow our audiences, and provide more meaningful musical experiences for all stakeholders.

A Lesson from the Drakensberg: Building Relationships

I had the unique opportunity to spend a month living at the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School (DBCS) in Winterton, South Africa, staying in a dorm apartment, eating alongside the boys in the dining hall,

Ph.D

Editor’s Note: Thisarticle appears as one of a series written especially for Ala Breve by experts in the field of music education.

observing all aspects of their academic and musical training, and attending rehearsals and performances. The DBC is multiracial in its make up, integrating Black, White, Afrikaans, and Colored1 South African boys in a residential choir school in the Drakensberg mountains. As I waded through interviews with all 101 boys in the choir, I noticed an interesting trend regarding the socialization of the boys. Most boys remarked on the role of the choir in helping them to understand more about racial and cultural diversity. Due to the truly multicultural nature of the South African society and the fairly recent dismantling of the Apartheid2 government (1994), racial and cultural tensions remain a challenge (see Thompson & Berat (2014) for a thorough account of the complicated political history of South Africa). For DBCS boys, living and working together in a residential music school has provided them an opportunity to learn about diverse cultures and develop strong relationships with others different from themselves. This emerged as a manifestation of what Putnam (2001) called bridging social capital, a kind of “sociological WD-40” that can “generate broader identities” (p. 22-23). The boys learn to appreciate and respect the diversity of their community and develop a strong collective identity as a “Drakie.”

I left the Drakensberg with a deep awareness ofthe potential of choir to unite individuals from very different backgrounds and wondered howchoir might serve as a source of bridging social capital for singers in the United States as well. Could we cultivate a deeper appreciation of diversity through encouraged cross-cultural interaction and thoughtful and varied programming? How could the choral classroom bea forum for the exploration of issues of racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of prejudice and inequity? By fostering a creative and cohesive community of singers that develop strong bonds across perceived differences, we might allow acceptance and appreciation of diversity to flourish.

A Lesson from Kagbere: Building Bridges with the Community

In an earlier study of choral culture, I found myself in Kagbere, an extremely rural community in Sierra Leone. Home to approximately 400 Landogo people, Kagbere is a subsistence farming village without access to electricity or running water. I was amazed to find that this tiny village had a small, twolevel children’s choir at the Wesleyan Church. I spent a month investigating the roles of the choir and was surprised to find that the choir

served a critical service role in the community (Bartolome, 2013). In addition to serving particular evangelical, educational, and musical functions, the children and youth in the choir were responsible for cleaning and maintaining the church building, tending the church’s groundnut fields, assisting elderly, sick, or pregnant villagers, and organizing sports and cultural events for the community. When I returned home, I started to consider the potential role of choirs within surrounding communities and the mutually beneficial relationships that might arise between choirs and community partners. What might our choir offer to underserved or marginalized populations in our local communities? How might the students in my choirs learn and grow from interacting with individuals with very different backgrounds, life experiences, or challenges? How might those experiences enrich them personally and musically and contribute to their development as an engaged citizen? By providing opportunities for student musicians to engage with communities in need, we might encourage a certain civic mindedness and an awareness of what they might offer the world through their musical training.

A Lesson from Vilnius: Building Opportunities

In 2013, I spent 6 months in Vilnius, Lithuania, teaching at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences and conducting research on local folk ensembles. My study was intergenerational in nature and so I observed ensembles serving children, university students, adults, and more elderly individuals. Through weekly visits with each of these populations, I came to understand the value of a lifelong orientation to music education. Residents of Vilnius have a wide range of rich, meaningful music making opportunities available to them from childhood through old age. In a single week, I interacted with 5-year-old children, 20-yearold university students,40-year-old professionals, and 85-year-old retirees, all learning traditional Lithuanian folk music and dance. It was beautiful and unexpected to see communities of all ages focused on the same Lithuanian folk traditions.

After six months with these communities, I began to think about the typical American’s access to musical engagement throughout their lives. If we profess that the goal of music education is to provide our students with the skills to participate in music across a lifetime, we must also consider what kinds of opportunities are

available for continued participation in music. I wonder what our role might become if we stop thinking about music education as a K-12 enterprise and begin embracing a more lifewide and lifelong approach (Jones, 2009). Programs like New Horizons have become more popular in pockets around the United States, while community and church ensembles provide opportunities for some to continue engaging in music making. What (else) can we offer in our communities that might draw a wider spectrum of adult participants that valued the music making experience during their K-12 education? What would best serve the community outside the doors of our high schools regardless of prior participation? What kinds of music making are relevant and accessible to community members? By engaging more individuals in music making beyond high school graduation, we may cultivate a community more committed to music education for their children, for themselves, and for society.

Final Reflections: Building Communities

My experiences with each of these very different music making communities linger. They force me to reflect and they inspire me to think outside the box. I wonder how the things I have learned might inform new and innovative approaches in my work as a music educator. I find myself asking even more questions: How can we have the greatest impact? How can we grow choirs and provide joyful opportunities for relevant and meaningful music making for even more people? I recall the incredibly aesthetically satisfying performances in Pretoria and the joyous ululation of the audience as they stood and danced and clapped along with the choir. I think about the next crop of Drakies, learning to live and cooperate in a rich and diverse multicultural environment. I imagine the choir in Kagbere sweeping the church after a service and collecting wood for an elderly neighbor. I remember shiny,little fiveyear-old faces and wrinkly, grey-bearded eighty-five-year-old faces joyfully singing Lithuanian folk songs. I think about the power of choir to foster each of these unique and wonderful situations. And I can only conclude that the true lesson is that our choirs are communities. We have the joyful and daunting and rewarding job of growing communities of singers and witnessing how people (singers, audiences, community members) are impacted by our efforts. We must recognize the power of music to teach our students about themselves, about each other, and about the world. And we must also think about our

choir’s relationship to the larger community and what we might offer the world through music.

Adderly, C., Kennedy, M., & Berz, W. (2003). “A home away from home: Theworld of the high school music classroom. Journal of Research in Music Education, 51, 190-205. doi:10.2307/3345373

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Chorus America. (2009). The chorus impact study: How children, adults, and communities benefit from choruses Washington, DC: Retrieved from http://www.chorusamerica.org/publica tions/research-reports/chorus-impactstudy

Clift, S.M., Hancox, G, Morrison, I., Hess, B., Stewart, D., Kreutz, G. (2008). Choral singing, well-being, and health: Summary of findings from a crossnational survey. Retrieved from, https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/healthand-wellbeing/sidney-de-haan-researchcentre/documents/choral-singingsummary-report.pdf

Cohen, M. (2012). Harmony within the walls: Perceptions of worthiness and competence in a community prison choir. International Journal of Music Education, 30, 46-56.

Davidson, J.W. & Fedele, J. (2011). Investigating group singing activity with people with dementia and their caregivers: Problems and positive perspectives. Musicae Scientiae, 15, 402422.

Dingle, G.A., Brander, C., Ballantyne, J., & Baker, F.A. (2013). “To be heard”: The social and mental health benefits of choir singing for disadvantaged adults. Psychology of Music, 41, 405-421. doi:10.1177/0305735611430081

Harris, P.B. & Caporella, C.A. (2014). And intergenerational choir formed to lessen Alzheimer’s Disease stigma in college students and decrease the social isolation of people with Alzheimer’s Disease and their family members: A pilot study. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias, 29(3), 270-281. doi: 10.1177/1533317513517044

Hopper, M.J., Curtis, S., Hodge, S., Simm, R. (2016). A qualitative study exploring the effects of attending a community pain service choir on wellbeing in people who experience chronic pain. British Journal of Pain. Online first. doi:10.1177/2049463716638368

Hylton, J.B. (1981). Dimensionality in high school student participants’ perceptions of the meaning of choral singing experience. Journal of Research in Music Education, 29, 287-303. doi:10.2307/3345005

Jones, P.M. (2009). Lifewide as well as lifelong: broadening primar y and secondary school music education’s service to students’ musical needs.

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Joseph, D. (2009). Sharing music and culture through singing in Australia.

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Judd, M. & Pooley, J.A. (2014). The psychological benefits of participating in group singing for members of the general public. Psychology of Music, 42, 269-283.

doi:10.1177/0305735612471237

Kennedy, M.A. (2002). “It’s cool because we like to sing”: Junior high school boys’ experience of choral music as an elective. Research Studies in Music Education, 18, 26-36. doi:10.1177/1321103X020180010401

Kennedy, M.C. (2009). The Gettin’ Higher Choir : Exploring culture, teaching, and learning in a community chorus.

International Journal of Community Music, 2, 183-200. doi: 10.1386/ijcm.2.2&3.183/1

Putnam, R. (2001). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Rohwer, D. & Rohwer, M. (2009). A content analysis of choral students’ participation perceptions: Implications for lifelong learning. International Journal of Community Music, 2(2&3), 255-262. doi: 10.1386/ijcm.2.2&3.255/1

Southcott, J.E. (2009). ‘And as I go, I love to sing’: The Happy Wanderers, music, and positive aging. International Journal of Community Music, 2(2&3), 143-156. doi: 10.1386/ijcm.2.2&3.143/1

Southcott, J., & Joseph, D. (2013). Community, commitment, and the Ten Commandments: Singing in the Coro Furlan. International Journal of Community Music, 6, 79–92. doi: 10.1386/ijcm.6.1.5_1

Southcott, J.E & Joseph, D. (2015). Singing in La Voce Della Luna Italian women’s choir in Melbourne, Australia. International Journal of Music Education, 33(1), 91-102. doi: 10.1177/0255761414546244

Thompson, L. & Berat, L. (2014). A history of South Africa. (4th ed.) New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

1 In South Africa, Colored denotes individuals of mixed race.

2 Apartheid (literally “apart-hood” in Afrikaans) was a system of institutional segregation enforced by the National Party from 1948-1991.

Dr. Sarah J. Bartolome is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at Northwestern University. A children’s music and choral specialist with an interest in world music for the classroom, she has completed music fieldwork in Ghana, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Panama and Lithuania. Her scholarship in music education has been published in such journals as the Journal of Research in Music Education, the Journal of Music Teacher Education, and the Music Educators Journal.

Engaging Campus and Community: A Successful Ensemble

The University of Montevallo Concert Choir has a long-standing tradition of excellence. In May of 2015, this elite ensemble embarked upon a European tour that took them from Prague, Czech Republic to Vienna, Austria. Stops in between included Hodonín, Czech Republic; Budapest, Hungary; and Eisenstadt, Austria. During their 10-day journey, the group, under the direction of Dr. Melinda Doyle, Director of Choral Activities, performed 11 concerts in such prestigious venues as Hlahal Concert Hall and St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, St. Michael’s Church in Budapest, and St. Stevens Cathedral in Vienna.

A trip of this magnitude required a yearlong fundraising effort, an undertaking that involved several dozen student and adult musicians, hundreds of donors, and multiple campus administrators. Doyle worked tirelessly to ensure that the choir members who wished to go on the trip had opportunities to raise the necessary funds for travel. These students performed benefit concerts, worked at the university’s call center, received private donations – one gentleman even sold baked goods. Following the successful funding of the trip, there was a second collaboration involving faculty musicians, members of the library faculty, and a local arts council. This article will recall this latter partnership, which grew out of an effort to document the trip for the campus and the Montevallo community.

After submitting audio recordings of Concert Choir performances, Doyle received formal

invitations to perform at St. Michael’s Cathedral, Peterkirche and Votivkirche in Vienna and the Church of St. Lawrence in Hodonín, Czech Republic. The occasion was historic, in that it was the first such set of invitations for a Montevallo musical group. It was soon realized that there was a unique opportunity to produce a lasting record of this trip for town and gown.

In the fall of 2014, Doyle finalized a trip itinerary with Sechrist travel, a company that specializes in booking trips for educational and performance tours. About 34 student vocalists would travel to sites in Hungary, Czech Republic, and Austria during an eightday stay. Seven adults, most of whom had an affiliation with the university, were booked to travel with the students.

In January of 2015, when it appeared that the university was close to raising enough funding to make the trip successful, Doyle proposed recruiting an additional individual to document the tour. She wanted to recruit another professional musician to perform to this documentation work. Doyle turned to a colleague on the music education faculty with whom she had already worked on a number of projects. Dr. Becky Halliday expressed interest in undertaking this work, but funding for the trip was a roadblock. A faculty librarian and Concert Choir member, Jason Cooper, who had been rehearsing and performing with the choir over the course of the academic year, decided to seek support from the Montevallo Arts Council, on whose board he sat.

Over the next couple of weeks, Cooper, Doyle, and Halliday drafted a proposal for a community grant to send the trip documentarian to Europe. Counting airfare, lodging, and ground transportation it was estimated that the cost of the trip would be about $3,500. Over the course of several meetings, a strong rationale was

by Jason Cooper and Becky Halliday

developed for asking the Arts Council board for funding. Board members were looking for opportunities to forge ties with the new Dean of Fine Arts, whose program would benefit from the proposed grant. Among the points made in the proposal was the fact that the documentary project supported two prongs in its mission statement: the promotion and coordination of the arts in the Montevallo area, and the advancement of arts education for the greater Montevallo community.

The obligations of the documentarian began to be more thoroughly defined during this initial drafting period. Halliday would be responsible for recording video, photos, and audio. The grant writers would use their contacts to find equipment to do this work. The recordings would be posted online to share with interested parties and a larger video would be created that could serve as a recruitment tool for the music department.

A proposal was presented to the board of the Montevallo Arts Council in February of 2015. While several board members expressed enthusiasm for the project, it was generally agreed that the plan lacked detail. There were questions about the quality of the recordings that were to be made, as well as what the benefit would be to the larger community. Finally, while the Council had the funding available to meet the request, the cost seemed prohibitive to some. Board members did not reject the funding request at this time, but asked for more information to be presented.

The grant writers regrouped and added details about what the end product would look like. Seeking help regarding technical specifications for the recordings, Cooper turned to Montevallo’s University Archivist, who offered advice on archival standards for audio and photos. While there was no established standard for video, the archivist pointed the grant team to recommendations developed by the National Archives and Records Administration.

The consultation with the archivist yielded other results. In addition to offering microphones and digital recorders for the documentary effort, he offered the use of the

university’s digital content platform to host the recordings. The grant writers could now describe precisely how these files would be stored and made available to members of the community in perpetuity.

The revised proposal included these new technical details along with two other elements. First, the grant writers would produce a live trip blog that would produce regular updates for followers of the music program back home. Both this blog and the subsequent digital archive would bear the Council’s name. Lastly, a program was offered to the Council, which could take the form of a gallery showing of some of the photo material or a live performance of the some of the trip repertoire.

Shortly before resubmitting the funding request, the grant writers learned that the cost of ground transportation for the documentation would be covered. This reduced the cost of the trip by about $1,000. This price reduction, along with the inclusion of additional technical and programming details, was enough to convince a majority of Council board members to lend their support to the project.

As the trip grew closer, Halliday and Cooper met to outline the desired archival outcome. This included securing the archival space through the University of Montevallo archivist, creating a blog, hashtag, and Facebook page, and outlining artifacts to be collected prior to tour. These would include video and still pictures of rehearsals and benefit concerts, as well as interviews with university administrators, students, and Doyle. Throughout the trip, parents, friends, and colleagues were able to follow the choir through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, using the hashtag #umcceuro2015. In this way, the documentarian, as well as other travelers, could upload pictures and status updates quickly and easily. Audio recordings were made on a Zoom Handy HD Video Recorder camera; video recordings on a Sony Handycam HD camcorder, and still pictures on a Nikon D3100 DSLR. Interviews prior to the trip were made on an Olympus VN8100PC digital voice recorder. Hundreds of photographs and hours of video and audio recordings were taken in order to provide a comprehensive view of the inaugural European tour by the choir.

These pictures serve as a reminder not only of the beautiful choir performances, but also the remarkable experiences planned for the choir by Sechrist Travel, including an evening dinner cruise along the Vlatava River, a tour of the Hungarian Opera House, and numerous walking tours around the cities that we visited. All of the participants marveled at the sights, smells, and tastes of the various cultures in each of these countries. Many of the travelers had never traveled abroad; some had never flown on an airplane. Documenting the events of this tour will not only serve to supplement university archives of events in the Department of Music, but also allow students to recall the events of this monumental experience.

Most importantly, the choir made beautiful music throughout the tour – 11 concerts in all - from intimate concert halls to enormous, ornate cathedrals. Each concert was video and audio recorded for purposes of archives and recordings for distribution. Doyle prepared beautiful performances of American music that were enthusiastically received by European audiences, including a spiritual arrangement by Moses Hogan performed by Dr. Roderick George, Professor of Voice. Throughout the trip, the music was the centerpiece, from impromptu piano performances in airports to singing in the rain on the streets of Prague. The purpose of the trip was always clear – sharing American music with people of other cultures.

At the conclusion of the trip, some still pictures were combined into a brief slide show, over a recording of the choir singing Jake Runestad’s “I Will Lift Mine Eyes.” This video, along with an oral presentation by Doyle, Halliday, and selected choir members, was shown to University of Montevallo alumni, Faculty Senate, Foundation Board, and other interested parties.

Conclusion

Because of the collaboration between the university and the Montevallo community, this historic trip may be reviewed for years to come. Already, the pictures and audio recordings have been used for recruiting purposes, and for university and departmentlevel marketing efforts. A C.D. of the choir’s live performances is in the final stages of production, and a second trip to Europe is being considered. Having accessibility to the

artifacts from the first tour may be a critical factor in fundraising efforts.

As a traveler on the perimeter of the choral activities that were the centerpiece of the tour, Halliday marveled at the professionalism and enthusiasm of the Concert Choir. The students consistently sang stellar performances, regardless of the hectic itinerary. As ambassadors of the University of Montevallo, they represented both the university and the state of Alabama with the utmost decorum. The mayor and city officials, who greeted delegates from the choir with a private reception, hosted the evening concert in Hodonín. The concert itself was attended by people from the small town and its surrounding area, who responded to the beautiful music with enthusiastic ovations.

Many times since the trip, students have remarked about how thankful they were for the opportunity to experience such a lifechanging event. Despite the exhaustive efforts toward fundraising, troubleshooting, hours of rehearsal and multiple performances, there is little question that all involved would go through it again for another chance to see the world through the lens of music.

Becky Halliday is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Montevallo.

Jason Cooper is Head of Media Technical Services at Transylvania University.

AMEADivision Events 2015 - 2016

Alabama Bandmasters Association

AMEA In-Service Conference/All-State Jazz Band

January 21-23, 2016 - Renaissance Montgomery Hotel at the Convention Center

All-State Solo Festival

April 13, 2016 - University of South Alabama

All-State Band Auditions

District Honor Band

District Spring Meeting

State MPA

Solo and Ensemble Festival

Solo and Ensemble Festival

District VI All-State Band Unassigned Auditions

All-State Band Auditions

District Honor Band

State MPA

State MPA

Solo and Ensemble Festival

District VII District Fall Meeting

All-State Band Auditions

State MPA

Solo and Ensemble Festival

Solo and Ensemble Festival

District Spring Meeting

District VIII District Fall Meeting

All-State Band Auditions

State MPA

District Honor Band

District Spring Meeting

Solo and Ensemble Festival

Solo and Ensemble Festival

January 30, 2016

February 19-20, 2016

February 20, 2016

February 25-26, 2016

March 15, 2016

April 21, 2016

January 30, 2016

January 30, 2016

February 19-20, 2016

March 8, 2016

March 9-10, 2016

April 28, 2016

August 24, 2015

January 16, 2016

March 9-11, 2016

April 30, 2016

May 7, 2016

May 9, 2016

August 17, 2015

January 9, 2016

March 8- 11, 2016

March 12-13, 2016

March 13, 2016

May 7, 2016

May 14, 2016

All-State Band Festival

April 14-16, 2016 - Mobile Convention Center

Summer In-Service Conference

June 22-23, 2016 - Hampton Inn and Suites, Orange Beach

email for details

Tuscaloosa County HS

University of West Alabama

Private Residence

University of Alabama School of Music

Prattville JHS

Tuscaloosa County HS

St. James School

Opelika MS

Auburn HS

First Baptist Church Montgomery

Opelika HS

Auburn JHS

Murphy HS

Davidson HS

Baker HS

Fairhope HS

Faith Academy

Daphne HS

TBA

Troy Elementary School

Enterprise HS

Enterprise HS

Enterprise HS

Troy Elementary School

Excel HS

District I

District II

District III

District IV

District V

District VI

District VII

Alabama Vocal Association

April 7 UNA

March 10

March 30 – 31Moody Music Bldg (with SCPA)March 2

April 9 Gardendale HS

February 25 Jacksonville State U

February 8 – 9Willowbrook Baptist

March 18 1st Baptist Tallassee

Fall - October 22U of South AL

Spring – March 15U of South AL

State Events Event Date Location

March 12

January 28

January 11

February 19

March 24

March 16

March 26

February 11

January 25

March 4

September 17October 1

February 16

March 1

Registraton DueAbsolute deadline/check due

All-State Show Choir AuditionsOctober 16, 17, 2015Gardendale-Mt. Vernon UMCOctober 2, 2015October 9, 2015

All-State Show Choir FestivalJanuary 20 – 23, 2016AMEA Montgomery

Honor Choir Festival

All-State Auditions

All-State Festival

January 21-22,2016AMEA Montgomery

December 9, 2015December 23, 2015

December 9, 2015December 23, 2015

November 13-20, 2015 Various locations throughout stateOctober 2, 2015October 16, 2015

March 2 – 5, 2016Samford University

January 20, 2016February 3, 2016

due

Campus Connections...

News and Happenings from Alabama’s Colleges and Universities

Auburn University

Auburn University’s Symphonic Winds under the direction of Dr. Rick Good traveled to Italy in March 2016 for a concert and educational tour. Approximately 100 undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff, and other personnel visited five different Italian cities, including Rome, Ariccia, Florence, Venice, and the Umbria region. They performed concerts in: Sala Maestra in the Chigi Palace (Ariccia), the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia (Rome), and the Gubbio Theatre in Gubbio.

Our students were able to experience Italian culture in each of these areas as well as visit popular landmarks such as: The Coliseum in Rome, the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Grand Canal Tour in Venice, and the Duomo in Orvieto, among many others. Auburn University faculty members, Rick Good, Corey Spurlin, and Doug Rosener were joined on the tour by Johnnie Vinson, emeritus faculty, and Dean Joe Aistrup of the College of Liberal Arts.

Don’t miss our summer band camps! High School and Middle School students interested in attending the 2016 AU Bands Summer camps can now register for marching band and symphonic band camp opportunities by visiting the Summer Camps page (http://band. auburn.edu/event/summer_camps/inde x.htm ).

For more about our ensembles, please visit our website: www.auburn.edu/music. Ensembles at Auburn University are open to all students on campus and are comprised of both music majors and majors in almost every other college. We encourage students who have participated in music in high school to continue their involvement in band, orchestral, or choral ensembles at the collegiate level. It’s a great break from academic studies and a sure way to meet new friends once you arrive on campus.

I invite you to read about our distinguished faculty, major performing ensembles, programs of study, and available scholarships, and assistantships on our website at: www.auburn.edu/ music. Contact the Department of Music

at 334-844-4165 or music@auburn.edu if you have questions about our degree programs or offerings.

War Eagle!

Samford University

Samford Opera had a vibrant year! They won second place at the National Opera Association’s Collegiate Scenes Competition in Indianapolis for the second year in a row, they did an educational tour of opera scenes to Birmingham-area high schools, and they performed the musical On the Town in a School of the Arts collaboration with enthusiastic audience response. Samford University recently admitted their first robust class of students pursuing a masters degree in Vocal Performance. Their new partnership with Opera Birmingham offers students the opportunity to perform with a professional company during their graduate studies.

The Samford A Cappella Choir embarks on a tour of three Baltic nations this May: Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. During their tour, they will work with noted conductors and composers from the area and compete in the International Choir Festival and Competition

“Šiauliai Cantat” hosted in Lithuania. Samford will be the only choir to represent the United States. This will be Samford’s fourth international competition in five years. A Cappella leads Samford’s monthly Vespers service and recently performed by invitation at the Fall 2013 Conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization in Charleston, South Carolina.

Colleges and universities are encouraged to submit newsworthy material and announcements for publication in Ala Breve

Teaching Sight-Singing: Finding Your Way

As a young middle school choral educator, I struggled to find an effective way to teach my students to sight-sing. Much like when one learns to read words at a very early age, in my personal experience (thanks to the piano and theory lessons paid for by my mother), I only remember knowing how to read music, not how I learned. When I started teaching choral music, I struggled with making the connection between knowing how to sightsing and knowing how to teach sight-singing. I searched for something (anything!) that would work. I observed successful peers, asked them questions, and tried to incorporate their suggestions into my thinking and teaching. Still, I felt lost and ultimately, even though I was trying my best, I felt like a failure because I knew I was failing my students. Based on conversations with teachers in conference sessions, I can only speculate that some feel the same way I did.

Searching for a Solution

Recently I searched “sight-singing” on Google and received approximately 4,460,000 results in less than a second (actually about 0.37 seconds). Google tries to help its users by ranking the results in order of what its algorithms view as useful. However, search engines results are based on specific words on the webpage, search engine optimization keywords, and many other elements (Fishkin & Moz Staff, 2015) and ultimately we cannot be sure what Google deems is valuable is what we will find valuable.

When I searched “sight-singing” on several music merchants’ websites (J.W. Pepper, Pender’s Music Co., Stanton’s Sheet Music, Sheet Music Plus, Amazon: Sheet Music and Scores), I received significantly less results, ranging from 59 to 289. For example, J.W. Pepper’s website (2016) returned 115 results, with 72 in the “choral” category. Some items in the list were no longer available or no longer in print. Some dated back to the 1930s while others were as recent as 2015. There were familiar and unfamiliar authors, composers, and arrangers. This was typical for all of the companies I searched.

In a brief review of ACDA national and regional conferences as well as state music educator conference sessions, usually there is at least one 50-60 minute sight-singing session in each conference. As one who provides sight-singing sessions, I am almost certain, though I try to give as much valid information

as possible, a 50-60 minute session provides motivation and potentially helpful activities, but not necessarily much depth in how to teachsight-singing.

Sifting through several pages out of 4+ million different “sight-singing” websites to see if they are helpful is not realistic. Purchasing numerous sight-singing books for review takes money and time with no guarantee of usefulness. Attending a 2-3 conference sessions on sight-singing each year certainly will help in some ways, but may not provide what is needed to learn how to teach sight-singing. If we are going to spend valuable time discovering how to teachsightsinging, perhaps we can use it more effectively.

An Old-New Idea

The summer after my first year teaching middle school chorus, when I felt like a complete failure, I asked for help from one of my mentors, Dr. Rosemary Watkins.In her intuitive way, she suggested I read (or re-read) learning theory and music teaching approaches, and create a sight-singing task analysis. My first reaction was, “Great, I need help and you’re asking me to do an academic exercise.” I wanted a quick (or quicker) fix. Though I was reluctant, I put my mind to it.

As I read the books and articles she loaned me,Ausubel, Vygotsky, Skinner, Bruner, Kodály, Dalcroze, Gordon, Madsen, and others came to life (perhaps for the first time). Several trends emerged from my reading that helped me think more constructively about teaching sight-singing. First, each subject area (including music) is constructed of many smaller concepts and skills that must be taught in a carefully sequenced order (Bruner, 1977; Choksy, 1981; Gordon, 2012). In addition, concepts and skills (such as melody and rhythm) should be taught individually before they can be combined (Choksy, 1981; Gordon, 2012; Jacques-Dalcroze & Sadler, 1913).Second, internal hearing, or audiation, which is the ability to comprehend and construct familiar and unfamiliar musical sounds and silences, is the foundation of and the ultimate goal of musicianship (Choksy, 1981; Gordon, 2012). Finally, though some advocate for using solfège with fixed do (where do always equals C), others agree thatsolfège with moveable do (where do changes with the key) is a highly effective tool for pitch/tonal training and allows students to sing in multiple tonalities

Jane M. Kuehne, Ph.D.

without making large adjustments (Choksy, 1981; Gordon, 2012).All of these considerations affected my thoughts on how to teach sight-singing.

As I read, I also worked on my task analysis, breaking down skills needed to sightsing musicand listing them line-by-line from most basic to most complex. When I met with Dr. Watkins again, I presented her with 11 legal-sized handwritten pages. After she read my work, she suggested I create materials to teach and assess each step (or group of steps) in my task analysis. With so much time already invested in this process, I was motivated to continue. I began creating materials, first by hand, and then with notation software.By the end of the summer, I completed what amounted to my own personal approach or method for teaching sight-singing.

In trying out my “method” with my students, I realized the time I spent resulted in success for my students, and for me. The realization occurred in two places, first in the sight-singing adjudication room where they earnedhigh marks, and second during my final teaching evaluation that year. I remember introducing a new 3-part (SSA) piece for our spring concert when my vice principal came into the room to observe. We went through our standard routine for sightsinging a new piece. The students made very few mistakes. We repeated the process and they made no mistakes. I said to them, “Do you realize what you just did?” Their expressions said they did not. “You just read this brand new piece, and in two tries, you sang all of the pitches and rhythms right!” I was excited (really excited)! When what they realized their accomplishment, you can imagine their excitement too. In looking back to that time, it was one of the most joyous moments I have ever had in teaching.

The Rest of the Story

I would love to say synthesizing what I read and creating the task analysis (with materials)was easy, it was not. But, it was time very well spent. I was more comfortable and confident in teaching sight-singing and my students succeeded, not just in the sightsinging contest room, but also in every day practice.

I now extend Dr. Watkins’challenge to you. Familiarize (or re-familiarize) yourself with how students learn. There are many

valuable online resources now available at your fingertips.Spend time breaking down conceptsand skills your students need for success. Create your own task analysis. Identify the most basic musical skill(s) students must be able to do to sight-sing accurately.Here is a hint: my first step was “maintain anaccurate and consistent steady beat.” List succeeding skills/concepts in order, from most simple to most complex. Create your own exercises (or find ones you like) to help you introduce, teach, and assess each skill or group of skills in your list.

You will need to determine a “final g oal” (how far into the whole sight-singing process will you take them?). I used the UIL (2016) middle school sight-singing requirements. Yours may include less or more depending on your students’ levels or your own expectations for the year. Once you have a goal in mind, determine your vehicle(s) for teaching. Will students use scale degrees, letter names, solfège, or something else for singing pitches? Will they use syllables or numbers in counting rhythm? Will you teach all students to read treble and bass clefs, just treble, or just bass? These are important but can muddy the water when you are attempting list skills and concepts. Save answering some or all of these questions until you reach point(s) where you must answer them to continue.

A word of caution. As you are completing your own task analysis (or teaching approach), remember that your process, or order of operations, may or may not be the same as your choral teacher friends’ processes. It may or may not mirror different published

methods. Give yourself permission to develop your own personal approach. You and your students will be thankful you did!

Additional Suggestions

Developing your own approach to teaching can be a highly rewarding task. However, it only one piece of the puzzle. There are essential practices in our classrooms that support our teaching and our students’ learning. Below are some suggestions to help you support your students’ learning. Help thembuy in. You must convince them that sight-singing is valuable and that it can be enjoyable. I told my students the truth: learning to sight-sing will be hard but rewarding. I taught the required the daily sight-singing procedures (routine) I wanted them to do each day. Beyond that, I tried to be creative in motivating them. We had SightSinging Breakfasts and Big Red Friday Sight-Singing Parties once or twice a month (our school colors were red and black). In each of these, students practiced sight-singing for 30-45 minutes and then had various treats for attending. Minimal financial and time costs on my part resulted in more motivation from them.

Teach every day. Teach sight-singing every single day, from the first day to the last day, even on days after concerts, or before holidays. Consider what you students learn from your behaviors when you do this: sightsinging important, learning to read music is important.

Be consistent. Teach them your sightsinging process and use the same routine every day. Remember, there will be steps in the learning process that take longer than other steps. Do not give up and shift to something new when it is taking longer for your students to grasp the concepts and complete the skills. Stay with your process and reteach when needed.

An educational festival for elementary, middle, and high school students in band, choir, and orchestra

2016 dates: April 22-23, April 29-30, May 6-7

2017 dates: April 21-22, April 28-29, May 5-6

Assess constantly. As musicians we naturally assess the “good and bad” in each performance (sometimes to our detriment!). Use your innate “was it right, was it wrong” assessing abilities each day. Reteach when needed, move on when they have successfully grasped concept(s) and skills(s). Sometimes you have to reteach multiple lessons, other times you may teach it one time, and they “get it.”Assess and reflect upon your own teaching, and do it honestly. Ask yourself what could be improved or changed and what went well.

students were learning performance skills, but also learning to read music. Using the process we did every day in class, they read a new piece of music for the first time in front of their parents and guests. Share their success with their families and friends.

One Final Note

You will have days where they students will do everything you ask, but struggle to grasp the concepts and skills.You will have days where they will fight your teaching efforts. You will have days when nothing goes right and you may doubt if what you are doing matters. And, you will have Utopian days, where everything goes right. They sight-sing perfectly and sing their literature beautifully, and you realize you have taught them well and that you have opened their worlds to new possibilities and a lifetime of music.

References

Bruner, J.S. (1977). The process of education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Choksy, L. (1981). The Kodály context. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Fishkin, R. & Moz Staff (2015). Chapter 1: How search engines operate. In The beginners guide to SEO. Retrieved: https://moz.com/beginners-guideto-seo/how-search-engines-operate Gordon, E.E. (2012). Learning sequences in music: Skill, content, and patterns (2012 Edition). Chicago: GIA Publications, Inc.

J.W. Pepper and Son (2016). “Sight-singing” search. Retrieved http://www.jwpepper.com/sheetmusic/search.jsp?keywords=sight-s inging

Jacques-Dalcroze, E. & Sadler, M. (1913). The eurhythmics of Jacques-Dalcroze Boston: Small Maynard and Company.

University Interscholastic League (UIL) (2016). Choir sight-reading criteria. Retrieved:

http://www.uiltexas.org/music/co ncert-sight-reading/choir-sightreading-criteria

Jane Kuehne is Associate Professor of Music Education at Auburn University www.SMMFestival.com or call:1-855-766-3008

Sight-sing in concerts. One of the best motivators for my students was when I explained in our March and May concerts to parents and other audience members that