2016-2017 School Year: Warming Up in High School Concert Choir & Mens Chorus Rehearsals

This teaching reflection is inspired, and in response to, the Choral Rehearsal and Vocal

Techniques class. After putting some of the warm-up ideas into practice during the 2015-2016

school year in my teaching experiences at the Salvation Army, I decided to continue developing

these ideas during the 2016-2017 school year in the context of teaching high school Concert

Choir and Mens Chorus.

At the beginning of the school year, I was trying to think of vocal warm-ups that would

benefit my students. I remembered discussing the importance of including effective and

purposeful warm-ups, and the importance of students understanding the purpose of each warm-

up during my Choral Rehearsal & Vocal Techniques class (context - Pogonowski). With this in

mind, I created a warm-up routine for my Concert Choir and Mens Chorus. Every week I

reinforced the purpose of the warm-ups by explaining the purpose, asking students to explain

the benefits and goals of each warm-up.

A couple of times, I reinforced these vocal goals by asking my students to sing in the

opposite style (poor technique), so that they could feel the difference between proper and

improper singing habits. For example, I had them explore the difference between how it feels to

sing open vowels vs. closed vowels, and with good posture vs. bad posture. This activity helped

my students hear the difference between good and band techniques, so that they could

understand the importance of developing the skills that we work on in our warm-ups (posture,

tall & open vowels, energy, and breath support...etc.) (Elliott).

I also found that including self-assessment was very helpful in developing healthy and

mature singing habits such as tall vowels, space, and appropriate facial expression. I included

self-assessment through informal surveys in which I asked students to rate their

individual/ensemble performance of a section of the music. Usually, I followed this survey with a

quick discussion, and then we would sing through that section again. This allowed them to gain
a better understanding of themselves (Maslow), and helped them to create goals for continued

growth in order to overcome struggles (Dweck). Most of the time, I noticed a remarkable

difference between the two run-throughs in that the second time through, the students were

much more focused on their goals and creating a good sound.

Finally, in order to give my students a feeling of ownership during our rehearsals, I asked

for student volunteers to lead the warm-up stretches. Additionally, I posted a blank paper on my

office door where students could write song requests to listen to during our stretching time. I

instituted this song requests idea during the 2nd semester in order to help increase student

enjoyment, validate their musical tastes, and connect to their social/home musical experiences

(Dewey). I found that playing their song requests at the beginning of class helped improve

behavior, acted as a re-focusing time in which students could transition into a chorus mindset

(instead of thinking about whatever class/lunch experience they just experienced). This activity

seemed to encourage positive attitudes, morale, and gave students some ownership because

they were allowed to pick the songs themselves (humanism).