Cheryl Kim

EDUC-M343: Choral Methods

August 28, 2017

Brainteaser 2-1: Observing a Middle School Choir Rehearsal

I visited Batchelor Middle School to observe Mr. Joel Brainard’s choir class today, and I

observed many things that were very appropriate and fun for the age group, while some aspects

were inappropriate and even seemed unhealthy for the students’ voices. I assume that this was

mostly because Mr. Brainard himself was a percussionist. Hopefully our classmates who are

visiting this class can be helpful for aspects that he may be having limitations in, such as vocal

modeling or variety of warm-ups and their appropriate ranges.

First of all, the set-up of the classroom was very nice: chairs in 3 rows facing the front,

where the projector and the board was at. There was a keyboard separating the students and the

teacher, which allowed the teacher to play the keyboard while facing the students. The teacher

had a wireless microphone on, which helped his voice project just a bit better. Students were

expected to be in their assigned seats, and they went to their seats immediately. However, the

teacher put on very loud and rambunctious music when students were walking in, which I

thought was not the best way to calm the students down and get them ready for class. Students

seemed to be very distracted, and because the music was so loud, they tried to chat on top of the

noise, making the classroom very chaotic and unfocused right before class. Right when the class

started, Mr. Brainard mentioned about some housekeeping things first before getting into the

lesson, and this was about the pencil clipped behind each student’s chair. I thought this was a

brilliant idea for fostering the idea of having a pencil at every rehearsal. The student in the
assigned seat was responsible for the pencil, and he mentioned how one student accidentally

brought her pencil home, so she needs to bring it back.

After all of this, Mr. Brainard turned the class’ attention to the board, where the lesson

plan was listed. He had the class work independently on a worksheet regarding note and rest

names, which some students were already good at, while some were struggling a lot. One thing

that was really bothering was that there was constant chatting in the classroom, but the teacher

did not care too much about it. Later, Mr. Brainard asked me and Peri to go around and help with

students, as he had to proctor a student in the other room. When he came back, he put on music

(again) that was not at all related to what they were trying to finish, and probably distracted the

students who were not finished at the point. When the teacher finally halted the class to check

their answers, he went down the row for students to answer one question each. What I liked in

this process was that he clarified on some terminology that students seemed to not understand,

such as measures and bar-lines. However, in the answer check process, the teacher could have

gave more acknowledgement when students gave correct answers, as Skinner’s Reinforcement

Theory shows that small reinforcement for certain behaviors reproduce them.

After spending too much time (about 25 to 30 minutes out of 45) with the worksheets, the

students were instructed to stand up to stretch and warm-up. Vocal siren on “ooh” was very

appropriate for the women to get in their head voice, and men to get in their falsetto, but after

such a nice siren, the teacher instructed to do a siren on “yee-hah” and reach the highest pitch on

their voices. I personally thought that defeated the purpose of a siren, as singing a very high note

on an “E” vowel is not the optimal, and also the pitch on “yee-hah” does not go from the low

register to high; it just stays on the relatively high side of the range. From listening to the
students, I could tell that some students were over-using their voices, and stretching it to a point

where it may become dangerous.

After the sirens, “Hmmm” on 54321 descending was very pleasant, except that the

teacher could have taken the tempo slower, to have the students singing with care on each note,

and the accompaniment a little softer, for the students to listen to themselves while singing. After

that was “Ooo” on 54321 ascending. This was also a nice warm-up, however he did not change

the vowel to an open one after getting in to their breaks and passaggio area, which did strain the

young voices. Then he went on to the low register for the men, but he went way lower than what

middle school male voice can sing (it went past a low C, which I have not seen on any of the

choral pieces even at a university level). Then “I lo-ve to sing” on 51531 ascending was sung

with the students, starting on D major. The teacher went all the way up to C major, having the

students singing C6, which is never appropriate for middle schoolers’ changing voices. It was to

the point where I was getting worried about the students’ voices, because it was obvious that

something will happen if this was to continue every day. Like it was mentioned in chapter two of

the textbook, all warm-ups should range within a fifth, because that is the appropriate range for

all; unchanged, changed, and changing voices. If I were to improve something from this set of

warm-ups, I would encourage the students to sing softer and gentler, so they could listen to their

classmates and blend in as much as possible. I remember the teacher used the phrase “Battle of

the Heights.” Just from the nuance of the phrase, it encouraged loud and almost straining kind of

singing. Considering the changing voice and their weakened vocal folds, middle school music

teachers have to be extra sensitive to constant changes of their students’ voices.

After the warm-ups was tongue twisters, where the teacher projected a daily tongue

twister and had the students read it twice. He told the students that this was for diction, and how
clear diction was necessary for singing. I am not sure how much these tongue twisters would

help with choral diction, but the students seemed to be having fun. He had students volunteering

to read the sentence twice without any mistakes, and he had candy for people who got to read it

through. I loved what he told the students before anyone volunteered, “We all need to applaud

even if someone makes mistakes.” This was very nice and appropriate for a welcoming and safe

environment. However, I am not sure if candy for reward was the best for this situation.

Reinforcement does not necessarily mean giving students a gift or food, because giving

something or food rather can work in a negative way; if the reward is taken away, so might the

motivation. Also, it can get to a point when students might be asking for more even before the

teacher thinks about giving reinforcements. However, when a reinforcement is simply be a

confirming smile, thumbs up, or stickers to collect, students will still be motivated enough and

their positive behaviors will be reinforced. After a few students got to take a turn in reading the

tongue twisters, the bell rung. No real music making was done, and the students warmed up for

no repertoire in particular, which was a bit frustrating.

Although there were many disappointing aspects where the teacher could have led the

choir in a better way, he was quick in understanding students’ needs and appropriately adjusting

to the current needs of his students. If I were to change something in this particular lesson, I

would take less time on the worksheets, or even give them out as homework, and allow students

to sing and vocalize more. I would also take out the tongue twisters and focus on diction in a real

musical setting (repertoire), because vocal diction and onset is different from speaking many

similar sets of words. Like we mentioned in class last week, flexibility and open-mindedness are

crucial to teachers. Music educators, or any educator, should be quick to recognizing what is
needed right at the moment, and should be listening out to the current state of students and be

able to make adjustments.