Jude+Olney--Putting+some+passion+into+upbeat+choral+music

This lesson involves a piece called "O Sifuni Mungu", which is an African song, a cappella, with a good deal of percussion to be added on. I was teaching it to a Freshman/sophomore level mixed choir, and by this lesson they had learned most of the melody, and several harmony parts in the song. They still had about 50-60% of the song to learn. The lesson focused primarily on taking what they knew and REALLY transfiguring it into a musically strong performance, as well as translating that knowledge into learning new sections of the piece. This was during an observation for UNL.

Objectives:

(Overall) Students will correctly perform the notes, rhythms, and diction of pages 9-11 (maybe -12) of the piece.

Students will establish a consistent faster tempo by demonstrating accurate rhythms while singing known material. They will also demonstrate this by stomping or walking to the beat with a strong and in-rhythm step.

Students will sing with good intonation after key changes, though while repeating mostly familiar material. They will demonstrate this also by holding single chords and tuning them carefully.

Students will demonstrate musicality by incorporating more text emphasis into pages 9-11 (maybe -12)

Lesson Structure:

Warm-ups

1. (1-2 minutes) Sirens, especially echoing sirens and just breaths (I model a breath, they repeat). Use this to maintain attention. Consider using conducting/visual cues to encourage watching.

This warm-up serves to remind students of following the conductor, and “warms up” their voices by utilizing many extremes of their range, and strengthening vocal use of the middle of the range on various vocalizations and vowel sounds. O Sifuni Mungu, including the sections we are working on today, features many range extremes that need to be prepped.

2. (2-3 minutes) Solfege hold. Should actually be fairly brief. Sing solfege scale once, asking for early (not quick and shallow-breath when I get to “TWO” on “one two ready sing”) and healthy breath (describe briefly). After scale, divide class in half and have one half hold do while other half sings scale. Switch roles.

This warmup forces students to use their ears to tune individual intervals as a group, and presents an enduring notion of differing qualities of intervals. As we tune chords later in O Sifuni Mungu, students should have a handle on making sure basic intervals are in tune, as done with this solfege hold activity. This also encourages attention on whole-group intonation.

3. (2-3 minutes) (Students Standing) “I liiiiiiiike green apples and bananas”. (1- 5-5543211 on respective syllables) Model; potentially wave off silliness of phrase. Students sing briefly once or twice, in ascending keys. Ask students to follow conducting and directions for dynamics and which words to emphasize ( “crescendo all the way into bananas” )

This warmup further facilitates students’ attention on the conductor, and reinforces the importance of following a leader and working as a group to form good musicality. It also will prepare students to emphasize text in O Sifuni Mungu.

4 (Optional if Apples/Bananas is sufficiently done in different keys) (1-2 minutes) “Doot doot” 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 in ascending keys. This can help prepare a pulsed breath that will help with dynamics, expression, and supported sound in O Sifuni Mungu. It also prepares students for the key change we will do in O Sifuni Mungu.

O Sifuni Mungu

<span style="color: #5c626d; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">1. (3 minutes) (Students sitting) Ask students to look at page 3-5, and identify quickly the words, notes, and rhythms overall on their own. Ask them to take 20 seconds to find the next place in the song this verse/chorus matchup happens similarly (hands; quick discussion). Ask whether next section is exactly the same (it is, except it’s up a whole step in G instead of F—discuss this, etc.).

<span style="color: #5c626d; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">2. (2 minutes) One quick change—tenors read B1 part at m. 124-125 to avoid high G. Do this, then join with basses.

<span style="color: #5c626d; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">3. (5 minutes) (Standing) Initiate stomps/strong stepping. Really encourage students to step with the feeling of the song—they should understand the objective of rhythmic accuracy. Harken back to recording they listened to and how much energy there was in the sound. Be careful of stomping noise on risers. Be picky about tempo consistency and maintenance.

<span style="color: #5c626d; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Sing page 9 two times like this; 2nd time, increase tempo by 10-20 clicks. Solidify stomps and model with their stomps before they sing. Add page 10-11 if desired.

<span style="color: #5c626d; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">4. (5-7 minutes) (Sit down for some if needed.) Work on text emphasis. Especially on pages 9 and 10, students need to REALLY feel the pulse here. The syncopation lends to “O” “Fu” and “Mun” being stressed, and then “Ben” of “Imbeni”. Ask students what they think the character/emotions behind this song are, and model boring/exciting versions of text stress. This is all page 9 through 11. <span class="apple-converted-space" style="color: #5c626d; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> Remind students of the apples and bananas warm-up to increase response. Ask why we should stress words, how it affects sound, and how this ties into musicality objective.

<span style="color: #5c626d; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">5. (During these steps, continue to clean notes and rhythms. Considering working on intonation problems and breath support problems as these known notes are now up a whole step. As always, stop to fix intonation on chords, especially starting notes. Remind students of solfege warm-up with intonation).

<span style="color: #5c626d; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">6. (5 minutes) Back to page 3, still walking in place. Highlight key change differences. Ask why composers would do that. After singing pages 3-5, sing pages 9-11. Ask students to discuss feeling changes with key change. (Again, bring in apples/bananas warm-up to work with musicality)