JamieSolfegeLesson

This is a lesson I used with my Mixed Chorus class consisting of mostly 9th graders. They are great at solfege with hand signs and pretty good sight-readers, and my goal with this lesson was to help them start to bridge the gap between these skills so their experience with solfege can help them learn music even faster. We are working on "The Heavens Are Telling" by Haydn for district music contest.

FOCUS CONCEPTS/SKILLS:
 * Continue to build solfege fluency
 * Solidify notes of individual parts in Haydn
 * Forward resonance/tone placement

NATIONAL STANDARDS: 1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. 5. Reading and notating music.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
 * The students will be able to correctly sing their individual parts with solfege and hand signs, and then without them.
 * The students will be able to identify common songs by solfege signs and notate them.
 * The students will begin to work toward a forward resonance in the mask.

SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES: 1. VOCAL WARM-UP (keeping in mind that the sopranos sing a top-line F in this piece) 2. SIGHT SINGING EXAMPLES (any sight-singing book would work--we have a book called Music Literacy for Singers which focuses on a certain interval such as Sol-Ti or Do-Mi for each group of exercises; I have the students tell me based on the key signature what key we're in and what note name/solfege syllable is the first note--they know the lines and spaces but have not memorized all the key signatures, so we use the trick that the last sharp is Ti and the last flat is Fa...or the second to last flat is Do) 3. NAME THAT TUNE WITH SOLFEGE SIGNS--These students are pretty good at taking the notes on the page and converting them into correct solfege syllables and pitches, so I wanted them to stretch their knowledge another way and take away the printed notes, only giving them the solfege signs. I used Frere Jacques as my example but there are many common songs that could be used for this activity. 4. NOTATION ACTIVITY--This group of singers is pretty good at turning written notation into correctly sung pitches, so now I want them to be able to turn the sung pitches into written notation. 5. WORK ON PIECE--We have been working mostly on tone quality and solidifying pitches, and a little bit of dynamic contrast, so far in this piece. There were a couple of sections where we needed to fix notes on this particular day...but some of the strategies we have used include:
 * Lip trills, sirens, breath activities to begin
 * "Alleluia" warm-up (one the kids already knew...sing the word "Alleluia" on each pitch Do, Ti, La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, Do working for a smooth line, beautiful tone, and as little jaw movement as possible while maintaining a high pitch center even though the exercise descends)
 * Zingazoo" warm-up (an exercise that helps singers to get their sound forward and into the mask--the [z] and [ng] sounds help with forward focus)
 * Go back to "Alleluia" warm-up trying to incorporate the forward, non-swallowed sound that we worked on in the "Zingazoo" exercise
 * Start by silently and slowly showing the hand signs (vertically aligned to show high/low pitch also) for either the whole song or just a beginning phrase.
 * Repeat the silent hand signs inviting anyone who thinks they might know it to do signs as well.
 * Have students sing along on solfege syllables until they start to get the tune.
 * Sing the entire tune together just on words.
 * Slow it down and sing together on solfege syllables
 * Choose a key (perhaps the same key as the piece to be worked on right after, which in this case is C major) and match up each syllable to each correct note name in the key (I just wrote it on the board Do=C, Re=D...etc.) so they have an easier frame of reference in this less-familiar activity of notation.
 * Sing each phrase together on solfege syllables and then match it to the note names and sing the phrase on note names
 * Notate these pitches (we did it together on the board by having students call out the note names, but if there was more time or if a class needs more entries in the grade book, the students could write it down individually--I may do this later in the year after they are more familiar with notation)
 * Having them write in the solfege syllables above/below every note, either in the whole piece or in a particularly difficult section
 * Singing while using hand signs
 * Identifying pitches in the piano accompaniment that help to find starting pitches for a particular part (either by note name or syllable)

ASSESSMENT I assessed the students verbally through use of questioning in the notation activity--correct answers indicate a student's understanding. Using hand-signs is also a quick and easy way to visually assess sight-reading skills because it is obvious if each individual student knows the correct syllable. If doing the writing activity individually, students could exchange papers and grade the written product. Regarding the rehearsal process during the work on a particular piece, I had sections sing for each other and assess each other using a number of fingers from 1-5 on a specific concept such as correct notes, phrasing (in this case mostly just not breathing during the middle of a phrase so far), tone quality (giving them a specific thing to think about such as clear tones-not breathy, good support, or forward non-swallowed sound), etc. Individual sections/rows/rows within sections could also perform for the rest of the class, or quartets/octets/bigger groups could be pulled out to perform for the rest of the class and/or to sing for a grade (regarding a certain concept, solidness of part, or memorization progress).

//This is an excellent lesson! I only had a few ideas, one that I think might help stretch their minds further within the context of the Haydn piece. My first suggestions are with the warm-up. I thought perhaps you could start with "zingazoo" and then go to the Alleluia, since your plan is to hit that part twice. This way, you have the opportunity to add another level and go for that smooth and beautiful line with little jaw movement, while keeping the forward feeling. Secondly, try using an index finger on teh chin to help limit jaw movement on the Alleluia warm-up. Finally, I loved the idea of the notation activity. Take it a step further though and use the Haydn piece for this exercise. This may allow them to gain a deeper knowledge of the pieces structural context. You may find that those wrong notes correct themselves because of this deeper understanding they will gain.

(edited by Jessica Happold)//