When Love is Kind

I moved through the books part of my repertoire series extremely quickly, but addressing individual songs will be a slower process.  I promise.  Some of the songs included here will be listed because they are wonderful works of art.  And others will be listed because students like them and the give me opportunities to discuss certain concepts related to technique or theory.

"When Love is Kind" is not on the list of the top 10 songs I'd want on my desert island playlist, but it is a song that I have found quite useful in the studio, and here's why.

• I'm the queen of slow, pretty songs, but many students new to classical music appreciate an occasional up tempo piece, and this song fits that requirement.  
• This is a great song for exploring expression.  The first half of each verse is happy while we sing about how wonderful love it, and then the second half tells just what happens when love is not so wonderful.  
• Once students have a little experience with solfege and sight-reading, I often use this song as a sight-reading exercise even if we don't intend to polish it later.  
• The song begins with Sol Do and each section ends with a Sol La Ti Do, both patterns that I like to point out and reinforce with students since they show up so much in music.  
• The first 6 bars basically create a sequence.  Each part starts on Sol, but the first chunk starts Sol Do and after a few other notes ends on Re. The second starts Sol Re, and ends on Mi.  The third Sol Mi.  Each new start invites the student to remember the pitch they just left.  
• I love this song for working on melismas because the melismas are short and not too difficult.  You only have 4-6 pitches to worry about on one vowel, so it's easier to focus on vowel purity than it might be in one of Handel's 4-6 measure melismas.  
• Sometimes students are a little overwhelmed by seeing the extra little notes.  In those cases, I often just teach that measure by rote using a consonant vowel combination to clarify the pitches.  (Sometimes I use buh-duh or bum buddy dum.)
• If students are ready to show off their high notes and their flexibility, then I have them add Liza Lehmann's cadenza.  It sounds showy, but is not particularly difficult.  
• The second half of the last verse is a great place to talk about non-harmonic tones and help students develop independence.  In all other verses, the melody has been Sol Mi Mi.  At "For aught I care", we get Sol Fa Mi Fa Mi in the voice part with the Fa pitches occurring against the prominent Mi in the piano part.  Although they sing it just fine a cappella, many students have a difficult time here when we add the accompaniment and it does require a little drill.  

"When Love is Kind" is available in these collections (and probably several others).  

• Songs Through the Centuries High Voice (Key of A flat--does not include the Lehmann cadenza)
• Songs Through the Centuries Low Voice (Key of E flat--does not include the Lehmann cadenza)
• Pathways of Song Vol. 3 Low Voice (Key of F)
• Pathways of Song Vol. 3 High Voice (Key of A flat)
• Art Songs for School and Studio First Year Medium Low (Key of F)
• The Best of Pathways of Song Low Voice (Key of F)
• The Best of Pathways of Song High Voice (Key of A flat)
• Lovers, Lasses & Spring (Key of A flat)
• The Young Singer Soprano (Key of A flat)
• The Young Singer Contralto (Key of F)
• Royal Conservatory of Music Songbook Series Voice Repertoire 5, 2nd edition (Key of A flat--does not include the Lehmann cadenza)
• Royal Conservatory of Music Voice Series Voice Repertoire 5, 3rd edition (Key of A flat)
• Something to Sing Medium Voice (Key of F)

Meanest Teacher Part???

My newest mean and cruel, but totally fun and helpful teaching strategy:
SOLFEGE WITH HAND SIGNS.

Seriously, I am loving this and can't believe I didn't do this earlier.

For years I've meant to get better at the hand signs, but it just didn't happen.  The kids learned the scale at the beginning of the year in choir class, so sometimes I would review it with them in lessons, but I never really used the hand signs as part of their sight-reading.  This year, I changed that.  At almost every lesson this year, we've done something with solfege and hand signs.  The kids are improving and since I practice with every lesson, every day, I'm getting better too.  Plus, the kids get to see me make mistakes and improve along with them and I think that helps a lot.  They know that they don't have to be perfect, they just have to keep working on it and keep improving.

This week, I made it harder.  Many of the kids are learning new songs, so not only did we learn the melody by singing on solfege, we did hand signs as we sang.  First we slowly sang on solfege with the hand signs.  Then when a phrase was pretty secure that way, we sang the real words and kept the hand signs going.  There has been lots of laughter and no tears, so I think that even though it is hard, this is a good thing.  We are learning together.

Solfege

I'm the meanest teacher part II.  Click here for part I.

I am a firm believer in the power of solfege.  However, I've yet to convert some of my students.  Too many of them see it just as something they need to know for choir auditions.  And since they're not good at it, they don't want to practice it.  I get that.  I know that it's scary to make mistakes in front of your teacher.  I know it's scary to be seen as anything less than perfect.

I also know that sight-reading and aural skills improve with practice.  In fact, I'm proof of that.  I had a very basic introduction to solfege in high school, but never had enough practice and reinforcement to get comfortable with it.  In college, I switched into the music major program late.  Because of all my piano background, they let me skip the first semester of theory and aural skills, which saved me a year of college, but left me feeling uncertain about the whole sight-reading thing.  In grad school, I took the remedial course and it finally clicked in.  Now that I've been teaching it for 15 years, I'm feeling pretty good about my sight-reading skills.  But you can't tell that to a kid that wants to be good right now or else he doesn't want to do it.

This year, to tackle the solfege fear, I've once again revised my curriculum, incorporating more learning modes.  We spend a lot of time working the visual and aural concepts, but this year I decided we needed to do more for kinesthetic learners, so all of my kids are learning some basic interval pattern exercises with solfege hand signs.  Yes, it does add another level of difficulty and complexity, but I'm also seeing an improvement in their accuracy.  By the time this year's freshmen graduate, I expect that it is going to make a big difference in their sight reading.

But, solfege is not just about sight-reading.  It is about learning to hear patterns, and that pattern recognition helps us learn faster, even if all our songs are learned solely through aural means.  I have a blind student that doesn't want to learn any solfege because in her brain, solfege is only about sight-reading which obviously she can't do.  This is one of those times when I'm putting my foot down.  I think she will pick up on the sounds of the patterns.  I think she will grow from this experience.  Yes it will be hard, but it is also exactly what she needs.