Give Me Wings

The next few posts will be about some of my favorite songs to assign to new beginners. The bonus with these is that they are available as octavos, so students don't have to spend a lot of money while I am getting to know their voices.  Some, like today's song, "Give Me Wings", are available a book in one key and in the octavo in another.

In creating "Give Me Wings",  Mark Patterson wrote new words and set them to the familiar tune of "O Waly, Waly".  Teens respond well to the text that essential says give me space to be everything I can be, but let me also return to the safety of home.   Most of my young singers can totally relate because they really want to be seen as adults and given the privileges and rights of an adult, but they still need that connection to home, family, and people that take care of them.

"O Waly, Waly" is one of my favorite tunes to teach.  Many of the concepts I cover in "Give Me Wings" could also be worked on in any setting of "The Water is Wide".  It's not necessarily an easy song, but I do think that it can be done by young singers.

• One of the first things we work on in this song is the idea of keeping the sound moving and growing through the long notes.
• If needed, I let students breathe mid-phrase (after the long note), but I also use the 4-bar phrase to work on going further with the breath.  
• For some students, moving into the high phrase requires a register shift. Young students often haven't sung in anything but chest voice before, so this gives us opportunities to figure out how to negotiate the "break".  And the first thing I tell them is that they can't use the word "break".  A break is a problem. A passaggio is a passage, something we move through, and it can be done with ease.  
• In this particular setting, the first high note is on the word "reach" so we work on how to sing an [ i ] vowel beautifully without compromising the integrity of the vowel.  
• The first verse end on the word "below" and provides a great opportunity for discussing how to deal with diphthongs and creating a clean cut-off without a consonant to help.  
• I also use the opening Sol Do to reinforce this pattern that shows up frequently in other songs.  

"Give Me Wings" is available in the key of G in the octavo from BriLee, or in the key of D in the book Heroes and Vagabond:  Solo Songs for the Male Changing Voice.  The book comes with a CD that has both demos and accompaniments.  If the student is learning the song from the octavo, they can listen to the choral demos on the JWPepper or BriLee Music websites.  

Les Misérables in My Voice Studio

The recent movie, plus a touring company performance in the Twin Cities means that Les Misérables is even more popular than usual with students in my studio.  And I have mixed feelings about that.  I love the music.  There is just something about the music that just resonates with me.  (I have the same reaction with Miss Saigon, and what I've heard of Martin Guerre, and The Pirate Queen).  The students also really love the music which means they work harder to improve.

But...there is always a but...the music is not easy and often is beyond what the student can do well.  Most young voices are simply not ready to give what the music demands. For years, I have told students that I reserve the right to say that we cannot work on certain songs in voice lessons.  Sometimes I tell them that we can work on them as exercises, but they may not perform them yet, and possibly not at all while they study with me.

Because it's been so popular lately, I've used my veto power less.  Instead, I have reinforced the idea that we are working on important concepts, but the song will not be performance ready for a very long time.  A successful performance that honors the composer's intent, the music itself, AND shows that singer at his or her best might be years away.  Under these conditions, I've had some students make big progress.

One student really loves "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables".  In the key found in the vocal selections, it goes to a G, which this particular student has, but it is very strained.  I have the song a step lower in 2 other collections, so we've been working on freeing up the D, E, and F pitches in the lower key.  Although we've been addressing tension in those notes for a very long time in other songs, he has made tremendous progress while working on this song.

I have another student who asked to sing "Stars".  As written, it is totally wrong for him. He is a very low bass who has trouble getting to middle C without extreme tension.  But he insisted he could do the song and it was comfortable, so I had him sing it for me.  He sang it an octave low.  (Yes, he really does have those notes!)  But because it was so low, he was way too heavy and forceful on the lower pitches.  I let him sing it down there, but we talked a lot about finding an easy, free tone down there.  Then because I'm mean and cruel, I've had him work on the lower sections in the octave they are supposed to be sung in.  He's not totally happy about it, but that octave between middle C and the C below is becoming easier for him to sing.

One of my middle school boys wants to sing "Do You Hear the People Sing".  In the vocal selections, the range is simply too big for his mid-change voice.  He can sing the opening chorus easily, so we work that and then move on to other things.  The energy he brings to this is exactly what I want him to bring to other songs we are working on.

The girls at least have "Castle on a Cloud" which I am pretty much OK with letting anyone sing.  "On my Own" is more of a challenge, but again, I've had a few students that have amazed me with their willingness to work to improve because they love the song.  "I Dreamed a Dream" has a few places that are vocally difficult, but I think the challenge in this song actually lies in the interpretation.  A high school singer may be able to sing this, but as freshmen in high school, few have lost enough and had enough dreams killed to really understand it.

Yes, I am letting students sing Les Mis.  Yes, I'm even letting a few of them, mostly advanced seniors, perform these songs.  They can be done well by some high school students, but they can't be done well by every high school student, and therefore, I still reserve the right to say no.

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)

Guest Post on NFMC by Ann Robinett

This is the first in a new series that will be exploring professional organizations for voice teachers.  I will be writing a little about some organizations and the programs they offer, and I've also asked a few people to do guest posts.  

Today we have a guest post from Ann Robinett about the National Federation of Music Clubs.  

As a long-time teacher of piano and voice, I have enjoyed my associate with the National Federation of Music Clubs for over 30 years. The organization has more than 200,000 members throughout the United States. Membership is open to senior, student, and junior members who form community and state clubs.

Federated in 1898, NFMC was created to promote music education as well as the creative and performing arts. One of its primary goals is to promote all aspects of American music.

NFMC is chartered by the Congress of the United States and is the only music organization affiliate with the United Nations.

Awards are available on local, state, and national levels. Each year NFMC provides over three-quarters of a million dollars for awards for performers and composers of all ages. Performance opportunities are offered through the Festival program, with 117,000 juniors AND adults being adjudicated each year.

Participants can earn points toward festival cups by playing piano, strings, organ, winds, brass, and voice. Festival cups are also earned in composition, theory, sight-reading, ensembles, and dance.

Collegiate awards are available in voice, piano, and many instruments.

Every two years auditions are held for young musicians who are ready to pursue concert careers. The national winner of each division wins a $10,000 award as well as a two-year contract for personal appearances throughout the country.

NFMC offers a wide variety of performance and awards for musicians of all ages and levels of study from the young beginner to the virtuoso. Innumerable programs offer assistance to teachers for their own progress and the progress of their students. 

For a more complete overview of the National Federation of Music Clubs, please go to the website at www.nfmc-music.org 

Finding Songs in Popular Styles for Students

Many of my students do sing popular style songs, especially during 4th quarter where the focus is on musical theatre and popular styles and comparing them to what we have learned about classical production.  But sadly, I will admit that I often just let students bring in what they want to sing.  Most of the time I ask them to choose 3-4 songs they would be interested in working on.  At a lesson, I have them sing along with YouTube, and I evaluate using very similar guidelines to the ones I use when I am choosing their classical songs. Then I choose the song that I think would work best.  These are a few of the things that I'm listening for:  

• Does the song fall not just within the student’s range, but also within a comfortable tessitura?  Have you tried multiple keys to find the best option for that student?  
• At musicnotes.com you can get most of the current hits transposed into the best key for that student.  
• At karaoke-version.com you can find backing tracks and then transpose them up or down by a half step or a whole step.  
• Does the song offer opportunities for growth AND does it also show the voice at its best?  Are the technical demands appropriate to where the student is today?
• Does the student like the song?
• Are the student’s musical skills advanced enough for the difficulties of the melodic line and rhythms?
• Is the text appropriate for a student this age?  Do they understand what they are singing about and can they communicate the meaning to an audience?

I reserve the right to veto, and often I do if it just doesn't fit their range and the key they need is not available, or if the text is not one that I am comfortable with them singing at our family friendly recital.  

If a student asks me for recommendations, that is where I have more difficulty.  Often, I offer the titles that other students have brought in the last few years that I think might fit their voices.  I don't spend a lot of my own personal time and energy listening to a lot of music and learning it myself like I do with classical, and therefore, the list of possibilities I can give them is much smaller.  

In the perfect world, I would know all the newest songs in every genre.  The reality though is that the popular music world is so huge in terms of styles, that there just plain isn't the time in my life for that and for learning new classical music and repertoire, which is the main focus of my teaching.  

Please share your favorite ways to find popular style music for your students.  

Contests, Festivals, and Other Learning Opportunities

My goal in this post is to explore a few of the performance and learning opportunities for students outside of regular lesson and practice time.  These are things I know about, not necessarily things I am offering to my students right now.  Please feel free to comment to add more information about specific events or programs.  Also add programs that I might not be aware of.

We'll start small with a couple of additions that can happen just with your studio.

Recitals

Most teachers offer recitals.  Where we differ is the number or structure of those recitals. How many recitals do you offer each year?  Are recitals open to anyone who wants to attend, or do you make them for just the students?  Do you charge for your recitals? Admission?  Accompanist fees?  How formal are your recitals?  In reality, a recital could be all your students in their nicest clothing, performing memorized in a rented concert hall, for anyone will to pay the admission price, with catered refreshments, of course.  Or, a recital could be a pajama party in your studio where only students attend and they munch on their favorite breakfast cereals as they sit on the floor and listen to each other sing.  

Studio Classes

I tend to think of recitals being performance oriented and studio classes being learning oriented.  Often my students perform at studio class, but we then give some feedback on what we saw and heard.  Sometimes it will be similar to a master class where I work with the students in front of the group.  Other times, I don't have enough students that want to sing or are sufficiently prepared to sing, so I present mini-workshops.  

Masterclasses

At our school, I prepare the students, but the planning and organization for the day, and any associated fees are taken care of my the choir department.  I also know many teachers that hire clinicians to do masterclasses for just their studio.  I've also seen teachers offer joint masterclasses for their students.  

Solo and Ensemble Contest

Contests are great ways to feedback from someone besides the student's regular teachers.  Many schools offer Solo and Ensemble Contest through their choir departments.  Ask your students if they plan to be involved.  Ask the local choir teachers if they offer this and if you can select the music and prepare your students for it.  

National Association of Teachers of Singing

MN-NATS sponsors students adjudications every fall.  Many other states have similar programs.  The MN program is for students 14 years old through adult avocational, and is strictly classical repertoire.  

Hal Leonard Vocal Competition

Click here for the rules for 2014.  One of the reasons I started offering this option to my students is that it has a 12 and under category, so my youngest students get opportunities.  Since the 2nd year, they have also offered a musical theatre category, which again interests more students than I might get for  NATS which is strictly classical.  

National Federation of Music Clubs

I grew up with NFMC and participated in many local festivals in the voice, organ, and piano categories. In the local association festivals, students can sing in either musical theatre or classical categories.  They do have options for young children, and I just found out that my local association also offers adults the opportunity to sing for festival.  I am not currently a member because I'm spread too thin right now, but I would love to get back to this at some point in the future.  

Music Teachers National Association

Our state division of MTNA, Minnesota Music Teachers Association, offers wonderful educational programs.  In my studio, I am currently offering MMTA Theory Exams, Voice Exams, Voice Contest, and Young Artist Contest.  I have not yet added the MTNA competitions, but I'm interested in learning more.  

Royal Conservatory Music Development Program

This is another program that I am very interested in, but simply don't have the time to commit to at this point.  Exams cover vocal skills, theory, and performance.  Another benefit of this, as pointed out by a parent who wants me to add this for her child, is that the standards and testing are global.  A student that could pass the test here, would also be able to pass the test in any part of the world where the program is offered.  

Music Camps

I have wonderful memories of the music camps I attended and the people I met there. Many colleges and universities offer camps for middle school and/or high school students. Check with local music and theatre organizations to see what they offer.  

What do you offer your students outside of regular lesson time?  How have you selected the options that work best for your studio?  

Workshops

I offer my students studio classes every quarter, plus a recital at the end of the year. They also have performance opportunities like MMTA Contest and Exams, NATS, the Masterclass Day sponsored by the school, and our district Solo and Ensemble Contest. This year, I'm throwing in some new learning experiences, some covered by their quarterly tuition, and some with a small fee.  It's a trial program.  I'll see what kind of response I get and then decide if I want to continue these, modify the offerings, or drop the idea completely.

One of the advantages of offering workshops is the opportunity for me as a teacher to give informations to many students at once, instead of taking a little bit of time from everyone's lessons.  Workshops also allow us to explore more depth of the topic than I would probably take in a single lesson.

This year I will be offering 5 workshops:

• MMTA Theory and Voice Exam Prep (Fall session)
• MMTA Theory and Voice Exam Prep (January session)
• Memorization Strategies
• Dealing with Performance Anxiety
• Tai Chi and Singing

MMTA Theory and Voice Exam Prep

Last year was my first year really preparing students for MMTA Theory Exams.  I had a student take the exam the year before, but he had had extensive piano training, so we hardly had to review at all.  Last year, 3 students chose to take the theory exams, and this year, I have a few more that are interested.  I've changed my approach to warm-ups and skills work in lessons for all students so that they are getting a little exposure, and I've asked students who want to take the exams to sign up for longer lessons or extra lessons to make sure we have time to work through everything.  

I'm adding two 90 minutes theory workshops to help students review the material in a group setting.  I'll have different activities and games to help reinforce concepts in a fun way.  Students will pay a small fee for this workshop.

I'm one of those people that is continually revising, but as it stand right now, this is what the structure of the workshop will look like:

• Part I:  Review and Instruction
• Prior to the first workshop, all of the students will have had at least a short introduction to each of these terms or concepts. Many of my students have already learned these things from choir class or other music lessons.  
• Rhythm tree (whole note=two half notes, half note=two quarters, etc.)
• time signature, bar lines, measure
• Sharp, flat, natural
• bass and treble clef
• repeat signs
• tempo, dynamics, articulation (Specific terms for this test)
• intervals--visual and aural identification--use interval songs.  (Only the intervals that the exams cover.)

• Part II:  Individual Work and Tutor Stations  
• Students work in their Theory workbooks.  Worksheets will be provided for students that are taking the voice exam instead of the theory exam.
• If needed, during this time students may move to a station where one of my  advanced students can answer questions.  I will also float during this time, checking student progress and answering questions.  
• Part III:  Reinforce With Games 
• Speed drills with flashcards, reviewing note names, terms, and intervals.  The team that gets the most correct in a certain amount of time wins.  
• Bingo
• Basketball.  Every correct answer earns one shot. 

Memorization Strategies

I've presented this full workshop 5 times now, and I've also incorporated chunks of it into studio classes when I didn't have a full session of singers.  Memorization skills are essential for singers. Until you can get out of the music and really focus on what you are communicating, you can't really make music.  I am a firm believer that everyone can memorize, we just need to find the right strategies and not wait until the last minute to start the memorization process.   

Most young singers still think that the best way to memorize is just to sing the song over and over with the music in front of you just in case you forget.  My workshop explores multiple methods of memorization, employing aural, visual, kinesthetic, and analytical approaches to make memorization faster and more secure.  Several of these options actually work well in a group.  We will also take a little time for individual work with a few of the strategies.  By the end of the session, students will be fairly secure on a song that most of them see for the first time at the beginning of the workshop.  (Yes, it is a very simple folk song, but still, learning and memorizing that quickly is an accomplishment to be proud of.)

Dealing With Performance Anxiety

Because anxiety has been an issue for me, I've done a lot of reading and exploration on this topic.  Pieces of this workshop have found their way into lessons, but I haven't presented the full workshop in a few years, so it's definitely time to do it again.  One of my favorite parts of this workshop it talking about how feeling fear/anxiety and feeling excited actually cause many of the same physiological responses in the body.  We can transform our fear into energy that helps us perform well. I also cover several techniques for calming the body and mind.  And of course, I emphasize that being well prepared goes a long way towards making a performance a more enjoyable experience.  

Tai Chi and Singing

This is my newest workshop.  Although I've been bringing tai chi and qigong into voice lessons for a couple years now, I've only given one workshop on incorporating the two, and that was for the last MMTA convention.  This will be a slight variation on that, teaching students more of the depth of the movements and body alignment.  Tai chi and qigong exercises will be done as we might do them in a tai chi class, and then repeated while singing to reinforce breath and phrase shaping.  

For this year, the memorization, anxiety, and tai chi workshops will be free to all of my students.  In future years, I will offer them for a small fee and I will invite other teachers and students to attend.  All 3 workshops have enough material and depth that students could attend multiple times and still be learning new things.  

If you are interested in having me present any of these workshops to your students or your teacher group, please contact me for more information about rates and scheduling.