JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Music Theory and Education Any choral/general music teachers out there?

Hi,

I teach choral/general music to 4th and 5th graders ( at five schools) in Soutern California. It's a rare thing to have this type of posititon these days, when so many public schools have cut arts programs...

I thought it might be interesting to hear from other choral music teachers...I am always worrying about funding for my program-partly because music programs are usually considered "extras" - and partly because I teach elementary age students - those programs get cut before middle and high school programs...

Anyway, if you teach choral music, or any other music classes, I would love to hear about your adventures! Thanks...

Emily



[This message has been edited by Emily Sanders (edited 01-17-2004).]

Emily,

I'm not currently a choral teacher. I majored in vocal ed, and did my student teaching at Kelly High School in Chicago, where I conducted the girl's chorus for a semester. I founded and conducted the Old Town School of Folk Music Chorus for several years. Here in Nashville, I conducted the Nashville Unitarian Church choir and spent a few years being a substitute music teacher for a lot of the local high school choirs. I also spent a few years being the leader of the "O.K. Chorale," the vocal back up group for Nashville Cowboy Church, the world's largest country gospel radio program (which is hosted by Dr. Harry Yates, and his wife Joanne Cash Yates, Johnny's young sister and a wonderful country gospel singer).

I love choral music. Ralph Vaughn Williams, being one of my favorite "contemporary" composers (ha ha, he's probably not thought of as contemporary any more.)

Music always gets the short end of the baton. It's funny, music is one of the most pervasive and important activities in human life. At Kelly, the city was going to cut funding to school music, so all of the high school bands organized a parade downtown. The musicians marched with empty instrument cases to the drums playing a funeral dirge. It was a powerful statement.

Learning parts in a choir helped me train my ear to hear harmonies. Singing parts taught me about "blend." The a capella choir is the purest form of ensemble music. I commend you for your work.

All the Best,
Mike

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Mike Dunbar Music

Hi, Emily!

This is my 12th year of teaching. I teach in parochial schools. I've taught in 2 schools. The first school, 5 years. This is my 7th year at the school I am at now.

My current school has double classes of grades K-8. Usually we have about 28-32 kids per classroom.

I teach choral/general Music to grades K-6 (I used to teach to 7and 8 too but I haven't had to do that this year. I may have to teach them again next year though.)

I added Square Dancing (Music and Movement) to the curriculum because the children weren't getting dance in their PE classes.

The kids needed more Art instruction so I added that as well for grades 3-5.

At the first school, I started out as a half-day Art instructor , 5 days a week and when we couldn't afford a Music teacher anymore (the staff voted to keep me instead of the Music teacher) so I volunteered to teach choral music during my free time.

My principal left and her replacement was a person who was unsuitable for the position, so I left the school after that year and my former principal asked me to teach Music at the school where I am at now.

So I started as an Art teacher and added Music. Then I started out as a Music teacher and added Art and Dance.
I also have a Drama club after school.

LOL, I am currently the entire Fine Arts department.

I also direct the Parish Children's Choir, grades 3-8 and the Teen/Young Adult choir (9-12)

I teach Mon-Thurs and come in on Friday, my day off, to monitor 2 Study Hall/Independent Fine Arts classes. Sunday is a work day for me of course.

Here is the link to my website.

http://home.earthlink.net/~singingforgod/


Here is a link to a teachers website with various subject related message boards. I only discovered it recently. I think you might enjoy meeting some of the teachers there.

http://teachers.net/mentors/music/


Also here is the link to an organization I am trying to start, called Fine Arts Free. I I've been too busy to get it going but I plan to soon. I have a couple of people who are interested in it, but I don't want to promote it until I get the site developed more. In a few months I'm hopeing to get free or cheap hosting for it. So I will wait for that before I go too far on it.

http://home.earthlink.net/~fineartsfree/index.html


The Catholic Schools are having a hard time too. But a lot of them still hire Fine Arts teachers. If your funding gets cut, you can try those out. The OC Diocese pays better than LA Diocese, by the way. Phoenix, Arizona pays better than OC. (Well except in some of the veddy rich parishes.) Generally speaking though, Catholic School teachers make about 10 K less than the public school teachers do and their benefits are not as good.

Although it's preferred, you don't have to be a Catholic to teach in a Catholic school. You would have to get familiar with Catholic liturgy though because a good deal of the choral music revolves around that and you would need to play either a guitar or keyboard as well because the schools can't afford to hire an accompanist.

Take care.

JeanB




[This message has been edited by AKA JeanB (edited 01-18-2004).]

Mike -

Thanks for your reply - you have such
an interesting background! Oh MY!

One of these days, I hope to get to Nashville...

You mentioned that you like choral music...
I totally agree that the skills one learns in choir are extremely useful and help with
vocal blend, ear training, etc.

If you ever want to hear the coolest choir in Los Angeles,
come to a concert by Angel City Chorale, the choir I song with. There are about 120 members, and we sing a wider range of musical styles than most choirs: gospel,
classical, pop, folk, world music, etc.
We've sung with Stevie Wonder, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Luther Vandross and do all kinds of performances...
angelcitychorale.com

I really enjoy reading your educational topics on these boards!
Emily

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Jean-

We've got to meet one of these days!

I enjoyed reading your post - with all the details about the challenges of teaching the arts...

I taught music, private voice/guitar/piano lessons and drama in a private school for 9 years and then went back to school to get my teaching credential - I wanted to get the benefits and a higher salary...Many people assume that teachers in private school make lots of money - I never did - I miss certain other things about it though - smaller classes, more flexibility...

Anyway, I will check out your website.
And, thanks SO much for providing the addresses of teacher related websites; I am ALWAYS looking for resources...

Sounds like you do an amazing job of bringing music to lots of people.
WOW!!!

Keep in touch!
Emily


[This message has been edited by Emily Sanders (edited 01-22-2004).]

[This message has been edited by Emily Sanders (edited 01-22-2004).]

[This message has been edited by Emily Sanders (edited 01-23-2004).]