High School Observation Report

1. I did not end up preparing a question, but I asked the question: "Why do you sing with stands
instead of having them hold the music?" He explained the idea behind having no chairs in the
classroom and having the singers not have to hold their music. He did a quasi-poll across the class,
and had them explain why they liked it better. They said that overall it helped them sing better
because of standing, while it also helped them to feel more mature, as it seemed to them to be a
step up from middle school.
2. Both groups warmed-up using a series of songs and broken thirds scales, and both started by
singing through "bubbling" as defined by the director. This was where they would all buzz their lips,
and sing though the buzz. This allowed for maximum air flow, and constant reminder to "speed up"
the bubbling, continuing to use a maximum amount of air. This translates directly to singing in that
they had a very good example of how they should be using their air while singing. Eventually, they
switching on some of the songs or scales to the syllable "Lu" or "Loo", so start to transition to open
vowels. Then, some of the songs ended up being with words. Some of the songs included:
-My Country 'Tis of Thee
-Finlandia
-[Unknown Song]
-"Bella Dona"? Hadn't heard this song before.
3. For both rehearsals, the director treated the groups like they were professional groups. This was
seen fairly clearly in the fact that he saw their motivation that was already existent(which he probably
worked for earlier in the year), but then simply directed the focus of the rehearsal on different parts.
The first group was a "beginning" girls group where the majority of the rehearsal learning a new
song. They learned it by spending time on the solfege which they had wrote in as a homework
assignment. They also recieved a homework assignment to write in solfege for the next rehearsal.
The more advanced group did not use solfege to start singing, but instead was focusing on running a
set of music for a large conference and competition they were preparing for. They sang through the
entire set, working on transitions and different various problems throughout.