ChorTeach Vol. 5, No.

2 Winter 2013
Practical Teaching Ideas for Today’s Music Educator
Dr. Terry Barham, editor
barhamte@gmail.com

Welcome to ACDA’s online magazine for choral director/music educators. The articles below have been gleaned from
state and division online and paper ACDA newsletters around the United States and from submissions by seasoned choral
directors with topics germane to the profession.

ChorTeach, our name, is derived from the German word for chorus, chor. It is pronounced, as most of you know, like the
word, core. I hope ChorTeach’s articles will be a breath of fresh air for you, provide you with a few ideas or techniques that
give you a lift and help your singers reach the goals you and they have set. ChorTeach is designed for those of you who
work with amateur singers at all levels.

If you have written an article and believe it would be of interest to ChorTeach readers, send it to me in Word.doc format. I
will get back to you after reading it. . Have you read an article from an ACDA newsletter you think would be beneficial to
ChorTeach readers? Send me the details and I’ll check it out.

What’s in this issue?

• Reflections on the Conductor's Role by Joseph Flummerfelt

• Exercises for Head Voice Exploration and Development for Junior High/Middle School and High School Boys
by Terry J. Barham

• Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season) by Bill Zurkey

• Worship Music Wars Can and Should Be Avoided by David K. Lamb

• Ideas and Activities Which Generate Success in Middle and Junior High School Choir Programs
by Arkansas Middle and Junior High School Choral Directors

ChorTeach Volume 5 • Issue 2 1 www.acda.org/publications

 Reflections on the Conductor's Role
by
Joseph Flummerfelt,
Westminster Choir College Conductor Laureate
Ryder University, Princeton, NJ
(Reprinted with permission of North Central Division's Melisma, Fall 2006)

As an emerging young conductor, I constantly found myself
frustrated because, without knowing it, I was caught in the gap
between my sense of how the music should sound and my
ability to evoke it with my gesture. As the years have gone on,
this gap has lessened and mostly dissolved. I am more able to
verbalize what I believe to be at the core of the conductor’s
capacity to communicate the composer’s intent more fully.
I believe conducting is much more about connection and
far less about controlling.To be sure, we strongly influence and,
in a certain sense, control the dynamic and energetic properties
of the musical line. We clearly set the tempo and determine the
timing between sections and movements, etc.
The negative kind of control is a manipulative one, a re-
lationship to the score in which we impose our demands in
a manner that often tends to be ego-centered rather than
composer-centered. An over-controlled performance will tend
to be driven, and the musical line and the structure will not be
allowed to breathe.
The conducting gesture will be full of tension and we may,
without knowing it, be seeking to be the center of attention,
either for our singers or for the audience or for both. Implicit in
an ego-drive performance is, I believe, a lack of humility towards
the composer’s intention.
Surely, each of us, in our journey to become more alive,
more fully human, has had to cope with the ego’s ever-present
urge to say, “Look at me, look how important I am.”
My life experience tells me that the root of this challenge is
frequently the fear of letting others in, letting others know who
we really are–being open, being vulnerable, being able to fully
receive the sound, and therefore being able to listen without
filtering what we hear through the veil of our own insecurities.
In short, being at one with ourselves, embracing ourselves, trust-
ing ourselves, and thus being able to trust our singers.
I believe choral artistry can only emerge when an intimate
depth of communication exists between conductor and singer.
At the core of any human interconnection is a constant bal-
ancing of the conductor as actor and reactor. The actor speaks
his or her truth without fear of reaction of others. The reactor
openly receives what is coming back from others without the
fear of being hurt.
The conductor as actor projects a quality of command
coming from a deep well of healthy self-assurance. By being fully
grounded, as well as having completely internalized the score,
we are able to get beyond the fearful manipulative constraints
of the ego and thus project to our singers a quality of assur-
ance, couched in humility, which enables the singers to trust
our musical decisions.
This grounding thus allows us to be vulnerable, to be open,
to listen deeply, and in a very real sense, to be informed by
what is coming from the singers. This capacity to trust what
they offer us is, I believe, what allows them to go more deeply
into themselves and to become more connected with their
innermost being.
Our singers, sensing that we are able to truly listen to them,
risk being vulnerable, and they will become more open to a
deeper humanity resident within themselves. If this intimacy of
connection exists, then the relationship between conductor and
singer becomes circular rather than over/under. Our gestures
will be free of the tension which blocks any natural organic flow
and thus will be able to influence the sound in a profound and
intimate way.
As conductors, we can generate and energize flow; we

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cannot control ebb.
Implicit in any work of art–from the Western canon to the
simple beauty of a folk song or to the complexity of a Bach
fugue–is a kind of organic balancing of action/reaction, tension/
release, ebb and flow which mirrors those qualities that exist
in everything alive: the cycle of birth/death, spring/winter, day/
night. Tides rise, tides fall. We inhale; we exhale. Certainly one
must also not forget a balancing of cognition and intuition. Our
intuition can only function if we let go and simply listen.
One of the most liberating things I believe I have said to
any conducting student is simply to stop thinking and just listen.
If the conductor is able to truly listen, to be in the moment,
then magic can happen, a magic which can only flow from ones
intuition.
It seems to me that as each of us becomes more balanced
as actors and reactors, we can, as conductors, become more
connectors rather than controllers.
We can get past the fear that causes us to manipulate.
This fear inevitably creates a quality of unremitting tension in
our music which will strangle the composer’s voice because
the music doesn’t breathe. In this situation, the natural organic
balancing of tension and release intrinsic to any beautiful musical
line has been stifled.
To grow as human beings to the place where our approach
both to the score and the singers is composer-centered and not
conductor-centered is, I believe, critical. With this enlightened
view, our singers’ lives can be changed because we then are
able, though our example and our balancing of assurance and
vulnerability, to lead them to a deeper place within themselves.
We will have helped them open themselves to the deep
human, even spiritual, source which the fear-dominated ego will
always block.We will have helped them connect to that creative
impulse which is the generating force of all great art, just as it
is the generating force of all that is alive.
Perspiration is to inspiration as sunlight is to morning glories.
—O. A. Battista
ChorTeach Volume 5 • Issue 2
Exercises for Head Voice Exploration and
Development for Junior High/Middle School
and High School Boys
Terry J. Barham
University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri
(Used with permission of the author)
“The strengthening and development of the boy’s head
voice should begin when it emerges in middle/junior high and
continue throughout high school. The payoff is enormous.”
(Barham & Nelson, The Boy’s Changing Voice—New Solutions for
Today’s Choral Teacher) Sing some combination of the following
exercises nearly every day throughout the school year. You will
be pleased with the results.
Downward exercises
• Sing the phrase, “You know me well,” at a very moderate
tempo on the following pitches: sol – do – sol – mi – do.
Start on g (sol) above middle C. Use tall, classic vowels
with energized breath through and past register changes.
Sing legato style with flowing arm and body movements.
Move down one half step after each completed pattern.
Use the same pattern of half-step change for the exercises
found below.
• Pwee-pwee-pwee-pwee-pwee (sol-fa-mi-re-do) – start on
b-flat about middle C. Use gentle arm movements. Pucker
lips to help get a natural, lifted-palette sound.
• Continuous lip-buzzes (sol-fa-mi-re-do). Start on b-flat above
middle C.
• Wee-oh, wee-oh, wee-oh, wee-oh, wee (sol-mi-fa-re-mi-do-
re-ti-do) starting on C above middle C.
• Ha-ha-ha, hoh-hoh-hoh, he-he-he-he he (sol-sol-sol, sol-sol-
sol, sol-fa-mi-re-do) starting an octave above middle C.
Move arms; dance in place. Use “poochy” protruding lips
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 to help with lifted palette (resulting in tall, warm vowels)
• Continuous lip-buzzes on the first phrase of “Joy to the world
the Lord is come.” Start on b-flat above middle C. Move
downward by half steps. Change to other vowels, e.g., oo
and oh. Use consonants with the same two vowels: k, l, n, d
Upward exercises
• Use the same exercise patterns noted above but start in
middle of boys’ ranges (changing or changed voices) in
comfortable singing areas. Repeat the patterns but one half
step up. Weird noises and giggling are okay! Constantly
tell boys they are very normal, unique! The challenge is
to have each boy drop off the weight (lessen the vowel
weight) as he moves into/through the passaggio, the bridge
areas from one register to another. See Deal with Register
Changes in Strategies for Teaching Junior High and Middle
School Male Singers—Master Teachers Speak, pp. 9-11.
• Use approximately 60% downward exercises with 40% up-
ward exercises. Sing some combination of these exercises
every day, even after boys’ voices have changed—all the
way through high school. Boys will develop and can sing
beautiful, floating head voice sounds, no matter what part
they sing—bass, baritone or tenor (or whatever terms you
use to label boys’ parts).
Vowels
Vowels used for singing, for most choir music, are not the
same as vowels employed for speaking.Your singers can instantly
understand the difference between “conversation” vowels and
“classic, tall” vowels. Model the difference for your singers. Have
one of your talented students with warm, tall vowels model for
his peers. Bring in a male colleague who sings with beautiful
vowels. Record the differences between “classic” and “conversa-
tion” vowels and play back the results.
ChorTeach Volume 5 • Issue 2
What to do with boys who can’t find or sing in the head
register or who refuse to sing “high”
• Have boys energetically count 1-2-3-4 with 1 and 3 being
spoken low and 2 and 4 as high as possible, without strain,
in head voice.
• Say “Here kitty, kitty!” in a very high voice.
• Have boys create a rap, e. g., “I can sing it low, I can sing it high,
I can do it anytime, my oh my!” Use “low” pitches or “high”
pitches as specified in the preceding phrase. “Low” and
“high” are relative to where a boy is in the change process.
• Find a recording of a pop singer performing a song beauti-
fully in high, head voice. Play it in class. Have boys imitate.
Watch for tension in neck/jaw. Use YouTube as a resource.
A possibility: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (from Lion King)
• With only boys in the room, have a contest. Everyone brays
like donkeys all at once for 15 seconds. Give prizes for the
“Top Donkey of the Day.” Identify which part of a boy’s
individual bray is in head voice.
• Use an energized “call” as if communicating with a friend
across a basketball court: “Oh No! No More Pizza!!” Ex-
tend the O and Ah vowels. The “call” may start off in the
middle of a boy’s range. Have the “call” become excited
and energized and, finally, placed in the highest part of a
boy’s voice.
Resources
Barham, Terry J., Strategies for Teaching Junior High and Middle
School Male Singers—Master Teachers Speak, Santa Barbara
Music, 2001
Barham, Terry & Darolyne Nelson, The Boy’s Changing Voice—
New Solutions for Today’s Choral Teacher, Alfred Music, 1991
Pagel, Randy & Linda Spevacek, The Choral Director’s Guide to
Sanity and Success, Heritage Music Press, 2004
4 www.acda.org/publications

Hate is always tragic. It is as injurious to the hater as it is to the
hated. It distorts the personality and scars the soul.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
Turn! Turn! Turn!
( To Everything There is a Season )
Bill Zurkey
Avon Lake High School, Avon Lake, Ohio
(Reprinted with permission of Central Division’s Resound,
Vol. 36, No. 1 Fall 2012)
The song Turn! Turn! Turn! has always been a favorite of mine.
With the exception of the last line, it’s adapted from the book
of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. It became an international hit when
it was re-released by the American folk rock band, the Byrds.
This song, which has received consistent radio play time for
many years, has had a strong impact on me.
The melody, written by Pete Seeger in 1959, and the text
are sources of personal reflection. Every time I hear Turn, Turn,
Turn, I take a moment to think about my present state in life and
how I can make improvements—be a better teacher, friend, and
mentor as well as husband, father, son, and brother. The song is
my reminder that there is always a new season in life, and it is
worthy of the best I have to offer. Is this not like choir?
Have you ever told your choir members how similar choir
is to life? I coached football for 30 years, and the football season
is much shorter than a choir’s seasons: a time to plant, to reap,
to weep, laugh, celebrate, and dance. My choirs just experienced
a time to weep when we lost one of our members. So, choir
is just like life in my way of thinking. Here are a few ideas about
two of those “seasons.”
A Time to Plant—Sight Reading Skills
The director must choose sight reading materials that will
meet the needs of the choirs and which will continue to stimu-
late improvement in this critical skill. My Michigan friends will
ChorTeach Volume 5 • Issue 2
be happy to know that I have chosen the Thomas Stokes sight
reading course. I purchased all levels written for high school
and am able to duplicate the pages as needed for each choir.
I have chosen to use solfege with moveable do. I chose
solfege instead of numbers because of the syllables students
utilize. It is easier to sing “fi” than “sharp 4” on an eighth note,
for example. However, choose what works for you.
I use la-based minor, and we sing the natural, harmonic and
melodic forms. Especially important to me is the smooth, logical
connection of the relative minor to its major scale. The syllable
do, as found in a major key, does not change when students sing
the relative minor. Stokes has made keys easy to teach because
the beginning four-part levels have scales written in the key in
which students will sight read.
Set goals for four- part sight reading. Initially, the tenors
should always be able to find sol and la. They are found in the
I, vi, and IV chords and are also important tuning notes. Altos
should learn to sing sol-ti-do. Basses should learn and memorize
the standard chord progression, I-vi-IV-V-I (do-la-fa-sol-do).
Sopranos need to learn the intervals found in the I, V, and
IV chords including their inversions. A good example for inver-
sion training can be found in Lutkin’s The Lord Bless and Keep
You in the soprano line, measure eight. Four-part sight reading
should include examples in both simple and compound time.
Our younger choirs are currently reading single-line melo-
dies. Singers find do by examining the key signature. Have stu-
dents chant and memorize the following phrase about finding
do when analyzing key signatures: “The last sharp is ti and the
last flat is fa.”
The Stokes course moves quickly through the circle of fifths
and interval skips found in the primary chords. I love the way the
author drills all intervals found in a musical example, especially
fourths. How fluent are your singers with re-sol and mi-la?
Our younger singers will progress quickly to two parts in
the next nine weeks. I also supplement Stokes’ materials in all
our choirs with Robert Ottman’s Music for Sight Reading.
It’s important that students experience a feeling of ac-
complishment after every sight reading session. If you have to
rehearse sight reading, your materials are too difficult. Regroup.
Use simpler melodies, and you’ll see progress and better at-
titudes. And soon, you will have surpassed the sight reading
level that caused earlier frustration. Important: Remember to
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be positive during sight reading exercises!
A Time to Reap—Sight Reading at Contest
In Ohio, sight reading is included at contest, and the score is
included in the choir’s total rating.Thus consistent and persistent
work on sight reading can reap big rewards; however, the real
reward for the teacher may come in other ways.
If your district has K-12 music teachers who work together
to develop a music curriculum and all teachers share the same
philosophy about music literacy (including sight reading), then
you can and should celebrate as I did yesterday.
I distributed the Mozart Requiem as the Chorale, our top
choir, came into class.The assignment was to rehearse the Lac-
rymosa. Students automatically began writing solfege syllables
into their parts. Following vocalises, we spoke the rhythm on
the solfege syllables. A brief review of compound meter and the
division of the beat followed. As you know, the time signature
for this movement is 12/8, quadruple-compound.
Hilary Apfelstadt told me many years ago that everything
in music, in its simplest form, consists of groupings of two’s and
three’s. So our singers never count higher than three when
counting rhythm in compound time. Eighth note rests are
finger snaps.
The Chorale sang through the Lacrymosa with piano with-
out stopping. Next, there was isolation of parts and tweaking
of the solfege as a result of all the accidentals, but in 15 minutes,
our last reading was incredibly solid and balanced, complete
with dynamics. What a feeling!
That particular day was worth much more than receiving
a superior rating at contest in sight reading. Why? It demon-
strated the wisdom of having planted sight reading skills that
had come to fruition. That saying we’ve all heard is true—you
reap what you sow.
I know I am not alone in this celebration. Many choirs in our
region have had similar experiences in their rehearsals. As most
of us know, it takes passion, knowledge, skill, and commitment
to build and maintain a thriving choral program.
What I have shared with you here has not been researched,
it has been experienced. And that is what I am happy to share
with our new music teachers and music students enrolled in our
colleges. The foundations of good literature and sight reading
ChorTeach Volume 5 • Issue 2
will transport your rehearsals to another level and change the
lives and experiences of singers.
Plant good seed and keep watering. As you sow, you and
your students will reap an abundant harvest!
Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot
keep it from themselves.
— J. M. Barrie
Worship Music Wars Can
and Should Be Avoided
David K. Lamb
First United Methodist Church, Columbus, Indiana
(Reprinted with permission of Indiana’s ICDA Notations,
Vol. 34, No. 1 Fall 2012)
All people seek inspiration, I believe. Everyone is searching
for something to give meaning, to offer comfort, or even to
provide a feeling of being needed or necessary.
Each person in the congregation is there for a reason. Most
people would reluctantly admit that they are seeking or search-
ing when they come to a worship service, and each person has
a set of expectations for what his/her search might yield.
Many times, the music in a worship service is that element
which calls attention to itself in such a way that seekers and
searchers want to feel the power or the spirit generated by
inspired musicians. Difficulties can arise when the opinions and
personal preferences of a few begin to influence the wishes
and/or desires of the congregation.
Everyone has his or her favorite hymn, solo, or style of
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music. Too often, certain people seem to think that everyone they share, listeners will find meaning, no matter which style is
else should be moved by the same type or style of music. The the purveyor of the text.
result? Worship music wars.
Never mind the fact that many of us have choir members
who have shared their time and talents with the church four or
five decades. A few well-meaning but misguided folks think they
know what everyone will or should like. Their opinion is that
whatever is modern/new is far better than the old, outdated
stuff with its soaring descants, beautiful choral anthems from
oratorios and cantatas, and memorable hymns that have offered
inspiration and comfort for centuries. Ideas and Activities Which Generate
These “informed” parishioners are sure that guitars, mi-
crophones, drum sets, and electronic keyboards are needed
Success in Middle and Junior High School
to attract new members.These same people appear to have a Choir Programs
wealth of information to share concerning those who will join
the church if we simply expand the program to include more 2012 Hot Springs Summer Conference
contemporary music. Arkansas Middle School/Junior High Directors
Many of us know of churches where long traditions of fine Hot Springs, Arkansas
choral music have been dramatically affected by the addition of (Reprinted with permission of Arkansas’ Accent,
the guitars and microphones. October 2012)
Over the centuries, many people have resisted change in
the church.
Choral directors who hope to preserve the tradition of All-Region/District Choir Preparation and Auditions
fine choral singing in houses of worship need to embrace flex- • Start preparing early in the year with after-school rehearsals.
ibility in an effort to continue creating inspirational experiences
both for the singers and for the worship partners in the pews. • Have mock auditions before the actual audition dates.
We directors understand that an outstanding school
choral program includes a variety of musical styles, each of • Program some All-Region choir music on your fall concert.
which should be presented with integrity. In a church setting,
musical styles and the use of either guitars or pipe organs are • Bring in a clinician to rehearse your students.
sometimes thought to be the primary issues at the heart of
worship music wars. • Join with other schools and rehearse the music together
I’m of the opinion that the most important part of the several times.
presentation of music in worship is not the style or the instru-
ments used. The key ingredient is the emotional involvement
and personal connection of the musicians to the music and how Motivation
effectively the spirit of the music is communicated. For choral • Have a bowling night for students who make the All-Region
directors and singers, this holds true in the rehearsal as well as Choir.
in a worship service.
Music in worship, I believe, is about artistic, heartfelt com- • Develop a point system with prizes for incentive.
munication of texts and their ideas. If our singers/choirs have
an emotional connection to and an understanding of the texts • Sing for your school board.

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• Have speakers from more advanced choirs talk to your
younger choirs.

• Set up a Facebook account group for choir members only.

Get approval from the administration.

• Collect clinic fees early and give the money to students for
snacks when they arrive for the clinic.

Relations with Students

• Let students know, often, that you believe in them.

• Eat lunch with choir students.

• Attend school sporting events: football, basketball, baseball,

wrestling, etc.

• Put up posters that connect with students.

• Share your personal stories.

• Put up pictures of your family in the choir room.

• Have a ceremony when boys “graduate” to bass or baritone.

• Give prizes for “King of the Low Notes,” “Lord of the High
Notes,” “Sultan of Sight Reading.”

• Put up pictures of students in the choir room.

• Put students’ birthdays on the Choir Room calendar. Let

them choose the style in which the class sings Happy
Birthday (country, opera, blues, hip hop, etc.)

• Have a Wall of Honor poster. Student of the day gets to

sign the Wall.

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