Fall 2021 Choral Practicum (MUED 376)

Lesson Plan #1
Abigail Carter

1/11 min. Activity 1: Introduction

1s) Hello! My name is Abigail Carter, and I am a senior music

education major at JMU who is originally from Richmond, Virginia. I
am so excited to be singing with you today! A fun fact about me is
that I come from a long line of left-handed folks on my mom’s side of
the family, so a lot of elbowing happens at our dinner table!

Transition sentence:
1d) Let’s begin our time together by centering our breathing before
we sing! Please sit with your best posture, and let’s work on our
breathing together!

1/2/11 min. Activity 2a: Breathing exercise (centering)

1d) First, we’ll take a deep breath in and out together.

2p) Choir takes unified deep breath.

1d/3avns) Great! Now we’ll breathe in together for 4 beats, and

breathe out for 4 beats on a “sh” sound. Watch me, and pay special
attention to my hand signals for breaths in and out.

1a) I model diaphragm expansion and contraction through my

breathing and through kinesthetic modeling.

1d) Let’s all take these breaths together, remembering to let the
breath out on a “sh”.

2nv) Choir breathes together, 3 times repeated

 1d/3avs) Great job expanding those diaphragms! Now, let’s maintain
that feeling of expansion and contraction as we add singing into our
warmup.

1/3/11 min. Activity 3: Vocal Warmup

1d/1a) Echo me please: noo-ah-noo-ah-noo

2v) Choir echoes spoken warmup

1a) Repeat the echo, emphasizing backspace

2v) Choir repeats echo response

1a/1d) Model the warm-up solfege in C major, sol-fa-mi-re do “Your

turn!”

2p) Choir echoes solfege

1a) Noo-ah-noo on pitches-- “your turn!”

2p) Choir sings noo-ah-noo on pitches

1d) Let’s

3a/dvs/1d) Remember to keep your backspace as we continue to

sing/your backspace and tone were beautiful!

Transition sentence:
1a/1s) Let’s now talk about what this piece is about and why I chose
this song for our practicum experience.

1/4/11 min. Activity 4: Introduce piece

1a) This song is titled “Keep Your Lamps”. This song is a traditional
gospel song that’s connected to a parable in Matthew 25. The song is
typically sung in call and response format, and we see this
arrangement allude to that in the introduction where the melody is
 handed off between the treble and lower voices. I picked this song
because it reminds us to keep our lamps burning with hope for
something better to come. To me, this song represents keeping hope
during struggle with the hope that things will improve—hope is
something we all need during such a difficult time for our world. Isn’t
it wonderful to experience hope, and to express hope through our
music?

Transition sentence:
1d/1s) I invite you to listen as I speak the words to you and think
about something that brings you hope—that encourages you to keep
your lamp trimmed and burning!

1/5/11 min Activity 5: Read the text

1a) Keep your lamps trimmed and burning, the time is drawing nigh.
Children, don’t get weary, the time is drawing nigh.
Soon this journey will be over, the time is drawing nigh.

What a beautiful reminder that struggle and hardship do not have

the final say—hope does.

Transition sentence:
1d) Now, I invite you to listen and echo me as I sing the main theme
of the song on text, on patterns and then on solfege!

1d) If possible, try not to read the music until we are done with this
little activity, but just listen to me and echo me when cued.

4/9/11 min.Activity 6: The hook! Text, ETP;s and solfege

Chunk 1: The Hook: On text

1d) Please listen as I sing this melodic theme on text.

1a) Sing the entire sop. melody on text.

1d) Let me do that again.

1a) Sing on text

1s) Thank you!

1a) I think you can hear that there are several descending intervals
and several repeated notes and patterns.

Transition sentence
1a) Let me break this melody down and extract it into its main
ingredients, or it’s main intervals tonal patterns. Please echo me
when cued.

Chunk 2: The Hook: ETPs

1a) Sing ETP #1 (your turn)

2p) Choir echos

1a) Sing ETP #2 (your turn)

2p) Choir echos

1a) Sing ETP #3 (your turn)

2p) Choir echos

1a) Sing ETP #4 (your turn) (if there is one!)

2p) Choir echos

3sra) Great job! These are all the ingredients of the melody.

Transition sentence

1a) Now listen as I show you how these ingredients are set in this
melody. Some of the patterns have different rhythms and some
notes are held longer, etc.

Chunk 3: The hook: Solfege in Phrases

1a) Let me break this down for you into four phrases.

1a) Sing phrase 1 of melody of A section in solfege

1a) (Again) Sing phrase 1 of melody of A section in solfege

1d) Let me phrase 2 for you:

1a) Sing phrase 2 of melody of A section in solfege

1d) (Again) Sing phrase 2 of melody of A section in solfege

1d. Let me put that together for you. Listen:

1a) Sing first two phrases in solfege

1d Let’s finish this! Here comes the third and fourth phrase! Listen:

1a) Sing phrase 3 of melody of A section in solfege

1a) (Again) Sing phrase 3 of melody of A section in solfege

1a) Sing phrase 4 of melody of A section in solfege

1d) (Again) Sing phrase 4 of melody of A section in solfege

3sra!) Wow! Great listening and I love that you wanted to echo all
that! That was alot of solfege and I think it’s helping also by simply
listening to it!

Transition sentence:
So, let me teach you this in the text!
1/9/11 min. Activity 7: The hook! Teach it by rote on words

1d) Echo me please in an octave comfortable for you: “Keep your

lamps trimmed and burning,

2p) Choir echoes: “Keep your lamps trimmed and burning,

1d) the second phrase: “keep your lamps trimmed and burning,”

2p) Choir echoes second phrase: “Keep your lamps trimmed and
burning,”

1d. Let’s put those together! Listen:

“Keep your lamps trimmed and burning, keep your lamps trimmed
and burning,

2p) Choir echoes phrases one and two: “Keep your lamps trimmed
and burning, keep your lamps trimmed and burning,

2p) Choir echoes

1a) Repeat previous echo if needed OR finish phrase

2p) Choir echoes

1d/3a/dvs) Wonderful job maintaining that backspace/make sure

you are maintaining your backspace!

Transition sentence:
Please open your score for Keep Your Lamps to page 4, measure
11...it should now look familiar!

1/10/11min.Activity 7: “Open your music please to page 4……”

Chunk 1: Transfer from rote to note.

 1d) Let’s review the melody we just learned by reading with our
music. Please find mm. 11 and everyone is a soprano. Tenors and
basses, please sing in the octave most comfortable for you!

1a) There’s a quick page turn here, so be prepared to make that turn!

1d.) Let’s begin: (Nikos gives pitch and you give them 3, 4)

2p) Choir sings melody while reading the music.

1d) Again!

2p) Choir sings melody while reading the music.

1d) Again!

3a or 3d vs) Beautiful job!

1d. Let’s do it one more time, and remember to maintain that

backspace and use our great breath support!

(Nikos gives pitch and you give them 3, 4)

2p) Choir sings melody while reading the music.

3sra) I love the way you created an even more beautiful sound by
remembering to use your breath support!

1/11/11 Activity 8: Learning Summary

1a/s) Wow! Thank you so much! Today we learned the main theme
of Keep Your Lamps and worked the first section of the song. You
now have a foundation and understanding of this piece through its
text and its melody! Thank you so much for allowing us to be here,
and let’s welcome XXX to the podium!