86 replies to this topic

[Ren]

No I haven't I actually wrote down the contact info last night.

[Joe Brausam]

Ren!

I'll be starting very soon as a middle school (grades 7&8) choir director/general music teacher. If you have any advice or suggestions for winter concert repertoire (sacred music is okay) for that grade level I'll be all ears! I'm primarily an instrumentalist, so this is treading some new ground for me. I obviously will have to feel out the ability level of the group before commiting to rep for the winter concert, but any advice is much appreciated!

[Ren]

Yay! I will type up a long response today

[Ren]

When I'm at the hospital today i think I'll be able to answer this a bit better. Papoulis is a great composer who's music is energetic and contemporary sounding. Handels alleluia is a little difficult but a winner. We try to stay in the 3part mix voicing. They always love doing a contemporary song, one they have heard of. Imagine is great and not hard. Get the version that starts in G and goes to a flat. Look at local festival lists. Mac huff isn't a great arranger. I try to find versions where sopranos and altos have their own line. An easy holiday song is Feliz Navidad arranger by gallina I believe.

Ose shalom by leavitt is great.

Excuse the typos I'm thumbing it on my phone while nursing.

I never make the guys sing too low and I'll copy a song, highlight and rewrite a part for them if needed.

[Ren]

Well, I'm not talking about choirs right now. Just teaching. Today in general music we threw out the lesson plan and discussed some "scary music" which they then proceeded to play on keyboards. It was great fun to hear them all playing the Bach toccata and the twilight zone.

[Stefancos]

That's very cool Lee.

[Ren]

Lol