Like a Charm

As a new teacher, I have faced a lot of challenges. As a good friend and colleague of mine said, teaching is one of the only professions where those who are brand new are expected to perform on the same level as those that have been doing it for years. My challenges have simply been trying to figure out how to do my job and do it better today than I did the day before. However, on a broader scale, one of my greatest challenges has been selecting choral literature that "fits" with my choir and the situation at my school. By "situation" I mean this: I have a 7th grade choir made up of 88 students. These students are split into four different classes. Each of these classes is a microchasm of the greater choir. There are about twenty girls and four or five boys in each class. This makes things much more difficult than if the whole choir was together at the same time. Each student doesn't have the confidence that they would if they had eighty seven other voices singing with them. Instead, they have to be one of twenty or twenty four voices. It is a challenge, but I must make it work.
As I said, selecting literature has become one of my biggest challenges and I have realized in the last year that it is one of the most important decisions a choral director will make in a given year.
Every school is different. So, I could ask for all the advice I want, but in the end I've got to choose music that will best fit my choir at my school. So, first semester, I decided to set the bar high and see how much they could achieve. I chose three part mixed, mostly homophonic music. Homophonic means that everyone is singing the same words at the same time, just different pitches. For whatever reason, my brain thought that this would be easier for them. We tried, and we did ok. I noticed that the main problem was that everyone wanted to sing the melody. Basically through trial and error, I learned that middle schoolers will want to sing the melody if they are singing the same WORDS as the melody. It makes sense. "I'm saying what they are saying, so I should probably sing the same pitches that they are singing."
So I'm rethinking literature selection. I was too ambitious first semester. I've scaled way down. I'm seeking more advice, browsing through more music, visiting another middle school choir director in LaGrange to compare notes. I want to get it right this time.
The other day, I stumbled upon a piece in my personal collection called "Yonder Come Day". I received a few copies of it while I was in Louisville, KY for a conference last year. Dr. Patrick Freer from Georgia State used it in his lecture on the boy's changing voice. It's an African American spiritual that uses several different melodies that eventually combine to create three part harmonies. I decided on a whim to try it the other day in class. It worked like a charm and is continuing to work better and better. EVERY CLASS today (even my tiny fourth period class) was confidently singing three part chords thanks to this fun, ingenious piece. Not only does it "trick" them into singing harmonies, but they LOVE the piece. "Can we sing that again?" they ask as they pack up their things at the end of class. What have I learned? There are ways to achieve what I want; ways to achieve the potential I see within these kids. I just have to keep digging until I find the key to unlock it. Today, "Yonder Come Day" was that key. If every class is singing it well, then I can't wait to get them all together and hear them sing it. I love days when I learn more than I teach.