Creating Independent Musicians

 

My goal as a choral director, is to have each one of my choir members become an independent musician.  This means that, without me, they should be able to pick up music, and read it, problem solve it, and then perform it.  I have a unique way of teaching music literacy skills that I have learned from Carol Krueger (https://www.carolkruegermusic.com/) that doesn't slow down the rehearsal process and it looks like this. 

 

Step 1 -

What ever song we are going to be singing, I separate the music into rhythmic patterns that occur in the piece of music as well as melodic patterns that occur in the music. 

 

Step 2 -

Once the students are able to perform their music in this manner, then we add text.  They have essentially learned the entire piece of music (minus the text) without ever looking at the actual octavo.

 

I have included below what is the curriculum map for the piece "Musik, dein ganz lieblich Kunst" below.  This is what the students would get to practice and refine, long before they got the actual music to see.  (This curriculum map was created and designed by Carol Krueger.)