Observation 5: Bella Voce, DeWitt HS

Today was a very busy day with Bella Voce! They just finished festival, are beginning their spring concert music, were planning a special video project, and it was my first day teaching them.

As Ms. Eldred suggested, I led warm-ups today. I used to dread warm-ups, but after our study of them, I felt very confident in putting together a good warm-up plan. However, I was really nervous to be in front of this class. I guess high schoolers intimidate me a little bit. Ms. Eldred introduced me and announced that I would be student teaching with her next year, which made me extra nervous, knowing that they know I will be there for a whole semester next spring. I made a little joke about my sitting in the corner for a few weeks, and they actually laughed. I did a stretch activity, an alignment activity, a breathing exercise, a humming exercise, and a vocalization with a round. The humming exercise was in Lydian, which seemed to be a big challenge and I could tell they felt uncomfortable with that raised fourth. I think they got used to it. I sang the round to them once, then had them repeat it back a couple of times. When I made it into a round, I could hear some insecurity in their voices. It got a little better, but was still unsure.

After class, Ms. Eldred gave feedback. She said that she appreciated my confidence and that I seemed very comfortable in front of the group. However, she said I should work longer on the round, making sure that they can sing it all together with more stability before splitting it into a round. I agree that they weren’t very stable on it. I really like being in a classroom with beginning high school students, to remember that they need to hear things and sing them a few times before they can sing them confidently.

It was extremely valuable to observe Bella Voce’s debrief of their festival scores. They received an excellent rating, while Chamber Choir received a superior, (2 points away from perfect score) and Concert Choir was 2 points below a superior. I was really impressed by these scores. Bella Voce’s scores and comments included a lot of talk about vowels, about which I know the group had some concerns. They also discussed the challenges from the venue, which made them aurally uncomfortable and could have caused some pitch issues. Every judge gave them a perfect score in “rhythm elements” which I thought made sense. Their music, especially the Spanish piece, had some complicated rhythms and they handled them and prepared them really well.

Today was the first day that Ms. Eldred had to get the girls’ attention to stop talking. She simply did a rhythm pattern on “ch” one time and they focused in. It was so graceful and smooth, I barely noticed. I sensed that the group is a little more relaxed now that festival is over, so perhaps a little more chatty. There was a lighter energy today, including some funny stories from both Ms. Eldred and students.

The choirs have a unique tradition of creating a “lip dub” video, in which they lip synch to a pop song and create a video with all of the members in different parts of the building. A student informed me of what they were talking about. It seems like a very popular, creative project. They voted for the song, “See You Again” by Miley Cyrus.

Today, Bella Voce also began working on their spring concert music, starting with “Popular” from Wicked. It seems that Ms. Eldred made some adjustments to the arrangement (just omitting some harmony parts) to make it a little easier. I thought that it worked well for the group.