My children's choir book

Part of the Christian life under the cross in this world deals with the endless trials of the photocopier. For the past two years I directed the 2-4 grade choir at my church's Christian day school, I spent way too much time entering hymn melodies and words into Sibelius, printing off PDFs, and then making 50-60 photocopies for every student, only to toss them after the service was done.  I also relied on week-to-week planning or rehearsals based around the next church-singing date.  Nope.

So, this summer, I had enough.  I did some research at St. James Music Press and our hymnal.  I typed and retyped a lot.  I went out and bought several reams of high-quality paper and this happy spring-green almost-tagboard.  Then, I went to work printing and resizing each page, arranging the text and music before double-siding the photocopies, and then ran 55 sets of each.

After self-collating these (you can tell I was pretty tired!), my wonderful brother helped me make three staplers in the sem library feel very special.  They were replenished on multiple occasions, and ate their fill of wholesome greens.

What's in them, you might ask?  Interspersed with the pieces are short paragraphs explaining rules of choral singing I usually over-repeat.  Because I don't have a whiteboard in the sanctuary - which would make my teaching WAY more effective! - this gives the students something visual to remind them.

The repertoire?  Well, hymns, especially doctrinally-solid hymns, are MUCH too hard for children to learn.  Those old Germans composed plenty of confusing tunes that don't appeal to young people today, and there's no way they could even try learning them.  Being connected to the past is overrated, because youth can certainly fend for themselves.  Let's see, the first song is "Shout to the Lord..."


Just kidding!!  Here are the pieces and choral teaching points covered:

Posture - Breathing
Three Kinds of Voices (chest, face, head)

A Mighty Fortress - Martin Luther, arr. William Roger Price

Kyrie:  Kyrie, God Father In Heaven Above
Gloria:  All Glory Be To God On High
Credo:  We All Believe In One True God
Sanctus:  Holy, Holy Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth - J.S. Bach
Agnus Dei:  Lamb of God, Pure And Holy

Onset (Starts of Words) - Short "I"Turns Into Long "E" - Long "E" is Kissed

As Longs the Deer - Mark Schweizer

How To Chant (i.e. Psalm 118:17, Doxology)

O Rest In The Lord - Felix Mendelssohn
I Pray Thee, Dear Lord Jesus - trad., arr. Alfred Fremder
Savior of the Nations, Come - trad., arr. Carol McClure

Consonant Pairs - Diphthongs - "R" Before A Consonant- Shh!

Grow On Long Notes - Commas and More - Performing and Leading

I'll probably continue to use this template for forthcoming school years; this has bought me so much time otherwise used toward collecting and planning.  If you have any questions about the contents of the choirbook or would like to have one, do let me know - I'd be pleased to help you with any of the resources.

Happy planning for the New Year - and remember, as the AC says, we keep art in our divine services "that the unlearned be taught"!