On Wednesday, November 13th the 4th and 5th grade students performed for our Veterans' Day Program. The students sang the Star Spangled Banner to open, and followed with 7 selections from Music K-8 Magazine. They did a fantastic job overall, the principal and fourth grade teachers even gave them a standing ovation! The best part for me was to get the kids to sound good on songs they didn't particularly like.
That said, as with any performance there were plenty of things I wish we had done differently. There were some problems with rushing, some problems with over-anticipating a few entrances, enunciation, etc. My personal favorite is that it seemed that my two kids who have the hardest time matching pitch are also some of the shortest students, guaranteeing that they were right down front. Of course that means their voices are some of the most prominent - thought this is also because they took my instructions to heart - don't sing scared! We spent a fair amount of time talking about proper performance practice and how to sell their performance. We talked about breath support and all of those fundamental singing techniques. Most of all I told them that if they were going to make a mistake they needed to do it "loud and proud" so even though it was a wrong note it wouldn't sound unsure or scared.
Now if only I can figure out what happens to kids between fourth and fifth grade that makes them go from wonderful singers to wimpy singers!
Program order from our concert:
Star Spangled Banner - Key
America The Beautiful - Ward/Bates, arr. Jennings
We Will Not Forget - Riggio
Those Who Served - Jennings
Proud of Our Veterans - Jennings
Thank a Vet - Wilson
A Time for Peace - Jennings
We Celebrate America - Jennings
I will continue adding tracks as they get edited - this is my first attempt at using SoundCloud!
Have a great week, and if I don't get a chance to post again before then, have a Happy Thanksgiving!
