Vocals In The Modern Band ClassroomSteve Danielssonsteve@littlekidsrock.org

Opening Performance

• Pokemon Youtube

Physical Warm-ups

• The Hidden Lion

• Apathy to Empathy

• Let’s Do The Twist

• The Belly Bag

Mr. Danielsson’s Vocal Warm-ups

Introduction

• The goal of this workshop is not only learn how to develop passionate performing singers, but also to develop tools to increase the amount of singing in your classroom in every way possible

• Students can learn to sing songs on their own; the idea is to create a classroom culture where everyone is ready and willing to sing.

What We Will Cover

• Gimme Three Steps: developing a culture of singing in three steps

• The Talkers, The Screamers and Me: Absolute Beginning Singers

• Home Base: Learning to Teach From Your Guitar

What Does A Culture of Singing Look Like?

• A classroom with 100% vocal participation

• Positive reinforcement from teachers AND students

• Students have the confidence to try to sing fearlessly

• Hearing students sing outside of the music room

Modern Band: The Conundrum

• Minutes into a lesson, you can get a student playing the bass

• We can train drummers in an afternoon

• Guitarists are the most motivated young musicians

• Finding a singer to stand up on stage and be a Lead Singer can be a huge challenge

• Why?

Public Enemy Number One

These are not educational role models, they are entertainers who are mean to people trying to become professional vocalists. Their cultural impact however has been extensive on the culture of vocal music.

Modeling appropriate responses to

struggling singers is something

students should learn from NO ONE ELSE but

their music teachers

Step 1: Creating the Safe Space

• Starting with the music classroom, a safe space needs to be built

• Modeling singing for your students is the most beneficial activity you can do

• If you are not a confident singer, this will work to your advantage!

• You have the opportunity to teach them to be fearless!

Rules to Enforce

• No sarcasm

• No laughing at others singing

• No apologizing for mistakes

• No vocalizing frustration

Safe Space for Singers

• The only goal for a singing classroom is 100% participation

• You can never force someone to sing (that’s like yelling at someone to have more fun!)

• Allow students to enter into singing at their own pace, if you make it fun, they will join!

Ways To Encourage Singing

• Positive Narration to participating singers, even those who are not singing accurately

• Students who are already singing should be referred to as strong singers

• Start conversations with parents about students who are ENJOYING singing, reference those conversations in class

• Constantly watch singers perform, remembering all the rules for positive classrooms!

Step 2: Developing a Singing Routine

• Whatever your comfort level with singing, the time to start increasing it is now

• Commit to singing EVERY TIME you see your students

• If you are inaccurate or uncomfortable as you sing, simply say you “need help”

• Always scan for 100% singers, most students will participate just to help you

The Elusive 100%

• 100% Participation is a constant goal in any classroom

• With singing, it is an easily observable goal to achieve

• However, it can take some time to perfect

• Some students take weeks to be shown how fun it is to be a singer!

Strategies For 100% Singers

• Positive narration for consistent singers

• Stickers/Prizes for passionate singers

• Vocalist of the week - Listening and discussion

• Singing along with video and recordings (It IS OK!)

• Allow students to lead the class/school in songs

• Have a microphone ready ALWAYS. Give it to students when they are singing!

More Strategies!

• Sing while you walk through the hallways

• School wide songs at assemblies! (Send an e-mail to teachers of a song to listen to in their class)

• Invite teachers to come sing with their students (students will teach them the culture)

• Record EVERYTHING you sing and give students the chance to listen to it wheneer

What DOESN’T work?

• Negative reinforcement

• Any type of punishment

• Taking away the opportunity to sing

A Note On Management

• It is impossible to force someone to do something they don’t want to do

• Your only chance is to teach them to WANT TO SING

• You are asking students to do something personal and intimate, so intimidation will not work

• “… But look how much fun we’re having!”

Step 3: Increase Your Repertoire

• Students can memorize a song in a day if you teach it and sing it enough

• It will always take at least three sessions of singing a song to perfect it

• Don’t be afraid to move on from a song if it is not perfect, you can/will always revisit it!

Keep A List

• Keep a list of songs you sing together

• Constantly review the songs

• Wrapped up 2 minutes early!? Pick a song from the repertoire list!

• Drop box for suggestions to add to the repertoire

• And add songs you catch them singing outside of your classroom. Remember that is what learning looks like!

Folding It Together

• If you’ve got a modern band at your school, teach every student to sing those songs!

• Invite new singers to sing with the band every time!

• If mistakes are made, use these chances to stress the importance of preparation and practice (positively of course)

Turning Singers Into Performers

• Rehearse like crazy! Students walking out onto a stage should be and FEEL ready to rock

• Set up a system to record in your classroom

• Listen to and watch every one of your performances together. Positively reflect and give tips… but keep it as positive as possible!

Absolute Beginners

The Talkers, The Screamers and Me!

What A Beginning Singer Looks Like

Absolute Beginning Singers

• The most important three words for beginning singers: “Repeat after me”

• At first, encourage constant sound production, regardless of accuracy

• Using the “Rote Song Method”

Rote Song Method

• Take a short melodic phrase, and break it into pieces

• Teach each short piece with repeat after me technique

• Start again, combining smaller pieces

• Repeat as necessary until the song is memorized

Struggles With Sound Production

• Some beginners struggle with initial sound production

• Most of the time, this struggle comes from the student never having done this type of sound before

• Encourage silly sing sounds• Examples: Owl Hooting, Sirens, Bird

Sounds ANYTHING that gets their sound up in the head

Strategies For Your Newest Singers

• Learning to sing is a lifelong process, 2 months of singing inaccurately is nothing compared to 50 years of singing beautifully

• Most singers quit singing when they received bad feedback

• Your positive classroom will help, but also encourage students to help new singers by modeling the process of finding your singing voice

Stop And Check

• When a singer enters a speaking or screaming voice, help to correct it

• Model sound production by entering your “head voice”

“… But what about technique?!”

• There are experts out there who can scrutinize technique to perfect it

• The goal of this method is not to scrutinize but to encourage

• If your students want to become opera singers, that’s great! But they will need to study that technique somewhere

• There are only three things to remember…

Three Important Technique

• Breathe with big belly breaths!

• Control your dynamics!

• Sound like yourself!

The Guitar Is Your Friend!

• Learning to sing and play guitar can be a challenge

• The best way to learn to do it, is to try and fail non-stop!

• Let’s give it a try!

Play the Chord and…

… Repeat after me!

Leading A Classroom From Your Guitar

• The guitar is a great tool for every music teacher

• You have almost 100% mobility to manage your room

• There is no barrier between you and the students (like a piano)

Singing Your Warm-ups

• The easiest way to start is to sing what you play on your guitar already

• “Iron Man” is hands down the best song for this

• Any melody or scale you play, you can/should sing!

Staring Point For Warm-ups

• Simple 3 string major scale

• Play it up and down

• All simple warm-ups are based on this scale

Absolute Beginning Singers

Absolute Beginning Singers

Opening Performance

Quick Tips to Keep Them Singing!

• Do-now and setup time, have a song playing! They will learn it, and encourage them to sing it

• “Sing-A-Long Club” - have lyrics ready, and play the song. Students will come just to sing the songs they love

• Song suggestion box