Week 8 of 2nd quarter

January 2-5, 2024

All week we will be revisiting our December songs in preparation for our two Minneapolis performances on Sunday, January 7th. 

Week of 7 of 2nd quarter

December 18-22, 2023

The December concert that the singers worked so hard for is finally done.  They were extremely successful with their performance.  They executed the rhythms, pitches, dynamics, timings, cues, and blending with many others with pure perfection.  They met all the goals for this quarter and met many music standards from the State.  They were very proud of themselves.

This week we have a performance at CES where we will bring them the joy of music before they leave for break.  We will also be discussing our curriculum plan for the May show.  

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Week 1-6 of 2nd quarter

November 6-December 15

Every day we will contunue to work on our concert music and our presentation for the public.  Every day is different depending on the previous rehearsal.  There is no way to make a lesson plan for rehearsals.  All the music has been introduced to all 5 of my choirs.  It's all about drilling and practicing now until everything is mastered.  They then need to work on presentation of their product.  This will all be mastered by December 11th by each choir.  We will then need the rest of the week to tear down, talk about our performance, and plan for the next performance.  

Week #8-9 of 1st Quarter 2023-2024

October 23-Nov. 3

We will push hard on all of our December literature.  All soloists will be picked by Nov. 3rd.  We will begin memorizing the songs that we are near mastering.

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Week #6-7 of 1st Quarter 2023-2024

October 9-13

We will discuss the look of the May 2024 show.  We will organize all the December literature in our folders.  Before MEA break we will go through all the songs for the December 11th concert to see what we need to push after break.

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Week #5 of 1st Quarter 2023-2024

October 2-6

We are fully underway with preparing our literature for the December concert here in TRF and our January performance in Minneapolis at St. Joan of Arc.

Each day we drill and practice to get a little bit closer to 100% mastery on the pieces we have started.

We also are working on mastering the Latin in the 23 minute Illuminare.  

Students are working on getting their 8 sectionals in for 1st quarter.

On Friday the singers will work in sections to master the named songs.  They will be rehearsing with the tracks that are on Google Classroom.  Before the end of the block they will video their progress and send the video to me.  If there is improvement and the video fits all the criteria, they will earn one sectional point for 1st quarter.

Week #4 of 1st Quarter 2023-2024

September 25-29

This week we will be working towards mastery on the first 3 songs from Illuminare

Spendor, Caritas, and Nox

O Holy Night, arranged by Rene Clausen, will be introduced

If Children Go Where I send Thee arrives in the mail, we will introduce that one too.

We will continue to work on vowel placement and color.

Monday will be a sectional day in class because I am gone. 

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Week #3 of 1st Quarter 2023-2024

Our Minneapolis Orchestra Hall trip was cancelled due to not enough singers from other choirs.  Twenty-four of my singers were very disappointed that it was cancelled.  

The singers are working so hard on the new literature for the December concert.  They have been working on the following vocal skills and will continue with the same routine and drills this week.

1.  Vowel Placement

2. Breathing Excercises---CORE

3. Sight Reading

We will continue to work on the following songs:

Splendor

Cantaris

We are waiting for our new songs to arrive from JW Pepper.  They should be here this week.  

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Week #2 of 1st Quarter 2023-2024

~Last week to sign contract for MPLS in November

~1st payment due

Continue work Illuminare song #1 and #2

Introduce 1 December concert piece other than Illuminare.......ordered and on its way

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Week #1 of 1st quarter 2023-2024

~This week we will hear the voices of the new group of BEL CANTO singers.  

~I will make sure that sections are balanced in each of the voice types (SATB).  

~We will talk about the classroom rules and expectations for the 2023-2024 school year. 

~We will go over the choir handbook and performance dates.  All students will get signed up for Bel Canto REMIND.

~By the end of the week all singers will know the rules for running a successful rehearsal, best practices for practicing outside of the choir  rehearsal, their voice type, and everyone will have their choir folders as well as the masterworks piece "Illuminare".

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Fourth quarter

Weeks 1-9, 2023

2023

9-12 grades

All quarter, every day, we will be working on all the literature for the Still Shakin' The Rafters show which will be May 14-15.  We work daily on getting closer and closer to mastering each piece.  We will start putting everything in a specific order to make a tight show. Every week we will get closer to be able to sing each song with 100% accuracy.

1. Text

2. Rhythms

3. Pitches

4. Vowel Colors

5. Performance techniques

6.  Memorization 

Week #8-9 of 3rd quarter

March 6-16

All literature is now in their possession.  We have FM Opera singers coming in the week of March 6th to work on vocal technique including information on vowel placement and color.  Each day we will be continuing our work on the pieces that we have selected for the May show titled "Still Shakin' The Rafters".  We have and will continue to work on our vowels and our core for breath support.  This takes place on a daily basis. 

Week #4-7 of 3rd Quarter

February 6-February 28, 2023

We are constantly working on all the literature for the May show.  We are auditioning soloists, and small ensembles in class with the choir singing in the background.  We are working hard every day working on pitches, rhythms, vowels, and phrasing. We will continue to do this until May.

Week #3 of 3rd quarter

January 30-Feb. 3, 2023

All week we will make it our goal to get tat least 3 of the pieces that are in our folders to 75% proficiency.  

Rhythms

Pitches

Vowels

Blending

Dynamics 

Week #2 of 3rd quarter

January 23-27, 2023

I forgot to put my plans on this site last week.  Here is what we DID:

1.  Rehearsed the following songs: Salvation is Created, the Water is Wide,  He Never Failed Me Yet, The Weather, I Believe

2. On elearning day, the singers rehearsed for 40 minutes on Zoom while I watched HOW they actually rehearsed.  We talked about how you actually rehearse with SkyTracks at home.  It was great to see them working in their space with the necessary resources TO REHEARSE at their own homes.  

Week #1 of 3rd quarter

January 17-20, 2023

This is our halfway point for choir.  We have literature in our folders and rehearsal tracks in Classroom.  Students will be drilled on the literature every day.  We will be working on songs in 4-6 parts.  Students that are interested in solos will be working on solos for the upcoming auditions.  We will continue to work on breath support and tone through our vocal warmups each day.  

Various Music Standards that we cover daily:

1. Rhythms /Counting/Subdivision of the beat

2. Timbre (Color of vowels and tone of voice)

3. Interval identification

4. Intonation (staying in tune)

5. Ear training skills

Week #8 of 2nd quarter

January 3-6, 2023

This week we will be talking and planning out our vision for the May 2023 concerts.  We will be listening to new recordings and getting new scores.  We will also be learning how to use the Kerry Marsh SkyTracks (teaching tool for singers). 

We will start our Cheryl Porter bootcamp to get our voices back into shape after the long break from singing.  

Week #2-#5 of 2nd Quarter

November 14-December 12, 2022

WE ARE PREPARING FOR OUR TWO OFFICIAL PERFORMANCES DEC. 10 & 12

MEMORIZING

VOCAL WARMUPS

PHRASING 

DYNAMICS

FORMATIONS

WORKING WITH PIANO AND DRUMMERS

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

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Week #8 of 1st Quarter

October 24-28, 2022

This week we will continue to work on the songs for the December Concerts.  There will be two more pieces introduced and more Cheryl Porter vocal/body warmups introduced. 

1.  Vocal flexibility

2. Expanding Vocal Range 

Week #7 of 1st Quarter

October 17-18, 2022

The next two days we will start working the first 15 minutes with the brand new Cheryl Porter Vocal Coach packages.  We will start with :

1.  Body warmups to reduce stress in your throat and shoulders

2. We will then work on vocal warmups for the vocal chords

Our main goal between Monday and Tuesday is to ROUGHLY go through each of the 6 pieces we have thus far for the December concert

Week #6 of 1st Quarter

October 10-14, 2022

All week we will keep working on each of our pieces for the December concerts.  We made great progress last week. 

Week #5 of 1st Quarter

October 3-7, 2022

Last week I was ill first with a bad cold and then Tuesday-Saturday I had Vertigo.

This week is going to be playing catch up with the rehearsal time we lost.  All of my students were to practice with the piano tracks on Google Classroom.  I will hear through our rehearsals if that actually happened!!  We will be diligently working on the literature that we have in our folders every day this week.  Rhythms, Part Singing, Ear Training, Dynamics, Blending, and Counting are the music standards that we will be working on this week and for weeks to come. 

Week #4 of 1st quarter

September 26-30, 2022

We will be diligently working on the literature that we have in our folders every day this week.

Rhythms, Part Singing, Ear Training, Dynamics, Blending, Counting 

Week #3 of 1st quarter

September 19-23, 2022

Homecoming Week

September 19th-20th the students will learn how to use their Google Classroom for personal practicing.  Mrs. Reese will be gone therefore, all students will rehearse with the tracks that she recorded prior to her leaving.  This will be a resource that should be used on a daily basis in order for the choirs to master the music prior to the December 10 & 12 concerts.

Wednesday-Thursday Mrs. Reese will see how well each student prepared and practiced on Monday - Tuesday as each student will be asked to sing a specific section of the assigned song.

Rehearsing of the various pieces in the LHS folders will take place all week with a final calculation of where each choir is by end of class on Friday the 23rd.

Week #2 of 1st quarter

September 12-16, 2022

This week we will be beginning to work on the repertoire that was passed out last Thursday and Friday.  This week we will also cover the choir handbook and begin collecting the parent/student form. 

1.  Sections are complete (SATB)

2.   Everyone should be on REMIND at this point

3.  Everyone has their choir folder and select pieces in it.

Week #1 of 1st quarter 2022-2023

This week we will hear the voices of the new group of Bel Canto singers.  We will be singing the Alma Mater and learn a version of The National Anthem.  This will allow Mrs. Reese to know which literature to pass out to the new Bel Canto choir.

We will also be writing the classroom rules and expectations for the 2022-2023 school year. 

We will go over the choir handbook and performance dates.  All students will get signed up for Bel Canto REMIND.

By the end of the week all singers will know the rules for running a successful rehearsal, best practices for practicing outside of the choir rehearsal, their voice type, and everyone will have their choir folders as well as one new piece.