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Rehearsal Break

Pitch/Solfége Lessons “mystery pitch.” The teacher sang ing musicianship lessons online,
The primary goal of the lessons the line on a neutral syllable and the students indicated they valued the
focusing on pitch was to help singers students used Curwen hand signs to instruction as evidenced from their
reinforce their audiation skills. Sing- show which syllable they thought feedback forms:
ers heard a musical example sung by matched the sound of the mystery • “I like having this practice so I can
the teacher on a neutral syllable while pitch. This activity was also done make sure I’m keeping up.”
looking at two solfege statements with staff notation: students indi-
(without the staff), then singers vot- cated the line/space of the mystery • “It gets my brain thinking about

ed on which example matched what pitch using their hand staves (Figure theory and really it’s the only place
they heard by holding their fi ngers 3). that I actually get to practice it. So
up on screen (see example below). Both of these activities were pre- introducing and expanding on things
This activity required the students to pared by singing/echoing the tone we’re doing is cool.”
match the aural sound given by the set and specifi c intervals of the cor-
teacher with their internal image of responding musical activities; these • “I feel that these lessons help me
the sounds created by solfege pat- were extended to increase diffi culty to get a better grasp on reading mu-
terns. Once the idea was understood within the rehearsal and over the sic and understanding how music is
this same activity was used with staff course of multiple rehearsals. The made.”
notation. This activity was presented activities were essentially formative
as a multiple-choice game. Once the assessment techniques in action. The • “I like how the musicianship class-

correct answer was identified then it multiple-choice votes and dictation es make learning theory more like a
was sung by the teacher on solfege hand signs/hand staff answers in- game so that we learn without strug-
to solidify the relationship between formed the teacher of the student’s gling.”
sound and solfege and/or notation. accuracy in matching his or her in-
Students also sang the incorrect an- ner organization to the aural sounds. Although the online rehearsal
swer for comparison (Figure 2). The teacher could immediately see situation is not ideal, we found val-
Dictation activities were present- when the group had mostly match- ue in the significant amount of stu-

ed as fill-in-the-blank games. Stu- ing answers or when the group had dent engagement during our online

dents were shown a line of solfege varying answers, which indicated meetings. We learned more about
syllables with at least one blank the readiness to move forward or the our singers’ musical understandings
need for review. and curiosities through their ques-
Even with the challenge of teach- tions and discussions, which deep-
ened over time. This deepening is
Figure #2 supported by Claxton, who advo-
Multiple-choice audiation game cates for creating a climate in which
Figure #3 students’ questions are welcomed
Teacher (neutral sound): Dictation game and refined, so the disposition to

question becomes more robust and
10
d m s r d Teacher (neutral sound): sophisticated. The additional time
for group discussion and more col-
Student visual: d m s r d laborative nature of our online
meetings has created more oppor-
#1 d r s r d Student visual: tunities for meaningful connections
between fellow singers and between
#2 d m s r d d m s __ d singers and staff .
We hope that the days of live,

78 CHORAL JOURNAL April 2021 Volume 61 Number 9