Page 121 - CJJan24

2024 ACDA Southwestern Region Conference February 27 - March 2, 2024 Denver, Colorado

Michael Baker Brown is in his thirteenth Music Awards. He also teaches on the faculties of The
year of teaching choral music. Brown Jazz Harmony Retreat and the Halewynstichting Jazz
has taught at all levels of secondary mu- Workshop (Belgium).
sic education. He holds an MME from
the University of Florida, a BME from
the University of Arkansas, and an associates of arts
from the Northwest Arkansas Community College. He Like and Subscribe:
currently teaches at Springdale Har-Ber High School Fostering Well-Being
as the assistant choir director and AP Music Theory through the Choral Rehearsal
teacher. He lives in Springdale, AR, with his wife, Em-
ber, and his son, Christopher.
Today, more than ever, young people are paralyzed
by anxiety, and this anxiety is driven by a social-media-
induced vulnerability, characterized by hypersensitivity
If I Don’t Scat Sing, How Can I Teach It? to criticism and a constant need for reassurance. For
Strategies to Help Choir Directors Who are New the choral pedagogue, understanding the context for
this anxiety is critical for planning effective rehearsals.
to the Jazz Idiom Demystify Vocal Improvisation Outline: (1) Setting the scene: A presentation of recent
psychological studies that reveal a rise in self-fixation
For many choir directors, the art of wordless vocal or non-clinical narcissism in teens and young adults.
improvisation, or “scat singing,” is one of the scariest (2) The Intersection of Social Media and the Choral
parts of teaching jazz. Few music education programs Program. (3) The way forward: Striking a balance for
prepare choral educators in jazz pedagogy, leaving di- mental health. More is caught than taught.
rectors to ask students to “make something up.” Howev-
er, proficient jazz singers call upon a variety of patterns David Howard is the associate director
and melodic ideas “tools” to create seemingly spur-of- of choral activities at the University of
the-moment solos. There are several key “tools” that Oklahoma, where he conducts the Men’s
we can help our students learn to use that are quick to Glee Club and Women’s Chorus, and
internalize and sound really good. The handout for this teaches graduate and undergraduate
session includes solo transcriptions, warmup exercises, choral literature and conducting. He also coordinates
classroom strategies, and recommendations for addi- the annual Young Men’s Vocal Workshop and Wom-
tional resources. en’s Choral Leadership Workshop for secondary school
singers. He is the founder and artistic director of the
Justin Binek is an internationally recog- professional early music ensemble, Schola Cantorum
nized jazz and classical singer, pianist, Oklahoma, and is also the conductor of Voce Fortis, a
clinician, and composer/arranger. A co- new choir for secondary school young men. His schol-
author of the upcoming third edition arly writing and musical editions have been published
of Richard Lawn’s “Experiencing Jazz” in both the US and the UK.
history textbook, Binek’s compositions and arrange-
ments are available from Kerry Marsh and Anchor
Music; and his original jazz-inspired mass, Missa Lucis,
made its Carnegie Hall debut in June 2022. He serves
as an associate professor of music theory/jazz studies
at Kansas City Kansas Community College, where his
students annually receive numerous DownBeat Student

CHORAL JOURNAL January 2024 Volume 64 Number 5 119