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Lifting Up the Littles: Highlighting your Youngest Singers Through Commissioned Works, Effective Rehearsal, Performance Opportunities, and Student Composition

To do this, you must be brave. You must be proud mal compositional techniques and more about what we
of your non-conducting, because your singers may not do best as choir teachers: facilitating a culture of trust,
need a beautiful legato 3/4 pattern; they may need you guiding students to know when to lead and when to fol-
to do the movements with them. You must not apolo- low, and encouraging our singers to share their voices
gize for the singer who is going to wave to their mom without fear.
between pieces or literally sit down in the middle of a The methods outlined below include suggestions
song (both of these things happened on stage at the Na- based on the trial and error that we have already gone
tional Retreat!). You must embrace mistakes while urg- through at TGC, and are our current best practices:
ing improvement. You must be proud of performing
a set of just two or three pieces because they are high 1) Source the Text. For early elementary students,
quality, challenging, and well done. You must name the consider partnering with older students to create lyr-
fact that what the kids are doing is also art. You must ics. Our littlest singers have complex ideas, but their
spell that out and then you must let your singers show language does not always reflect the depth of what
them what you mean. they are thinking. Collaborations with older students
Our singers know when we believe in them and can empower both littles and bigs! Some ideas for text
when we are truly proud to show them off to the world. creation:
They will rise to the occasion, they will give you their
whole hearts, and they will surprise you in the most a. After selecting a theme, send prompts home and
meaningful ways. We simply need to give them the invite siblings/parents to help their young singer
space to do it. Your work as conductors of the littles is to put their big ideas into words
so important. You are building the foundation for their
musicality, their openness to new experiences, their b. Adapt a book (it doesn’t have to rhyme!)
sense of self-worth and teamwork, and their idea of
what choir can be and who it’s for. You already know c. Create a set of haikus by combining various stu-
that they can do amazing things; let’s show the world! dents’ ideas

Scan the QR code to see the full move- 2) Choose the Form. Working within a preset struc-
ments for “Now We Have Rivers.” http:// ture can be very helpful!
www.mattcarlson.co/now-we-have-rivers.
html#/ a. Classic song form is a great place to start. We love
a good V1-C-V2-C-B-C-C tag (or any short-
ened version of that). Students can then see that
Student Composition once they write the chorus they are halfway done
for Young Choirs with the song!
Since this article was published in 2022, the TGC
Bees have composed and premiered three original b. For a less rigid structure that works well when us-
works, and the process has been immensely rewarding. ing a book as a text source, first identify a cen-
In addition to commissioning works for our younger tral idea or single lyric to use as your “chorus.”
singers, I invite you to consider embarking on a group Then, select other lines/pages of text to place
composition journey with your littles. This can be a in between “choruses.” Don’t be afraid to move
daunting task when first starting. Many of us have little things around or cut parts of the book. (Do be
to no training on how to teach composition. It’s even sure to credit the author appropriately.) Complete
more rare to see examples of student-led compositions this with as much student input as you’d like. The
performed in the same set as established composers. In Bumblebees select the chorus and some of their
my experience, however, this process is less about for- favorite lines, and I put them into an order that

38 CHORAL JOURNAL November/December 2025 Volume 66 Number 4