What does our Holiday Program teach?

Every year, the students spend about two months preparing for our annual holiday music program. Its a jam-packed time of learning lyrics, choreography, auditioning, practicing with props, and finally performing. Although its a ton of work, this program is the culmination of their study in singing, voice, melody and harmony which is our curriculum focus for the beginning of the year. Beginning in January, our focus shifts to instrumental and we will learn about instruments, orchestras, and bands. So what musical concepts are the students learning by performing in our program?


STUDENTS HAVE LEARNED:
* how sound is made with our voices (vocal chord vibrations)
* high/low sounds (high is small, big is low)
* how our vocal chords stretch thin to create high sounds and get fatter to create
       low sounds
* how to take care of our voices through choral warm ups
* the difference between whisper, shout, speak and sing
* anthems (school anthem and national anthem)
* ostinatos (a repeating pattern like in the 4th/5th grade song "Holly Jolly")
* dynamics (loud/soft like in the 3rd grade song "Super Santa")
* expression (loud/soft, smooth/staccato, fast/slow)
* melody (how to follow the melody line of a song)
* harmony (how to sing two melodies together to create a new sound like in
       3rd grade "Il Est Ne")
* difference between solo and ensemble
* performing with others
* stage presence
* following the cues of a conductor
* adding choreography and movement to interpret a song
* music history and how older lyrics contain different "Old English" words
       (like 1st/2nd "O Come O Come Emmanuel")
* music history and why most pre-1800's music was written for church
* music history and how European music was brought to America
* vocabulary and why composers used certain words
* rhyming words and identifying/singing phrases
* identifying form in a verse and a chorus
* learning to speak/sing different languages
         (French in "Il Es Ne" and Latin in 4th/5th "Angels Sang")
* learning to self-critique and deciding what aspects of a song needed
         improvement
* learning the process of getting a song "performance ready"
* playing independent rhythms within an ensemble (4th/5th grade bucket band)
* reading notation for our bucket band ensemble


 Here are also the NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR MUSIC EDUCATION that our performance also covers:

1) Singing alone, and with others, a varied repertoire of music 
2) Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of 
    music 
5) Reading and notating music 
6) Listening to, analyzing and describing music 
7) Evaluating music and music performances 
9) Understanding music in relation to history and culture

 Although our program teaches a lot about music, the smiles on the student's faces and the confidence built are always priceless!