Teaching Music Theory through warm-ups and rehearsal techniques in the choral classroom

A Philosophy Change
Bryan Helsel, Butler Senior High School, Kent State University
bryan@helselmusic.com, handouts available at www.helselmusic.com/PMEA2012

In order to enable young adults to make music after high school, I need to put less emphasis on
the concert and more emphasis on their learning of the fundamentals of music.
NAfME Standards 3 and 4 (improvisation and composition) just might be a great way to help
teach Standard 5 (reading and notating music) because in doing so, we are creating a need to
know!

Warm-ups are most effective when:

They are tied to instruction
They are varied in mode, timbre and purpose
They help us teach a musical concept
They are performed musically, with expression, phrasing and good vowels

Students will benefit greatly from learning how to audiate (hear it in their head before singing)
Memorizing a pitch (I use F#) helps give them a home base or center reference pitch.
Identify aspects of theory. If singing a diminished chord, identify it.
Approach theory through intervals, which leads to triads, which leads to composition and
improvisation.
Create a culture where music theory is cool and there is a need to know it.
Creative theory exercises can be tied into the hierarchy of warm-ups: Physical, breathing,
vowels, range, Articulation, intonation and identification, resonation, flexibility.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 major
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 minor

12321232123454321, use for audiation by omitting certain numbers. Change to lyrics or letters
and continue to omit specific letters. Change to minor, Lydian, whole tone, or whatever mode
might be more appropriate to the music you are rehearsing.

Always continue to insist on good vowels, tone quality, posture, etc.

Using this number pattern in a minor mode, low voices begin on 1, high voices on three.
Analysis of higher voice part reveals major mode. Easy way to understand relative minor and
major at the interval of the third.

Once they understand this, move to 3 parts and begin an understanding of triads, which leads to
students owning multiple chord progressions, which leads to composition.

Students who take a blow-off course tend to get blown-off course. Dont be afraid to have
challenging curricula and challenging music.

Try arpeggios (sometimes with lyrics) that are major on the way up and minor on the way down.
Try fully diminished arpeggios. Try augmented and so on.
Students love to play the piano and write on the board. Line them up and have a student play one
note on the piano and then give the next student an interval from that note. The rest of the class
sings and identifies the interval. These types of things need constant repetition, but luckily, the
music we sing uses intervals non-stop, so they reinforce what we learn during warm-ups and
warm-ups reinforce what we learn through the music.
Describe a piece of music rather than name it: Get out a piece that is in D major that was
written during the baroque era rather than Lets sing Hallelujah Chorus.
Have daily or weekly audiation exercises on the board. Notate some pop tunes or Disney or
broadway songs. Students will get quite good at identifying them without even singing.
Find creative ways to split them into parts in such a way that the students represent pitches.
Move them about the room. A deck of cards is a good way to divide students. Visual
representation of pitch is helpful as they learn. Some of this was inspired by my reading teaching
colleagues, and some of it is correlated with our school-wide goal of improving PSSA reading
scores.
Christmas Wreath of Fifths and other such creative activities.
Mix things up throughout the rehearsal. Warm-ups and these types of learning activities do not
have to occur only during the first 5-10 minutes of class. Consider segments like Whats wrong
with that voice / choir? and music theory related games. They truly are community-builders that
help the students to identify as musicians.
Consider creating a composition project with the students which will lead to a piece they will
perform in the concert. Begin with a school-appropriate poem. Compile the most useful content
and create a handout. In small groups, students have staff paper and mobile recording apps
(optional) and they begin to compose informally. Over several sessions (some with teacher
present, some without), this will evolve into fragments of a song, which get notated. Teacher
compiles into a second handout, harmony is added, many brilliant class discussions are possible,
and again, students feel more like musicians, and the class feels more democratic.
Sometimes silly warm-ups without necessarily a theory component are completely appropriate.
Here are some fun tongue twisters to be placed into any mode, scale or creative warm-up:
Knapsack straps, The myth of Miss Muffet, Fat frogs flying past fast, Greek grapes, We surely shall see
the sun shine soon, Irish wristwatch, Shredded Swiss cheese, Girl gargoyle, guy gargoyle, Kris Kringle
carefully crunched on candy canes, The epitome of femininity, Listen to the local yokel yodel, She sifted
thistles through her thistle-sifter, Preshrunk silk shirts, Plague-bearing prairie dogs

Web resources for music theory:

www.musictheory.net
www.musictechteacher.com (note invader and other games and quizzes)
search youtube for good and bad examples of choirs and singers
www.pbskids.org/games/music.html
As you develop more ideas than what Ive presented, please share them with me either through
email or add them to this facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/177849649002861/

Complete handout at www.helselmusic.com/PMEA2012.html

Facebook group