Music Gold Jeff Swanson
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    Ta a a a ta ka di mi ta ta ka di mi rest rest ta ta ka di mi.

    Chocholate Chip Cookies!

    Hello.

    My name is Jeff Swanson,
    and I am the music teacher

    at Shalom Mennonite School,
    which is a K-8 school.

    And I teach all the music classes there,
    and I teach there for half a day.

    And around lunchtime

    I go to Terry Hill Mennonite High School,
    which is across the driveway.

    It is a separate school, and I teach

    And I teach all the music
    classes at Terry Hill as well.

    I like to start the day,

    especially if they're not used to it,
    with reminding them that a good singer

    always has their tongue up
    against their bottom teeth.

    And that gives you one whole set of
    of overtones in your sound.

    And maybe overtones isn't the best word,

    but resonance. And it's
    so easy and it's visual.

    I just show them like this and they can do
    it, and that is actually not exaggerated.

    If you'll watch good singers,
    it's always there.

    I remind them that their posture—

    they should have their corners
    of their mouth in really at all times.

    And then again, that's very visual for all
    grades, and it makes a lot more sense than

    just saying open your mouth when you sing.
    And the chin alignment is very important.

    And so I teach them to make an L
    and then put it here.

    It's very hard to overcome the L,
    so we don't want students to sing like

    that, and obviously we don't want them
    to sing notes like this,

    even though it might make it
    feel like they can sing lower.

    And I ask all my students,
    and this includes

    Church youth choir members to sing
    with their hands by their sides.

    It looks neater and singingwise,
    pedagogically,

    if your hands are next to your sides,

    you're not going to collapse your rib
    cage, which we don't have enough time

    to talk about that specific of things
    in singing, but it takes care of that.

    And so I ask them all the way K-12

    in youth choir and others to hold
    their hands by their side.

    And those few alignment things are really

    gold for a singer, and they're
    so attainable for children.

    And I've also realized that if you're

    a long term teacher, which I hope you are,
    that if you start these things really

    young, it's just not painful
    to do them when you're older.

    Something that I think is important
    to start days with their rehearsals is

    pitch matching, and all I do is
    I will sing in falsetto like this,

    even in the high school,

    and that way that the men can match
    the exact same pitches, the ladies.

    And so sometimes we'll go in octaves,

    and so obviously with the children,
    they all need to be on that.

    And I will usually base it around C is

    Do and then just pick different
    pitches and have them match them.

    And the children and the youth can
    match pitches so well in tune.

    And I think a lot of times we think

    "I want the students to hit the right note,"
    and that's not totally true.

    I tell the students that I don't want
    them to hit the Dart board with the Dart.

    I want them to hit the Bull's eye.

    And I think when we make that expectation,
    I think it makes a lot of sense.

    So I want it right here,
    not somewhere out here.

    And that's going to make them a lot more

    accurate with just
    hitting the note anyways.

    And I also talk to them
    about plane engines.

    Plane engines usually are the exact
    same engine on both sides.

    And you can hear when you're in a plane,
    they're out of tune.

    And instead of going [sound] they go,

    [sound].

    And so that's the physics. The sound waves
    are not matching up with each other.

    And so I will sing a note like [sound]

    and have a student sing with me and I
    will bend the pitch so that it goes [sounds].

    And third graders can immediately hear it.

    And we say, "Well, that's not what we want."

    "We want to have just one sound
    and not have that harsh clashing."

    And so that's one of my favorite things
    to do with all grades. With the elementary

    students and my freshman class
    site singing Theory class.

    One of the first things I like to do

    with them is sing the major scale
    using the solfege hand signs

    and have them sing in unison,
    usually in half notes, very slow.

    And I think this is gold that they
    have this in their head.

    I think since many of our students don't

    play instruments, that the hand signs give
    some physical

    something to grasp hold of so that they
    can understand what the notes are.

    And that's what instrumentalists have over
    singers is that they can press a button

    and always know that that button
    is the right pitch.

    That's what these hand signs can
    be to students who don't play.

    And for many of us, it's not an option
    to play the instruments anyways.

    And so it's very important.

    And I think it's tactile and that's
    wonderful for the younger students.

    So I like to do it slowly once in unison.

    And for high schoolers,
    we'll do in octaves.

    Let the ladies thing in their octaves.

    I always start on a C. I think we should
    base everything around a C. In Europe

    that's the immovable Do anyways.

    And so I'd like to get it so
    that they can actually hear that C,

    and they know that's
    coming somewhere in class.

    And so that if they don't have perfect

    pitch, which most of us don't,
    they can always find a C and get their

    their bearings off of that
    and know what a C is.

    For the younger students, for

    first through 8th grade,

    I like to teach them to read
    rhythms with the Takadimi system.

    Ideally, I think they will all learn to do

    it with counting,
    and we'll introduce the counting

    in the 7th and 8th grade. In the 9th grade,
    I think Akademi is wonderful because I

    think it takes less brain power than
    trying to understand subdivisions.

    And I think that we should always have
    things on a level they can understand.

    So for first through 6th grade, I
    teach them to write rhythms and sing

    and recognize rhythms from whole notes,
    from half notes,

    quarter notes, 8th notes, and 16th notes
    with no syncopations and no ties.

    And we also teach whole rests,
    half rests and quarter rests.

    And when we sing sustained notes like

    whole notes or half notes,
    if we're in four—so 1, 2, 3, 4, is the beat—

    this is how we sing a whole note

    "Ta a a a."

    A lot of times people teach whole notes is

    to quarter notes, because
    that's the way we count it.

    And I learned that when I was observing as

    a teacher and I thought
    that was just gold.

    I love the way that does, so half notes,

    if you're thinking 1, 2, 3, 4. 1- 3-, 1- 3-.

    We're also very negligent as singers

    to hold beats out enough—
    to hold out long notes enough.

    And so if you can think that there's

    a little accent on the beats,
    it works wonders for timing.

    And they all laugh because they're going [prolonged] one.

    They laugh when you teach it to them.

    And after that, it's wonderful.

    It really teaches them to keep time,
    which we really need to do as singers.

    One thing I love to do
    is vowel unification.

    And so we usually start—
    in the high school as well—

    but in the elementary school with "oo."

    And we'll sing "to you."
    It's words that they can remember.

    I encourage them to pucker their lips like
    they would kiss a baby. Like that.

    And that brings the sound out of
    their throat and out of their mouth.

    We want the sound away from their face.

    So we would sing, [singing] "To you."

    And the lips are so visual,
    and it cleans up the sound.

    And I show them that if I spread,

    which many people do, what it
    sounds like, which is not ideal [singing] "to you."

    And then I'll have them go back to [singing] "to you."

    That makes a lot of sense to a lot

    of them, and that's an easy one
    to incorporate for children.

    [class singing] "To you. To you."

    Say the next one spread. [class singing] "To you."

    "OK. Change pitches too on that one."

    Alright. [class singing] "To you."

    The second favorite one I have is say
    and pray, which would also be praise and lays.

    We don't want to use
    American diphthongs.

    And so instead of singing "say,"
    we want them to sing, sɛ. It sounds

    kind of silly when you say it,
    and it sounds wonderful when you sing it.

    And so instead of prey,

    which is an important word to us,
    we would sing preɛ, and so we would sing,

    [singing] "Sɛ. Prɛ."

    Make sure their tongues down like that,
    and that their corners are in—prɛ—

    and say R a little bit open,
    but not too much.

    So just encourage that their corners are
    in, which is part of their alignment.

    And that's a wonderful one to incorporate.

    And then we'll look for songs where we
    have the A sound or the praise sound.

    And so we would sing that a couple
    of times in half steps.

    In both schools, I usually do our warmups.

    Even though we're allowed to use
    instruments, we do them acapella.

    So [singing] "Sɛ. Prɛ." And then I'll give them
    another note, half step down. [singing] "Sɛ. Prɛ."

    And if you're able, ladies would be fine,

    but men teachers,
    if you're able in the falsetto,

    I think it's very good for the children

    to hear that, especially first, second,
    third, and fourth graders. So, [singing] "Sɛ. Prɛ."

    And the students will laugh when they hear

    a man do that the first time
    because they're not used to it.

    And after a while it just seems like
    culture to them, and they can do that.

    My last one that I like to work

    on with the younger grades is
    the ah sound. And again, corners in.

    And so we use "God" and "bread,"
    and so young children can articulate Ds

    at the end of words just
    like older students should.

    So in addition to having the ah sound,
    we also have the D.

    So we sing, [singing] "God and bread."

    and "God and bread" are
    actually all ah sounds.

    And so we'll go through a series of those.

    And if they could unify those,

    if we can unify those, our coral
    sound will just revolutionize.

    We're not talking Es.
    We don't do that.

    That can be difficult.

    And O is another good one.

    But I stick with those three.

    If we can get past those, it's wonderful.

    And I would work on the O sound
    in the high school as well.

    I've studied voice for about six years,
    and I've realized that

    first graders and second graders and third
    graders really can

    meet up to expectations that we have
    for them much more than we realize.