| Comment: Re: Student Centered Learning in a choir rehearsal?? | Jeff Tillinghast | April 1, 2012 |
| Cathy-- both yours and the solutions below are great windows
into the rehearsal process. I'd subset that you also consider
another perspective: the rehearsal itself is the application of a
very particular set of skills and knowledge. If we're talking about
SCL, though, and thinking as ourselves as t... |
| Comment: Re: iPad Apps for Chorus & Music? | Jeff Tillinghast | March 6, 2012 |
| Paul-- look at Evernote and Skitch as ways of eliminating a
lot of paper from your workflow. Skitch could be really useful in
having them mark scores/musical examples which can then be e-mailed
to you for easy evaluation. |
| Comment: Re: iPad Apps for Chorus & Music? | Jeff Tillinghast | March 6, 2012 |
| Paul-- aside from the above uses, I'd suggest that the iPads
are a really useful way to focus on individual recordings and vocal
exercises. Either by loading some basic accompaniments in the
iTunes library or using an app like iRealB, you could have them
record themselves singing along with the part... |
| Community Forum Post: Chat Archives | Jeff Tillinghast | November 13, 2011 |
|
Trying to open the two chat archives off of the ChoralNet Committee front page, and I get "Sorry, paint function isn't available for this node." Other two uploaded library files work fine.
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| Community Forum Post: Feature Suggestions | Jeff Tillinghast | November 9, 2011 |
|
I thought that as we're shaking out the bugs, quick one-shot feature suggestions could go in a running thread, rather than needing each to have a separate one. Maybe we can make that a sticky thread.
Do we have sticky threads?
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| Comment: Re: Barn Burner | Jeff Tillinghast | June 13, 2011 |
|
I've been thinking about this heavily since Chicago-- Chanticleer (gasp!) closed with a pop piece (double gasp!). I've heard the meal metaphor thrown around a lot when it comes to programming concerts, i.e. think about the pacing of each "course" of the meal as different styles, moods and feels th... |
| Forum message: Score Marking/Preparation Materials | Jeff Tillinghast | April 20, 2011 |
|
Hey all-- for my seniors' final project, I'm having them do research on a piece of standard choral literature. Part of it is marking their score to reflect their research. For those of you who teach conducting, I'm wondering if you have any good simple handouts/lists of common marking symbols. Tim... |
| Comment: Re: Crowdsourcing: Subjective vs. Objective | Jeff Tillinghast | March 26, 2011 |
|
John and Greg-- I appreciate the feedback, and I agree that what I'm trying to address does involve the need for technical vocabulary at some level. Please don't confuse their lack of technical/musical vocabulary, though, with me not teaching it. I have pulled resources from a variety of Appreciat... |
| Forum message: Crowdsourcing: Subjective vs. Objective | Jeff Tillinghast | March 25, 2011 |
|
Ahh... Crowdsourcing. My new best friend.
I have a Music Appreciation class (high school) that is struggling with the concept of Subjective vs. Objective. Can't blame them-- in today's environment, he who yells loudest must be right, no? I use Moodle for all of our tests, which means that i... |
| Comment: Re: iPad for Conductors | Jeff Tillinghast | March 24, 2011 |
|
Philip-- Great! This is exactly what I was looking for. I guess I was drilled so much about the sanctity of the sheet music from such an early age that I never thought to *GASP* cut the music apart.
Another option for filing-- Using Acrobat Pro's Keyword tool (File-->Preferences), I put ... |
| Comment: Re: iPad for Conductors | Jeff Tillinghast | March 16, 2011 |
|
I'm curious for those of you who have scanned in large quantities of music-- I'm thinking (especially after ACDA!) of cleaning up my personal reading session collection by digitizing it all so that it's a) much more accessible with tagging and sorting, b) faster and more efficient to browse and c)... |
| Forum message: Beginners and Range/Tessitura | Jeff Tillinghast | February 28, 2011 |
|
Hi all-- I have a document working on establishing range for my beginning choirs. I'm a little hesitant about one concept on there, and I'm wondering if the vocal experts among us have some thoughts/feedback.
First, the process:
1) We learn how to sing the two range/audition exercises refere... |
| Comment: Re: Rehearsing in the Round? | Jeff Tillinghast | February 25, 2011 |
|
Ron-- I hadn't thought about a U formation. If you separate the risers (especially with a gap between the sections), does that change your part arrangement? We currently have S -- B/T -- A. (3 Tenors for a 45-voice group makes it hard to do much else). I'm just wondering about the effects of put... |
| Forum message: Rehearsing in the Round? | Jeff Tillinghast | February 24, 2011 |
|
Greetings all-- We have a new campus this year, and I'm still trying to use the space to our best advantage. Our room was not designed optimally, in that if we set the risers lengthwise, the singers can't see the board and the piano is too far away from most of them. If we set the risers widthwi... |
| Comment: Re: hostile choir of non-singers | Jeff Tillinghast | February 22, 2011 |
|
Alan-- I'm fascinated by your idea of posting the vocal ranges to drive their development. It seems like that might encourage singers to reach to inappropriate (Vocally speaking) ranges in order to "win." I'm thinking of the Soprano who's going to come in with no control of her head voice, yet scr... |
| Comment: Re: Looking for O Vos Omnes, Chant | Jeff Tillinghast | February 14, 2011 |
|
Allen-- Got it! Thanks for the redirect.
Jeff
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| Forum message: Looking for O Vos Omnes, Chant | Jeff Tillinghast | February 14, 2011 |
|
Greetings all-- We're performing a few different settings of this text for our next concert, and I want to include the original chant as a massed-choir piece. Unfortunately, CPDL only has one version listed, and on the source website, it appears to be incomplete. Does anyone have a distributab... |
| Comment: Re: Online Registration Tools | Jeff Tillinghast | February 11, 2011 |
|
Brian-- I suggest Google Docs Spreadsheet-- easy to use as a form. Check out some sample templates that might fit your needs: http://www.google.com/google-d-s/createforms.html .
Good luck!
Jeff Tillinghast
Marysville-Getchell High School
Marysville, WA
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| Comment: Re: Proper Breathing Help | Jeff Tillinghast | February 7, 2011 |
|
Brian-- Welcome to the wonderful world of "I can't tell you to kick out your slide-- what do I do now?" You'll find that a lot of us here are converted instrumental teachers/players-- maybe something about having to survive in a totally foreign musical world makes you stick together more! I'm ... |
| Comment: Re: Choral Music Checklist/Portfolio | Jeff Tillinghast | February 2, 2011 |
|
John-- Indeed! And my select group does cover a fair amount of 20th century work. I agree entirely that this is a necessary step for students in development but must be approached with careful structure. I guess my point was more that in the design of specificity vs. generalism, I wondered i... |
| Comment: Re: "Student as Audience Member" Assessment | Jeff Tillinghast | January 31, 2011 |
|
Dean- Thank you for your thoughtful comments. We certainly will (and do) talk explicity in class about these skills and the audience roles-- I didn't mean to imply that there wouldn't be any direct instruction on this. While I would love to have a group field trip and experience, the truth is,... |
| Forum message: "Student as Audience Member" Assessment | Jeff Tillinghast | January 31, 2011 |
|
Many of us in the public school realm have content standards that say something like... "Students will demonstrate the roles and responsibilities of the performers and the audience in a concert setting." By definition, the students are all audience members whenever they're at a concert but they'... |
| Comment: Re: Choral Music Checklist/Portfolio | Jeff Tillinghast | January 31, 2011 |
|
Gregory-- Thanks for the catch! I certainly had Chant on my original list, but looks like it got dropped in the transition to a final product. I will add it back in immediately. I agree with your general comments that having such a focus placed on a wide diversity of music can limit concert ... |
| Comment: Re: Choral Music Checklist/Portfolio | Jeff Tillinghast | January 29, 2011 |
|
John-- Thanks for the insight. I agree with you completely, and within the realm of a high school music program, this is an important point that is often overlooked. In WA at least, one of our content standards is to understand the role of the audience and that of the performer, which certainl... |
| Comment: Re: Choral Music Checklist/Portfolio | Jeff Tillinghast | January 28, 2011 |
|
All-- thanks for the feedback. I've uploaded a first draft of the portfolio entry-- feel free to take a look!
Thanks,
Jeff
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| Comment: Re: Choral Music Checklist/Portfolio | Jeff Tillinghast | January 28, 2011 |
|
John-- Thanks for the feedback, and sharing VT's experience. The intent is not that it would be a comprehensive required checklist, but a tool to encourage reflection, a more artistically-driven conversation about literature selection, and spark some curiosity about the types of music that we ha... |
| Forum message: Choral Music Checklist/Portfolio | Jeff Tillinghast | January 27, 2011 |
|
Greetings all-- I'm working on evolving my school's portfolio requirements for music, and I could use some input on a document I'd like to pilot next semester. Based heavily on Randal Swiggum's writing for the Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance program in Wisconsin, I've put together... |
| Forum message: Online PhD in Theory? | Jeff Tillinghast | November 21, 2010 |
|
All-- I have seen the Boston University Online Doctorate in Music Education, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of a doctorate program in Theory that allows for online/distance coursework?
Thanks--
Jeff
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| Forum message: Borodin: Chorus of the Settlers | Jeff Tillinghast | September 20, 2010 |
|
Greetings all-- Does anyone have a recommendation of a recording (either audio or video) of this selection from Prince Igor?
Thanks!
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| Comment: Re: Balancing Sightreading and Rote Learning within Concert Songs | Jeff Tillinghast | September 19, 2010 |
|
Jeanette-- An essential question, no matter what level you are at. I am constantly challenging myself to spend more time sightreading in rehearsals, and it has never failed me yet. Last year, I pushed my advanced group to 50% of rehearsal being sightreading (HS singers-- we pulled a diffe... |
| Forum message: "Required" Events vs. "Optional" Festivals (HS) | Jeff Tillinghast | September 12, 2010 |
|
Greetings all-- Question for the high school teachers among us. While the semantics may be different, I'm assuming that we all deal with this issue in some form, and I'm interested in the feedback and thoughts.
We have two sources of funding: "Building" (or "Curriculum") and ASB. O... |
| Forum message: How do you Wake Them Up? | Jeff Tillinghast | September 4, 2010 |
|
Greetings all-- My 1st period HS choir is my open Women's Choir (50+). Moving to a new campus, we get to start even earlier this year-- 7:10 am. I always start rehearsal with lots of breathing and low vocalises and portamento exercises before working upwards, etc. The big question, though, i... |
| Forum message: Uniforms for Beginning/Open HS Choirs | Jeff Tillinghast | June 9, 2010 |
| All-- My HS program has two beginning/open groups, Men's and Women's choirs. Our advanced auditioned groups buy their own uniforms, with the expectation that as multi-year musicians, it is an investment in our performance and an expectation at this level. For our beginning groups, though, we ha... |
| Comment: Re: Favorite Opera Choruses? | Jeff Tillinghast | June 9, 2010 |
| Thanks all for the wonderful suggestions. It's great to see, as well, how many of these are available through either CPDL or IMSLP. Once I get this done, it's on to the next category!
Jeff |
| Forum message: Favorite Opera Choruses? | Jeff Tillinghast | June 4, 2010 |
| Greetings all-- We're opening a new high school campus this fall, and I've been given a budget to build our new library since we're dividing our current school's resources in half. I'm using this opportunity to look at our current stock by era, genre, language, etc. in order to have the most repre... |
| Comment: Re: Written Assignments for Choir classes | Jeff Tillinghast | May 27, 2010 |
| All-- Can I ask a follow-up question? What is the purpose of having a make-up assignment for missing a performance? Is it to (putting it bluntly) punish the students for not attending or enforce the "you must be there" weight of the concert? Is it so that other students will feel that the miss... |
| Comment: Re: iPad for the Choral Director | Jeff Tillinghast | April 8, 2010 |
| Couldn't agree more-- the potential for directors is huge. I'm going to wait for the next evolution, though, because there are some things that I'd like to see:
Video Out via USB - All-in-one media box, right? Perfect-- but I want to show my You/School/TeacherTube videos on the projector to t... |
| Comment: Re: The Band Industry is Killing Music Education | Jeff Tillinghast | February 4, 2010 |
| For more discussion of this same idea, I recommend two articles by Randal Swiggum called "From the Heart" (parts 1 and 2). These two articles are required reading and socratic seminar at the beginning of each of my HS choirs for the year. You can read them and some other great work on this thou... |
| Comment: Re: Will the Apple "iPad" Revolutionize Music Publishing? | Jeff Tillinghast | January 29, 2010 |
| Not to mention the classroom implications:
"Altos, let's fix the rhythm in that measure. Sopranos, the diction is still a little clumsy. Use your headphones to listen to that youtube video of the native speakers one more time, please."
No more "can you play that Ab for me again?" or "Are... |
| Forum message: "Voice as Instrument" SSA/SSAA | Jeff Tillinghast | January 27, 2010 |
| Hey all-- I'm looking for one or two more pieces for our upcoming concert featuring music from around the world. My beginner's (HS) treble choir (50+) is doing a set of "Voice as Instrument" songs: songs were the voices imitate local/indigenous instruments. We have Mouth Music and Ej, za dwore... |
| Comment: Re: Online Resources/Videos for Voice Training? | Jeff Tillinghast | January 26, 2010 |
|
Frank-- Thanks for the redirect. I've certainly been following the other thread. While the other thread deals with CD's though, I'm looking for online resources that have that content. While CD's are great for students looking to take on extra practice, I can't require students to purchase t... |
| Forum message: Online Resources/Videos for Voice Training? | Jeff Tillinghast | January 25, 2010 |
| Hey all-- I have an upcoming unit that I'm trying to put together for my choirs, and I really need to find some resources, especially audio and video, to help. Problem is that there is lots of this stuff available for pop technique, but not for proper classical voice training that I've been able ... |
| Comment: Re: The A Capella World of the SINGOFF | Jeff Tillinghast | December 15, 2009 |
| Carrie-- I agree with you that this is a great way to get kids to sing, and no bad can come from that. The world of contemporary a cappella has a lot of material that we can mine. First off, I highly recommend going to www.singers.com . Primarily A Cappella is the place for CD's of the group... |
| Forum message: Debussy French Pronunciation | Jeff Tillinghast | October 15, 2009 |
| Greetings all-- Wondering if anyone can provide an audio or video recording of some French text for my group-- I found one recording by Renee Fleming, but it would take better ears than mine to get any intelligible diction through the reverb. Thanks!
Beau Soir, Debussy (http://artsongcentral.com... |
| Forum message: Resonance and Volume in HS Guys | Jeff Tillinghast | September 23, 2009 |
| Hey all-- Two separate "guy" problems that I could use some help with.
1) Bass sings with good tone, pitch, etc, and to my ear has resonance in his mask. Has zero volume and projection. He's been in my select choir for three years now, and enjoys doing it, is very comfortable with the group, ... |
| Comment: Re: Repertoire Ideas - "Past Life Melodies" | Jeff Tillinghast | June 17, 2009 |
| On this note, I'm thinking about programming Past Life Melodies in the Spring with my Chamber Ensemble (16 voices). I know that Chanticleer has done it with a small group, but that hardly seems fair. Anyone tried working this with small ensembles? I'm afraid that it'll one of those pieces best... |
| Forum message: Lincoln, Darwin and Tennyson | Jeff Tillinghast | June 8, 2009 |
| Hey all-- A bit behind, I know, but I'm looking at programs for next fall (high school singers), and I'm thinking about a 2009 Historical Theme, featuring Lincoln, Darwin and Alfred Lord Tennyson. The central theme would be how each of these three reflect or have influenced our perspectives. Po... |
| Borrowing request: George Crumb: Apparition | Jeff Tillinghast | May 6, 2009 |
|
Item:
Apparition
Composer/Arranger/Edition:
George Crumb
Starting:
ASAP
For:
2 months or purchase?
Copies:
1
Willing to rent:
No
Hey all-- I have a couple of sopranos who want to
dive into Apparition. The music new is a bit expen... |
| Forum message: Resources for History of Vocal Music? | Jeff Tillinghast | April 2, 2009 |
| Greetings all-- I have a need for some resources which I'm
hoping exist somewhere out in the ether.
I'm preparing my students for our Washington
Classroom-Based Performance Assessments, in which
each of our choristers will prepare/perform a solo and
describe some of the key musical elements of
the e... |
