Hi, Bruce,

I have encountered the same issue in my middle school and community youth choirs.  After being too leniant, then too stringent, I've arrived at the following policy:

1.  Sincere attention: When a student approaches me asking to sit out, I always ask in a sincerely concerned way what is ailing him and let him tell me about it.  I may ask if he thinks he has a fever.  I basically give him some extra sincere attention.

2.  "Follow Along":  Based on the fitness of his speaking voice (and amount of coughing going on) I will tell the student that he may just mouth the words and notes, but that today we are doing important stuff and I really need him present and engaged in rehearsal.  Sounds like begging?  I think of it as encouragement.  But if I am trying to re-engage a student who for whatever reason wants to mentally check out, I think it's worth it to remind the student of his value.  (If the student is not actually ill, he will usually forget he was trying to fake it and join in the singing.)

3. If the student insists that he is too sick to sing, I do my best to get him out of the room.  Send him to the nurse's office, or to call home.

 

My bottom line is that if the student is well enough to be at school, they should participate in rehearsal.  So much of choir rehearsals use our brains, pencils and bodies, there is a lot for Ol' Sicko to learn even without using his voice.

Good luck!

Some added tips.

For students with a raspy voice, swollen vocal cords, or other bronchial condition, but otherwise physically able to participate, have them SUBVOCALIZE, which is to do everything the same as singing except not to produce a tone. For students who are physically unable to participate, body fatigue, weak, have them be CRITICAL LISTENERS, sitting behind the conductor if contagious or sitting within a section if not. Ask the student(s) to provide the same types of error detection the conductor would provide, like having additional sets of ears in the room. You gotta remember to stop and ask for their critique. If more than one student then you can assign different concepts to track, such as errors in rhythm, pitch, balance, diction/enunciation, etc. This is the same as suggested above except they play an immediate active role in the rehearsal rather than take notes for later. If you'd rather not call on students during class and take notes instead, then another variation is to divide concepts between the number of sick students and have them each track the different types of errors across the rehearsal complete with measure numbers and choir sections in which they occur.

Hi, Bruce.  I've been trying to log onto this page since early yesterday, and only now managed it after a computer restart.

 

First, this is a problem we don't have at the college level--or at least we SHOULDN'T have it.  If someone is really sick, I don't WANT them in my rehearsal, I want them staying home and infecting the smallest number of people.  That works fine if you  have them used to emailing you in advance so you can adjust reharsals as needed.  It does NOT work if you have some kind of punitive attendance policy that forces them to show up sick.  It's your choice!

 

And that's the problem in high schools.  Attendance policies are drawn to punish truants, not to protect either those who are sick or those who will become sick when they're exposed.  In this school district it's something ridiculous, like only 3 unexcused absences.  And if it takes a doctor's note for an excused absence, you're asking parents to miss work and pay for an office visit even if they don't have insurance. 

 

Yes, I'm pointing out the bad side of things, deliberately, but that bad side of strict attendance policies does exist and we need to recognize it.  An instrumentalist can usually sniff and sneeze through a rehearsal, but for a singer it's the instrument itself that is damaged and needs time to heal. 

 

So the only reasonable answer for a high school teacher is for the school itself not to require sick kids to come to school, and if the policy requires them to come sick then you're back to your original question (and to a number of excellent suggestions that have been given so far).

 

All the best,

John

I belong to a large community choir, so the situation is a little different, but I greatly appreciate it when members quarrantine themselves. For several weeks, the singer in the seat next to me, coughed, hacked, blew her nose and consumed countless throat lozenges during rehearsals. Not only was this highly distracting, I was afraid of catching what she had. Although a former nurse, she has not adopted the "elbow catch" and coughed into her hand - thus spreading her germs on chairs, door handles, etc, etc.

 

On occasion, I sat far enough away from other choir members so as not to pass along whatever illness I had and found that even though I was not singing, following along or singing what I could was very effective. 

I have solved this problem long ago by developing an evaluation sheet that the ill student must submit at the end of the class for a grade.  They must follow the rehearsal and report on what they are hearing.  They must list the warm-ups and comment on the purpose of each one.  They need to evaluate the participation of the others in the room.  They need to identify the selections being rehearsed and comment on what was accomplished and what needs to be addressed at the next rehearsal, etc.  If you contact me, I can send you a copy of the form that I use.  SLBway (a) aol.com

A number of responders have mentioned asking students to mouth the words or something similar.  I understand why one might make such a request of a student, however, mouthing the words might have some unexpected consequences.  In a graduate vocal pedagogy course, the professor (who I trust) told us that research exists which demonstrates that singers who only mouth the words engage their vocal muscles as though they were actually singing. This muscular engagement took place outside of singers' awareness.  If you have a student with genuine throat problems, asking for students to go through the motions could actually cause damage.  I imagine such a scenario would be rare, but it seems worth sharing.

Bruce -  Create an musical environment that your kids love.  Then they'll be reluctant to "sit out" and miss what you're offering.

 

Are you requiring your singers to memorize music?  Memorization is drudgery.  Memorization more than halves the number of pieces you can introduce to your singers.  If you've selected a big reperetoire of excellent and varied pieces, you'll generate more interest, more enthusiastic participation, and you'll create better musicians.

 

I'm also enthusiastic about rehearsal .mp3's e-mailed to choir members, which helps prepare them for class time/rehearsals and also minimizes to some extent the harm of an absence.

 

Good night for now.  The Nyquil is kicking in.

 

- Steve Glade

Worthy of thought - if you have a student who really loves singing, and he or she has a sore throat it might be better for that student not to be in the rehearsal at all. It is very hard to sit in and NOT sing if you're there because you love to sing. This is something I know from myself. I simply will start singing along even though I know better (maybe it shows my lack of self-control ;) but I'm sure I am not alone).

Like every director, I hate this time of year that's full of wheezing, coughing, laryngitis, and missing singers.  My own ensemble is a very small one (eight women), so lost voices are a real issue.  However, having just gone through a bout of laryngitis myself (during which I had to play and sing at a back-to-back wedding and funeral), I don't expect people to sing when they have no voice.  (Since I'm a professional musician, I simply sounded like a Bulgarian alto for one day.  A gig's a gig.)

 

However, if folks aren't actually infectious or contagous but are simply "non-vocal," I like them to come to rehearsal anyway.  Sometimes I can have them sit at a distance and give me feedback on how the group looks or where people's music is.  Additionally, there's a fair amount of information in any rehearsal that has to do with musical style, period, foreign text pronunciation, etc. that I won't need to remember to deliver to them the next time.

My solution was math.

 

Every semester had about 45 days in it, so I gave them a participation grade of 200 points: 5 points a day, with about 25 bonus points built in (depending on the semester and exactly how many times the class met, etc.).  Excused absences from school got full credit, unexcused absences from school or class (cutting) got zero credit.  Not in your seat before the bell?  Minus one.  Really late?  Minus two.  No pencil?  Minus one.  No music?  Minus two.  Leaving class for any reason loses one point, minus two if you're gone more than ten minutes.  Staying in the room but not singing loses two points.  Minus one every time I have to tell you to stop talking--minus one if you're talking or passing notes or texting even if I don't call you out.  (So when the room got noisy, I could just walk over to the gradebook and look around, my pencil hovering over the names of talkers...)  So they could go get a drink, go to the nurse, go to the bathroom, or sit out once or twice if they're genuinely sick, and it wouldn't affect their grade; but if they make a habit of not participating 100% in rehearsal, it begins to show.  There's a cushion, a grace period built in; there are no consequences until it happens too many times.

 

They also had a few 10-point quizzes each semester, and the concert was worth another huge hunk of points.  So the percentages changed depending on the semester, but the procedure shaped their decision-making about what to do in rehearsal, made them responsible for their choices, gave them control over their grade.  

I have a "no miss" policy for my high school choirs.  Since we rehearse only every other day, each minute missed is critical.  Students can make up a miss in one of a few ways:

1. Attend an extra lesson/sectional over and above the required number

2. Since my one choir rehearses in 2 sections, they can attend a rehearsal of the other section.

3. Come in an get peer tutoring from someone in their section that knows the music.

4. If they know some of the music well, they can come in and peer tutor a student who isn't doing well.

 

Until they make up the missed class, they have a zero for the missed rehearsal.

This is the first year I've tried this, and it seems to be working quite well.

You do have some other excellent suggestions from others who reponded.

Dennis

This old crabby choir director generally responds, "If you're well enough to be in school, you are well enough to participate in rehearsal."  And I will generally say "Do your best; at least move your lips."  After awhile they forget their great ailments and start doing what the rest of the students are doing.