For me, I know my students first.  I don't care about how someone rates a song.  If I hear it, I know if my kids can do it based on what I see and hear in class.  I check the range to see if we are close and determine if we are already there or can reasonably get there.  In my pursuit of National Board Teacher Certification, this is one of the first things that they look for -- your knowledge of students.  Check it out.  It will make you a better teacher.

 

see you at the coda, 

 

Paul

Atilla:  If you find such a list, it will represent the opinion of one person, or of one publisher, and will represent more of a marketing tool than a really useful classification.  Or even worse, the vote of a committee!!  The same thing is true in instrumental music, with every publisher having its own system and none of the systems based on the same criteria.

All the best,

John

Hi Atilla,

John and Paul are both correct that much of the grading methods used by publishers is subjective.  They really are more of starting place for a range of repertoire.  Kodaly resources rank their material (mainy folk songs) by the contexts within the music: solfege, range, rhythms, form and unusual contexts.  When looking for advanced repertoire for my other choirs I do the same thing.  I look for modes, modulations, polyphonic complexity and other ensemble factors.  More important to choral music is ear, rhythm and other basic musicianship factors.  Basically we have to know how fluent our ensembles are at particular skills.  These factors cannot really be measured with a grading system.

 

Peace,

 

Andrew Brown

Piedmont East Bay Childrens Choir