Accents

Accents are small symbols in musical notation that indicate that the note should be sung with a different type of vocal stress. This helps add a new level of flavor to the piece of music.

This is an important part of teaching choir because once pitches and rhythms are learned, accents help students go more in-depth with the sound of a piece.

Breathing

This is an important part of teaching choir because you can't sing effectively without strong breath support. It is essentially the first step to being able to sing , whether in choir or beyond.

Breathing is the action of supplying your lungs with air, and when singing, we refine this skill to help us produce a strong and full sound. To accomplish strong breath support, breathing exercises are taught to students.

Concerts

This is an important part of teaching choir because it is the assessment of what students have learned. Applying their music skills in a performance setting is the most effective way to measure their growth, individually and as a group.

Concerts are events in which students perform a set of pieces they have been rehearsing for an audience. These events are often very formal and organized.

Dynamics

This is an important part of teaching choir because dynamics make a music piece interesting, which helps the performance of a piece be a cut above and have more of an impact. Dynamic contrast is the mark of an experienced choral group.

Dynamics are markings in music that indicated the volume level at which students should be singing. This will often change throughout the piece, so students will need to learn how to master the proper changes in volume.

Etiquette is very important to a choir student, especially in the sophisticated environment of a concert. It generally means don't be rowdy or distracting while performing or watching others perform. Though it mainly applies to concerts, it is important in the classroom as well.

Etiquette

This is an important part of teaching choir because students being behaved is a sign of a well-trained choir. Being a proper choir student isn't just about how you sing, it's how you act as well.

Field trips are opportunities for students to perform in a new environment, often in friendly competition with other choirs. A field day is full of music and festivities, and treated as a reward for students' hard work

Field Trips

This is an important part of teaching choir because it provides students with both a chance to adapt to a new performance environment as well as give them a well-deserved break.

Group harmony is the act of properly singing with others in tune. It is the essence of choral singing, and is highly important to produce a pleasing sound from many individual voices.

Group Harmony

This is an important part of teaching choir because it is the foundation of all choral pieces. A group that can master a well blended group harmony understands the fundamentals of singing with others.

Hand signs are used when practicing singing to give a physical representation of changes in pitches as you sing them. They're practiced often in warm-ups and strongly used when first learning the pitches of a piece of music.

Hand Signs

This is an important part of teaching choir because it's a fairly universal form of representing pitches, and it's helpful for tactile learners to be able to feel something in relation to the sound they are producing.

Involvement is at the heart of an exceptionally advanced choir. The more passion students put into singing their pieces, the more exciting the piece will be. Even with classical genres, having energy and expressiveness in the piece makes the performance better.

Involvement

This is an important part of teaching choir because involvement is the key to a deeper understanding of singing as a whole.

When singing,  individual students will often have to make quick judgments on how exactly to sing a note- what stress to put on it, the volume it must be, etc. Seasoned singers can make these judgments on how to personally do their part more effectively.

Judgement

This is an important part of teaching choir because fostering an individual's sense of judgement helps them apply critical thinking to a music piece in order to produce a high- quality sound.

The key signature is the key that a music piece is written in. It helps to provide a common ground understanding between the singers on how a piece is supposed to sound. Identifying it is the first step to familiarizing yourself with a piece.

Key Signature

This is an important part of teaching choir because it is effectively the first and most important part of beginning to learn a piece. Understanding key signatures is a crucial step to understanding music.

Listening is self-explanatory- in choir, listening to those around you is the single most important thing you can possibly do. You cannot sing without listening.

Listening

This is an important part of teaching choir because encouraging students to listen and pay attention to the others around them helps them effectively collaborate to create something beautiful.

Mastery is the final step in learning and singing a choral piece. Once students have successfully practiced and learned how to sing a song with correct pitches, rhythms, dynamics, and accents, then the song is considered mastered and performance-ready.

Mastery

This is an important part of teaching choir because it is a way to measure that your students have reached a peak of understanding and collaboration with each other in performance. This is the goal with each song students learn.

In choir class, it is beneficial to have a pencil with your binder as you rehearse. This way, if your director gives you notes on how to sing certain parts, you can jot them down, as well as notating solfege or measure numbers.

Note-Taking

This is an important part of teaching choir because it helps students to make note of what they are practicing, and writing down notations help them reinforce and solidify the correct concept in their minds.

Singing in other languages is common, and sometimes even required by a curriculum. It is a good way to practice different types of enunciation and different styles of singing from around the world.

Other Languages

This is an important part of teaching choir because it gives students a chance to apply what they know to an unfamiliar territory, and practice fundamentals of singing in a new way.

Students are expected to have proper posture when singing, whether standing or sitting, with their back straight and shoulders high. A uniform concert posture is important for the image of an advanced choir.

Posture

This is an important part of teaching choir because it helps students to present themselves professionally, as well as aiding in breath support. A choir with proper posture is more sophisticated.