Greetings, Chesnee Choirs followers!
Welcome to our first monthly newsletter! Each month I will be sending out a short summary of what we have been doing in our rehearsals.
First, I must tell you that I am SO impressed with our singers thus far! I have given them a lot of new information in a short time, and they are exceeding my expectations and rising to the challenge!
This new information is mostly my methods of teaching music literacy. We use solfege (do, re, mi, fa, sol…etc) to read notes and pitches, and we use the Takadimi method of reading rhythms (ask a choir student what that is…it’s pretty fun!). We are able to use both of these methods to equip students to be able to sight read music without hearing it on a piano first. If I were a superhero, my power is definitely sight singing, and I love giving those powers to my students! It’s amazing to watch their growth through the semester, and even in these 2 short weeks!
Clemson Choral Exchange Program
This is something I am SUPER excited about!
The Clemson University Choral Department has created a new program where they “adopt” a high school choir for the year. As a Clemson alum, they offered it to my choirs first! With that adoption, here is what we get:
2 choir and vocal clinics by Clemson faculty.
FREE tickets to one show at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts each semester. (And a tour of the facility!)
Tigeroar and TakeNote, the 2 pop a cappella groups at Clemson, will come to our school to perform.
A featured spot on the spring Clemson Choirs concert, and performing 1-2 pieces with the university ensembles.
I’m so excited for our students to be exposed to these great teachers, performances, and experiences!
Room Decorations
I will be the first to admit that I do not excel in visual art. I can barely write my name in cursive to sign a check. So, rather than leaving the walls empty or putting up random and unsightly decor, I sought the help of our singers.
The instructions were to find one quote about music and one quote about leadership that they liked, make it look pretty, and we would have a decoration day.
Well, decoration day came around and I was absent from school with a family emergency. I left it in my sub plans for the choir to spend the last 30 minutes making our back board look nice. And boy, did they deliver! Here is some of their work!
Looking Ahead to September
We have some fun things planned! We will have our a cappella choir auditions next week, and later in the month our choir class will start working on our Coffee House Fundraiser. Coffee House is where we turn the choir room into a cute cafe, fully stocked with refreshments and, yes, coffee, and perform some solo, duo, and group pieces! We’ll have music, art displayed, and hopefully some poetry or creative writing readings! You’re definitely going to want to come to this!
For our official calendar, please visit: http://www.chesneechoirs.com/choir
That’s our news for now! Be sure to subscribe to this newsletter, the Chesnee Choirs blog for updates and announcements at http://www.chesneechoirs.com, and also follow us on Instagram at @ChesneeChoirs.
-Mrs. Brazell