Chapter 4
Dumb Music


Yes, friend, it's out there. And the kids know it. Your job is to not choose it. By "dumb music," I mean arrangements with text that embarrasses the singers. If you were a standard-issue 14-year-old 8th grader in the 21st century, would you want to sing a piece of music that featured phrases like, "We love to sing - it makes us happy from our head down to our toes!" or "Pluck, pluck, pluck the harp eternal"? Would you want to be forced to do riser choreography or some ridiculous hand-jive with a silly hat on? Of course not. Yet, it happens all the time in middle schools - and even in high schools. And we wonder where monikers like "choir geek" (or worse) come from.

Like it or not, the following realities exist:
  1. Kids want to be hip and accepted.
  2. There's dumb music out there, or at least, music that is nowhere near age-appropriate for a secondary ensemble.
  3. If you foist #2 on your choirs, #1 is a pipe dream.
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I totally disagree with you. These choral mainstays are there to train and ennoble singers, and we should use them early and often, no matter what the students may think about the "coolness factor." What you suggest is just a cheap game.  If that works for you, then God bless America for allowing us to devise different ways of achieving excellence in our choral programs. Again, I'm just telling you what has worked for me. My hope is that you'll take what you need from it and feel free to throw away the rest. But the fact remains that when I arrived at my district, virtually no one - from 5th grade to 12th - wanted to be in the choir. Students told me the choirs did embarrassing stuff that made singers look like losers and geeks. They talked; I listened. I now have 41% of the high school, 62% of the middle school, and 70% of the 5th grade in my ensembles. And they all sing perfect Latin.