Summer Professional Development for Church Musicians
Summer is here!
And with that comes all the things we love about this time of year: trips to the beach, cold beverages, snack suppers on the porch, and farm-fresh vegetables.
But as musicians and educators, summer is also a great time to develop our craft, hone our skills, and learn something new.
How are you spending your time this summer?
Maybe you’re attending a conference, catching up on professional development, learning a new skill, practicing your instrument for fun, or getting a head-start on your planning for next year.
It’s been such a strange time to be a music director or music teacher. The past 15 months have challenged us, stretched us in ways we couldn’t have anticipated, and tested our ability to be flexible and respond to the moment.
As you look toward the year ahead, I encourage you to reflect on what you’ve recently experienced. How have the events of the last year changed us as teachers, as musicians? What will we do differently going forward?
“How have the events of the last year changed us as teachers, as musicians? What will we do differently going forward?”
It’s normal to feel a little burnt out after the year we’ve just had. It’s normal to feel tired or frustrated or lost. But what have you learned? What strategies will you keep? What strategies will you change?
If you’re looking for professional development that will inspire you and help you build your skills as a church music director this summer, I have just the thing.
Curate your own learning experience by selecting from a range of online seminars, mini-courses, and full courses on a variety of topics — all designed to help you lead, teach, and inspire others with creativity and confidence. Certificates are available upon request at the completion of each seminar or course.
All courses and seminars are taught asynchronously, meaning you can start whenever you’re ready and work at your own pace. I'll be setting aside weekly office hours inside the course platform to answer your questions and share ideas and suggestions.
Enrollment is officially open! See below for a list of this year’s offerings.
See you inside!
Mini-Seminars ($32)
for children's choir directors
45-minute online seminars (from Directing a Church Children's Choir 101) with built-in workshop time for you to put what you’re learning into practice.
Each seminar includes 2-3 in-depth lesson videos on the given topic and a collection of PDF worksheets with notes, resource links, and templates.
Mini-Courses ($129)
for church music directors2-hour online mini-courses designed to help you develop the essential leadership skills and teaching strategies you need to direct and lead your choir with creativity and confidence.
For the Adult Choir Director
For the Handbell Choir Director
For the Youth Choir Director
Summer Discount: Save $10 on any mini-course with code SUMMER-21 through 7/28
“Great launching pad for those starting a new choir as well as some great reminders and insightful ideas for the more experienced director.”
Full Courses ($219+)
for children's choir directors & music educators
“It was far above my expectations. I felt like we were taught every step we need to take to plan, prepare for and create a successful children’s choir.”
Directing a Church Children’s Choir 101 — A 4-week (or work-at-your-own-pace) online training course for children’s choir directors in church settings.
Summer Discount: Save $20 with code SUMMER-2021 through 7/28
If you're like me, you first learned solfege from Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. This 1965 classic is still beloved today—it's a favorite among my elementary piano students!
Solfege is a useful tool for developing sight-singing and music-reading skills. It’s beneficial for teaching ear-training, harmonic function, and tonal relationships. It also promotes good vowels when singing, as each solfege syllable is a pure vowel sound.
Call and response is a form of musical dialogue: Someone sings or plays a musical phrase, and someone else (or a group of people) responds, either echoing the phrase back or providing a musical answer.
Call and response stems from a variety of musical traditions, including African, Cuban, folk, and early church music (think cantor and congregation). (source)
Call and response can be a useful teaching tool, as it gives young children an opportunity to listen, imitate, explore the voice, and gain confidence in their singing.
Handbell choirs are a wonderful opportunity for community, creativity, and collaboration. And starting a new group is much less intimidating than you might think.
Whether you’re a church musician, a classroom teacher, or a community music director, you can bring people together to make beautiful music—even if they’re mostly beginners. The key is choosing flexible repertoire, using thoughtful teaching strategies, and creating a welcoming, supportive learning environment for all.
From August or September until May or June, choir and ensemble members of all ages gather in communities across the country week after week. They sing, they smile, they learn, but most of all, they give their time to be part of something bigger than themselves.
It’s a commitment, and often one that includes the whole family. This alone is something worth acknowledging and celebrating.
But then there’s the wonderful work that you do together throughout the year—the music you learn, the songs you sing, the services and programs and concerts you present, the community you build.
Here are five ways to celebrate the end of another wonderful year and show your appreciation for your choir and ensemble members this spring.
Have you ever thought about how you give praise and offer encouraging words in your teaching? Is there a way to do this that promotes learning?
How can you use your words to foster the development of intrinsic motivation and a positive self-image in your students?
Rhythm pattern cards are a great way to teach new rhythmic concepts, reinforce familiar patterns, and build that all-important music vocabulary (the ability to understand and create your own musical patterns and sequences).
There are lots of different types of rhythm pattern cards out there - some you can buy, some you can download and print for free (like the set I'm sharing below!), and ideas for making some of your own.
They don’t have to be fancy! The ones I'm sharing today can be printed at home on white cardstock and cut into quarters (postcard-size).
Are you looking for books you can sing or chant in your elementary music classes, group classes in your studio, or children’s choir rehearsals?
You know the ones: books that either have lyrics to a familiar children’s song or hymn, or stories with text that can be sung to a familiar tune, like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
Music publishers often present reading sessions at conferences, clinics, and professional development workshops. Clinicians sometimes curate their own reading sessions with some of their favorite works, too. If you’re a director, this is a good way to learn about new repertoire and choose music for the year ahead.
In this post, you’ll find a list of reading session picks I’ve curated through the years for elementary (K-6) choirs. Some feature opportunities to introduce part-singing and include other instruments: organ, flute, handbells or handchimes, and rhythm instruments. This is a great way to develop musical independence in your singers and help foster their listening skills.
One of the most creative parts of worship planning is finding unique ways to incorporate music into your services. From introits to benediction responses, prayer responses, moments of transition in between things, and even underscoring.
Handbells are a great way to do this!
When I directed bell choirs, I loved coming up with creative, meaningful ways to include handbells in worship, beyond the traditional prelude or anthem slot.
Musical underscoring in worship (traditional and contemporary) is a creative way to elevate spoken texts, connect musical elements that may be separated by reading or prayer, or highlight a drama or moment of prayer in the service. Today, I'm sharing a step-by-step guide to creating your own musical underscores for worship using handbells.
Singing is a full-body activity (source). And we know that movement is a valuable tool for helping children understand and engage with music.
This is why so many children’s choir directors and elementary music teachers teach songs and anthems with hand, arm, or body movement of some kind.
Sign language is a natural choice.
Fall is here, which means the return of Georgia football (Go Dawgs!), puffer vests, and apple everything (sorry, PSL).
It also means lots of repertoire planning and rehearsing for Christmas programs, musicals, and holiday concerts.
I recognize that some of you are in positions where you may be programming a holiday concert or program, whether that's a school or community setting or an interfaith musical celebration with area churches. If you're looking for choral music that touches on various Winter holidays and celebrations, I hope the list of anthems below is helpful to you.
Each year, I spend some time looking through the new choral releases: studying the scores and listening to recordings. Then, I curate my favorites for you here on the blog.
Today, I’m sharing six new anthem releases for unison/opt. 2-part choirs—several with optional instrumental parts, which creates opportunities to include other musicians, perhaps from your congregation. I’ll also tell you about a brand-new graded curriculum option for Fall 2022 (for those of you looking for a comprehensive, all-in-one resource) with a theme that really resonates in our world today.
I hope you find something you love for your children’s choir this year!
Part-singing is one of the great joys of choral singing.
The challenge of singing an independent line and that satisfying feeling of creating harmony and musical interest is both fun and motivating for singers (of all ages!).
But how do you teach that?
Sometimes I get questions in my inbox that I think others may be wondering, too. Here’s a question I received from a director in Germany about what to do for your first handbell choir rehearsal.
Do you teach a preschool choir?
If so, you know that preschoolers are musical explorers. They love to sing, dance, play, move, and experience music with their whole selves.
Sometimes, it can be hard to find the right piece of music.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the process of writing your own composition, step by step. Let's start with something small — a simple handbell processional.
It’s normal to feel a little burnt out after the year we’ve just had. It’s normal to feel tired or frustrated or lost. But what have you learned? What strategies will you keep? How have the events of the last year changed us as teachers, as musicians? What will we do differently going forward?
Games and musical activities are a fun and engaging way to introduce and reinforce new musical concepts and develop musical skills like listening, singing, expression, coordination, and internalizing a sense of steady beat.
Today, I'm sharing a few of my favorite musical games and activities for elementary music classes, children's choirs, and elementary group classes.
Today, I’m sharing a collection of children’s choir anthems composed by women.
After all, March is Women’s History Month and over the years, it’s also become a time to celebrate women in music.
If you’re looking for some inspiration for your planning this year and seeking ways to include more diversity in the voices you share and represent, here are 36 children’s choir anthems written by women composers to help you get started.
Advent looks a little different this year, doesn’t it?
In the midst of a global pandemic, we know what it feels like to be a people walking in darkness, waiting for the light. We know what it feels like to hope for something and long for peace in the world.
This year, Advent takes on new meaning for us. But that doesn’t mean we have less to celebrate.
Whether you're gathering via Zoom or in person (6' apart), here's a fresh, creative resource you can use with your children's choir this season.
No one could have predicted what 2020 would look like. Who could have imagined the things church musicians around the world would find themselves doing this year?
Figuring out how to teach music via Zoom
Recording parts for home practice
Creating a virtual choir video of some sort
Navigating the world of online worship
Marking 6 feet of distance with masking tape
Reading research articles about aerosols and air ventilation
Several years ago, I put together a list of my Top 50 Favorite Anthems for Children’s Choir.
But there are so many wonderful anthems out there for children’s voices, who can stop at 50?!
You know I can’t.
So today, I’m sharing the sequel you’ve all been waiting for: 50 more favorite anthems for children’s choir.
This list includes mostly unison and two-part music, with a few 3-part pieces for those of you with older elementary choirs and/or larger groups.
One of the benefits of working with a small group of six ringers is that you can play a lot of music with only 12 bells.
This way, each player can play two bells the whole time without bell changes, so no tables, foam, or notebook risers are necessary. This accommodates ringers with limited experience and gives you the flexibility to perform in different spaces.
All you need is seven music stands and a good 12-bell collection of music.
This year has brought some unprecedented challenges and the global pandemic has changed the way choirs and musical ensembles gather and make music together. Many choirs moved to online rehearsals this spring, using Zoom or Facebook Live to stay connected and try to continue making music the best they could. But with the technology we have available to us and unpredictable internet speeds at home, we’ve all learned that it’s really not possible to sing or play together in real-time.
Today, I’m sharing some helpful digital tools and resources that can be used in online choir rehearsals (synchronous or asynchronous) or in-person, if and when you’re able to return to that. You’ll find digital tools, game ideas, teaching strategies, and curriculum resources that were designed especially for distance-learning situations.
Last week, I shared the first post in a new series I’m putting together this summer: Music by Black Composers: 105 Sacred Works for Organ.
As I mentioned in that post, I believe it’s important to listen and learn from the African-American and Black community during this time, to ask ourselves: Are we honoring all the voices that have contributed to our field? Are we celebrating the diversity of composers in addition to diversity in styles?
If you work with a children’s choir or youth choir or are looking for a few simple pieces by Black composers to introduce to your adult choir in the future, here’s a list of anthems to get you started.
These are strange times we’re living in.
Who would have thought that we’d find ourselves worshipping through a screen — together, but apart, that congregations would scatter, events would be canceled, and choirs would not be able to sing?
And yet, for the safety of our friends and neighbors and community members, here we are. Each in our own homes, flattening the COVID-19 curve, but missing the connection, the fellowship, the joy that comes with making music together.
I’ve been thinking about creative ways you can connect (and sing!) with your choir virtually and today, I’m sharing a round-up of 19 ideas (for adult choirs and children’s choirs) that you can start using right away.
If you walk into an elementary classroom, you might notice that everything is color-coded: signs and charts on the wall to labels on bins to pieces of tape marking certain spots on the floor.
This is because colors are easy for most young children to recognize and differentiate between.
But in music, our baseline is black and white, the colors of standard notation. When first introducing music-reading, it can be challenging for young students to recognize patterns and organize the content visually when everything is black and white.
For this reason, color can be a helpful tool when teaching music literacy and developing music-reading skills. “When we use color in a systematic way it can help students retain information better than just using black and white.” (source)
Over the years, I’ve written several posts geared toward smaller, beginning handbell choirs:
“But what about those of us with more established groups?” you might be saying. “What about intermediate-level repertoire?”
That’s where today’s post comes in.
Choir is a meaningful way to build community, promote unity, and bring people together.
Whether you direct a community choir, a church choir, or work with a professional choir, combining with other groups can be a memorable, enriching musical experience for all involved. It's also a practical way to expand what's possible on a concert program: more voices, more opportunities for divisi, and a bigger sound than one group could create on their own.