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.

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.”

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.

Prayer is an important part of any church choir rehearsal, but maybe especially for children’s choirs.

Spiritual growth goes hand-in-hand with music education in this setting, and taking time to pray together is an important part of cultivating faith, learning how to trust, and developing a personal understanding of who God is.

Praying a short, simple prayer on the spot is always an option, but if you’re looking for something different, here are a few other ideas for prayers you can use in your children’s choir rehearsals:

It’s that time of the year! Here’s a look at 2018, by the numbers:

• Launched two new mini courses for church musicians: Music Education & Leadership Skills for the Adult Choir Director and Music Education & Leadership Skills for the Handbell Choir Director

• Self-published three new handbell collections: Four Pieces for Advent, Four Pieces for Christmas, and Four Pieces for Epiphany

• Wrote a guest post for the Oxford University Press Choral blog, called “What Type of Choir Director Are You?”

• Shared my story on three different podcasts (1, 2, 3)

• Wrote over 50 new posts, ranging from rehearsal tips to leadership skills, anthem suggestions to worship planning, book recommendations to pronunciation guides

Did you know that singing with another instrumentalist (in addition to piano or organ) can help develop musicianship skills?

There are numerous benefits to inviting another instrumentalist to come play with your choir. Here are a few worth noting:

1. It fosters musical independence.

   Focusing on your own part while listening to two other instrumentalists helps you develop listening and awareness skills and become a more independent and capable musician.

“Good! Now, sing it again.”

How many times do you hear yourself saying these words in rehearsal? We all know the importance of repetition. This is how we learn - by trying, experiencing, and doing it again and again.

The problem is, often, this becomes something we do mindlessly. When we hear someone say, “Good! Now, sing it again,”we go into auto-pilot mode and repeat whatever we just did without really thinking about it.

Did you catch that last part?

For most choir directors, singing with pure, rounded vowels is one of the primary things you teach to your choirs. It's especially important to teach this to children's choirs and instill good vowel-singing in your singers from a young age.

There are numerous benefits to focusing on this with your children's choirs throughout the year; here are a few worth noting:

There’s something special about an intergenerational choir: the coming together of people of all ages and walks of life to share music and lift their voices in song. It sends a message of unity and inclusivity and I think it gives us a little glimpse of what heaven might be like, singing in the angel choir.

Intergenerational choirs are a great way to celebrate something special in the life of the church - an anniversary or special service. The easiest way to create this experience is to combine groups you already have. There are a number of ways to do this.

Everyone is born with some level of music aptitude, or potential to succeed in music (source).

According to music researcher Edwin Gordon, this aptitude can increase or decrease between birth and age 7, based on musical exposure and experience.

"The vocal range is remarkably wide from birth,” music education professor Lili Levinowitz wrote. "Infants can imitate and experiment with their vocal instruments: and even match pitch as early as three to four months of age. Purposeful singing can begin at around twelve months. At this time, adults can recognize snippets of songs to which youngsters have been exposed. Through continued exposure to spoken chant, songs, and vocal play, young children can develop the use of their singing voices during the remaining early childhood years.” (source)