Teaching Materials | Instrumental & Vocal

Choral conducting skills for teachers

Conducting a choir can be a daunting task for a whole-class or instrumental/vocal teacher. It’s common to be uncertain about keeping a clear beat, and how to coordinate using both hands, face and...

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Complementing students’ classroom curriculum – part two

Some class teachers and parents fear that, in coming out of class lessons for their instrumental tuition, children may be missing out on important academic material.

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Practical vocal health: warming up and cooling down

In this resource, we’ll look at some key, practical ideas for warming up singers. These include warming up the body; activating and warming up the breath; warming up the voice itself; and warming up...

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Approaches to bowing for VMTs

This resource seeks to provide an overview of some of the most influential pedagogues’ approaches to elementary bowing – without promoting one method above another. Also included are various...

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Complementing students’ classroom curriculum – part one

This is the first of a two-part resource looking at how we can incorporate aspects of a student’s class curriculum into our instrumental teaching. There are too many subjects to fit into a single...

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Getting and keeping boys singing

The absence of boys in choirs is a perennial problem. This resource will share insights from boys and men who have had a variety of experiences singing as children and teens, and suggest practical...

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Practice: part three – learning a new piece

In this third and final part of this resource, we’ll examine the nitty-gritty of learning a new piece. The piece is a hypothetical one, and we’ll imagine the various technical and musical challenges...

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Boosting sightreading for bowed strings with alternative notations

Many young string players find reading staff notation difficult. This can become demotivating and hinder progress. Alternative notations not only provide an interesting insight into other musical...

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Practice: part two – boosting productivity

In the first of this three-part resource, we looked at the need to be realistic about how much practice we can expect from our students. This second resource is dedicated to our conscientious students...

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Starting a choir in your school

Whether you’re teaching in primary, secondary, post-16 or alternative provisions, singing in a choir is a fantastic opportunity to offer to young people. This resource introduces key considerations...

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Practice: part one – developing realistic expectations

In this first of a three-part survey of practice, we’ll look at how we can develop realistic expectations and adapt our approach according to the individual, rather than expecting students to apply...

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Putting on a concert or event

The aim of this resource is to provide music teachers with a toolkit that can be used to make sure that any concert or event is a success for staff, students and audiences.

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