I teach chorus at a specialized STEM high school and currently have over 300 students in my three choruses. While our students are very interested in math, science, and technology, they also love the humanities and the arts. They love learning music, singing, and sharing the love of music with their audience. Most students who come into the chorus stay in the program for all four years of high school.
We perform frequently both in and outside of school for community events.
Our repertoire is varied - from seriously extended oratorios to light and fun pop songs. We perform the music of various languages, cultures, and styles. It is my goal to help my students discover a life-long appreciation of music and of singing. While many of them will not go on to major in music, many of my singers join vocal groups in college and beyond and simply become music lovers for life.
My Project
Most of my singers do not read music, but really wish to learn. I need a large music staff whiteboard in order to teach music theory to a large choral class. I also need access to a music whiteboard on our theater stage where we hold our rehearsals before concerts. This will allow me to continue music theory lessons when we are not in the classroom.
This whiteboard can easily move from classroom to the stage, thus, not limiting the times when I can instill music theory lessons.
In addition, this whiteboard is also reversible and will allow the blank side to be used for announcements, and the music side for teaching notes and rhythms. At least 350 singers will benefit from this whiteboard each year it is used, and I intend to use it often.
Having more music theory lessons will allow my singers to become more independent musicians. It will make them learn music faster, understand it better, and appreciate it more fully. This learning will follow them to college and beyond, and will facilitate their musical journey if they wish to keep singing or decide to learn to play an instrument. Music theory is the language of sound!
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