Lesson Plans – Preparing for Solo & Ensemble Contest:
High School Varsity Mixed Choir & High School Jr. Varsity:
Wks. of 1/4/16 to 2/19/16
Vocalises taken from various TMEA workshops, seminars & colleagues
Middle School Solo & Ensemble Contest will be 1/30/16 @ White Oak High School
High School Solo & Ensemble Contest will be 2/19/16 @ ETBU – Marshall
Objectives: After completing these lessons, student will be able to:
*Read music that incorporates rhythmic patterns in simple & complex meters ( 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8)
*Interpret music terms & markings: (A-B-A-(C) forms of music, stress markings (< >) , accent markings ( _ ), crescendo and decrescendo markings, various Tempo markings ranging from Andante to Allegretto as well as poco rit. (little ritard), a tempo (back to original tempo and accelerando (to gradually get faster) or rit. (gradually get slower), various dynamic markings ranging from pp to ff, musical treatments of specific pitches such as tr (trill), fermata (symbol that indicates to hold a note or rest for longer than its given value) 
, tenuto ( _ ) (symbol placed above or below a given note indicating that the note should receive stress and/or that its value should be slightly extended.
* Treatment Style of sections of song or specific pitches within the music: staccato (a short & detached style of singing) or legato (a connected & sustained style of singing), singing with articulate consonants & open, pure vowels, singing with proper intonation (the accuracy of pitch, in-tune singing, centered-pitch singing), glissando (an effect produced by sliding from one note to another), falsetto (the register in the male voice that extends far above their natural voice; the light upper range), melissma (a group of notes sung to a single syllable or word).
*Proper Diction in foreign languages of liturgical Latin, Spanish, German, Russian, French, as well as our own language of English. Students will refer to the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) for pronunciation guide as well as “Phonetic Readings of Songs and Arias” that gives a ‘word-by-word’ IPA of their specific song.
*Music Selections: Students chose their own Solo from our Prescribed Music List adopted each year by our UIL Music Committee. Classifications of Difficulty: Class 1 – most difficult level of solo or ensemble piece & usually in a Foreign Language with Vocal Range of approx. 2 octaves or more; Class 2 – medium level of difficulty of solo with some being sung in a Foreign language; Class 3 – least difficult level of solo & usually sung in English language (typically reserved for Middle School students).
