Emily Wylie MUED 376

Fall, 2019 Dr. van der Vat-Chromy

Reflection on Vocal Development and Warm-Ups

While looking through files on MUED 376’s Canvas page, I found the tab that contained

information about vocal development through Middle School-High School, lists of choral

literature that would suit each stage of vocal development, and guidelines for warm-ups. I have

read through each document and will now reflect on how I can apply all of these files.

When it came to what could happen with groups singers during the Middle School-High

School process, I learned a lot about how each student’s voices change throughout puberty from

my vocal-arranging class. However, in that course, we used that information to arrange age-

appropriate pieces rather than learning how to teach students to navigate the new ranges they

would go through. In that course, I had no idea that there was something I could do regarding a

student’s suddenly changing voice that didn’t involve changing repertoire entirely. The

document I found regarding actions a music educator could take in their ensembles for these

changes gave me insight to what my future career will be. I would not have to change entire

semesters’ worth of repertoire but would instead be able to use tools like having the changing

male voices echo the alto line an octave lower or creating new ostinato lines to pieces of music.

Since the female voice changes as well, I found avoiding labels like “soprano” and “alto” nice to

see, as these labels unintentionally have a social hierarchy attached to them. There was no need

for the label in a two or three-part chorus that was nowhere near fully developed.

While the repertoire for changing voices seemed too “campy” for my taste, I have

definitely had experience with many of these songs through my middle-school experience and

remember enjoying them immensely. There is definitely a reason behind the use of these songs
for this age range. I know I would personally like to compile a list of current composers for the

Middle School and Tenor-Bass High School choirs to incorporate music that would also line up

well with their development both mentally and vocally. This would help build engagement in the

choral room also, so that nothing seemed too cheesy to the developing bass/tenors, making them

embarrassed to be a part of music, which is something I’ve seen happen too often.

The vocal development page and the thoughts on warm-ups went well together in my

head. Warm-ups engage singers to the task at hand, keeping them from slouching and being

otherwise disengaged and also giving them practice with being a tall and focused singer. I have

already used these warm-up suggestions in teaching private voice. I have a schedule for warming

up in my voice lessons, like the documents suggest, and having one truly helps my students stay

on task. I use a combination of vocal technique and repertoire-based warm-ups. For a student,

getting into the mindset and muscle memory of always stretching, massaging the jaw while

humming throughout the range, and finally doing breathing exercises gets them ready to stay on

task for the next 50 minutes with me. I will, in the future probably make a notated compilation of

warm-ups I could use by technique needed for pieces or for the ensemble as a whole.

These files that I read will probably be incredibly useful for my future intention to be a

choral educator so I will save them to my Google Drive. I do plan on taking inspiration from

repertoire suggestions for each grade level while adding further tabs to my choral music database

for each grade level and special accommodation I could make for my future students. I also plan

to create a separate choral database for warm-ups based on age and special musical need, to give

the students a musical experience suited for them.