My “NO CHORAL MUSIC in JANUARY” Approach
For more than a decade, my rehearsal approach in the month of January can be labeled as: NO CHORAL MUSIC!
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2023-01-17T04:47:56-05:00 January 9th, 2023|New Year|
For more than a decade, my rehearsal approach in the month of January can be labeled as: NO CHORAL MUSIC!
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2023-01-02T09:49:36-05:00 January 2nd, 2023|New Year|
If you want your rehearsals to improve, now is a GREAT time to make the appropriate changes. https://www.choralclarity.com/4-reasons-to-make-major-rehearsal-changes-right-now/ Think
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2023-01-02T07:13:46-05:00 January 1st, 2023|Cultivating Choir Culture, New Year|
Strike while the iron is hot. Now is a good time to make sweeping rehearsal changes. If there is anything
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-12-10T16:28:14-05:00 December 10th, 2022|Assessment, Concert Season, Rubrics, Self-Assessment|
Concert performances can be assessed in a multitude of ways; perhaps the most fair and least time-consuming way to grade
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-12-11T19:05:08-05:00 December 10th, 2022|Concert Season|
Your Singer MISSED The Concert....What do we do? - Use the 5 “E”s It can be quite frustrating when we
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-12-07T22:39:30-05:00 December 7th, 2022|Concert Season|
Believe it or not, most of what our audience members see and hear have nothing to do with how well
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-11-07T02:07:37-05:00 November 6th, 2022|Cultivating Choir Culture, Homework, The Soloist/Solo Singing|
When I took over the entire high school choral program more than two decades ago, the previous choir director had
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-11-02T21:50:57-04:00 November 2nd, 2022|Cultivating Choir Culture, The Soloist/Solo Singing|
Should we force our choir members to sing solo? The simple answer is: we should not force our students
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-10-24T09:15:41-04:00 October 24th, 2022|Composers, Technology|
Flat.io is the only notation platform that I use to compose with I have written every single one of my
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-10-17T22:34:15-04:00 October 16th, 2022|Assessment, Homework, Technology|
In this blog, I'm going to introduce the ultimate substitute teacher choral lesson plan. What makes this the ultimate plan?
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-10-03T06:17:16-04:00 October 3rd, 2022|Cultivating Choir Culture, Ideology of Intentional Inspiration, Rehearsal Techniques|
It’s so easy to allow daily rehearsals to become repetitive and automatic. When we become repetitive, our choir tends to move into automatic
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-09-27T22:03:24-04:00 September 26th, 2022|Assessment, Grading, New teacher, Rehearsal Techniques, Rubrics, Self-Assessment|
Choir rehearsal participation using the 4 Ps. Many students will participate at a marginally effective level when they know what
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-09-25T21:31:32-04:00 September 25th, 2022|Choral Sheet Music|
I view myself as a choral director who composes out of need: my need to be creative and my choir's
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-09-23T06:47:23-04:00 September 21st, 2022|Assessment, Rhythm, Rubrics, Sight-Reading|
I give the same first two quizzes each year; as a result, they set the tone for the year as
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-09-18T21:53:08-04:00 September 17th, 2022|Assessment|
Choir is an academic class and should have academic expectations for our singers. The first quiz of the year has
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-09-07T06:09:27-04:00 September 6th, 2022|Assessment, New Year, Rubrics, Self-Assessment, Vocal Technique, Voicing a Choir|
Voicing can be done quickly and effectively in 3 minutes or less per student. In a 40 minute small group
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-09-18T21:55:30-04:00 September 1st, 2022|Cultivating Choir Culture, Patriotic Music, Rehearsal Techniques|
How do I know? Well, I don't REALLY know this, but here is my core belief surrounding our National Anthem
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-08-31T10:25:21-04:00 August 31st, 2022|Cultivating Choir Culture, First Rehearsals, Ice-breakers|
Do ice-breakers really break the ice? Ice-breakers are a great means to help a choir to bond; many can be
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-08-25T12:43:53-04:00 August 24th, 2022|New teacher|
We had one year end abruptly followed by another two years of complete turmoil. What will this school year bring
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-08-23T07:47:26-04:00 August 21st, 2022|Rounds|
Rounds are an excellent learning tool and performance vehicle for choirs of all levels. Even refined high school choirs can
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-08-17T12:10:52-04:00 August 17th, 2022|Cultivating Choir Culture, First Rehearsals, New teacher, New Year|
The Power of Positive Planning & Posting for Choir: Positive "Ways to Rephrase" The two most important goals for successfully
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-08-10T12:30:23-04:00 August 9th, 2022|First Rehearsals, New teacher|
The 2 Choir Guidelines Every Director Should Have Every choir director should have guidelines in their rehearsals. The two
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-08-01T12:48:14-04:00 August 1st, 2022|Choral Sheet Music|
7 Reasons Why Purchasing Most Choral Sheet Music Is Ridiculous The process of purchasing choral sheet music is antiquated and
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-07-28T22:36:18-04:00 July 22nd, 2022|Empowerment, Holiday & Caroling|
We wish you a Merry Christmas all year round. Music teachers have to be thinking about Christmas and Hanukkah all
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-07-04T11:18:35-04:00 March 26th, 2022|Matching Pitch|
Imagine if learning to match pitch was treated like learning basic math: We certainly believe everyone can learn addition
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-05-16T11:54:38-04:00 March 14th, 2022|Self-Selected|
What is a self-selected choir? A self-selected choir is any choir where students of all ability levels participate together. A
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-06-20T21:07:23-04:00 March 6th, 2022|Ear Training, Matching Pitch|
I am convinced that 4-5% of the population, who are described to suffer from "amusia", are misunderstood. My strong belief
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-07-04T12:01:39-04:00 January 22nd, 2022|Ear Training, Matching Pitch|
There was a time where pianos were commonplace in homes and it was just "normal" to sing. Families would gather
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-01-10T06:37:43-05:00 May 28th, 2021|Choral Sheet Music|
Between the brick and mortar publishing companies, the online publishing companies, and the online self-publishers, there is more music to
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-12-01T22:11:45-05:00 March 3rd, 2021|Ear Training, Matching Pitch|
Anybody can be taught to match pitch, almost instantly, in 5 simple steps. This entire process takes a maximum of
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-06-03T05:48:08-04:00 October 13th, 2019|Rounds|
Rounds are an excellent learning tool and performance vehicle for choirs of all levels. Even refined high school choirs can
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-01-07T12:45:15-05:00 October 5th, 2019|Podcasts/Interviews, Self-Selected|
When did our culture stop singing, and what are we, the choir directors, doing to bring singing back into our
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-01-11T19:40:08-05:00 September 29th, 2019|Assessment, Aural Training, Ear Training, Matching Pitch, Sight-Reading|
There are 4 tangible steps that can be taken to develop EVERY singer's ear, and in turn, develop their singing
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-05-28T08:01:15-04:00 November 4th, 2018|Assessment, Aural Training, Ear Training, Matching Pitch, Rubrics, Self-Selected, Sight-Reading, Vocal Technique|
"Tone-Deaf" is an Excuse....not a Diagnosis.....and I blame the person who makes the diagnosis. Anyone can learn to sing. If
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2019-09-03T06:12:36-04:00 September 18th, 2018|Sight-Reading|
Turning Fear into Fun My 3-year-old daughter, Lyla, and I have the same natural disposition when it comes to starting
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-06-29T22:25:54-04:00 September 26th, 2017|Aural Training, Ear Training, Rehearsal Techniques, Sight-Reading|
Kodaly & Me I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm not a Curwen hand signal user; I know it is
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2022-11-28T05:48:15-05:00 June 23rd, 2016|Choral Caste System, Self-Selected|
My previous post describes the traditional Choral Caste System which consists of “The Best” vs. “The Rest”. For those of
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2023-01-28T09:22:26-05:00 January 25th, 2023|Assessment, Cultivating Choir Culture, Ideology of Intentional Inspiration, Rehearsal Techniques, Self-Assessment|
As we reach the middle of our academic year, students are likely taking midterm exams to evaluate their progress, while
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2023-01-17T08:43:04-05:00 January 16th, 2023|Cultivating Choir Culture, First Rehearsals, New Year|
When meeting students where they are, some choral directors make a big mistake: they keep the students where they are.
By Adam Paltrowitz| 2023-01-01T18:38:51-05:00 November 27th, 2022|Concert Season, Holiday & Caroling|
My high school choir has 11 traditional winter choir concert songs that we repeat year after year. Two songs have