Vocal Collages

Heading:
High School Chorus

Learning Objectives:
Students will capture a theme of songs to create a medley of music that incorporates all of the elements of choral arranging, and record it all on film. By the end of this lesson, students will know how to record, edit, and arrange their music into a video collage that recognizes and captures the elements of a choral work.

Student Prior Knowledge:
Students should be familiar with the following elements of a choral arrangement: Accompaniment, Acapella Singing, Unison, Solo, SATB, SA, SAB, TB, All dynamic markings, tempo changes, texture, vocal ranges, balance, silence, rhythm, loops, modulation, phrasing, climax, mood, key signature and time signature, dissonance, resolution, transitioning, interludes, form, and ensemble.

Preparation:
Access to the internet to help students brainstorm possibilities to create their vocal collage/medley’s. A talent pool of singers is essential, but all students who perform in the video collages do not have to be a student in the choir. This would be a fun place to employ students who do not sign up for chorus, but have singing abilities.

Proceedure:
1. Students should choose a topic that interests them to be an overall theme for their project. Examples might be: 1. Place songs, 2. Children’s songs, 3. Holiday Melodies, 4. Broadway Themes, 5. Movie Themes, 6. Disney Songs, 8. Love Songs, 9. Patriotic Melodies, 10. Heartbreak Tunes, 11. Sing Along Songs, 12. School Songs, 13. Country Songs, etc.

2. Once the topic or theme has been chosen, students may choose as few as 4, and as many as 8 songs that serve to convey the theme of their medley/collage. They need to look up the lyrics on the internet or locate/download their music when needed for accompaniment or tonal navigation.

3. Students must cut and paste their selections in such a way as to create medleys of their collective choices. (By way of iTunes and Garage Band they may actually want to experiment with ways to cut and paste or transition their songs after importing them into Garage Band.) The overall composition need not be more than 60-80 bars in length. Cutting and pasting small sections of a song can work very well. They need to look for the “essence” or most memorable portion of each tune, and avoid making their collages too long.

4. Incorporating as many elements of choral arranging as possible, they should map out their compositions in such a way as to enable some rehearsal to take place prior to recording. Each is allowed to use the entire choir for one portion of his/her arrangement, but must be ready to instruct and teach the segment with notation on hand to help in the learning. Otherwise, it is assumed that the choir will be broken into ensemble and solo portions as needed to FILM each segment.

REMEMBER: The point of this lesson is NOT to record a fantastic work, but one that may be used to convey the elements of an arrangement that exhibits the above components. Indeed, this may become a performable work, and may find it’s way into a concert setting, but the point is to communicate that a student is aware of the creative possibilities that exist in choral arranging, and knows how to convey his knowledge through this visual medium.

5. Once a student is happy with his/her theme and song choices and can navigate a performance through it, the Flip Video Cameras may be handed out, and students may begin to record segments of their vocal collages HOWEVER THEY DECIDE, using a variety of unison, part, and ensemble singing. They further need to be aware of dynamics, tempo and key changes. They should remember that transitioning from segment to segment needs attention as to pitch and overall tonality.

6. Import the footage into iMovie to edit. Once the arrangement is done, export it to the joint chorus Youtube account.

Conclusion:
Keeping a journal of ideas for this project would be helpful as well as journaling how one navigated his/her way to the final project and help to justify artistic decisions made throughout the creative process.

Evaluation:
Once the projects are complete, students should visit the website and critique using a class created rubric for this assignment.