Choral Pedagogy

Choral Pedagogy, Third Edition, is the ideal text for voice teachers, choral conductors, church musicians, and professional and amateur singers who wish to develop strategies for lifelong singing. It concisely and clearly presents the principles of voice pedagogy from the perspective of both conducting and voice science in a user-friendly fashion, including helpful charts and simple anatomic diagrams. In addition, it offers teaching methods from history and philosophy, medical and voice science, and pedagogical concepts from active musical experts. Special attention is given to the needs of amateur singers and conductors. Topics covered include choral diction, posture and seating, rehearsal practices, and matters of vocal health.

For the third edition, the authors have completely revised the text, updating the medical information and expanding the exercises. They have also added three new chapters:

• A chapter entitled "Singing in the 21st Century" that considers the vocal/choral demands of the choral repertoire being written in this century.
• A chapter on teaching young boys to sing written by Vic Oakes, the conductor of the Chattanooga Boys Choir.
• A chapter entitled "The Value of Lifelong Singing."

With its updates and additions, Choral Pedagogy, Third Edition, is a valuable resource for students of choral conducting, music education, church music, and choral singing.

Reviews

"...Care has been taken to explain the principles of vocal function in user-friendly language via a series of questions as sub-headings; similarly for the chapter on medical care of voice disorders. A new and extensive chapter on hearing loss offers a clear and accessible exposition of the hearing system, and an informative section on different categories of hearing impairment. A chapter on seating problems is short and sweet but worth attention with its practical (and inexpensive) suggestions for eliciting a more forward sitting posture to avoid back pain and maximise breathing efficiency when seated for rehearsal. The chapter on choral pedagogy and vocal health gives sound advice and specifics on appropriate warm up and cool down exercises for choirs. It is also encouraging to see a chapter on the ageing voice, with suggestions for ways to adapt music, part singing and pitch range for older singers, to keep them active in the choral community. ...I was happy to see a clear directive to conductors of separating the tasks of rhythm and melody in music learning, this advice given in chapters on training for adults as well as children. 

...I particularly liked the chapter on voice building for choirs, which gives a range of exercises for specific situations in response to questions used as sub-headings. There is also a chapter on rehearsal techniques, similarly structured, offering an excellent resource to choral conductors. 

Overall, the book is well-written, clearly structured and packed with information, definitely a useful resource. ..."
—Dr. Gillyanne Kayes, in Communicating Voice, The British Voice Association (2014)​​​​​

Preface
About the Authors
Contributors

I. Introduction 
1 Amateur and Professional Choral Singers
2 The Rehearsal Process

II. Vocal Health and Pedagogy 
3 Anatomy and Physiology of the Voice
4 Medical Care of Voice Disorders

Robert T. Sataloff and Mary Hawkshaw

5 Hearing Loss in Singers and Other Musicians

Robert T. Sataloff, Joseph Sataloff, and Caren J. Sokolow

6 The Aging Voice

Margaret Baroody and Brenda Smith

7 Performing Arts Medicine and the Professional
Voice User: Risk of Nonvoice Performance
8 Seating Problems of Vocalists

Richard Norris

9 Historical Overview of Vocal Pedagogy

Richard Miller

10 Choral Pedagogy and Vocal Health
11 Voice Disorders Among Choral Music Educators

Brenda Smith

12 Singing in the 21st Century

Brenda Smith

III. The Vocal Approach to Choral Music 
13 Choral Singing and Children
14 The Young Singer

Vincent Oakes

15 Voice Building for Choirs
16 Choral Singing: The Singing Voice and the Choral Tone
17 Choral Singing Techniques
18 Choral Diction
19 Rehearsal Techniques
20 The Value of Lifelong Singing

Brenda Smith

Bibliography
Glossary
Index