Awards or validation of some sort for choristers / schola members.
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    I have a little schola for 6-9 year olds. In order to persuade parents that this is a worthwhile exercise it would be useful for the children to be receiving some sort of awards, doing an exam or something like that.
    There are some schemes around like this http://www.rscm.com/education/vfl/trainingScheme.php which has some very nice sections for liturgical choirs (though this is Anglican tradition it is usable by Catholics) including asking the choristers about the meaning of psalms, or to talk about a liturgical feast or season etc. In other words it is decent music validation for choristers which embraces the liturgical / faith context of their music making.
    They have nice workbooks for the choristers for each level, and matching resources for the choir director .
    The only drawback is the music is all in modern notation, so our schola which learns chant will not be able to use it.

    so some simple questions.
    do you know of a scheme of this sort which focuses on chant?

    If there is none, have you any interest in / skills to help get one started?

    I firmly believe if we educate the young, we will succeed in the reforms we desire.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    just another thought. I have not found words with wings very useful because it moves over the material to quickly, it assumes to much knowledge on the part of the teacher to be useful to me. (this is my problem, not a criticism of the good work that went in the book). however , maybe some scheme could be based on using Words with wings as its basic text of teaching tool?
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    Don't disdain participation awards, but only if you're trying to boost participation in the schola. Achievement based awards are a great idea also. For that age group, I would focus on knowledge of liturgical procedures, such as being able to identify what is going on at Mass. A sample curriculum for a standard school year would be something like this:

    -Order of Mass
    -Location of sung parts of the Mass (when do you sing what?); including cues from the priest
    -Seasonal changes to sung parts of the Mass
    -When to sit stand and kneel as the schola at Mass

    We also focus on vocal technique. So I would add the following:

    -Correct posture for singing
    -Correct embouchure for singing
    -Head voice
    -Making a good sound (playground voice/shouting vs. singing voice)
    Thanked by 2bonniebede CHGiffen
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