Use the two part St. Gregory edition. Try DuBois' "Adoramus te Christe" as the alto almost constitutes a perfect and memorable counterpoint melody to the soprano. Then move on towards other similar hymns.

I often teach all the children both parts (sometimes by ear, sometimes by rote, always working toward notereading)... then divide them up.

I find that providing recordings (CDs) for them to take home is a strong aid, especially if practice time is limited. Have three tracks for each piece -- melody, harmony, and both parts together.

"Veni, Jesu, Amor Mi" by Cherubini is an excellent intermediate piece in 2 parts for treble choir. And it is actually available from GIA. :)

I started this academic year for my choirs with several canons----Tallis Canon, the Taize Magnificat, When Jesus Wept, Dona Nobis Pacem, et. al.---and I found that their ear for singing parts was slowly developing. The first vertical harmony I tried with them was one of Richard Rice's communion antiphons from his Simple Choral Gradual, back in February. The music is set for SATB, but I only have them sing the SA parts. They took right to it, and we've sung one a week for the last three months. The harmonies are simple and pleasing, yet elegant and dignified, and within reach of even a very basic choir.

I'm not a huge fan of canons being the basis for developing part independency, but when I use one, I use "Non nobis Domine." Stay churchy, my friends.

never underestimate your young singers. it is easier to teach difficult music that is well written than easy music poorly composed...children respond to both challenge and quality. their capacity to learn is astonishing. put experienced singers on parts...keep younger ones on melody.

i have gotten knock-em-dead renditions of "Wir eilen mit schwachen" out of choirs just like the one you describe, even w only 10 singers; yet they struggle to get anything out of two-part dreck. hint: to teach the difficult "Wir eilen," i teach them the unison "Bist du bei mir," first, so they can acquire the composer's idiom. Substitute your own favorite composer or genre. Plan your rehearsals...and give them time to learn.

I've seen solfege (tonic solfa, or whatever you prefer to call it) work wonders in a parish children's choir. A new director came and simply instituted solfa as the way music was going to be learned, for all choirs. He taught how to determine which note is "doh" based on the key signature, and choir members' "homework" was to write in their syllables above the notes and do their best to learn their own part. At rehearsals, warmups were on a set pattern of solfege exercises, and there was one that became especially familiar as a good mental exercise as well, to establish a key in one's mind when the "doh" pitch was given. Rehearsals were done a cappella (except for a starting pitch, always "doh"), and nothing was banged out on the piano.

The results were marvelous in terms of sight-singing skills and better in-tune singing, and the children enjoyed being the leaders in this, as they did their "homework" with gusto and outshone the adults. The motto of all this was "Use your brain as a computer, not as a tape recorder."

A big part of the success came from the director's "We're doing this" attitude. He didn't ask or propose; he set to work teaching it and using it. He applied the same attitude to instituting a weekday chanted Evening Prayer: he simply started leading this daily and set up a sign-up sheet for any others who wanted to be cantor or lector for it. This was successful and went on well past the point where he left to go to seminary.

Sometimes just doing something is the key, rather than worrying about who and how many will like it immediately. Our adults grumbled and initially found solfa tedious, until many of the adults observed what it was doing for their children's skills.

God bless "The Sound of Music". The children love to watch the children in the movie learn "how to sing" and take to the solfege so easily. Even kindergarten children have a lot of fun finding their notes on coloring solfege posters. And by teaching the Kodaly hand signals, the younger children have something to do with their hands, which they always love.

oh, don't waste your money on GIA...
Veni Jesu

I started a children's choir last September. Slow is key. Give them things they can do well, and build on your successes. I've been teaching solfege to my kids via the Ward Method -- an excellent method, but also time intensive. The singing has been remarkably in tune and in tempo as a result. The kids are learning to sight read simple pieces through the Ward Method, and are learning the more complex music by rote until they acquire more skills.

I started teaching harmony with canons. This gives the kids the feel of what it is like to stay on the beat, sing in independent sections, and listen to each other. It also gives them motivation to stick with learning the more difficult pieces, since they have experienced the reward of singing well in harmony from the canons. We branched out the second half of the year, and learned the harmony from the Come Ye Faithful Raise the Strain in the first Morningstar Choirbook (the piece is predominantly a canon, but fleshes out into full-fledged 2-part harmony midway), and the Franck Panis Angelicus (with full-fledged 2-part harmony at the very end). We also worked very hard on the Alleluia canon by Boyce, which is a canon, but complex enough that I consider it to be full-fledged harmony. The kids sang the Alleluia canon at graduation yesterday, and did very well. They are so proud of themselves. They are most certainly outdoing the adults at my parish right now!

My kids are not ready to learn both parts at the same time (about half of my choir is finishing up third grade right now, and most of my kids do not have previous musical experience). On the Franck, I taught the kids the harmony only. When I sang the melody as the soloist they were not tempted to revert to the melody, since they didn't know it in the first place. On the Come Ye Faithful, I taught each section within the same class period, so altos and sopranos listened to each other. Our breakthrough moment with that piece was when I recorded myself singing both parts on MP3, combined the tracks, and had them listen to it. They sang along, and didn't lose their lines.

I second the Veni Jesu -- wonderful piece! It's on the agenda for next year with my choir (along with a Pueri Cantores membership!).

If you are looking to teach solfege - check out getting certified in Ward. It contains all of the same musical concepts as other famous methods (Kodaly, Dalcroze), but from a uniquely orthodox Catholic standpoint. You can easily turn any of the songs/hymns/chants into rounds or add simple harmonies. Students not only sing the music, they understand the theory behind it. http://summer.cua.edu/special/index.cfm