http://musicasacra.com/music-pedagogy-for-children/ward-method-instruction/

It's a method for teaching children basic music skills: scales, intervals, sight-singing, solfege. It is a particular system of exercises, designed originally for use by general teachers.

The Ward books offered for download are not the current versions, which are in copyright.

Training courses are offered every summer at Catholic U in Washington. Also, the first-level course has been offered at U. Northern Colorado.

For more information, here is the link to CUA for teacher training: http://music.cua.edu/ward-method.cfm.

I can empathize with those who may not understand the entire method. However, after instructing the Ward Method and seeing the progress over a few years vs. a few months, the results stand for themselves. Two words: musical competence. Ward students can read music (sight sing), can count, can hear and sing intervals, have a pure vocal tone quality, can improvise, can compose, and can conduct (both modern and chironomy). This Method does not a dip your toes into music or into Gregorian Chant, but is full immersion. Our children deserve nothing less.

As an educator and director, one should research all methods and determine the best that fits the needs of a particular situation. The Ward Method most certainly can be used for classes that do not meet daily, as one would learn in Ward teacher training. Our treasure trove of sacred music deserves the best musicians. Musical training should not be taken lightly and musical literacy should be the focus in the early years.

I should mention that I am in Ireland. If anyone in UK or Ireland is interested in seeing could we get some ward method training going on this side of the atlantic, please let me know! If there were a few it could be cheaper to bring someone over than trying to get to the states for training. There is also training in France, in French, perhaps someone from there could over a course in English?

Is the goal of the Ward method to teach music by making not-chant songs into chant style? That is the impression that it gives me.
Phil

The Ward Method in its first year of instruction will concentrate on the major scale in the authentic range of Do to Do. The first week's lessons are confined to just Do and Re. Only in ensuing weeks are additional tones of the major scale introduced, gradually. It is better not to throw too much at a young child initially. Let them master and absorb a small portion at a time, so the retention of the sound of Do and Re alone can be solidified in their minds and ears. From the known, one can then expand into the unknown. Each lesson is packed full of material embracing the whole theoretical concept of musical literacy.
Beginning with vocalization on the "oo" vowel preceded by "n", the Ward Method strives towards the perfect placement of the singing voice in a resonating head tone. Following which, matching pitch and pitch recognition exercises are part of the daily drill. Using the number "1" for Do and "2" for Re, the numbers are placed on a white chart in a linear and rising fashion. The teacher will point to the numbers using a stick colored with red and green ink. The children are then invited to join in the singing of Do and Re as the teacher points to them with the colored stick. The purpose of the two different colors is later explained to the children. It is a very effective tool in the process of learning skips in intervals such as thirds and fifths.
The daily singing drills are immediately followed by ear training and sight singing tests to build upon the skills learned thus far. A sticker chart with each child's name on it can generate great enthusiasm for these little contests!
Breaking up these drills, requiring maximum concentration, with well-planned and relaxing pitch matching games can serve as a great relief to the more intense activities. The teacher throws an imaginary ball to a designated child. If the student matches the teacher's pitch in response, it is then said that the child has caught the ball. It is this type of activity which will develop later into the concept of improvisation and composition.
Having the children stand and participate in full body gestures to magnify and internalize rhythmic structure is extremely important. Always starting on an "up pulse", this component will eventually lead to an effective understanding of Gregorian rhythm. The first few weeks deal exclusively with "duple" meter. Later on, the Ward Method will incorporate a rhythmic gesture for "triple" meter, again, always on an "up pulse". The introduction of "down pulse" comes only in the second book of the Ward Method.
A blue-colored chart containing vertical dashes and dots ( I . . ) helps with the visual aspect of rhythm. The children practice tapping the various rhythms with their hands and voice using words such as "la" and "long".
The culmination or end objective of each class is the learning of a new song through actual sight reading. The teacher should make charts of the various songs in the book utilizing different colored magic markers.
The Ward Method does use hand signs to help visualize the rise of pitch, but in a more accurate pictorial representation than the more commonly used "Curwin" system found in other methods. It is also very necessary from the very start to separate those children with a natural gift for matching pitch from those who struggle to do so. The intention is not to silence the weaker singers, but to develop their ears by listening to the model established by those children who naturally and accurately match pitch all the time. In this manner of conducting the class, all children can realize great improvements in singing quality and ability that will result in a lifetime of enjoyment with music making!

Is Ward too long to do for a class that only meets 1 hour per week?

Words with Wings is only 20 lessons, which is a bit on the short side for a year-long course that meets 1× weekly.

@Geremia: Ward would work great. Because there is so much material in Ward, you would actually have time to do each item! Each item in a lesson reinforces the 'performance piece' if you will. In other words, your intonation exercises feature the notes used in the piece and the rhythmic exercises feature the rhythms in your piece. Finally, you would have time to do the dictations, the games, composing, improvising, and conducting to put the icing on the cake. The drilling of all these items all help with retention of the music.
@mrcopper: Many methods start with sol-mi. However, using do and re to begin does indeed work. It also is a good foundation for beginner readers. Reading a step (line to space or vice versa) is much easier than starting with a skip! It also makes sense with building a scale of do-do.
Having used Curwin signs previously, the Ward signs seem much more efficient with the children. Half steps look and feel like half steps, and thus the resulting sound is a half step.

BruceL, I understand. And I have no concept of how to teach changing intonation to youth. Yet if you follow my call in the wilderness, there are TWO very distinct whole tones in music. And really, the untrained singers get it. It's only the keyboard players who have trouble.

Pardon for continuing off-topic, please, but: many theorist derive the C major scale, say, from the fifth below, F.

So the first whole step C to D is the 10/9 ratio, the smaller interval. My extensive work with Josquin brought me around to this view, since in his music the RE is nearly always tuned low, a small whole step above the DO. I'd think most authentic chant should be sung this way too.

The change to a tonic-dominant based music in the classical period changed this, so that most often the RE was heard against a dominant harmony, and thus tuned high with the fifth.

William

Ps for Ryand and others who write or improvise accompaniments to chant, I believe if you keep this one simple rubric in mind your work will be better: under RE, except when the RE is in a fifth relation to SOL, harmonize with ii6 (a subdominant harmony).

Gentlemen, Gentlemen, I think we are missing the point here! The elementary school-aged child will not comprehend or even care whether a major second is tuned sharp or flat. He or she will most likely be sufficiently happy gaining the capacity to recognize the difference between the two pitches regardless of whether they are tuned perfectly or not. Tuning systems such as "mean-tone" or "Kirnberger" bear little relevance to the young student struggling to achieve musical literacy.
Giving the very young child the entire musical scale to grapple with in the first few sessions will entirely defeat the purpose of helping him or her attain proficiency in mastering our musical code. The point that I was trying to make, do not overwhelm the child with too much material in the beginning stages of musical development. Remember the maxim: "less is more".
As to the question posed above, I would not accept from a school principal or curriculum designer a once per week one-hour session with the children in a classroom setting. At the very least, split the solid hour into two evenly-spaced half-hour sessions weekly on alternate days. A good deal can still be accomplished even with this arrangement.
When I first began teaching the Ward Method in a live setting back in 1989, I did so as a volunteer. I insisted from the Catholic school principal in return, for five daily twenty-minute sessions. I began with grades 2, 3 and 4. To save time, I would come into the children's regular classroom with my charts, pitch pipe, lesson plan and, most importantly, the green/red colored stick. The Ward Method was designed by its creator to be a daily music class of twenty minutes duration. Because of the brief time, the teacher must be well prepared and move swiftly through the various sections in order to maximize attention and avoid distractions.
I also made a video tape of a fourth and fifth grade Ward Method music class during the Spring of 1993. Mr. "pipesnposaune" is quite correct in pointing out the more accurate portrayal of the hand signs as used in the Ward Method versus the Curwin system. He is also quite correct in suggesting the deficiencies of the minor third leap from Sol to Mi, a component used in the Kodaly system. The Ward Method "linear" approach in an upward bound expanse is far superior and ultimately more beneficial to the young mind.

Branck, did you know Mrs ward personal?
Ph

I apologize for going off track, but perhaps it was somewhat relevant. In my experience children who somehow have a native ear for music are incredibly quick to pick up and imitate. Lightning speed. So the issue, imo, is more often for the teachers to get what they teach rock solid and correct. Any one who has been around children will agree that they will learn your mistakes with the same lightning speed as they will learn your correct teachings.

Charles and mrcopper, I've tried for a while to think of a way to explain the "different whole steps" issue to choirs. My experience is usually that, around that time, they start flatting on all the leading tones and widening "Fa-Mi" to where it is uncomfortable. A message from God? :)

Mr. Copper is indeed right about the speed at which children are able to learn. Case in point: place an adult and a child in a foreign country with absolutely no familiarity with the native language. Which one would likely grasp that language the quickest? The answer should be quite obvious. "Mrs." pipesnposaune (sorry about that, I tend to not think of a 16' posaune as feminine) is also correct about the Ward Method being effective in an alternate setting of teaching.
After I concluded my teaching of the Ward Method in a private Catholic school environment, I continued the program on an after school basis, albeit in a Methodist church. This allowed me the opportunity of opening up the program to a greater audience, both public and home schooled children as well. We practiced the choral aspect of the program two days per week on Monday and Friday afternoons. Ward Method classes were a required component to participating in the chorus. This was the time when I experienced my greatest success.
But back to my Catholic school experience, I offered students in the Ward Method classes the opportunity to enhance their heightening awareness of music. This included attendance at a classical music concert of the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra. On one such occasion, the orchestra had programmed the 5th Symphony of Jean Sibelius (He wrote a marvelous work for organ entitled "Intrada"). If you love the music of Sibelius as much as I do, you will readily appreciate his native style with those gorgeous, long drawn out and oft repeated melodies. There is just that type of theme in the closing movement of his 5th Symphony.
I decided to put the Ward Method training I had provided to the test by asking the students to sing back to me that recurring prominent theme, heard first in the horns, using solfege syllables, after the concert on the ride home. They were given only "Do" as the starting pitch. Of course, I had to offer an incentive. The winning prize was a $10 bill.
The students accompanying me to the symphony that evening were in the fifth grade and the more advanced Ward Method Book II (orange colored), so they were already familiar with the plagal range of the major scale and tones going below "Do". I gave them a cue with a hand gesture when the special theme started. For those who are not familiar with this particular Sibelius work, the theme begins easily enough on "Do". After which, the patterns of the tones going below "Do" here are followed by skips not found in any of the exercises from the second book. Nevertheless, I decided to give this contest a try anyway.
The theme, of short duration and played in long held notes, repeats itself enough times to allow listeners to memorize the pattern: 1 5 1 7 5 7 6 5 6 7 5 7 1. The "Ti" and "La" are tones that go below "Do".
The Ward Method Book II introduces tones going below "Do" with dots underneath the numbers on the white chart. The children are already familiar with 'high' "Do" from Book I, utilizing a "●" over the "1". In Book Two, the hand signs are also adjusted to aid in referencing the more middle position now of "Do". With the skips in the Sibelius theme and the more linear approach taken in the Ward Method to the plagal range of the scale, an enormous challenge was created for these young budding musicians.
After several attempts at singing the pattern in the car going home, I finally had a winner and promptly parted ways with my $10 bill! I relayed the story of my little contest for these students with Theodore Marier later on. He thought that this approach was a highly imaginative and creative way towards ear training tests. I was pleased by the success of this venture and the potential of Ward Method training.
Justine Ward also knew of the potential in her method and proved it in an highly unusual way during the year 1920. She gathered together some 2,000 children trained in her method from throughout the Archdiocese of New York's parochial school system. Under the conducting leadership of none other than Dom Andre Mocquereau, these children sang a complete chant Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral!
Now, I have to ask. What other music teaching method in current use throughout the elementary schools of the United States could produce equal results? I think the answer would be "none".

I think practical here: could any Ward method student teach music theory class other than Ward method? I think Ward method does not make it easy to sing real music. Like Anton hieller mass in Theodore mariers hymnal. Because Ward method can not teach special rythims (I can not spell that word!). Or sharps and flats either. Am I missing something?
Phil

Bonnie is correct that in the early days of Ward, classroom teachers instructed the method. This is one of the reasons daily music occurred - and the students flourished. The classroom teachers would also go each summer to get trained (certified) in Ward. They did not teach the method on their own.

Today, the students in a typical Ward certification class are already musicians of some sort. If a future teacher has not had a background in theory, solfege, singing, etc., it is quite difficult to hop on board right away. It is not impossible, just merely more difficult.

The Ward Method most certainly contains dotted rhythms, sharps, flats, and contemporary notation. Please refer to the most up to date editions, edited by Theodore Marier. The goal of the method is to make a complete musician: one who can READ music, sing in tune with a good tone quality, knows their rhythms, can compose, improvise, do melodic and rhythmic dictation, and conduct. (Among many other things.)

The method is a step by step, year by year system. The analogy of becoming a concert pianist is not applicable, because the students are not playing piano. However, students most certainly could sing Handel's Messiah or Bach's B Minor Mass as a vocalist. Quite frankly, I had a few 2nd year students who probably could sight read a line out of either of those two selections. (With the correct rhythm and the correct expression.)

Phatflute: I was already a trained, professional musician before coming across the Ward Method. After teaching all levels, including college, I cannot think of a better method (secular or otherwise) that trains the students in this fashion.

Great stories bfrank, thank you for sharing.