Help for Diocesan music teachers afraid of chant
  • JonLaird
    Posts: 246
    My wife is the general music teacher for preschool-8 Catholic school in our diocese. At music teacher meetings it is common for her to hear some teachers say that their pastors are trying to get them to teach the kids chant, hymns, Latin, etc., but that it's too hard and the children don't like it. Since my wife is occasionally asked to organize these meetings and arrange for guest speakers, she is thinking it would be good to have someone experienced in successfully teaching chant to children who could gently give these teachers some guidance at a meeting sometime in the future. Since she is one of their peers in the diocese she does not feel that she would have as much credibility with them at this time to do such a presentation herself.

    If anyone can think of such a person who lives or works in the DC area, please PM me.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Jon,

    Start at Christendom College. Kurt Poterack has been training musicians for quite some time now, and surely one of them has successfully trained children to love chant.
    Thanked by 1JonLaird
  • JonLaird
    Posts: 246
    I don't know why I didn't think of that, thank you.
  • pipesnposaune
    Posts: 113
    Also - Fr. Skeris at CUA. He could recommend quite a few in the DC area or could possibly be available himself. The music teachers in the DC area should highly consider taking Ward training and/or a chant class in the summer at CUA. It can count towards college credit for those needing certification requirements. http://music.cua.edu/ward-method.cfm
  • Daniel Bennett PageDaniel Bennett Page
    Posts: 837
    Arlene Oost-Zinner, for sure.
  • Steve QSteve Q
    Posts: 121
    ...some teachers say that their pastors are trying to get them to teach the kids chant, hymns, Latin, etc., but that it's too hard and the children don't like it.


    They should listen to these kids:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lrwBQn4Bg0
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,995
    I know it is hard to believe, but some folks genuinely hate chant. I am not one of them, but I know they are definitely around in large numbers.
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    That video is lovely - do you know more about that school? where is it? I would like to use the video for demonstration purposes and wanted to check it was not some fringe group that would not go down well with my folks. Thanks
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    okay found it - it is St Theresa Catholic school in Sugarland texas - looks great. Looks like I can use the video with no qualms - maybe I can persuade our schola kids to do a video for the parish website. (Hmm - brain whirring)
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Susan Carroll.
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen JonLaird Kathy
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,489
    That's my former parish. All kudus to Fr. Bart Reynolds the pastor, and Jonathan Beeson, headmaster of St. Theresa Academy!
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,206
    Susan Carroll is excellent!!!
    Thanked by 3noel jones, aago JonLaird Kathy
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    Children are simply fantastic at learning chant. When it's presented with joy and devotion, and when they are challenged and not talked down to, their singing soars quite easily.

    Here is a video about our chant camps in San Diego-
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9nHuE2Lfmd0


    Before anyone thinks that this is only possible in an EF context, allow me to mention that half the kids who attend are outside the parish. And this year I'll be leading camps in other cites, and in both forms of our rite.

    The Latin allergy, the hesitancy to sing out and sing acapella- these are primarily adult fears. Children happily lack the baggage and inhibition.

    I wish I lived in the DC area- I'd jump at the chance to help. Might I mention Kathy Pluth? She has demonstrated fine work with youth scholas in and around DC.
    Thanked by 2JonLaird Kathy
  • JonLaird
    Posts: 246
    Thanks, MaryAnn -- actually Kathy messaged me shortly after I posted the discussion, and hopefully it will work out. I ought to have thought of her first! Anyway, I appreciate the video of your chant camp, which is similar to an idea we've had for a several years at my parish, but we simple have not had the time and resources to do it yet. Someday I might be contacting you to see your format.
    Thanked by 1Kathy
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,516
    Thanks, MaryAnn and Jon. Lots of folks here would be great. In my opinion (which I'm sure people on the Chant Cafe are tired of by now), chant instruction for children is the magic silver bullet. It fortifies their little souls. Chant is like a musical language, so much easier to learn in early life.
  • JonLaird
    Posts: 246
    chant instruction for children is the magic silver bullet

    My wife has definitely found this to be true at our parish, where the treble choir she directs is booming (even while our main adult choir -- under my direction -- is really struggling in terms of numbers and musical growth, though the members are wonderful people and very dedicated workers). In our third year, we have close to 50 children, and some of the older ones will soon be feeding in to the adult choirs and will surely have a very positive effect. When they come in for individual hearings, the most common things they sing (they get a to choose their own piece) are the seasonal Marian antiphons, particularly Salve Regina or Alma Redemptoris Mater. This is why I do not worry too much about struggles with the adult choirs, because we are planting seeds that will blossom and renew the musical life of our parish in a much more permanent fashion.
    Thanked by 2Kathy bonniebede
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