I believe the reason that we tend to do better with numbers is that we spend many years exploring the relationships between numbers - up, down, even, odd, all kinds of things. You'd be hard pressed to find anything else that we've internalized so deeply.

Example: DNOSAJJMAMFJ. What is that? The initials of the months, backward. You would have recognized them quickly going forward, or the days of the week. People struggle to say the alphabet going forward. But we've all be trained during our lifetime to have a much deeper internalization of numbers.

It's a rare person who has internalized Solfege anywhere near as well.

Carl

Me either. What a revelation! Cool, thank you.

Incantu, How did you learn the Ward method? Did you take the class at Catholic U?

Yes, the fundamentals of the Ward Method are as good today as they ever were. And it's not surprising that you could get the hang of it just by reading a few pages -- the curriculum is designed for classroom teachers with no musical training to spend 15-20 minutes a day teaching their students MUSIC, not just learning silly songs by rote.

I do wish that some talented, savvy editor would update the method for 21st century use, making it more immediately user-friendly for today's culture.

I have also wondered about immediately exposing the children to the paleography (as in the Graduale Triplex). Imagine just the paleography and scale degrees, something like this:


* & $ % ^ @ # $ & *( ! %

1 2 1 2 3 . 4 3 2 . 4 3 2 1

Re-gi-na cae-li lae-ta-re al-le-lu-ia.

(Use your imagination to see Messine neums where I typed $%^&*)

It would train students right away to find the melody right above the text, and the rhythm separately right above that. I'm convinced that children would pick up on the subtleties of the paleography instantly.

I'm thinking of doing something like this with my choir. After we memorize a chant, we will write it on a whiteboard, coming up with symbols as we go. (I will of course steer them in the direction of the neumes). I imagine it would look something like the example "Hosanna filio David" below (which i just whipped up in 3 minutes, and only to post here). Once we learn how to write down something we already know, then we can use this system of notation to learn something unfamiliar. This is basically how notation developed!

Eventually it will not be necessary to look at the solfege (notated in numbers), since the melodies will be wedded to the text in the memory. In other words, the melodic study will not be by rote, but the interpretation (which could vary with each performance) will be based on memory and following the director's chironomy.

Is this a crazy idea? Or is it...genius?

Olbash -

My freshman year in music school, the orchestra conductor led us in an exercise of composing together as a group a piece of music to represent the formation of the universe, from chaos into order. Imagine our surprise when he played a recording of the first movement of Haydn's "The Creation" that almost exactly matched what we had written on the board! This can be done, and I think it will help singers to understand the neumes from the "inside out" rather than looking at them from a historical perspective.

I guess what I want to know is, do you think it would be useful to transcribe a number of chants in this way (perhaps using handwritten neumes or creating a sort of neume font) for use with children and even adult scholae?

As a Ward teacher, I strongly advise against a Ward-do-it-yourself-method. The instruction of a prospective teacher by a qualified Ward teacher at the college level is necessary in order to learn how to present all the parts and integrating the various aspects into a complete Ward lesson: proper voice placement, singing on pitch and training those who can't match pitches; vocal exercises; intonation exercises; ear dictation of melodies ("listening games); eye dictation of melodies ("looking" games); conducting using various rhythm gestures; staff notation; practicing rhythm patterns; melodic applications of those rhythm patterns- -followed by rhythmic dictation using those patterns; creative activity, which includes composing short songs, and finally, the sight-reading and singing of a new song each day. Justine Ward thought of everything in this wonderful method. And the students have alot of fun with it, the various aspects of a lesson moving quickly. Those aspects cited above take place in EVERY Ward lesson. Please check the Ward Center website in San Antonio to read background on Ward method, history and philosophy, etc. http://www.wardcenter.org

Instruction is available at The Catholic University of America (CUA)every summer, through the Ward Center. Contact is Fr. Robert Skeris, Director of the Ward Center. The Ward One class is a week-long intensive course. Ward courses are also available through the Ward Center at San Antonio, Texas. Amy Zuberbueler, head of the San Antonio center and who teaches Ward Two and Three at CUA, will teach at other times in San Antonio, or will travel on a series of 5 or 6 weekends to a designated area, depending on interest. Check all of this out at the website above. I might add that taking the classes to become a Ward teacher is alot of fun, too!

I have to agree with Elizabeth that I wouldn't attempt to teach anything without a certain mastery of that subject. However, if you have a thorough knowledge of chant then I think you can lift certain concepts from Ward's methodology in order to teach it. I'm not sure that the opposite is necessarily true.

For instance, Ward did not invent solfege, which has been used successfully for a thousand years as a pedagogical tool. But the idea of using numbers to represent the syllables (which is different than singing the scale-degree numbers themselves) is one that I have not found in other sources. Her method is just that -- a method, not unlike the Solesmes method. It is useful, but it does not necessarily reflect the historical performance practices of the sacred chant. Even she admits to "lying" about the names of neumes in early lessons (calling every doubled note a pressus) so as not to confuse students. It is a means to an end, and a most worthy end indeed. The point of my original post was to say "hey, I think she's on to something here " (in spite of some of the anachronisms on which her theory of chant is based), and to urge other educators to give the Ward method a closer look.

I'm interested to know what is taught in the teacher training programs mentioned above. Certainly it is not limited to the original text of Ward's instruction books, which I cannot imagine anyone would take seriously in a modern setting with its outdated language. For example, she uses "he" (presumable as a neuter pronoun to include both men and women) when referring to singers and directors, but "she" when referring to the classroom teacher! I'd be interested to learn about method books that are designed to be used with children in the 21st century.

I ordered Books 1 through 3 from CUA Press about five years ago. They were still selling the ones that Ted Marier edited in the 80's. Are there more recent editions?

Has anyone around ever taught adult beginners by exactly following the "Gregorian Chant Practicum"?
IMHO, the intonation exercises are hard for beginners and the rythmic gestures on the up pulse are not practiced long enough to give good habits (those using chironomy come a bit early). Any advice welcome.

Bridget: From the very beginning I divide the class up into listening and singing groups in several different ways: boys / girls, 7 year olds / eight year olds, left half of the room / right half of the room. If you establish this taking-turns method, students will not notice when you then divide them into "green" and "orange" (or "cardinals" and "blue jays" - whatever you call the (pitch-matchers and monotones). The other half can always be included either in active listening or in beating time.

jgirod, one music director near Hilton Head developed an adult Ward Method for her parish and had alot of response. It resulted in more people joining her choirs! She and the group had alot of fun doing those courses. She is quite ill right now and is no longer at that parish. You asked specifically about the Chant Practicum book. I used its principles (1) to teach a workshop of for 8 or 9 adults a few years ago. They could not read chant, and some could not read music. They got acquainted with modes (I made copies of Marier's diagrams on a big chart); solfege; learned how to count out the rhythms- - 1-2/1-2-3, got acquainted with arsis/thesis, and learned to sing some chants. I met with them one hour per week for six weeks. It was advertised as "Learn to Sing the Square Notes- - and Introduction to Gregorian Chant." The mode exercises in the back of the Practicum book are excellent- - I understand that J. Ward got them from Dom Mocquereau. Also, I used the same method in teaching a small men's schola for over two years. Most had no acquaintance with solfege but they were willing and applied themselves. They got to be quite proficient with all of this (above)and we sang at some high feast-day Masses. We worked only one hour per week- -VERY early on Saturday morning (their choice, as most of them had big families).

Bridget- - re naming those poor little out-of-tune singers(OOTS, hereafter): if you name the groups after birds, as J. Ward did, the children will figure out which are the least attractive birds. (I think she called one group "sparrows.") Nancy Fazio, the instructor for Ward One said NOT to name them after birds- - for the reason I mentioned. I named my groups after the three archangels- - and the children loved that concept. Colors would also work as names. Then if you have the groups sing for one another in class, the best and better groups will model on-pitch singing for the OOTS-angels. I would do this for the first exercises/tune-ups at the beginning of class.. But also, you need to work with individual OOTS in pitch-matching- - a few seconds per child, for as many as you can do. Sometimes not with each child each day. (Sometimes I would have one or two children come a few minutes early to class, just to work with pitches- - and the whole class was not there to hear them.) You can do some intonation exercises by group; by row; by boys; by girls. And you can do intonation exercises with everyone, including OOTS. When you have the OOTS-angels sing by themselves (which you should do sometimes as a group) you might find some snickering among the better singers. The first time that happens, you should "fix" it. I did so by (1) telling these Catholic kids that it is uncharitable to poke fun at someone, especially when they are trying to learn something new, and (2) telling them that God gives gifts to everyone, but not all receive the same gifts. Someone might be good at singing, but not at writing, skating, or throwing a ball- - and vice versa- - and cited my own lack of skill at hitting a softball years ago, etc. I didn't hear any snickers after that. It is important that you "take up" for the OOTS, and the snicker-ers need to be admonished. Incantu made some very good suggestions, above, which I am sure you have read.

I don't think you will have problems with parents if you do these types of things with your classes. The children know you care about them - - or you wouldn't be doing these classes. They have fun with Ward and are learning unconsciously.
And they do want to learn and will be grateful to you for helping them with this ear training.

I agree with you that you should not tell any individual child not to sing; it wounds them. My daughter-in-law was one such "victim" in the 5th grade in a public school. She was told to just "mouth the words." But if you take them by GROUPS and if you work briefly with individuals, the OOTS can hear the modeling of others and in a semester you will have most if not all singing on pitch. Matching pitches is a matter of ear training, and Ward does this so well. Note that her first book is entitled "That ALL May Sing." The younger the child, the easier it is to teach them to match pitches because they are not self-conscious then- - after about 2nd grade,or age 8 years, they become more so. And the progression of the lesson is such that you are into another part of the lesson where an OOTS might shine. However, singing on pitch is very important, as we all know! Best wishes to you in all this. I hope these comments help.

This is an incredibly interesting and helpful commentary.

While I believe church music policy must be conceived by and directed to thoughtful adult minds, Jeff is correct that our primary focus should be the musical development of children. The realization of CMAA goals depends on it.

The question is how we do this when the tone and direction of music is often set by religious ed directors and youth ministers who have little experience in music education. (Did anyone notice that over at Pray Tell no one took my bait regarding the LA Religious Ed Congress?) There are a few parish music directors in my area that struggle to establish children’s music programs, but they really are the exception. The pressures working against them are just too great.

After the Ward demo on Saturday which Elizabeth presented with her grandson, Christian, I was keep thinking how beautiful our Liturgy would be, if all the Catholic children learn to sing like him.

The medievals considered music a branch of mathematics, so it's not unfitting to use numerals instead of Do, Re, Me, etc.

Just to clarify: In the Ward Method 1, 2, 3 = "Do, Re, Mi" (etc)

Correction, "a drop of golden sun."

Learn a role (in ones remote youth,) it stays with one for life...

I am going to try to sneak in teaching a bit of chant in CCD next year, didn't work out when I tried it this year because of a teaching partner.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Henry, in response to making music class "fun," I think the answer lies in the method itself. Currently, I am using the Ward method with my 3rd grade and 4th grade religion classes. We do Ward twice per week for 30 minutes each time.

The students actually love coming to class -- especially the boys. The creative activities are a great way to engage the students. My students always want to do the "ball game" activity. If individuals are having trouble singing the responses, we all sing them together until they are confident enough to sing on their own. We do the creative activity half-way through the lesson; it's where Ward scheduled it, and it breaks up the period nicely.

Granted, the students are probably comparing doing the Ward to traditional religion classes and not to traditional music classes, but my experience has been that the method is naturally engaging.