Tone building strategies used for beginning high school choirs

The purpose of this study was to determine what vocal strategies were used by ten high school master teachers of a beginning choir or with beginning students in a multi-level choir. This study targeted current practices by outstanding high school teachers, via interviews and observational analysis of tone building strategies.;Ten master teachers, from Florida, Georgia and Kentucky, were chosen based on (1) membership within professional choral organizations, (2) state festival participation for at least five years---earning superior ratings OR by conducting a state, regional or nationally refereed invited conference OR by serving as adjudicator for district, state or national festivals (3) at least 10 years of successful secondary level teaching experience OR some high school teaching experience and at least 10 years successful university level teaching experience.;The master teachers completed interview questions concerning strategies for tone building, followed by teacher demonstration of two vocalizes from each category: breath, resonance, range extension, phonation, and vowel development. The master teachers then explained their goals for each strategy and specified special conditions for male and female singers. Third the interviewer then observed/recorded master teachers performing tone-building exercises with their beginning choir. Interviews and observations were recorded, scripted then analyzed to identify tone-building strategies used by expert high school teachers.;The data revealed that these master teachers used similar strategies, but varied in methodology unique to the individual teacher and the students in the classroom. The findings also indicated that these master teachers differentiated instruction for male and female singers when necessary, used modeling, movement, and descriptive language to accompany technical language. Finally, master teachers used strategies that aligned with current practice in pedagogical literature.