North Central Observation Report

Kate Urbanowski
North Central Northernaires Gospel Choir
The first class I observed was the gospel choir. This choir is made
up of students from grades 10-12 and is taught by Michael Raunick.
The classroom had risers set up with chairs on the risers for the
students to sit in. The piano was in the front of the classroom, and
there were drums played by a student in the corner of the classroom.
The front wall of the room had a large mirror where students could
watch themselves while they sing to ensure proper technique. If I was
the teacher, I would definitely keep the mirror open so the students
can make sure they have the correct posture and maintain correct
vowel shape. At the beginning of class, the students got their folders
and took their seats. Mr. Raunick read the school announcements to
them, at which they barely paid attention. Then, a student leader came
up to the front of the class and asked for the word of the day. A few
students came up and talked about things in their recent personal life
that were significant. It was very inspiring for the whole class and the
student response to this was very positive and supportive. Next, the
director asked them to stand and warm up. He led them in about 5
different warm-ups, which I could tell are the same warm ups they do
every day during class because the students seemed to know which
one was coming next. He started with a breathing exercise and
followed with an exercise focusing on vowel formation. Next, he led the
Down to the bottom of the sea we go warm-up and ended with a
solfedge exercise. If I were teaching, I would most definitely use some
of the same warm ups every class period, but I would also use different
ones specific to what I was hearing that day. Next, all of a sudden the
drums and piano started to play and the choir started singing what
seemed to be a gospel type warm up. The choir had an amazing sound
and timbre. Next, the students sat and they did 5 sight reading
exercises. The students found and established the key, and then did
the sight reading on solfedge. Mr. Raunick says the students work on
sight reading every Tuesday or Thursday which I think is a great idea
because sight reading is a skill that can always be improved. The
students did a very good job with the exercises and I could tell that
they have learned a lot from practicing it routinely. The next thing the
Northernaires did in class was sing and review one of their more
classical pieces, Gloria in D Major. They had great dynamic contrast,
were extremely engaged, but their balance between parts was not very
good. Mr. Raunick spent about five minutes working with the tenors on
a few measures because they werent being heard enough since there
were only three of them. If I were teaching, I wouldve just moved a
few baritones up to the tenor part for those few measures to make sure

they were heard. Finally, the choir finally started singing some of their
gospel pieces. I found this incredibly interesting because I have never
seen a true gospel choir before. Their sound was incredible and it was
very cool because there were two student conductors who led the
whole group as well as the director on piano and the student drummer.
Overall, I was very engaged and interested by the whole lesson
because I have never seen a group like this. The choir had so much
energy and they channeled that energy into the music even though
they were sometimes extremely chatty.

Symphony Orchestra Strings

The symphony orchestra is the top orchestra at North Central
and is directed by Craig Ghormley. Before the bell even had rung, the
students were coming in, getting their instruments, and beginning to
warm up. The classroom set up was extremely tight and there isnt
much room to move around. The classroom itself is very small, but the
chairs and music stands are so close together that it would be hard to
get out of. The orchestra did one warm-up together, an E flat scale, and
then they went right into working on a piece. This warm-up was to
ensure the orchestra was in tune and together. The children were
extremely quiet and attentive throughout the entire lesson. The
director provided many physical and verbal models for the students to
show them how they should be playing. If I were a teacher, I would
definitely do that to show the students how to play their instruments in
a specific portion of the song. After they worked on their new piece,
they played two pieces from their last concert. You could definitely tell
the difference of sounds and quality from their new piece to their old
piece, but that is the case in any ensemble! My overall impression was
very positive because I do not play instruments I have a great respect
for people who do. The teacher was very effective in his models and
instruction to the class, and the students were very attentive.
Counterpoints
The Counterpoints are North Centrals top show/concert choir. It
is made up by students grade 10-12 and is directed by Michael
Raunick. The Counterpoints had a different classroom set up, chairs
both on risers and on the ground in a U formation, because they were
rehearsing to record a Christmas album. The first thing I noticed is that
there was absolutely no talking during the beginning of class, very
different than the gospel choir. They started to warm up and they used
the same warm-ups as the Northernaires which shows that the teacher

has the same set of warm-ups everyday. Like I stated earlier, if I were a
teacher, I would switch up the warm-ups I used based on what I hear
and based on which group it is. Then, right after their warm-ups they
started working on their Christmas songs for the album they are
recording. Throughout the rehearsal, the teacher would start and stop
to work on perfecting every detail. It was obvious the parts of the song
that werent as clean as others, and Mr. Raunick did a great job of
finding those spots and rehearsing them to perfection. He explained
that normally the group would be doing a variety of music as well as
show choir choreography, but because they were in a time crunch to
record this album they only rehearsed the music. Overall, I was
extremely impressed with the Counterpoints. In my opinion, they are
one of the most talented high school choirs in Indiana and they way
they rehearsed definitely proves that.