Vocal Technique:

The Choral Warm-up Collection:

Albrect, Sally K. The Choral Warm-up Collection: A Sourcebook of 167 Choral Warmups
Contributed by 51 Choral Directors. S.l.: Alfred, 2003. Print.
The Choral Warm-up Collection is a resource with vocal warm-ups compiled by over fifty choral
directors from all walks of life. Within the covers there are warm-ups including breathing
techniques, flexibility, vowel structure, diction, intervals, intonation, scales, phrasing, blend,
dynamics, chords, minor warm-ups, range and rounds. As I flip through this book I notice many
exercises that I have used in passed ensembles. In addition, I have taken some of these warm-ups
when teaching in MUSE 258. These are all made to work well in a choral setting. I believe it is
helpful that this book is separated into sections based on concept to better help students and
educators when locating ideas to use within a choral rehearsal. In addition, each concept has an
explanation to assist in the teaching process and explain how and why this exercise is useful.
There is a wide age range in which this resource would be appropriate for. I would definitely use
the book in my classroom, no matter what grade I am teaching.

Successful Warmups: Book 1 and 2

Telfer, Nancy. Successful Warmups, Book 1 and 2. San Diego, CA: Neil A. Kjos Music, 1995.
Print.
The title of this book speaks for itself. The purpose and outcome of this book is to utilize
exercises that will be successful in the classroom. This may take some concentration and practice
but warm-ups are not all supposed to be easy to master. A color coded system was created to help
the individuals identify specified tips, reminders, breathing strategies and posture while making
use of the exercise. First and second year vocalists would use book one while book two is
divided up for third and fourth year vocalists. Each book takes advantage of the same concepts
overall but the difficulty level has risen in the second book. The first book discusses diction,
mouth placement, vocal technique, posture, breath support, and choral technique in a way that is
helpful for beginning singers. It is important to create a strong foundation is vocal technique for
early singers. This book does a great job doing so. With an understanding layout and well
thought-out exercises, this book will be a resource I use in the future.

Music Literacy:
Sound Connections
Ester, Don P. Sound Connections: Educational Exclusives, 2010. Print.
Dr. Don Ester is effective in his approach and delivery of a music literacy resource. He has
specifically chosen which tonal and rhythm syllable systems should be used in educating young
musicians. With that said, other systems are explained through their strengths and weaknesses.
Having a better understanding of each system is incredibly important before choosing which is
best for your students. In addition, he gives a vast amount of resources to use in the classroom
when assessing the knowledge of students. He uses a strategic process, laid out in the book,
when educating individuals using moveable do, la minor and takadimi. I currently use the
resource while at Ball State University and have seen an increase in my overall musicianship
because of it. This is a resource that is made to use daily within the classroom. Also, this book is
in sequential order to better assist in the learning process. I will continue to study from Sound
Connections and plan to implement it into my classroom.

The Jenson Sightsinging Course

Music Literacy Bauguess, David. The Jenson Sight Singing Course. New Berlin, Wis,: Jenson
Publications, 1984. Print.
The exercises used in this book range from simple rhythms and stepwise melodic phrases to
multi-lined part reading. There are a vast amount of exercises all complied into this resource. It is
broken up from level one to level nine. Along the way difficultly increases and melodies
expanded upon. This resource is strictly only sight reading material. I look forward to
implementing other concepts into these exercises to improve other aspects of musicianship. The
downside is that there is no explanation of the exercises or ways to go about mastery when
reading them. Finding a book that can offer more to my students is something that I am looking
for. The exercises seem useful therefore I could see myself taking different melodies from this
book. I would not rely on this book to help with all students sight reading skills.