Description
This exercise helps students learn to hear harmony and learn to listen to other parts while singing their own notes independently.
Materials
Nothing!
Full Lesson Plan
Having students who have no background in choral singing learn to sing harmony independently can be tricky. This simple exercise has helped to develop better listening and tuning in my musical theater program.
1. Teach singers the basic major scale using solfege (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do).
2. Practice singing the scale going up and down. Have the singers listen to each other to make sure pitches are the same!
3. Divide singers into 4 groups. Have the singers sing unison going up, but have one group hold DO on the top while the other three groups start to descend. Have a group stop on SOL while the other two groups continue down. Have one group stop and hold Mi while the last group finishes the scale and holds DO. This creates a basic triad, but needs to stay in tune while other vocal lines are moving.
4. Continue pushing the singers to grow musically by creating suspended chords that the group holds, having them resolve the chord on the last note. An example is this: Group one holds DO on top, the second group stops on La, the third group stops on Fa, the last group stops on Re, and the entire group resolves to the Do, Mi, Sol, Do triad at the end.
5. Students can move their assigned group to sing any of the vocal lines. Students can be challenged to write their own scales, especially finding a line or two from the show that they can incorporate into a fun warm-up!