Submitted by Gretchen Taylor, Illinois
Idea posted October 23, 2002
This upcoming week, I've got Whacky Sounds (from Music K-8, Vol. 10, No. 5) planned as a warm-up piece to use with 7th grade (I'd use it, too, with 6-8). The purpose of this warm-up is to "find their voice." In other words, the warm-up has 3 vocal parts (each placed a bit higher than the other). I'll go through each part individually with the whole class, then, when I run the CD, I'll simply tell them to pick the part that feels the most comfortable in their own voice. I'm assuming the boys will take the lower part, and the girls will end up dividing between the upper two parts. Down the road, we'll be adding rhythm instruments and (hopefully) Boomwhackers®, too. I did this last year and the class (8ths actually) really got into it.
In general, when I've got more singing planned for any of my middler groups, I always begin with a solfège warm-up. I do basic patterns like SMD, SSSfmrd, etc. and simply take each of the patterns up and down chromatically. They never have balked at this kind of thing (except when I throw in the hand signs). I'll also do minor patterns like LTDTLSL, etc. They really get the solfège in their heads too.
I'm going to do the same kind of "find your voice" thing with my 6ths using "Lion Sleeps Tonight" on the Weemaweh section (it's got 3 parts, too).