1. Getting Started

Introduction

Breathing and Posture

Leeav and side-kick Emily explore great posture and essential breathing technique so that you can produce a beautiful sound.

Vocal Warm-Ups

Leeav and Emily teach two great warm-ups, to loosen up and prepare your body to sing.

Posture
How you hold your body.  In music, good posture means shoulders back, sitting or standing up straight, and rib cage open. Having good posture will help you produce the best sound that you can.

Listen
You might think that making music is all about getting other people to listen to you!  But in fact, the best musicians are the ones who listen the most.  When you sing, you want to listen to yourself, listen to other people you are singing with, and listen to your audience.

Breathing
Of course you know how to breathe!  But in music, really knowing how to breathe will mean that you can sing longer, sing louder, and sing better!  To take a really good breath, you want to take in air through your nose and feel your chest fill completely with air.  When you can’t fit any more air in, slowly let all the air out. Repeat.  When you’re taking these big, deep breaths, don’t forget to keep your posture.

Warm-Up
To sing you use muscles in your body.  Just as you would warm-up your body before before you run or play sport, it’s important to warm-up your voice before you sing.

1.0 Artistic Expression
Listen to, Analyze, and Describe Music
1.4 Describe music according to its elements, using terminology of music.

2.0 Creative Expression
Apply Vocal and Instrumental Skills
2.1 Sing a varied repertoire of music from diverse cultures, including rounds, descants, and songs with ostinatos, alone and with others.

3.0 Historical and Cultural Context
Diversity of Music
3.1 Sing and play music from diverse cultures and time periods.

4.0 Aesthetic Valuing
Analyze and Critically Assess
4.1 Use specific criteria when judging the relative quality of musical performances.
Derive Meaning
4.2 Describe the characteristics that make a performance a work of art.

5.0 Connections, Relationships, and Applications
Connections and Applications
5.1 Identify and interpret expressive characteristics in works of art and music.
5.2 Integrate several art disciplines (dance, music, theater, or the visual arts) into a well-organized presentation or performance.
5.3 Relate dance movements to express musical elements or represent musical intent in specific music.
5.4 Evaluate improvement in personal musical performances after practice or rehearsal (Careers and Career-Related S

Performing

• MU.PR.4.4d. Demonstrate an understanding of musical concepts (e.g. physical, verbal, or written response–understanding of musical concepts and how creators use them to convey expressive intent).
• MU.PR.5.4b. With an appropriate level of independence rehearse to refine technique, expression, and identified performance challenges.
• MU.PR.6.4a. Perform music with appropriate expression, technique, and interpretation.
• MU.PR.6.4b. Demonstrate performance and audience decorum appropriate for the occasion.

Responding

• MU.RE.7.4a. Explain how music listening is influenced by personal interest, knowledge, purpose, and context.
• MU.RE.7.4b. Demonstrate and explain how musical concepts and contexts affect responses to music.
• MU.RE.8.4a. Demonstrate and describe expressive attributes and how they support creators’/ performers’ expressive intent.
• MU.RE.9.4a. Apply teacher-provided and collaboratively-developed criteria to evaluate musical works and performances.

Connecting

• MU.CN.10.4b. Describe the roles and impact various musics plays in one’s life and the lives of others.
• MU.CN.11.4a. Explore and describe relationships between musics and other content areas (e.g. dance, visual art, dramatic arts, literature, science, math, social studies, and language arts).
• MU.CN.11.4b. Describe how context (e.g. social, cultural, and historical) can inform a performance.

Creativity and Innovation

• Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts.
• Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others effectively.
• Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives; incorporate group input and feedback into the work.
• View failure as an opportunity to learn; understand that creativity and innovation is a long-term, cyclical process of small successes and frequent mistakes.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

• Use Systems Thinking: Analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in complex systems.
• Make Judgements and Decisions: Reflect critically on learning experiences and processes.

Communication and Collaboration

• Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts.
• Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes and intentions.
• Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate and persuade).
• Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams.
• Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal.
• Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member

Flexibility and Adaptability

• Incorporate feedback effectively.
• Deal positively with praise, setbacks and criticism.
• Understand, negotiate and balance diverse views and beliefs to reach workable solutions, particularly in multi-cultural environments.

Initiative and Self Direction

• Set goals with tangible and intangible success criteria.
• Balance tactical (short-term) and strategic (long-term) goals.
• Be Self-directed learners: Go beyond basic mastery of skills and/or curriculum to explore and expand one’s own learning and opportunities to gain expertise.
• Reflect critically on past experiences in order to inform future progress.

Communication and Collaboration

• Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts.
• Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes and intentions.
• Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate and persuade).
• Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams.
• Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal.
• Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member.

Leadership and Responsibility

• Guide and Lead Others: use interpersonal and problem-solving skills to influence and guide others toward a goal.
• Leverage strengths of others to accomplish a common goal.
• Inspire others to reach their very best via example and selflessnes.
• Be Responsible to Others: act responsibly with the interests of the larger community in mind

Social and Cross-Cultural Skills

• Interact Effectively with Others: know when it is appropriate to listen and when to speak.
• Work Effectively in Diverse Teams: respond with an open mind to different ideas and values.
  Productivity and Accountability

Productivity and Accountability

• Manage Projects: set and meet goals, even in the face of obstacles and competing pressure.
• Produce Results: Demonstrate additional attributes associated with producing high quality products including the abilities to: work positively, manage time and projects effectively, multi-task, participate actively, collaborate and cooperate effectively with teams, respect and appreciate team diversity, be accountable for results.