Alisha Reeve MUSE 356 - Choral Methods Citation 1: Appropriate Voicings for Middle School Choruses Lon Berry

March 1996 Discussion Voicing for any chorus can be tricky. Voicing for Middle School choirs can be particularly arduous. Voices are changes greatly during this time, most especially during seventh and eighth grade. He states that balance is particularly important and very often females will largely outnumber the males. This article gives many ideas for various voicings for choirs. These include Unison, Two-part Treble, SATB, Three-part, which includes SSA, Three-part mixed, and SAB, and Three-part mixed, optional Baritone. He argues for adding option low notes for those voices that may have changed so they too get good experiences from Choral music. Knowing the many options available for Middle School choirs is very important. As a new teacher I will have to make decisions for my choirs likely knowing very little about the students I will have other than enrollment and maybe previous repertoire. I will likely have to choose music that could work for any group I may encounter and this may take adjustments, such as adding optional Baritone parts. It is good to know of resources that list songs that are easily adapted in this way.