“I would rather hear one note sung sincerely with feeling than a thousand sung indifferently.” -- Fred Ritter, MENC Member

When you select music that has a significant text and is arranged musically to deliver the message effectively, the challenge is to interpret the music, and communicate that message to your audience.

Understand the overall meaning and message of the text.

• Focus on the “central truth” of the music first, rather than pounding out notes and
rhythms.
• Study the text.
• Speak the text together as a group.
• Have students offer their own interpretations of the text.
• Have students discuss how the text might apply to them or to others.

When the students understand the message in the music, they will put forth a better effort, and singing will be more satisfying.

Watch the students, and have them watch each other.
Are they convincing? Do you believe them when they sing a long song, a farce, a
drinking song, a patriotic song, a sacred song?

Sing truthfully and convincingly.
If students are singing with full understanding, skills such as excellent diction, tall vowels, proper phrasing, facial expression, proper breathing, and a careful interpretation of dynamics and tempo will naturally occur. Of course, it helps to practice these skills technically, but the application of such skills comes to life when the student is connected to and invested in the music and text. A crescendo is more than just getting louder - it is a strengthening of a moment to enhance the message of the song.

How do you know when the students have connected with the music?
You will hear it in the appreciative applause at a performance, and in discussions or talk the next day in the school or out in the community. If people are talking about the performance, you will have given the audience something to think about.

Truthful singing connected to the text of a piece of music will help students develop the qualities of honesty, sincerity, compassion, trustworthiness, and a willingness to ask questions and be a searcher of the truth - not only in their choral work, but in their lives.

Fred Ritter teaches vocal music to grades 9–12 at Columbus High School in Columbus, Nebraska. The original article (“Tell the Truth! Create a Disturbance! Make a Difference!”) first appeared in the April 2000 issue of Nebraska Music Educator, and was reprinted by permission in the MENC book Spotlight on Teaching Chorus .

See part one and two

Next week: Stay Tuned!

--Sue Rarus, March 4 , 2009, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education