This page features both inservice and preservice teaching, recorded with real choirs in a variety of rehearsal settings. These videos highlight my accomplishments as a musician, teacher, conductor, and rehearsal technician.
Warm Up and Sight Reading Sequence
Footage from a daily rehearsal at Foothill High School in Henderson, NV, directed by Sarah Earl.
This video features the FHS Concert Choir, an unauditioned SA ensemble of about 20 women, mainly in grades 9 and 10. This class includes several students with special needs, including a few with extreme special needs. Students’ faces have been deliberately left out of the frame as much as possible.
This video illustrates a stretch, warm up, and sight reading process which you would observe at the beginning of most typical rehearsals in Ms. Earl’s class. Here is the sequence shown in this video:
1. Solfege Name That Tune Each class starts with a “name that tune” bell ringer- a popular tune spelled out in solfege. Students work on sounding out the tune individually before we do it as a whole class and try to guess what the song is. Here’s this one: [ d s d r m f m r s, l, t, d r m f m r d ] (Can’t Help Falling in Love With You by Elvis Presley)
2. Stretch Sometimes led by a student. Often to to the tune that we just worked out, so students can check it against the solfege on the board. Stretching prepares the body to sing.
3. Warm Ups Warm ups are always directed by Ms. Earl and carefully chosen to meet the demands of the day’s repertoire. Warm Ups are really for developing vocal technique, not just making noise with the voice. This is one of the most important parts of rehearsal, where we vocals on phonation, intonation, vowel placement and articulation, etc.
4. Solfege and Sight Reading Inspired by the Kodaly Method, Ms. Earl gives a heavy emphasis to solfege, ear training, and sight reading skills. Students use solfege syllables and hand signs to improve their ability to read music, write music, and hear music in their heads (a skill called audiation). This process includes pre-dictation exercises where the teacher sings a pattern and the students must label it, preparing them to start writing down music that they hear, which will happen near the end of the school year. Students are able to sing in both major and minor modes, a skill not common among unauditioned choirs.
Most of these students did not know how to read music at the beginning of this school year.
Foothill High School Rehearsal and Performance
This footages comes from my second year of teaching, at Foothill HS in Henderson, NV. At the time, Foothill’s choir program was rebuilding amidst the end of the pandemic. This footage was taken from several rehearsals between the 1st-8th of December, 2021. Masks were required during rehearsals but the teacher was permitted to unmask for performances and demonstrations. Students’ faces were deliberately left of out frame in much of this footage.
Community/Collegiate Choir Rehearsal
To give a larger-scope sample of my abilities as a teacher and rehearsal technician, I have included footage from a rehearsal of my community choir, Hosanna Singers, preparing selections from Rob Gardner’s “Lamb of God.” Choir members are mostly non-music majors in BYU Men’s Chorus and Women’s Chorus.
Student Teaching Choir Demo Lesson
For this demo lesson I prepared and introduced a new piece of music to a High School Chamber Choir. Objective: Students will demonstrate the ability to perform verse one of “Like a River” (arranged by Tim Osiek) with correct notes and rhythms, proper choral vowels, accurate intonation, and expressive phrasing.
Elementary Music Demo Lesson
I was asked to prepare and teach a 20 minute lesson to a 5th grade elementary music class with the objective: “Students will be able to sing in three part harmony.” Click HERE to view the lesson plan associated with this video.
Sarah Earl
Sarah Earl Music 