Sharon Szymanski wrote:
>After 7 years of adjunct teaching at the University of North Carolina
>at Chapel Hill, I have gone totally private and have a thriving studio with
>40 personal students of all ages, as well as an assistant teacher with 20
>beginning students of her own. She is a wonderful new teacher and is doing
>a great job with her students, but confessed recently that choosing
>appropriate repertoire for beginners, especially those who might not read
>music terribly well, or those who have limited musical experience, was
>difficult. I agreed!
> I am trying to get together a list for her of appropriate repertoire
>
Welcome back and congratulations on your thriving studio!! Most of the
resources that I use are at my own studio, so I'll have to rely on my
memory. I find the Royal Conservatory of Music syllabus and Song Book
series of graded repertoire books especially useful for beginners of all
levels. The only things missing from the RCM voice program are
selections from musical theatre and standard pop songs. For these I
like the Teen's Musical Theatre collections (one for men and one for
women) edited by Louise Lerch and the Kids Broadway Book. Standard
Ballads in two volumes (men's keys and women's keys) comes with a CD of
a performances with a vocalist and then only the accompaniment. I also
use a volume of Jazz standards, one of Movie standards and one of
Broadway standards. I'm usually able to find something that interests a
student. If I'm still having trouble finding something that is
rewarding but not too challenging, then the Alfred Folk Song collection
or the Zaninelli folk songs or gospel songs (2 volumes) available in
high and low keys is my saviour! These are common folk songs and/or
hymns in new arrangements. I try to stay with English language rep.
until the student is singing comfortably, then venture out into other
languages. Another place to look is in the unison songs for choir
collections. There is often lots of suitable music here.
I agree with your comments on the Boytim books. There is good material
here, but a bit too much of the old chestnut variety ;-) Be sure and
keep us posted as to the rep. suggestions you get. I think every
teacher is on the lookout for new and useful material.
Cheers,
Craig, Burnaby BC
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