I had been teaching at the university level and directing church choirs of all ages for years, but when I took a new job that included teaching both middle and high school choirs, it occurred to me that this was the first time that I was facing middle schoolers who had not chosen to be in a choir, but were required to be there. I’d heard the horror stories from colleagues. Ouch.

I decided I was going to treat them just like I treated my singers who chose to be there in church or community choirs or in college voice classes or choirs–as responsible young adults–but with an even higher energy level and a ‘go team!’ attitude, and not one second of downtime. (And I am not naturally a rah-rah person 🙂

So at the first class, I told the students the same thing I told my university never-sang-before voice class students:
“There are only three things required in order for you to learn to sing, and I am certain that you all are qualified. Ready?”

“One: Can you laugh?” (They laughed, of course.) “Okay, good.”

“Two: Can you make your voice go UP and DOWN (my voice goes up and down with matching expression) when you are happy or sad or mad or being silly?” (More laughter.)

“Three: Here’s the big one.” (They look at me with a quizzical expression.) “Can you walk across campus without falling down?” (More laughter. Their eyebrows say: This new teacher is crazy.)

Then I told them that everyone has a voice, and that anyone who has a voice can learn to sing-–it just requires that you throw your entire self into it and be willing to try, even if you feel silly or don’t understand. For instance, how many of you play soccer? Softball or baseball? Swim? Play tennis? You do drills, right? That’s practicing individual skills in order to get better at the whole game. You’re not perfect the first time, right? But you don’t dissolve in a puddle or make fun of each other or run away, do you? No, you build the team by helping each other get better.

Singing is like that–just like that. And you can all learn how to do it, and do it well. And you’re going to be working in teams of three as well as in the whole class, so no one is out there all by himself (or herself; I had the guys and ladies in two separate class periods–kudos to one of the best administrator I’d worked under for letting me have them separately!) And it doesn’t matter if you think you have talent or no talent–just do your best every minute.
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Then it was high-energy teaching and conducting and challenging and not taking “I can’t” for an answer. (And being the one teacher who wouldn’t send guys to silent lunch or detention for having too much energy or creativity–my predecessor was famous for the number of detentions assigned. My solution: “Jack, you need to burn off some energy right now, so…drop and give me twenty. [look at the class while he does his twenty pushups, right there in the classroom] All right, gentlemen, let’s go back to page 3…” When Jack pops up and picks up his folder after the twenty, he gets right back into the thick of singing, no harm, no foul. I don’t think I could do that nowadays in most schools.)

I fell in love with the ‘tweens’ then–they are such a wonderful group to teach when you respect them and challenge them just like one would with adults.

Fast forward ten weeks of school to their first concert. The number one comment of the mothers of fifth- and sixth-grade gentlemen: What did you DO with my son? He looked like an angel…he was SINGING…at home he walks around the house singing or studies while singing under his breath…in Latin!

Fast forward ten years, eight years after I’d left that school. A young assistant manager in the local supermarket says to me, “Excuse me, weren’t you my music teacher at ABC? Doctor…Warren, right?” Then he proceeded to remind me that he’d been a painfully shy kid in middle school, and tell me that when he was in high school, someone in his church heard him singing in the congregation and recruited him for their multi-generational choir, and he’d been doing it for eight years, and would never have even thought about the choir if I hadn’t taught him to sing and love music in middle school.

The power of making music, and of never saying ‘I can’t’ but always doing today’s personal best.