We are officially less than a month out until our concert dates! So far, so good. I ordered my material EARLY this year. See this post for advice about that. Each grade group is doing their own musical this year and they are so excited about it. I personally don’t like spending entire music classes rehearsing for our concerts much before December. Here is a basic outline of how I prep for my winter concerts. Summer That’s correct, no need to get your eyes checked. SUMMER. It is a season for relaxation and fun with friends and family. But I also see it as an opportunity to create a less stressful school year for myself in the months approaching. As mentioned before, I already had my material selected, ordered and delivered even before the last year of school let out. During the month of June, there are many field trips, class parties, adventures outdoors and other opportunities which result in music class being forfeited or rescheduled. I use this time to look through and listen to the material. If I have to reorder or change material, then I can have easy contact with my administrator and explain my reasons. When I’m satisfied, I learn the music inside and out. When school lets out, I don’t have a strict schedule as I give myself the rest that I need. But I do make sure to maintain rehearsal and big picture thinking until October. Fall October is when I really start to ramp up my rehearsal planning. This is when I will type out scripts for later take-home practice, lyric slides for in-class references, and record practice tracks where I anticipate “problem spots”. I will also begin to compile a list of props and costumes, create the program, and organize sound equipment rentals and the like. Make sure you have your dates and location set! As soon as Halloween is over, I introduce the musicals. I’ll do a quick summary or read-through so the students are aware of the plot. Then I’ll introduce each song and we will listen altogether, discussing along the way attributes of the song and where it would fit within the plot. We will then learn each song phrase by phrase, reviewing each class. At the start, we will learn musical things for the first half of class with other activities the second half. Winter December is now present (get it?) and we are in full rehearsal swing! We have rehearsed the songs to a point where we only need to sing them once or twice per class. We spend most of our time now learning lines and the timing of each part. Next we will chunk through in scenes doing only the lines. The week before the performance, we begin to do full run-throughs as a class. One rehearsal will be beginning to “intermission” (we don’t actually do an intermission, but it is a theater term that we discuss for this purpose) and then the next rehearsal from “intermission” to the finale. I do this twice with each class and then we do big grade group rehearsals. The final class before the actual performance is our “tech rehearsal”. We invite the rest of the school to be our audience and this helps our performers to understand any anxiety they may have. We address those issues. By this point, slideshows are complete, programs are printed, and we are ready to go. The only thing we have to do is perform! Check out my store for resources to help you plan and keep on track!
