Instrumental and Vocal Lessons
MUSICIANSHIP TRAINING
Weekly musicianship classes have been a core component of instrument and voice study since Diller-Quaile's founding in 1920. Musicianship training is essential to a comprehensive music education and critical to continued growth with instrument and voice study. As students progress through the sequential and leveled curriculum, they develop music literacy and an understanding of the elements and structure of music. Multiple class formats include experiences in listening, singing, movement, conducting, playing, reading, and notating music, which lead to analyses of repertoire masterpieces, as well as work in improvisation and composition.
Without active participation on the part of the student, an encounter with art can only be a limited experience. Musicianship training, in its broadest sense, is a responsive awareness of the elements of music and their relationship to one another within a composition. The recognition of these inner relationships is vital to the understanding of any piece of music, and perhaps the most important part of the performer's interpretation.
A minimum of two years of Chorus and two years of Dalcroze Eurhythmics is required of students in first grade or older enrolled in comprehensive programs. Final decisions regarding appropriate class placement are at the discretion of the School. During scheduling, administrators will ensure that students enroll in a range of class formats over the course of their study.
REQUIRED CLASSES
- Chorus
- Dalcroze Eurhythmics
- Ear Training, Sight-Singing, and Improvisation
- Great Composers
- High School Comprehensive
1. Chorus (2 years minimum)
Not only is group singing universal across all cultures, many composers such as Orlando di Lasso, J.S. Bach, Josef Haydn, and Franz Schubert were accomplished child choristers and subsequently composers of vocal masterpieces. Through the study of choral repertoire spanning various periods and styles, students develop sight-singing skills, comfort with score reading, and music literacy. Students forge a deep connection with the printed page, sharpen their inner ear and intonation, and refine their harmonic and melodic sense. Finally, students augment their musical knowledge by preparing works they would likely not encounter on their instrument. Diller-Quaile choruses first grade and older perform in the School's winter and spring concerts.
2. Dalcroze Eurhythmics (2 years minimum)
The Dalcroze approach integrates the ear, mind, and body through natural movement, singing, and improvisation. Through kinesthetic experiences students show what they hear in music. As students walk, run, and gallop, elements of music are identified, such as a regular beat, rhythm patterns, articulation, and nuances. When singing, students use their hands and arms to show the shape of a melody or a phrase. These movements help students feel and internalize the relationship of pitches while tuning the voice and ear to each other. These experiences lead naturally into music notation. Older, more experienced students are further challenged with exercises in form, meter, and polyrhythms. Students move through an experiential mode to a symbolic mode of understanding musical concepts. One general aspect of this work is that experience–through action–comes first, after which the work is discussed, analyzed, and notated.
3. Ear Training, Sight-Singing, and Improvisation
To hear what is written, to write what is heard, and to develop what is imagined. Through active listening, group singing, dictation, sight-singing, and score study, students build music literacy and an understanding of the elements and structure of music. As they progress, students apply this knowledge to music appropriate to their level of study and deepen their understanding through individual, partnered, and group improvisations. In the earliest years, singing and simple percussion instruments, as well as body sounds such as clapping and tapping, are used. Older students explore the piano keyboard and have an opportunity to improvise on their own instruments. The class incorporates both standard and invented forms of notation.
4. Great Composers
To know masterpieces of the repertoire and to understand the historical and artistic necessities that drove composers to pen them. Students encounter the great works of musical canon, not only for their intrinsic artistic value, but also as "textbooks." Students work musical concepts and ideas through direct contact with and application to the masterworks of the repertoire. Active listening, score reading, group singing, playing, and conducting are among the experiences that guide students through the material, as they come to place composers, their works, and the musical styles they represent in an historical context. Classes explore music of the Renaissance through the Modern Era.
5. High School Comprehensive
The High School Comprehensive curriculum is a robust course of musicianship study that provides the advancing high school student with sophisticated musical understanding. Through experiences including sight-singing, ear training, and dictation, students analyze works in terms of melody, harmony, rhythm, phrase, and overall structure. Students' repertoire serves as a springboard for group discussion and analysis, as well as for examples of critical concepts.
ELECTIVE CLASSES
Musicianship with Computers
This class is designed for students who enjoy and learn well with computers. The software used incorporates several levels of material that can be shaped to the student's needs. Class experiences include opportunities to sing, play rhythm instruments, read, and conduct, while computer work reinforces musical concepts and notation skills.
Composition
Through experience with the fundamentals of creative improvisation and composition, students deepen their understanding of music structure and notation. Class members study scores through singing, playing, and conducting, and regularly play and discuss each other's works. Students are admitted to this class with the permission of the instructor.
MUSICIANSHIP COURSE SCHEDULE
Class ages, levels, and formats are subject to change.
| Pre-Reading | ||||
| 3 & 4 years | Meet the Instrument | (#55) | Mon | 2:55 - 3:40 p.m. |
| 3 & 4 years | Dalcroze Eurhythmics | (#47) | Tues | 2:55 - 3:40 p.m. |
| Early Reading | ||||
| 4 & 5 years | Dalcroze Eurhythmics | (#48) | Mon | 2:55 - 3:40 p.m. |
| 5 & 6 years | Meet the Orchestra | (#65) | Mon | 3:45 - 4:30 p.m. |
| 5 & 6 years | Great Composers | (#110) | Mon | 3:45 - 4:30 p.m. |
| 4 & 5 years | Chorus | (#51) | Tues | 2:55 - 3:35 p.m. |
| 4 & 5 years | Chorus | (#52) | Tues | 3:40 - 4:20 p.m. |
| 4 & 5 years | Dalcroze Eurhythmics | (#49) | Tues | 3:45 - 4:30 p.m. |
| Level I | ||||
| Grades 1 & 2 | Dalcroze Eurhythmics | (#120) | Tue | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. |
| Grades 1 & 2 | Chorus | (#53) | Wed | 3:45 - 4:30 p.m. |
| Grades 1 & 2 | Dalcroze Eurhythmics | (#50) | Thurs | 4:00 - 4:45 p.m. |
| Grades 1 & 2 | Great Composers | (#150) | Fri | 3:15 - 4:00 p.m. |
| Level I - II | ||||
| Grades 2 & 3 | Great Composers | (#111) | Mon | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. |
| Grades 2 - 4 | Great Composers | (#140) | Thurs | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. |
| Grades 1 - 3 | Ear Training, Sight-Singing & Improvisation | (#161) | Sat | 11:00 - 11:45 a.m. |
| Level II | ||||
| Grades 4 & 5 | Ear Training, Sight-Singing & Improvisation | (#113) | Mon | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. |
| Grades 3 - 5 | Dalcroze Eurhythmics | (#121) | Tue | 5:15 - 6:00 p.m. |
| Grades 3 - 6 | Chorus | (#130) | Wed | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. |
| Grades 3 - 5 | Ear Training, Sight-Singing & Improvisation | (#131) | Wed | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. |
| Grades 3 - 5 | Musicianship with Computers | (#141) | Thurs | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. |
| Grades 3 - 5 | Ear Training, Sight-Singing & Improvisation | (#151) | Fri | 3:15 - 4:00 p.m. |
| Grades 4 - 6 | Ear Training, Sight-Singing & Improvisation | (#162) | Sat | 11:00 - 11:45 a.m. |
| Level III | ||||
| Grades 4 - 8 | Chorus (audition required) | (#112) | Mon | 4:40 - 5:40 p.m. |
| Grades 6 - 8 | Ear Training, Sight-Singing & Improvisation | (#122) | Tue | 5:15 - 6:00 p.m. |
| Grades 6 - 8 | Great Composers | (#132) | Wed | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. |
| Grades 5 - 7 | Dalcroze Eurhythmics | (#142) | Thurs | 5:00 - 5:45 p.m. |
| Grades 6 - 8 | Ear Training, Sight-Singing & Improvisation | (#144) | Thurs | 6:00 - 6:45 p.m. |
| Grades 6 - 8 | Musicianship with Computers | (#152) | Fri | 4:00 - 4:45 p.m. |
| Grades 6 - 8 | Great Composers | (#160) | Sat | 10:15 - 11:00 a.m. |
| Levels IV & V | ||||
| Grades 9 - 12 | High School Comprehensive | (#114) | Mon | 5:15 - 6:00 p.m. |
| Grades 9 - 12 | High School Comprehensive | (#115) | Mon | 6:00 - 6:45 p.m. |
| Grades 9 - 12 | High School Comprehensive | (#133) | Wed | 5:15 - 6:00 p.m. |
| Grades 9 - 12 | High School Comprehensive | (#143) | Thurs | 5:15 - 6:00 p.m. |
| Grades 9 - 12 | High School Comprehensive | (#153) | Fri | 4:45 - 5:30 p.m. |
| Grades 9 - 12 | High School Comprehensive | (#163) | Sat | 1:15 - 2:00 p.m. |