Erin Emery-Dumas

Our 2nd and 3rd grade concert is only two days away! A lot of work has gone into it, and I’m sure some of you are wondering what all has to happen before a concert begins.

A Year Prior

I had to schedule both this concert and the one we had in December waaaaay back at the end of last school year. This is to make sure the concert doesn’t conflict with any other events, such as athletics, PTO meetings, etc. It also ensures that the space I need for our concert is reserved.

Three Months Prior

About three months ago, I started to look into what repertoire we would be singing. I’ll be honest, this program isn’t as diverse as I’d have liked it to be. However, using a pre-organized program like the one I found on MusicPlayOnline takes a lot of the guesswork out of concert prep. In the future, I think I would take a program like this as inspiration and then find more diverse pieces by various composers and arrangers.

Two Months Prior

We began learning our music about two months ago. This is where the most basic fundamentals come in. We focused on rhythm and melody for the most part. We learned about how each piece of music relates to the real world. We also analyzed things like form, voice parts, and more. Each of our pieces are either in unison, unison with occasional two-part splits (mostly echoing), or two-part rounds. We had to talk about all of these things and explore how the different parts fit together.

This is also when I sent out a letter to grownups so they knew to write it in their calendars, or so they could contact me if their student is unable to attend.

One Month Prior

About one month ago, students began creating movement routines to match our music. These aren’t full-blown dances. It’s mostly just a couple of different movements for the chorus of each song. Allowing the students to come up with the movements instead of choreographing it myself provided them with the opportunity to take ownership of their learning.

This is also around the time that students begin to focus on the expressions in the music. We talked about blend, dynamics, and tempo changes (specifically retardandos that fit with the mood of the piece). We took away the backing tracks with vocals and began to use only accompaniments.

Two Weeks Prior

Two weeks ago, I wrote up a second letter as a reminder to parents and guardians. This letter included more specific details as well. Where is the performance? Where do students meet beforehand? What do they wear?

At this point, students are mostly running their pieces, usually about 2-3 times per music class. Working on the music no longer takes the entire class period, so we have time to prepare for their end-of-year post-assessments. (More on that later!)

One Week Prior

One week before the concert is when we get into crunch time. Students are now only running their pieces 1-2 times per class, so they don’t feel burnt out. They practice singing the pieces memorized, even though they have lyrics in front of them at the concert, to see how well they truly know the music.

This is also when I start making things like lyric sheets, programs, program notes, and work together with both the classroom teachers and my fellow specials teachers to schedule their dress rehearsals during the school day. (I honestly should have done this earlier on, but we’re still learning over here!)

One Day Prior

This is when we will have our dress rehearsal!

Day of the Concert

I try to be as laid back as possible on this day. Most of my classes do very basic activities during class to keep stress low. After school, I prep the sound system, lay out cones with teachers’ names so students know where to go, set out programs, and everything else that needs to happen before the audience arrives.

Then we have the concert, hope it goes super well, and send students on their way!

After the concert is complete, I like to give the students a reward. It might be games, a “movie” (usually a video of an orchestra performing Peter and the Wolf, Carnival of the Animals, or Wild Symphony), or stations. I let each class decide which they’d like to do.

As I’m sure you can now see, there’s a lot that goes into preparing for a concert! As excited as I am for it to happen, I’m also excited for it to be over. I can’t wait to see my students perform in a couple of days!