Start With the Corners

Many thanks to John Pickering for this contribution!

Have your students ever been discouraged by a challenge?  Maybe it was the first time they were attempting a large work or a difficult piece of music (Ward Swingle’s Bach Organ Fugue comes to mind).  

I recently took over the middle school drama club. Aladdin Jr. is our show.  We learned the music before Winter Break, but just started staging the show when we returned to school.  The students were SO excited before break, and even more so at our first staging rehearsal.  However, as the rehearsal went on, there were many details that weren’t yet clear to students. They were able to learn the basics, but many fine points were not yet defined clearly.  Finally, one student spoke up.

“Mr. P!  I don’t even know what I am supposed to do at this part.  I am just standing here. I don’t know where I should go, what I should do, or who I should be interacting with!”

The frustration was palpable and soon I could tell there were similar conversations going on among friends as we continued to rehearse.  It finally dawned on me.  They have never had to do something like this before and it was... well, to be kind, messy.

Choir Bites Interactive Slides can enhance online/hybrid lesson plans or be used as supplemental assignments. Your singers’ awareness will rise as they engage with these simple, “sticky” concepts! Click here to learn more! 

I explained to them that this project is like a 1500-piece jigsaw puzzle and while the end of the project would be something magnificent, it takes work to get there.  I shared that currently, they have just taken the box of 1500 pieces and dumped it on to the dining room table.

Then I asked, “What is the first step?”  My frustrated student shouted out, “FIND THE CORNERS!”.  I said, “Yes! What’s next?”  Another student yelled “The border!”.

I then went further with the puzzle analogy and talked about how this was going to be messy, but if we focus on the corners, then the borders, we would have a framework in which to work. Eventually, the middle would come together more and more.

This analogy can be applied to any work in progress, from one song to an entire musical, or even to a director taking over a choir program. In any project, there are corners that must come first and a border that holds it all together. Get those in place, then fill in the middle as you go. START WITH THE CORNERS