Amanda Rahn

Abstract

This project’s purpose was to identify different ways to run an unaccompanied choral classroom.
After researching methods for sight singing, ear training, and audiation, the director spent a year
running a high school choir without playing accompaniments and spending very little time
behind the piano. After surveying 32 of the high school choir students at the end of the school
year, 88 percent of the students reported that they had experienced growth in the area of sight
singing over show more the course of the year and that most students did not feel like they missed out on
any learning experiences without the piano accompaniments. After interviewing other teachers
on their methods for running unaccompanied choral classrooms, the director discovered both
methods that were commonly performed in the unaccompanied classroom, along with some that
were not. Ideas to improve the unaccompanied classroom during the next school year were also
discovered. show less