SKU: GI.G-10008
Minor Skills. Composed by Keitha Lucas Hamann and Michele Henry. Music Education. Book. 72 pages. GIA Publications #10008. Published by GIA Publications (GI.G-10008). Help your students Level Up! their sight-reading skills using their minds and ears, as well their voices! Level Up! is a sequential, interactive, and comprehensive resource built from the authors’ decades of research and experience teaching students of all levels and ages. Using the concept of target skills (isolated pitch and rhythm patterns), Level Up! guides students to carefully understand and analyze every new skill by difficulty. Authors Michele L. Henry and Keitha Lucas Hamann then reinforce each skill by asking students to sight-read specially sequenced practice melodies. Each of the five volumes—Foundational, Emerging, Minor, Developing, and Advanced—is designed as an interactive workbook for students to mark up, and is available in both treble clef and bass clef editions. The companion Teacher Manuals include clear instructions for how to best use the Level Up! system, outline the approach and sequencing, and provide assessments. Level Up! supports the artistic literacy goals of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) and many state music education standards. The companion website, giamusic.com/levelup, provides even more reinforcement. The goal of Level Up! is simple: to help students become independent and confident musicians, with benefits to last a lifetime! Michele L. Henry, Ph.D. is Professor of Choral Music Education at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. Keitha Lucas Hamann, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  Level Up! is the most sequential approach to the teaching of sight-reading that I’ve ever seen! Designed for use with singers at the middle school through high school levels, the methodology aligns with National Standards, UIL, and TEKS, and is range related for developing voices. Within each lesson, specific skills are targeted and the interactive approach further encourages the mastery of skills. Individual assessment is provided both for long-term and short-term goals, thus creating a complete and accessible methodology which can be used in any choral or general music classroom. —Lynne Gackle, Director of Choral Activities, Baylor University This book fills a unique niche in the field. I love that it takes the needs of developing/changing voice singers into account and that students can write in the books like a workbook as they are learning the tools for sight singing. Teachers will definitely appreciate the opportunities for assessment built into the series. —Jessica Nápoles, Associate Professor of Choral Music Education, University of North Texas As a teacher, I really do love this resource. It’s broken down in a way that makes it very easy to incorporate into my lessons, and the fact that it’s sequential and very clear about the concepts introduced at each level is extremely helpful. I can see my students (beginners especially) getting better and more confident with their sight-reading. I look forward to using this resource as our primary sight-reading resource! —Courtney Neva, Choir Director, Dripping Springs High School.