ABSTRACT
One of the biggest challenges of choral music teaching is working with middle school students. Between grades four and nine, students change from children to adolescents, and all at different rates. It is essential to study and understand these changes in order to have a rehearsal and an ensemble that foster positive musical growth. Considering only the unchanged and tenor voices, one can see that the only overlap in unison range is a major sixth from b-flat to g1, but when considering the tessitura, the common tones are almost non-existent. Similarly, among the baritone and bass voices there is an overlap of only a minor third in range and little overlap of tessitura. Managing the various vocal issues is only half the challenge with middle school students. Hormonal changes are making everything else change too, from physical size to emotions.
