In the Singing Band, Carol Swinchoski demonstrates how to use the singing and audiation skills young musicians have acquired in classroom music to sing through their instruments. Focusing first on aural skills, young musicians develop reading skills in a natural and successful way. Video clips of the Old Mill School 4th/5th grade band from New Jersey will be used to demonstrate each concept.

Participants will be able to see how the audiation skills developed in Conversational Solfege can be applied in an instrumental setting.

Participants will learn how to incorporate rhythmic/melodic patterns as well as folk song material in instrumental settings.

Participants will see how nine and ten year old musicians can truly sing through their instruments!

Carol Swinchoski is a classroom and instrumental music teacher at Old Mill Elementary School in Wall Township, NJ. She studied education and trombone performance at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Carol received her Masters in Music Education with a Kodaly emphasis at Silver Lake College. Using folk songs as a foundation, in the Kodaly tradition, her students develop the singing, audiation and literacy skills necessary for a lifetime of enjoyable music experiences. Her students understand that they express music through singing and instruments are an extension of their voices. Outside of school, Carol plays trombone professionally and maintains a lesson studio of low brass students.