Martha Klein & Melissa Durham e-4

Open the Doors Wide: Music Ministry for Children of All Ages Presented by Melissa Durham and Martha Klein

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Notes from Melissa Durham: 1. Create Choirs to Meet the Developmental Needs of Your Children

a. Cherub Choir: for the younger singers: ages 4- 1st grade or developmental equivalent

Our youngest singers will have shorter attention spans and may not be able to read the notes and words as quickly as we sing them. Prepare this choir to sing the Gather-ing hymn through the Gloria, along with the Sending Forth hymn. Give them a special “Offertory” song to sing periodically throughout the Liturgical Year. This plan allows them to be a part of the choir for a shorter amount of time and reduces the amount of music they need to learn for each Mass. Some singers may not be able to remember all of the words to a song, so I stress the importance of singing the refrains. The older choir will help carry the verses.

These children are “hands on” learners. Make sure to give them “instrument time” during each rehearsal: egg shakers, bells, children’s hand bells, other rhythm instru-ments (always safety inspected for young children), etc. Use fun warm-ups to teach good singing techniques, hand motions and sign language to help remember the words, and praise them over and over as they give their sweet gift of music to God! Encourage mom and dad to stay and watch with younger siblings. Let them shake an egg and start growing future choir members!

b. Children’s Choir: for singers 2nd grade and up

This choir leads all of the music for the Mass. They have better reading skills, allowing them to follow the music. Encourage older singers to help younger singers as they are learning to follow the music. Give opportunities for small group parts and solos throughout the Liturgical Year. Encourage the children to “cheer” for each other, es-pecially when someone auditions for the first time. It’s a big deal to sing by yourself in front of your friends!!!

I also encourage children who naturally hear harmonies to add them to songs where it makes sense to do so. Once one child figures out a part, they can teach it to several others to sing together. This encourages our choir members to use all of their musical gifts for God and create beautiful music that will be a blessing for others.

c. Cantor Choir: for interested singers 5th grade and up

This is a smaller group, dedicated to leading the Psalms each week and learning the skills of a Cantor. It is a wonderful opportunity to grow our stronger singers in their musical skills and nurture future adult church musicians! Some singers may take


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longer learning how to “proclaim” the Psalms, but that’s okay. Give each individual the time they need to learn the skills before allowing them to Cantor at Mass. It’s even okay for them to watch the class in action and not participate until they feel ready to sing in front of the group. Some of my best Cantors have needed 4-5 weeks of observation before they were ready to sing in front of their peers.

I also give this group opportunities to lead music periodically at special Masses in the Liturgical Year. This gives them an opportunity to serve our parish community be-yond our Sunday Mass.

2. Encourage Youth Instrument Players at Mass

If you have youth at your Parish who play a musical instrument, encourage them to use their skills to play at Mass. Give them the Mass parts to learn first. As their skills progress, they can begin playing more of the music each week. Have them practice the music with their music teacher, as you may not play their instrument. Many of our hymns have music parts available for the different instruments. If you have older students who enjoy writing music, you can also encourage them to write simple parts for any instruments that need music.

3. Creating a Practice Schedule that Works for Your Choirs

My current schedule on Wednesday evenings is:

Cherub Choir: 5:30 pm -6:15 pm

Children’s Choir: 6 pm-7 pm

Cantor Choir: 7 pm- 7:45 pm

I start practice with the youngest singers, as they have the earliest bedtimes. They have a shorter practice to go with their shorter attention spans. We practice for 30 minutes before singing with the older choir. During the combined 15 minutes, we practice the Gathering and Sending Forth hymns for the next 2 Sundays. All practices end with prayer.

Our Children’s Choir meets for an hour, which helps us to be ready for the next 2 Sunday’s music, along with time to learn music that is coming in the near future.


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Cantor Choir is last because these are my oldest singers, who are able to stay up later. We try very hard to end on time so that these singers have time to finish up any homework they may have and still get to bed at a decent time.

This schedule works for me and changes in November and December when we are preparing for Christmas Eve. It is just an example to consider. If your choirs do not sing every week at Mass, you can reduce the time of your practice accordingly. In regards to instrument players, they can either meet with your choir to practice or you may choose to meet with them sepa-rately. If you have very strong players with busy high school schedules, they may be fine without a practice.

4. Tools to Promote Full and Active Participation

As Music Ministers, we know our goal is to promote full and active participation at Mass. We want to give our choir members the tools that will help them pray deeply as they sing joy-fully for the Lord. Here are some practical ideas that have worked well for me:

d. Practice CDS or MP3s online, along with lyric sheets (Don’t forget copyright infor-mation!)

This is beneficial to all singers and instrumentalists, but especially important for our younger or special needs singers who cannot read yet. Being able to hear a song and sing it over and over will help write the song and the truths they teach onto the hearts of our children.

e. Sign Language


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Children love to move and some songs will lend themselves to sign language. For ex-ample, we sign the Kyrie and Lamb of God each week, in addition to others songs that are sung throughout the year. It’s also a beautiful way to think about others and reach out to those who depend on sign language to understand the message of the song.

f. Hand Motions

We also create our own motions to help our younger singers remember the words of certain songs. The motions are easy for the children to remember and make sense with what they are singing. As a result, they have greater participation in the Mass and are able to worship God in a way they really enjoy.

g. Teach with Enthusiasm

Nothing will inspire your choir more than to see you loving what you do! Your passion for Jesus and music and serving in children’s music ministry will be contagious. Your students in time will model your enthusiasm and encourage others to sing, just as you have encouraged them to use their precious gift of music. Smile and praise them for their efforts! Admonish as necessary, but always with great love. The seeds we plant now will reap a rich harvest, all for God’s glory!


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5. Song Selections for OLPH Children’s Choir

a. This is the Day (Rise Up and Sing OCP)

b. Mass of Joy: Lamb of God (WLP)

c. Trading My Sorrows (Voices as One WLP; Spirit and Song OCP)

d. Revelation Song (MP3 available OCP, ccli.com)

e. Set a Fire (ccli.com)

f. That’s Why I Thank God (Melissa Durham © 2005. Used with permission.)

Refrain 1 (after verses 1 and 2): That’s Why I Thank God for giving me to you. You loved me as a child and taught me as I grew To walk along the path that would lead me to the Lord And you mean more than you could ever know…I love you so. Refrain 2 (after verse 3): That’s why I thank God for giving you to me. You’ve been my inspiration and helped me clearly see The kind of love that our Holy Father has for me And you mean more than you could ever know… (Repeat refrain 2)…I love you so.

g. Sing/Swing/Saints (public domain) 1. I’m gonna sing, sing, sing. I’m gonna shout, shout, shout. I’m gonna sing. I’m gonna shout. Praise the Lord! When the gates are open wide, I’m gonna sit by Jesus side. I’m gonna sing. I’m gonna shout. Praise the Lord! Repeat verse 1 2. Swing low, sweet chariot comin’ for to carry me home. Swing low, sweet chariot comin’ for to carry me home. Repeat verse 2 3. Oh, when the Saints go marching in, Oh, when the Saints go marching in, Oh, how I want to be in that number when the Saints go marching in. Repeat verse 3 (All 3 verses together twice) I’m gonna sing. I’m gonna shout. Praise the Lord! (Public Domain)


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“From the Classroom to the Church”

1. Seek Ye First- Song of Petition - Advent/Lent OBJECTIVE: C major scale with solfege syllables

sing ascending and descending c scale

play scale on bar instruments with good mallet technique

Teach 2nd part of song “Alleluia…” on solfeggi Add piano, sing song with 2nd part as harmony 2. All Who Hunger Gather Gladly - Gathering song of the Eucharist OBJECTIVE: Hymn tune HOLY MANNA, Introduce key of F - acci-dental Bb, Pentatonic scale, improvising with good mallet tech-nique

practice playing F major scale

Create a F pentatonic scale - Learn to take off bars E and B (eggs and bacon)

Teach hymn tune of HOLY MANA (All Who Hunger) identify the 4 phrases of hymn, 1st and 2nd are the same, 3rd is different, 4th al-most like 1 and 2. Students clap rhythm of melody, play rhythm of melody on F pentatonic scale

Students identify recurring melody of mi, re, do Each time the mi, re, do occurs, students play. Students play mi, re, do when occurs and improvise rest of melody of hymn. Extension: Students may individually be able to play the entire hymn of F pentatonic scale. Some advanced students will love the challenge of playing 3rd phrase.


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3. Quietly Peacefully - Song of comfort, OBJECTIVE: introduce major/minor scale tonality and a classical piece with music history

Teach song, play Dvorak’s Symphony #9 “New World”

Identify the simple melody of Dvorak, add solfege to part A (C major) and transfer to bar instruments

Identify form ABA Teach B section (a minor)

4. SIng Out Earth and Skies! - Song of Creation OBJECTIVE: AB form, Call (Cantor) and Response (All) style, add Reel dance, Orff bourdon

Teach song, give children opportunities to sing cantor part Teach melody on bar instruments, divide glockenspiel instruments part A and part B

Xylophones play bourdon (d d aa d)

Add Reel dance

GIA Publications music, used with permission lessons: Martha Klein, Holy Spirit Catholic School San Antonio, TX [email protected] Thank you so much for attending this workshop. We hope you are in-spired and motivated to take what you’ve learned and use it to grow the children’s music ministry at your home parish. If you have any ques-tions or comments, please feel free to contact Melissa Durham at [email protected] or Martha Klein, [email protected] May God bless each of you, your ministries, and your families abun-dantly in this New Year!


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Martha Klein & Melissa Durham e-4

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