Can I search by difficulty?

[mchia]

I'm a new choir director and I'm looking for something with or without accompaniment, a full SATB, it can have SSAATTBB or any combination so long as it has sopprannos, altos, tennors and baritones, it also needs to be easier than a lot of what i have been finding. I was wondering if there was a way to search through the music by difficulty because I can't exactly have the littlest ones to be singing some kind of incredible moving piece that opens eyes. If you are looking for something more specific, we tried caroll of the bells, and we crashed and burned, I had to pick out entirely new music. They seem like babies to me and I don't know what to do!

[steltz]

Because this site is run by its contributors, someone would have to donate time to rate all the pieces here. This would be a massive task, and I know from instrumental pieces that there are different grading systems used by different countries.

For instance, in the UK you can talk about grading according to the Royal Schools or Trinity Guildhall grades, of which there are 8 (not counting the Licentiates), but then one of the UK's largest sheet music suppliers uses a lettering system of A through F. Other countries use numbers 1-5. Even between Royal Schools and Trinity Guildhall, there are cases where a piece is in Grade 5 for one, but in Grade 6 for the other. Then there is the problem that different movements of a piece can be rated differently.

In short, this is a bit of a minefield, and the quick answer is that there will be no rating system any time soon.

I run a chamber music camp once a year, in addition to being responsible for chamber music at a university, so I can sympathize with your problem of varying levels. My advice is to spend time downloading and really studying things that look like they may be suitable. Keep lists with your own rating system.

Finally, for the littlest ones, a little bit of re-arrangement to simplify things for them (you are free to re-arrange any piece in the public domain). I know this is a lot of work, but it can also be very gratifying as well.!!!

[pml]

... and Carol of the Bells is definitely on the easy end of the scale, however you want to grade it.

Maybe you need to spend some rehearsal time on music theory and/or sectional rehearsal to discover whether the main problems are:

(a) can't read music (pitches or rhythms);
(b) can't remember/don't know how part is supposed to sound (cf. note bashing);
(c) can't sing in tune once (a) and (b) have been overcome, putting off other singers;
(d) can't follow conductor, or no ensemble skills.

Regards, PML