Make a Little Music: Choral SoundTrax CD

Beck designs this piece to work hard for you in performance. The gospel-style harmonies and strategic modulations demand solid vocal technique and rhythmic precision from your singers, while the body percussion breakdown and ChoreoTrax staging video hand you the choreography framework upfront, saving you hours of staging work. It's the kind of opener that genuinely excites an audience and gives your choir an immediate performance win.

Energy and joy radiate from the opening clapping and stomping, building into rich gospel harmonies that feel both complex and singable. The piece rocks forward with infectious rhythmic momentum, layering voices into a full, contemporary sound that lands with genuine impact when the modulations kick in.

This piece works for intermediate to advanced high school choirs and mixed adult ensembles with solid musicianship and willingness to commit to movement and staging. Younger or developing singers can perform it with extra rehearsal time devoted to the harmonies and rhythm, but the gospel vocabulary and modulation complexity assume singers who read music confidently.

• Nail the body percussion breakdown in rehearsal before layering the vocals back in. Have singers master the clapping and stomping patterns as a unified ensemble first, then gradually rebuild the harmonic lines on top.
• Lock the modulations by marking them clearly in your score and calling them out in rehearsal. Each key change is intentional, and your singers need to hear the pivot chord and feel the shift in their bodies.
• Use the recorded accompaniment track to establish tempo and to let singers hear their parts in context. Play it frequently during early rehearsals so the gospel feel becomes second nature.
• Watch the ChoreoTrax video yourself before introducing it to your choir. Plan which singers or sections will lead specific movement phrases, and build in time for ensemble members to learn and internalize the staging.

Program this as a concert opener or early set piece to establish excitement and energy from the start. It also works as a finale if your program builds toward contemporary, uplifting material, and it pairs well with other gospel-influenced repertoire or rhythm-driven secular choral pieces in a themed concert.

• Gospel-style four-part harmony writing and voice independence
• Maintaining rhythmic precision during body percussion and vocal layering
• Executing smooth, prepared modulations (key changes) in performance
• Coordinating movement, staging, and singing simultaneously
• Style-specific interpretation of contemporary, rhythmically driven choral music