The National Anthem Project: O Say, They Can Sing! Teachers Share Their Tips for Teaching the National Anthem.

O Say, They Can Sing!
Teachers Share Their Tips for Teaching the National Anthem

     Who’s José, and why do we want him to sing? What does “donzerly” mean? What’s a rampart, and why are we watching them? If you’ve heard these questions, you’re probably one of the many music teachers around the nation who are already involved in the National Anthem Project to help MENC teach—or reteach—the U.S. national anthem.
     The effort will launch in March 2005 and is expected to culminate in a record-setting performance of the anthem in 2007. (See the National Anthem Project: How You Can Help sidebar for details on how you can get involved.) Though this is a new emphasis for MENC, many MENC members have been teaching “The Star-Spangled Banner” in their classrooms for years. Indeed, a Harris interactive poll conducted earlier this year found that 70 percent of Americans who know the song learned it in their school music classes.
     The same poll found that almost two-thirds of Americans don’t know the national anthem, despite its ubiquitous presence at sporting events and other national celebrations. Many complain that “The Star-Spangled Banner” is hard to sing and that the words are difficult to understand. Some don’t even realize that the song has more than one verse.
     Music teachers have found that these challenges are far from insurmountable. Teachers who have made “The Star-Spangled Banner” a central part of their students’ repertoire have found that students can learn it and take pride in singing this familiar song that even their parents consider too difficult. But how do they do it?

So What Does “Donzerly” Mean?
Many teachers recognize that the first obstacle in teaching the anthem is that students do not know the words or understand what they mean. Terms such as “rampart” and “perilous” may be unfamiliar to elementary students; defining those terms can help them remember the words. Some teachers use books, documentaries, and other resources to take students back to the War of 1812 and the battle at Fort McHenry that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became our national anthem. (See Recommended Resources.) “I find that the students sing with much more feeling once they realize the story behind our song,” says Judith Mank, music teacher at Henry L. Cottrell and Monmouth Middle Schools in Monmouth, Maine.
Teachers can also use games and other fun activities to help their students memorize the words. For example, Rachel Veenker, general music teacher at Cedar Island Elementary School in Maple Grove, Minnesota, writes one- or two-word fragments of the song on strips of construction paper. Each student gets a fragment, and the class works together to put the pieces in order.

Those Dreaded High Notes
     Of course, once students know the words to the song, they still need to learn the challenging melody. The anthem requires students to move from head voice to chest voice and use good singing posture. Jim Mosseau, who teaches general music, chorus, and recorders at Evergreen Elementary School in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, points out that students need to be able to sing in low and high registers. “Having the students learn how to sing in those registers can be tough,” he says, adding that teachers need a long-range plan and patience to give students time to build those necessary skills.
     These musical skills may be beyond the reach of some younger children, but they can still learn the words and start working toward success at singing the melody. Andrea Hofmeister, a music teacher at Fancher and Ganiard Elementary Schools in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, says that although not all her fourth graders can move from head to chest voice, “all of them are willing and proud to try. We can ask no more.”
     Some teachers have found that the perceived difficulty of the melody actually motivates students to work hard at learning the song. General music and choir teacher Ann Holland Hughes of Brooks Museums Magnet Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina, says that her students wanted to learn the song and “were pleased with themselves for doing a good job, knowing that the public views it as a challenging song to sing.” Virginia Perrin, who teaches music in the Borrego Springs Unified Schools in Borrego Springs, California, begins teaching the anthem in third grade and says that the challenge doesn’t bother her students, many of whom are English Language Learners. “The kids at our school love to sing it. Often, the other teachers complain about how hard it is to sing, but not the students.”

Singing Loud, Singing Proud
     One benefit that many teachers have found in teaching the national anthem is the number of performance opportunities it provides. Singers of all ages have been invited to perform at local amateur and professional sports events, community gatherings, and school assemblies. At Montgomery Bell Academy, an all-boys school in Nashville, Tennessee, music director David Cassell regularly provides soloists or small ensembles for sports events. “The opportunities for solo work, even if it is just one piece, have brought out a lot of courage and confidence in our boys,” said Cassell.
     Some schools even make singing the anthem part of the daily routine, allowing a student to lead classmates over the intercom during daily announcements. “The best way to learn the words is to ‘practice’ the song every day during assembly, and practice makes … well, if not perfect, better,” says Cynthia Buehling, music teacher at Western Hills Elementary in Little Rock, Arkansas.
     Teaching the national anthem can indeed be a challenge, but teachers throughout the U.S. have been successfully helping their students conquer this piece of music for years. Parkway Primary Academy, a K–2 school in Lubbock, Texas, has been emphasizing patriotism for the past three years, beginning before September 11, 2001. General music and art teacher Cheryl Bredeson says that even though 98 percent of the students in her school are on free or reduced lunch and 40 percent have at least one incarcerated parent, all the children know the words to the national anthem. “If our Title I kids can master the language and sing with heart, then I know students around the nation can do the same,” she says.

By Teresa K. Preston, associate editor, Music Educators Journal.
Reprinted from Teaching Music, October 2004. Copyright 2004. MENC, Reston, VA.

Recommended Resources

These are just a few of the resources that MENC members have used in their efforts to teach the national anthem:

It Works for Me: The National Anthem and Other Patriotic Music in the Classroom, a new MENC resource featuring music educators from around the U.S. sharing their secrets for teaching “The Star-Spangled Banner” and other patriotic tunes.
Liberty for All - A Musical Journey, an interactive CD-ROM from MENC with never-before-released live musical performances by "The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band, tracing America's history from the American Revolution through the twentieth century.
By the Dawn’s Early Light: The Story of the Star-Spangled Banner by Steven Kroll, with illustrations by Dan Andreasen (New York: Scholastic, 1994), is a picture book that tells the story of the writing of the national anthem.
The Music Teacher’s Almanac: Ready-to-Use Music Activities for Every Month of the Year by Loretta Mitchell (West Nyack, NY: Parker, 1992) includes a dramatic reading titled “O’er the Ramparts.”
Save Our History: The Star-Spangled Banner is a documentary from the History Channel (http://www.historychannel.com) that tells the story of the siege at Fort McHenry and the origin of the national anthem.
Schoolhouse Productions (http://www.schoolhouseproductions.com) offers the Star-Spangled Banner Wall Charts, a series of posters that feature the words to the first verse of the national anthem with relevant illustrations.
The Smithsonian Institution offers a variety of resources at its Star-Spangled Banner Web site (http://americanhistory.si.edu/ssb), including a teacher’s guide, information on the national anthem, and the story of the flag at Fort McHenry that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words of the anthem.
The Star-Spangled Banner, illustrated by Peter Spier (New York: Bantam Doubleday, 1973), includes the text of the first verse, music and guitar chords, historical information, and maps.
The Star-Spangled Banner (New York: Scholastic, 2002) includes the words of the first verse of the anthem and colorful patriotic photographs.
Get America Singing … Again in the Classroom, has standards-based ideas for using the national anthem and other patriotic music.