Directors are encouraged to examine the 2017 MPA Sight Reading Criteria Rubric. The exercises eligible for the “Superior with Distinction” rating are indicated with colored boxes. The medal/trophy symbols as printed are not entirely correct. Please use the attached sheet ONLY as the final record of which examples are eligible. There are three middle school only examples (red boxes), but middle school choirs may also read any high school “Superior with Distinction” exercise (orange boxes) as well. Note that Exercise 27 is NOT a HS “Superior with Distinction” exercise because it does not contain consecutive skips.
Here is the criteria for the “Superior with Distinction” exercises…
- For middle school choirs, any melodic exercise from the book that is not unison and contains skips.
- For high school choirs, any melodic exercise from the book that contains either stepwise chromaticism or consecutive skips for any voice part.
Also, please note that there has been an error in the 2017 MPA Sight Reading booklets. Exercises 17 (most advanced SSA) and 29 (most advanced SATB) were accidentally omitted, but will be available as a separate sheet. Please consider letting your District Chair know if you plan on reading these exercises.
When you come to registration at MPA, you will be asked to select your exercises. Please use this information to help you make your choices. We will be recording the exercise numbers as they should have been printed in the book- so make sure you are aware of the problem and that you take your time when selecting the exercises and announcing the numbers to your students in the sight reading room. We are using this data to fine tune the array of exercises offered each year.