Posture Chant - Quick Tip - Band Directors Talk Shop

Quick Tip!

Here’s a Posture Chant to help remind your students of the correct posture…in a FUN way!

Feet Flat,
Back Straight,
Sitting on the Edge – HUH!

Click here to view/print the Posture Chant. There is a teacher copy (with the rhythms and a picture of what students should look like) and a student copy with just words for multiple chants. (They really don’t need the words for this one – it’s so short!)

Teach the students that when the director starts to say this chant at any time during the rehearsal they can join in along the way and by the end, everyone should be sitting with correct posture and say the “HUH!” part together.

This can be done at any time during class – no metronome or preparation required. Just start saying it and the kids should automatically fix posture. The best part is there is no nagging required! The more fun you have with this, the more fun the kids will have too!

Remind students consistently that they should be sitting on the front few inches of their chair. If they play a small woodwind instrument (like flute or clarinet) they can keep their instrument case behind them at the back of their chair to automatically encourage good posture – be sure they don’t touch the case with their back.

If they have a chair with a hump on the front, you could substitute “sitting on the hump, HUH!” Some instruments, such as bassoon, can be told to ignore that part and just be sure they are sitting up completely straight.

Do not have students make a motion on the HUH! (as we have recommended on the lines/spaces chant) because they will have instruments in their hands for this chant most of the time.