There Are Several Methods That Can Be Used to Teach Singing to Children. There Are Also

There are several methods that can be used to teach singing to children. There are also some important elements that need to be taught no matter which method of teaching you use. It is important to make sure that the music that is being taught is appropriate for the child’s voice. This includes things like the range, rhythm, text, and even phrasing of the music. It is important to keep them singing so that they understand the vocal mechanism.

The physical training of singing is also important, specifically posture and breathing. Perfect singing posture, or PSP, is crucial for good breath control, production of a beautiful tone and for expressive phrasing. Students need to be made to use PSP, they need to be shown how to use it. Breathing for singing is similar to breathing for high endurance sports. It is important to do breathing exercises before any singing activity. Vocal exercises that combine inhaling, sustaining and releasing of air can be used to develop the control that is essential for good singing.

It is important to always teach toward accurate singing. Solfége can help students with inner hearing and will lead to more accurate singing. Kodály hand signs are also helpful in using solfége. Teaching students to discriminate between higher and lower pitches can be helpful. This can be taken a step further by mapping out the melody. Teach them to follow the movement of the melody. It is important to establish the key that a song is in so that students are confident with the pitches. Repetition is key to helping students sing accurately. They may not be able to grasp all of the elements unless they are several repetitions. Possibly most importantly to teaching accurate singing is helping students to find their singing voice.

Students might not be comfortable with their singing voices right away. To help them find their singing voices and become more comfortable with them it is crucial to have a vocal model that is accurate. Children will sing like what they hear. The model should use correct posture and singing while demonstrating also. It is also important that male singers use falsetto. Many children can be confused by the octave difference between the male voice and their voice. They may even try to sing down the octave.

Each of these elements should be used in the three methods of teaching singing to children. The three teaching methods are: rote, note, and a combination. Rote learning is one of the more popular methods of teaching songs to children. This is an oral and aural approach to learning songs. Through this method, children are given numerous opportunities to listen to a song and learn it aurally. The song is presented to the children in small chunks rather than as a whole. It is repeated until the children can sing the song accurately. Teaching by note is another approach to teaching songs. Children are taught to read musical notation through this approach. They are taught to look for rhythmic and melodic patterns that they are familiar with. Neutral syllables and solfége are used to chant the rhythm. If there are unfamiliar patterns, they can be taught in several ways. Trial and error or using critical thinking are examples. A third method to teaching singing to children is a combination of rote and note.