The basis of all vocal instruction at the elementary level as well as many times at the junior high level is modeling.
Modeling is what students hear and especially what they see that's necessary to produce a good vocal sound.
What's a good vocal sound?
A good vocal sound is what you hear when someone is expressively singing in-tune notes that fall into the meat of their register.
They're not straining and they're not forcing notes that aren’t forthcoming in their voice.
Depending upon the genre, tonal quality will vary.
The tone must be appropriate for the setting.
If you’re singing death metal, you don’t want to sound as if you are singing a Puccinni aria, and visa versa.
For the bulk of these posts, I am focusing on developing good vocal habits and sound in elementary singers.
The Golden Hour: the First Time They Hear You Sing
From the very first class you have with students, the first notes you sing are crucially important.
Those notes will imprint upon your students exactly what you, the teacher, considers is an acceptable, good vocal sound.
Whenever I started at a new school, the students in the first class would usually start to giggle or laugh embarrassingly when I first started to sing.
The uncomfortable student feedback was probably because their previous music teacher didn't sing that much or didn't put any effort or thought into their own singing.
If you get this initial laughing reaction from students, don’t over-react or take it personally.
Full disclosure: Yes, I am presenting myself as an expert in teaching singing to little children. Yes, I’ve only taken class voice for one semester in college – no other studies.
On the other hand, I have spent decades singing and have made tens of thousands of dollars singing in hundreds of venues as well as on broadcast/cable TV and radio.
And according to my supervisors, co-teachers, parents, and superintendents, my classes and choruses always sounded great.
I’ve always had a background in singing in a variety of settings and I took my vocal responsibilities seriously, especially after I started fronting a band.
When I sing in a classroom without sound reinforcement, I sing to fill the room. It doesn’t matter the room. My voice will fill it.
Melody rules. Just ask a recording engineer or a sound mixer at a concert venue.
Once you start singing professionally, you come to a quick understanding that the first thing listeners react to is the groove and she second thing is the vocal melody.
As teachers, we need to respect this reality and teach accordingly.
Learning how to sing in elementary school starts in kindergarten.
I have observed over the years that children with good vocal technique and pitch always have an easier time when playing an instrument.
The older my class, the greater the chance that the students will laugh or giggle when they first heard me sing. The younger the kid, the more willing they were to accept that this is what singing sounds like.
With older kids, I would usually have to cut my first song short and dryly – but firmly - say, ”Okay, I know you're not used to hearing somebody really sing, but this is what it sounds like, and this is what it's going to sound like, and this is what you're going to sound like, so let's just get our giggles out of the way. This is what singing is about. And by the way, I don't like to be interrupted when I'm singing, so don't interrupt me again when I’m singing.”
What I was singing was probably the “Hello Song”, which is the first song I teach all of my classes.
I would start teaching the song while playing guitar. Guitar gave me the mobility to cruise the room while I sang. It also drove home the idea that I was not a captive of the piano – I could go wherever I wanted in the room at any time and continue to make music as well as manage student behavior.
Because the “Hello Song” is a call and answer song, modeling is inherent in the form of the piece.
I would also be singing full voice in the actual octave that the kids would be singing: from C4 to C5.
If I wanted the kids to actually model me, I knew that I had to initially sing the actual pitches they were singing.
If they were unable to match pitch with my voice, I would put down the guitar and move behind the piano.
After we were able to cement pitch in place, I could sing an octave lower, from C3 to C4.
Using a Piano for Singing
These were guidelines that worked for me when using a piano for singing with kids.
I used a digital grand piano on and X-brace stand going through a PA. The children would be sitting in rows in front of me.
It is crucial that clear sight lines be established between the teacher students.
I demanded eye contact at all times when we singing.
Sitting and singing behind an upright piano is hard to pull off. The upright becomes a wall between you and the class. The flat digital instrument is much more transparent and unobtrusive.
I never looked at my hands when I played. I ALWAYS maintained eye contact with each child in the class.
What I Was Always Looking For When Kids Sang
The first thing I looked for was that they looked like a mirror of me: the way I sat, the way my eyebrows and chin were slightly raised,
and the way my mouth looked as I sang.
It took several years of experimentation, editing, and data collection but I finally determined the five criteria that had the most impact on improving the singing of children.
I called these five requirements “Big Singing”.
No hands on face.
No screaming.
Open your mouth.
Move your lips.
Move your tongue.
I’ll explain in depth in another post why I chose these five.
By all means, do your own data collection. See what works for you. Come up with your own criteria.
The important idea is that you are giving kids a concise list of principles that’s easy to memorize, visualize, and conceptualize.
More on “Big Singing” and singing in “Stacking Skills for Success: Singing – Part Three”.
Modeling is what students hear and especially what they see that's necessary to produce a good vocal sound.
What's a good vocal sound?
A good vocal sound is what you hear when someone is expressively singing in-tune notes that fall into the meat of their register.
They're not straining and they're not forcing notes that aren’t forthcoming in their voice.
Depending upon the genre, tonal quality will vary.
The tone must be appropriate for the setting.
If you’re singing death metal, you don’t want to sound as if you are singing a Puccinni aria, and visa versa.
For the bulk of these posts, I am focusing on developing good vocal habits and sound in elementary singers.
The Golden Hour: the First Time They Hear You Sing
From the very first class you have with students, the first notes you sing are crucially important.
Those notes will imprint upon your students exactly what you, the teacher, considers is an acceptable, good vocal sound.
Whenever I started at a new school, the students in the first class would usually start to giggle or laugh embarrassingly when I first started to sing.
The uncomfortable student feedback was probably because their previous music teacher didn't sing that much or didn't put any effort or thought into their own singing.
If you get this initial laughing reaction from students, don’t over-react or take it personally.
Full disclosure: Yes, I am presenting myself as an expert in teaching singing to little children. Yes, I’ve only taken class voice for one semester in college – no other studies.
On the other hand, I have spent decades singing and have made tens of thousands of dollars singing in hundreds of venues as well as on broadcast/cable TV and radio.
And according to my supervisors, co-teachers, parents, and superintendents, my classes and choruses always sounded great.
I’ve always had a background in singing in a variety of settings and I took my vocal responsibilities seriously, especially after I started fronting a band.
When I sing in a classroom without sound reinforcement, I sing to fill the room. It doesn’t matter the room. My voice will fill it.
Melody rules. Just ask a recording engineer or a sound mixer at a concert venue.
Once you start singing professionally, you come to a quick understanding that the first thing listeners react to is the groove and she second thing is the vocal melody.
As teachers, we need to respect this reality and teach accordingly.
Learning how to sing in elementary school starts in kindergarten.
I have observed over the years that children with good vocal technique and pitch always have an easier time when playing an instrument.
The older my class, the greater the chance that the students will laugh or giggle when they first heard me sing. The younger the kid, the more willing they were to accept that this is what singing sounds like.
With older kids, I would usually have to cut my first song short and dryly – but firmly - say, ”Okay, I know you're not used to hearing somebody really sing, but this is what it sounds like, and this is what it's going to sound like, and this is what you're going to sound like, so let's just get our giggles out of the way. This is what singing is about. And by the way, I don't like to be interrupted when I'm singing, so don't interrupt me again when I’m singing.”
What I was singing was probably the “Hello Song”, which is the first song I teach all of my classes.
I would start teaching the song while playing guitar. Guitar gave me the mobility to cruise the room while I sang. It also drove home the idea that I was not a captive of the piano – I could go wherever I wanted in the room at any time and continue to make music as well as manage student behavior.
Because the “Hello Song” is a call and answer song, modeling is inherent in the form of the piece.
I would also be singing full voice in the actual octave that the kids would be singing: from C4 to C5.
If I wanted the kids to actually model me, I knew that I had to initially sing the actual pitches they were singing.
If they were unable to match pitch with my voice, I would put down the guitar and move behind the piano.
After we were able to cement pitch in place, I could sing an octave lower, from C3 to C4.
Using a Piano for Singing
These were guidelines that worked for me when using a piano for singing with kids.
I used a digital grand piano on and X-brace stand going through a PA. The children would be sitting in rows in front of me.
It is crucial that clear sight lines be established between the teacher students.
I demanded eye contact at all times when we singing.
Sitting and singing behind an upright piano is hard to pull off. The upright becomes a wall between you and the class. The flat digital instrument is much more transparent and unobtrusive.
I never looked at my hands when I played. I ALWAYS maintained eye contact with each child in the class.
What I Was Always Looking For When Kids Sang
The first thing I looked for was that they looked like a mirror of me: the way I sat, the way my eyebrows and chin were slightly raised,
and the way my mouth looked as I sang.
It took several years of experimentation, editing, and data collection but I finally determined the five criteria that had the most impact on improving the singing of children.
I called these five requirements “Big Singing”.
No hands on face.
No screaming.
Open your mouth.
Move your lips.
Move your tongue.
I’ll explain in depth in another post why I chose these five.
By all means, do your own data collection. See what works for you. Come up with your own criteria.
The important idea is that you are giving kids a concise list of principles that’s easy to memorize, visualize, and conceptualize.
More on “Big Singing” and singing in “Stacking Skills for Success: Singing – Part Three”.
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