1)　How do I teach students to sing music OTHER than unison music?

One of the good ways to introduce the harmony/polyphony is to use canon.

2a) How do I get students who are self-conscious about their singing to open up and sing?

Step back from "singing," and just start from comfortably and beautifully making sound. Yawning, then yawning-singing, and simple and fun vocalization would work well. And you don't have to encourage them to open their mouths, but insist that they have their throats opened and keep them opened.

2b) How do I teach them to sing with a supported voice?

Teach them correct and relaxed breathing while they learn open throat feeling, while you learn the tendency of the voice, passagios, and vowel modification.

You should find some recordings of choirs which demonstrate the ideal supported voices. Younger singers don't have ideal sounds in their minds yet. So, give them examples.

3b) What kind of music is best for beginning singers? Any styles or genres you would recommend?

It is always nice to give them various pieces from different eras, and also give them chances to choose repertoires. The best songs to practice are often the songs they like.

3b) if I have a smaller choir, is it better to use two-part or SAB arrangements rather than SATB?

If there is piano accompaniment part, it often happens that harmony is fulfilled well by the piano. So, you can still use SATB song, but ask singers to sing as if it is two-part or SAB song in some parts. You should be very flexible. Consider what's on the paper is just a general guide.

4)How do you teach singing concepts to children,

If the singer is really young, imitation and telling images works best.

Of course, it would be nice to remember how YOU learned the must. ;)

It is interesting that some teachers who were college voice majors have similar questions when they begin ttheir careers.  I would suggest that you use your college choir director and some of your fellow college choir members who now teach as a resource.   They are as close as your phone or your computer and they would probably be happy that you care about the experience your students have with vocal music.

 1. It honestly would help if you explain to the students that there are two different voice parts to the song and explain which students will sing Part one, and which students will sing Part two. If they can have a chance to sing both parts, that will prove that they are capable of singing either or, then it is just a matter of reminding them to make sure that they sing THEIR part when you perform.

 

2. I have students generally talk loud or even shout to prove that their voice can be loud, then I tell them to sing at that volume. This is only good for students 13 years old or older. Another thing that may help is encouragement. I try to live by the rule of "Risk. Fail. Risk Again." Perhaps having a poster with positive thoughts like that around the room. Also, let the students know that you WANT to hear mistakes. You can't fix a mistake if you can't hear it, and if you don't fix mistakes, the choir will never reach its full potential to be amazing.

Kentaro--very helpful information.  Let me ask a few questions for you. How do I teach them to sing with an open throat? Do I have them practicing yawning to see how it feels? What do you mean by "yawning-singing"? How do I teach this?

 

 

While I believe the above answers are good I have a couple of additional suggestions that I think you should consider.  If you can you should find a "voice" teacher and take as many lessons as you are able.  If you are going to teach singing you must demonstrate correctly. The voice is an instrument and should be treated as such.  Also I have a little concern as to having them sing "music they like".  Most kids listen to music that, in my opinion, is not age appropriate - text as well as vocal production.  I would find a series of American or other Folk Songs.  Folk Songs usually have a limited range which is helpful to the young singer. It is rather embarrassing, but most Americans kids have little knowledge of American Folk Songs. Most importantly make sure you are having fun and love the kids and the songs you are teaching.  In closing the Clovis and Fresno Schools in California have exemplary elementary choirs, if you can you should contact the coordinator of music in those school districts and get in touch with some of the more experienced teachers, who would be able to share important insights and resources.  Good luck.  Dan Earl

Allie,

 

There is a great resource book as well by Russell Robinson called "I Know Sousa, Not Sopranos." He began as a band person and is now one of the most prolific educational choral arrangers out there.

 

CJ

 

 My "lifeline" books for young voices and children's choirs:  Innocent Sounds:  Building Choral Tone and Artistry in Your Children's Choir, Marie Stultz, Book 1 and 2,

and Lifeline for Children's Choir Directors, Jean Ashworth Bartle--- these books got me through my first year and I still use them regularly...

 

Janine

Allie:

 

Canons work well to teach independent singing because everyone is learning the same music, then just learning to sing it at different times.  With canons you can group your singers by strength rather than section (in mixed groups or divided by female/male singers) and balance your groups in terms of ability/confidence.  Have the groups sit/stand in circles so they can hear and see when their part starts.  Even in a concert performance, it works well to have the groups separated by space so they can hear their part.

 

For your high school students, I would look for 2-part mixed repertoire and SAB repertoire next, just to establish the concept of singing independent lines.  Teach all of your girls the alto part until they are secure, then teach them all the soprano part.  Once you do that, balance your section with strong/weaker voices.  At this stage don't lock the girls into soprano/alto, have them sing both regularly.

 

Support and tone are constant issues.  Deal with it daily.  If you know they are capable of singing with "x" tone, don't accept less, even in the reading stages.  I call it "the bar" in my choir.  We always want to sing "at the bar" or above, never below.  And we raise the bar daily.  Why practice bad tone?  These are going to be small steps, but your encouragement and approval will make it possible.

 

Three suggestions for success:

I think one of the most important things for your choir is for them to hear other choirs.  Invite a college or other high school choir to stop at your school, or take a field trip to a school and listen to other choirs and have the director work with your choir.  Often the guest conductor says exactly what you say every day, but the students respond because it is someone other than their teacher.  And listen in the classroom.  Find recordings of the pieces you are performing (or pieces you hope to perform) sung by good high school choirs, and have the music playing every day when the students enter the classroom.  Talk about it.  Write reviews.  Ask them what they hear that is the same as/different from their choir. Give them "points" for downloading choral music (legally, of course) or writing reviews of high school choirs they find on You Tube.  They sound the way they do because that is what they think they are supposed to sound like.  Change the mental image, and you will hear change in your choir.

 

Read every day.  There are many useful sightreading programs, pick one.  Choir students sing with more confidence as they improve their reading skills.

 

Find quality music/arrangements that are fun, appealling to the students, and in a variety of genres from classical to popular to jazz to world music.  Be excited about the repertoire, and let them know why, out of a billion pieces of available music, you picked this piece for them to sing.  One foreign language piece at most per concert as they get used to that concept.

 

Good luck.  Keep asking questions.  Get involved with your state and regional ACDA chapter.  And enjoy the journey.

 

Tom Porter

University of Mary

Bismarck, North Dakota

Allie,

 

A couple things for you to consider:

 

1) There are many different notions of vocal pedagogy. Some folks believe that you should teach kids to yawn-sing (feeling the elevated position of the soft palette while yawning, then keeping it there while singing). Other teachers find that this can produce an unnatural tone (especially with the changed male voice), and is actually unnecessary. They propose that singers think of -- and sing -- a pure vowel at all times ... and then the entire vocal mechanism will do what it needs to do (including the soft palette, the mouth opening, the tongue, the larynx...). Some teachers suggest that singers open the mouth wider as the pitch rises, while others suggest this only for women (or unchanged male voices). Some teachers tell singers not to smile, thinking that smiling will negatively affect tone and production. Other teachers encourage natural facial expressions combined with pure vowels and a relaxed, "unhinged" jaw.

 

RE breathing, opinions are almost as disparate. Some propose belly or tummy breathing, and others suggest that singers focus more on a relaxed breath that fills both lower and upper ribs -- with noticeable rib expansion, but without the chest heaving up (this "clavicular breathing" being ineffective). And still others tell singers to "hold the ribs open" while exhaling.

 

Personally, I've studied with eight different teachers (more if you include the choral directors I've worked with), and I've been taught all of the above. What works best for me when I sing and when I teach is the "pure vowel combined with relaxation" vocal pedagogy, natural facial expressions, and a relaxed rib expansion.  But who knows, maybe if I worked with another teacher, I'd discover something entirely different.

 

So, I guess what I'm saying is caveat emptor ... and recommend that you take lessons from several people, explore the different ideas yourself, watch videos, and do as much reading on the subject as you can. Along with visiting some other choirs' rehearsals if at all possible.

 

2) RE getting singers to sing out with confidence, I would suggest you create a safe and supportive environment from day one, give the singers a story and text-based purpose for singing, AND have the singers move while singing. I'm not talking choralography, necessarily, but am talking about releasing singers from stiffness or stillness while singing. Check my website for much more on these subjects, and consider investigating my book, Tim Caldwell's Singing with Expression: Dalcroze Eurythmics & Voice, and Leslie Guelker-Cone's upcoming video on physicalizing the music (to be offered at www.sbmp.com).

 

All my best,

 

Tom

Wow, thanks everyone for the great replies so far. Keep them coming. I would love to be able to have a successful choir and these tips are helping. I have a few more questions.

 

1)I hope this isn't silly. But if you have guys in your choir, and you are singing two-part arrangements, would you have the guys sing one of the parts an octave below to fit his range? Because most of the two-part things I've looked at so far look like they'd be too high for men to sing.

 

2)As far as using canons to introduce harmony; is there a collection of these that anyone here would recommend? Or several? 

 

3)my choir will also include some from 7th or 8th grade; what do I do with boys with unchanged voices? Which voice part should they sing? 

 

4)I've heard some people describe that some methods would work for the female voice but not the male voice, and visa versa. Why is that? What is different about the male and female voices? 

 

5)I am planning to try and take vocal lessons if I am able to afford them, or at the very least get together with choir teacher friends to get help with my own voice. I will not have time to do this until summer. In the meantime, what can I do to begin developing my own voice? I don't feel that breath support is an issue for me, since I am a saxophonist. My main concerns are the quality of my voice; I have only a little vibrato in my voice, and it sounds "thin" and unfocused. How can I develop better vibrato? 

 

6)One last question (thank y'all for being so patient). What are "pure vowels"? What does that mean? 

 

Once again, THANK YOU for the help and for the patience.

Allie,

 

In response to your last post  question #2- a good book of easy canons is Rounds for Everyone from Everywhere by Terri. Start with the ones on the front of the book - they are the easiest. Some other rounds off the top of my haed are Tallis' Canon, Zum Gali Gali, O Music (Lowell Mason), Jubilate Deo (Praetorius)  and The Cuckoo. All should be asy to find with a Google search if you didn't learn them in elementary school or in an elementary music education class. Partner songs (two separate melodies that sound good when sung togeher) are the next logical step after the kids can sing canons. Many books exist of these types of songs - search "partner songs" in the jwpepper.com website for ideas. Brilee Music (brileemusic.com) also is full of great middle school/junior high choral music choices.  Good luck!

 

Mary Jane Phillips

When teaching rounds and canons, make sure that after you teach the song in unison, have them sing the song and you come in.  You should be one group against them.  Do not split them into 2 groups to sing a round or canon until they have sung it against you.  Then you start and they come in.  Only after they have done both of these steps should you break them into two groups.

Have each group take a turn starting the song and coming in.

 

You can also create or do ostinatos for songs - repeating patterns that can be sung while another group sings the main song.

 

Another great way to teach parts is partner songs.

 

When trying to get kids to sing confidently, play singing games that make them sing answers.  They will love the games so much that they will forget that they are singing the answers.  Usually these games require the students to sing alone so you can evaluate and help their singing happen..

 

As for question number 4, I highly recommend that you take a Kodaly course.  Let me know where you are and I can tell you where the nearest Kodaly courses are.  In the meantime, read up on as much Kodaly as possible - The Kodaly Concept by Lois Choksy, and any materials by these teachers:  John Feierabend, Jean Sinor, Lamar Robertson (has great worksheets too), Ann Eisen.

 

For Kindergarten you really need to get them to understand the difference between singing and speaking.  Lillie Feierabend (John's wife) does a lot of work with beginning singers.  Have them make a lot of high sounds by making siren sounds, animal sounds, wooooo sounds as they follow your hand up and down, etc.

 

I hope this helps.

 

I had grades 6-8, then 9-12. At the beginning of the year, we would start with two part harmony using a few Canons. After that, we 'graduated' to 3 part, then 4 part. Having them tell me what type of music excites them helped. I selected a few songs that they would listen to on the radio... provided the theme and language was appropriate, and also mixed in a few that would challenge them from different era's. When I decided to leave, my 8th graders were singing the Bach Magnificat. The parents were informed and invloved, and what really helped is recording. For each piece, I would play each individual part, then all 4 parts, lasty the acc. and put it onto a cd for the students to take home and practice with. Now, that helped a great deal, but I understand that not every middle school has recording equipment, nor the funds to make a cd for each child! And to answer anyone's question... this was a public school, not a school of the arts.

Amazing to know that some seek to improve their marksmanship by moving the target.

Tough to find a cause by manipulating effects. Phonation - sine qua non!

 

Happy Hunting,

 

C. Edward Palmer

All great advice. 

 

I would just add,

(I'm the director of vocal development for a symphony music education program in my area  and work with 4-8th grade vocal students),

 

to get them to sing out and reduce fear of doing so, get them moving.I've been known to march my kids around as they sing.  It's amazing how suddenly they are less timid.  I also plan fun games that get them singing without thinking about it. 

 

One game that I do in the beginning of the year is to have them write the words to a song they know about why they want to be in this ensemble, then perform it for each other.  (In groups of 3).  This is a great ice breaker that seems to get them to let loose a little.

 

Jan

 

A big don't for me is to allow children from kindergarten up to sing (or shout really in some cases) in chest voice. This is a very difficult concept to get across to general ed teachers (which I was) when they are preparing for programs. Louder is not better. If children learn to sing in a nice head tone the sound will increase as they get used to it. Yawn sighs and sirens become fun and allow children to find that upper register. I sometimes would demonstrate and then have them copy me, pointing out that they were able to go higher than I could. They enjoyed feeling like they could do something better than the teacher. The old you hoo call is another good way to get into head tone, starting on various pitches, not in a set pattern. Sirens or talking like a little hamster helped those who weren't matching pitch to find their head tone. You can then sing a pitch, have them try to match it, slide down to where they are and have them slide the pitch back up to the one you started with.

 

Don't have the boys with changed voices sing in an unnatural register. A good unison with good diction and those pure vowels (and everyone in the choir singing the same vowel, especially on sustained notes) with everyone singing in a comfortable octave is more important. For those poor boys going through the terrors of an unpredictable voice as their voice changes, tell them to sing lightly with more breath. I always explain to everyone what happens to the vocal cords as they get older and why voices are unpredictable for a while with the boys, but not much of a problem for the girls and make it very clear that this is not something to tease anyone about. They know I'm very serious about this one and that someone will surely tell on them. That would mean having to explain to me why they did it - I'm 6'2" + with heels - still a little intimidating when I need to be.

 

I used to tell my choirs that their grandmother was in the back row and a little hard of hearing so they needed to sing so she could hear them, but not until they were ready to increase their volume. I told more than one principal who wanted things louder to get a mike.

 

One hard and fast rule was that they did not have to like every piece that we did, but they couldn't complain until they knew the song well enough to perform it and then they had to tell me what it was about the song that they didn't like. I didn't get too many complaints.

 

I don't know where you are. Are there any good children's church choirs near enough that you could observe rehearsals? Same with adult choirs? You can learn a lot about what works (and what doesn't) watching other people.

 

Some of the English boy choirs - Kings College Choir for example - will give them a wonderful model of singing in head tone and show the boys that boys do sing and very well. I don't know if the Los Angeles Children's Choir is on youtube. They would also be a good model. There are so many good choirs of all ages on youtube that we could all list all night and not even come close to beginning the list. 

You will learn a lot by trial and error as you find your personal style. What works for one person can be a disaster for the next.

 

Keep us posted and keep asking questions. The only dumb question is the one you were afraid to ask!

Pat 

Some great answers here!

 

Re singing harmony? When I was very young (around  5, I think), my sister (10 years older) came home from boarding school and said, let me teach you this song. (I had always loved to sing; my mother sung me to sleep at night). She said you sing this part (the melody), and I'll sing something different. We did and I will say, even to this day 50 years later, it was an epiphanic moment. When we were done, she said, "that's called HARMONY".

 

Perhaps you could do this with your young kids? Have them sing the melody on something simple, and you sing the harmony.

 

Also, play for them as much harmony as you can - both on records and at the keyboard.

 

Good luck - it sounds like a wonderful, if not challenging, job!

Allie, one concept that, I believe, has resulted in several voice problems among us human beings is the idea that we have a singing voice and a speaking voice.  Those two 'things' don't exist and never have, just like we don't have running legs and walking legs or grasping hands and pushing hands. 

 

We human beings have parts of ourselves that we coordinate together to produce the sound phenomenon we call voice. The only essential difference between speaking and singing is that in speech we slide our vocal pitches around (vibrational frequencies), and in singing we sustain our pitches for a time before we go to other sustained pitches.  In both speaking and singing we change our vocal volumes, our voice qualities, and the durations of the sounds we make. 

 

Specifically, in both singing and speaking:

1. we inhale air into our lungs,

2. we close our vocal folds over that lung-air,

3. we then 'squeeze' on our lungs to pressurize that air, and

4. when the closure intensity of the vocal folds and the pressure of the air underneath reach a critical relationship, the air begins to flow between the two vocal

    folds and sets them into complex vibrations that create complex shock waves in the air above the vocal folds (referred to as sound pressure waves, sound

    waves for short), thus creating the first contribution to our vocal pitches, volumes, and timings, and to our voice qualities or vocal timbres (what we 'sound like'),

5. those sound waves travel through the throat and mouth parts of our vocal tracts and are modified by them, creating the second contribution to our vocal

    volumes, timings, and to what we 'sound like,' and also to the language sounds we make, and finally,

6. the sound waves radiate past our lips and out for the 'world' to hear.

 

Sooooo, Allie, less experienced users of voice for in-tune singing can be helped immensely--as others have suggested--by imitative sound-making and word-making voiceplay™. Notice that there is an element of a theatrical or situational 'story.'

 

One game: "I Make a Sound, You Make a Sound."  Ask the singers: "How close can you come to making the sound(s) I make as close as you can to the way I make them?"   With a wide-eyed wondering look on your face, you look at them and say, "Whooooooooo are youuuuuu?"  After they repeat what you did, then speak the same words several times (say, 5 times) with a different pitch inflection (and, threrefore, with different feeling-meanings--paraverbal communication is one tech-term for it), but keep the pitch range generally lower--in normal speaking pitch-range for kids.  Afterwards, if you choose, you can say, "That's the 'Who are you?' part of your voice."

 

A second game: "Calling Out to Other People."  Say, "Pretend you are walking down a street and you see some friends of yours walking about a block in front of you.  You want to get their attention so you can catch up and walk together.  Calling to them with your voice is about the only way to get their attention, so let's pretend that you make a sound that hardly anyone uses anymore, and you call out (use your upper voice or head register at least up around D5 or E5): "Yooooooo hooooooo!"  After they repeat, do some more pitch inflections in the "Yoo hoo" part of your/their voice, and then you can say, "That's the 'Yoo hoo' part of your voices."  Two finales for this game: 

 

(1) start on "Yoo hooooooooooo" and slide downward into the "Who are you" part of your/their voices (lower voice or chest register) and finish with "...are you!" [final syllable of 'Yoo hoo' is the first word of 'Who are you?' and the final word of 'Who are you?' is the first syllable of 'Yoo hoo.']  and then

(2) start again lowish in your voice on "Who are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu?" and slide upward into the 'you hoo' part of your/their voices (upper voice or head register) and finish with "...hooooooooooooo!" [If you voice or any of theirs produces an abrupt change in voice quality--soometimes called a 'break' (not a helpful term)--that's just a voice register change that happens to be abrupt.  Melting, smoothing, or blending those two vocal coordinations called regsters is a fundamental skill of singing and speaking.]

 

As to another of your Qs, Allie, another approach to helping singers 'hold a vocal part' independently while other parts are being sung:

 

1. Use simple unison songs--hopefully with lyrics/text that are resonably meaningful to the singers--and you write a 'bass' line yourself that is mostly, but not exclusively, root-of-the-chord sustained tones sung on /loo/, /loh/, or /lah/, or other syllables. Half the group sings the melody, the other half sings the harmony, then switch. 

 

2. Singing a cappella, or with very bare accompaniment, makes for the most accurate auditory feedback for the sound of one's own voice and the pitch accuracy of one's own singing. When learning songs by rote, as soon as possible, fade your voice down and out and then sing only when there is a specific reason to give help.  Generally, when your students are singing, your job is to listen--not to sing. That also helps you maintain your vocal health. 

 

If you sing along with anyone who is learning how to produce accurate pitches, do sing along with them at the beginning, and orient the sound of your voice toward their left ear. To my knowledge, no scientific study has provided direct evidence for this, but it is true that the left ear sends a lot more auditory neurons to the right hemisphere's auditory cortex than to the left hemisphere's auditory cortex, and the right hemisphere is where the preponderance of heard melodic pitches and harmonic pitches are processed and where the initiation of motor coordinations for producing pitches happens.

 

3. Use a 4- or 8- or 12-bar series of mostly complete-measure notes in duple or triple meter as a 'bass' line in various chord progressions (12-bar blues?) with an occasional inversion, such as: 

I - IV - V - I; or

I - vi - IV - V - I; or

I - I6 - ii - IV - I - V6 - I, etc.

And write out a melody to sing over the 'bass' line progressions to be sung on various vowels or consonant-vowel combinations (syllables). Gradually, fill in other harmony parts?

 

4. in 6/4 time, ask one group (section) to sing a 'bass' line of dotted whole note patterns, such as : 1 - 5 - 1 - 5 - 1.  Ask another group to sing and repeat four times (scales on numbers or syllables) 1231.....  Ask another group to sing and repeat 1.....321  And another group to sing and repeat 321123.  For the 'fininsh,' everybody sustains the frst not of their pattern for half of a 6/4 bar.  Along the way, put them together in combos of twos, threes, and, of course, all four.  Make up your own such patterns, of course.

 

5. Create or find a simple, short, but interesting ostinato pattern with more sustained notes and write a melody to go with it.

 

NOTE: I highly recommend a summer course to you that will address nearly all the wonderments that you have, including working with your own and others' voices, in general, for efficient/healthy singing and speaking, working with prepubescent children and male and female adolescent changing voices, how voices are made and how they are 'played' as people grow in their voice and expressive skills, and how to rehearse choirs and conduct them in a way that elicits healthy, expressive singing, and learning methods that increase musical/vocal independence in singers.  It's a course called "Lifespan Voice Education in the Real World" and has been presented each summer by The VoiceCare Network for 30 years (as of this coming summer; grad credit available).  One warning, though: If you just can't stand to laugh a lot and pleasantly learn a lot at the same time, well...be careful.  Go to: www.voicecarenetwork.org

 

The sourcebook for the course is Bodymind and Voice: Foundations of Voice Education.  It's among the most comprehensive books on voice, voice education, voice health, voice growth, and arranging music/voice learning situations that optimize the chances that students/singers will choose to continue singing for a lifetime because they love it. The course is hands-on and definitely addresses all the above. It's rather unique, in my opinion.

[Yes, I started the courses, but am now retired from them, and...I am principal author and co-editor of the book. The co-editor, and also an author, is a Brit friend of mine, Graham Welch, who is an international expert and researcher on how children learn to sing (and many other topics), and there are 16 other authors including 5 medical docs, a speech pathologist, an audiologist, an early childhood specialist, an Alexander Technique teacher, another child voice specialist, a male adolescent voice specialist, a female adolescent voice specialist, and four other voice, choral, and music education specialists.] Go to the same link above for info and ordering, if you choose to.

 

I completely agree with John: Never apologize for asking questions. It's a sign of superior intelligence, in fact.  "The admission of ignorance is the beginning of knowledge." (can't remember who said that, but it is soooo true.)

 

Hope this helps, Allie. Happy New Year!!!!