HOW TO TEACH SINGING IN THE CLASSROOM
Some Tips and Ideas to Consider
Submitted by Featured Author:
Cecile Johnson
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Zoltán Kodály best expressed the basic principles of music education with the following from his Selected Writings:
“ If one were to attempt to express the essence of this education in one word, it could only be –singing.”
“That to be internalized, music learning must begin with the child’s own natural instrument, the voice.”
“Singing without any instrument, i.e. free singing, is the really deep training of the child’s musical faculties.”
Yet as teachers and followers of Kodály’s vision, how do we really teach singing in the classroom? I am sure there are those who relish the heated debate between the “nature and nurture” theories. Is one just born with natural talent and a beautiful voice? Or can one be taught to sing, to literally train and nurture one’s voice? What do you really think? Is singing just a gift that some have and some don’t? Or can we really teach someone to sing? You have to answer that question for yourself.
I have always loved this quote by David Briggs who said,
“If you believe all children can learn, or you don’t,
YOU’RE RIGHT!”
Now add the words “If you believe all children can learn to sing, or if you don’t, you’re right! ”… and the message becomes a very powerful one for us music teachers.
It is really our own attitude/philosophy about teaching and students’ abilities to learn that ultimately determine our course of action, our strategies, the measure of our own success as music teachers and ultimately our students’ success in singing.
So first of all, we music teachers need to firmly believe that ALL children (barring irreparable, physical vocal or mental impairment) CAN learn to sing, and it is our job to provide those musical experiences and activities with lots of solo and group singing opportunities to help children maximize their potential to be tuneful singers. It would be foolish to think that every child should turn out to be a professional singer, but all children do have the right to be able to express themselves with their own voice. We can help them achieve that goal in a very musical way that exemplifies pleasing, in-tune singing in unison and in harmony within a vocal ensemble we call the music classroom and choir.
What follows are some techniques and practices that have worked for me in the elementary classroom. What success I have had with the auditioned 4th-5th grade Woodrow Wilson All-Star Choir is a direct result of what has been taught and learned about singing in the general music classroom K-5. May they give you some ideas and encouragement to continue to help children find their singing voice.
• From the beginning, make singing the main and major activity of every lesson.
• Treat every music class as though it were a choir.
• Create in the classroom an environment of acceptance, caring and nurturing so that children are willing to take risks and sing alone in front of you and their peers.
• Build in greeting songs, dialogue songs, solo response songs and singing games whereby individual children sing alone as part of every group music class. Singing alone in a group should be a natural part of what happens in your class every day.
• “Raise the praise, minimize the criticize!” said Todd Whitaker………Compliment every small increment of one’s progress and never allow other children to laugh or make fun of another child’s effort when singing.
• When you compliment or praise a child’s singing, make it be about the singing and not the child……..Ex. “Wow! That was really in- tune today, excellent listening and tone matching…….Thank you for your effort!” “You took a good breath and sang a nice line.” “ I liked that high note today, YEAH!” “Good job. You sounded just like the bells!”
• When a child is not matching pitch, take a moment to re-teach, reinforce and boost one’s efforts……..”Sing “woo!, Take a bigger breath, raise your arm as you shoot the imaginary lay-up to the basket, pretend you are climbing to the tallest building in New York! etc." Use a lot of analogies to get children to flip up into their head voices- again praise any little improvement and if still struggling, thank them for trying and say "We’ll keep working on it.” But don’t belabor the point and embarrass the child to the extent that he/she shuts down and later retreats and is unwilling to sing.
• Avoid saying “Bravo and great job or perfect" when it really isn’t good singing……..Children are very aware of faint and insincere praise. Make sure that you really listen to individual and group singing and address specific needs for improvement. I have found that when asked, most children can tell you whether they are singing higher, lower or the same as you or a classmate…….Once you have established that hearing/audiating is not the problem, work with that child to listen better, prepare better with a breath, then give a visual or kinesthetic cue to sing a bit higher. Things will not improve if you just let things go and accept whatever. Set your own standards high for what “quality, high level of singing is” and expect the children to work toward that goal with you. Ask the children what can be better…How can we make the sound better. Make the children be stakeholders in their own vocal product. Peer assessment is a powerful tool.
• With a child who is really struggling, match their initial pitch first and then try for smaller, but higher increments in pitch with the same melodic contour. Make sure that the child can hear same, different, higher, lower first. With every little improvement, applaud, high-five, compliment and reinforce that success with even more opportunities for singing.
• When a child finally achieves independent singing and more fluid manipulation of one’s head voice, celebrate with the whole class! Again applaud the individual effort and congratulate the event making sure the child knows what an achievement he/she has made to find the head voice and now knowing what it physically feels like and sounds like. Encourage them to do that every time!!!!
• Whenever possible, use manipulatives such as a play microphone, puppet, “woo”ball, bouncy ball, slinky, Frisbee, bubbles , etc. to take the child’s attention away from him/herself and free up the inhibitions to sing……..Children will never improve their singing if they are not afforded lots of opportunities to try…….
• When choosing repertoire for children to sing, err on the side of high (rather than picking lower keys and pitches found more often in the textbooks and popular editions). Gently force the children to sing higher. I like to work from 3rd space treble clef C and down on warm-ups and as an initial placement for so-mi. It really does help the children get into that preferred head-voice light register. Remember when having children read from the staff, pitch the song and notes to correspond with the actual absolute pitches they are seeing on the staff. Help train both the eye and ear for those pitch placements.
• When planning greetings and greeting songs or a bouquet of songs at the beginning of class, try keeping the songs in the same key and establish a routine. Keep all opening songs in the same order to help build the aural skills of the children and train the ear for those pitches and intervals and do plenty of physical, mental and vocal warm-ups to prepare the voice and mind for active music-making.
• More often than not, use a cappella singing rather than accompanied CDs or piano accompaniments. Let the children and you really hear themselves and each other without the booming “Broadway” background music than masks what the children are doing vocally. Use more child-friendly instruments such as guitar, recorder, dulcimer and autoharp as accompanying instruments so both you and the children can hear their voices.
• Give the children plenty of opportunities to hear quality recordings of solo performers and choirs so they know what a beautiful tone is and what choral artistry is all about. We all need to learn from exemplary programs, choirs and their successful, inspirational conductors. Plan listening lessons and transition activities around singers and groups such as Marilyn Horne, The King’s Singers, Bobby McFerrin, the American Boy’s Choir, Vienna Boys’ Choir, Indianapolis Children’s Choir, Toronto Children’s Choir, the OAKE National Choirs and many others. Editor's note: Videos of the National Children's Choirs are available at www.oake.org
•As a teacher of singing, continue to read about good vocal production, use materials by John Feierabend on vocal exploration, books on techniques on teaching children to sing by Linda Swears , Kenneth Phillips and Henry Leck. Attend workshops that feature choral techniques, selecting quality literature, and choral warm-ups. Attend lots of concerts so that you might further your own skill in developing strong singers in your music classroom and in your school choirs.
• Continue to monitor the progress of your students in every class. The voice is the most personal and expressive of all instruments and we are fortunate to be able to help students use them in a musical way.
Above all else, remember “ to teach music in such a way that it is a joy!”
-Cecile Johnson