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Chapter five: Children Singing and Children's Songs

Chapter Objective: One of the virtually basic even so challenging activities to do with children is to teach them a song.This affiliate focuses on the child'southward singing vocalism, including their vocal range, selection of appropriate musical textile, and methods for teaching a vocal in a musically meaningful, cognitively stimulating way that lays the groundwork for future integration.

I. A Child'southward Voice

One mutual error that adults brand when singing with children is that they tend to "pitch" the songs, (or sing them in a key), that is comfortable for themselves, but unfortunately, out of a comfy singing range for the children. Adults sing in much lower range than children, therefore pitching a song too low causes children to be unsuccessful at reaching some of the lower notes.

Pitching a song in the wrong range can have meaning negative consequences on a child's musical self-esteem. An incorrect primal tin take away the kid'due south power to sing the song well or sing the song at all. Singing in a key that is out of a child's range would be analogous to an art instructor giving a artistic assignment to students and so placing all of the art materials up on a shelf out of achieve for nearly of them. While a few might exist tall enough, nigh won't be. Subsequently a while, they will give up trying to reach the material altogether. Similarly, these are the students who commencement to believe that they can't sing at all, and give up on music.

Skillful Singing

Although nosotros are used to hearing and singing popular music, a kid'due south voice is non yet prepare to sing songs either with such a wide song range or with the sophisticated vocal stylings or timbre that he or she might attempt to imitate from pop singers. Equally children's voices are very light, they should non be pushed out of their song ranges too soon. Using a articulate, clean, straight head vocalization rather than chest voice will aid to avoid this, and will strengthen a child's vocal musculature for a lifetime of excellent singing.

1 skillful habit to help children sing well is to enquire them sing in their head phonation rather than their chest voice. Although virtually songs children hear are pop songs that are placed in the chest, a child'south vocalism is not nonetheless developed, and should not exist belting out or pushing from the lower range or chest voice. Head voice requires placing the sound higher up in the "vocal mask" or the face, as if singing from the eyes. Chest voice feels similar the sound is emanating from the breast, which tends to create a lot of tension in the throat, particularly in younger singers. The head voice is lighter, more tension-gratuitous, and more natural and therefore more cute sounding.

Children'southward Vocal Ranges

Below are the full general ranges of a child's voice.

Preschool–Kindergarten (3–5 years old), C to A

First–3rd class (6–viii years one-time) C to C'

Fourth–sixth class (nine–xi years old) Bflat to E'

The strongest notes in a kid's vocal range are correct in the eye of their range, around pitches F and G. While they may exist able to hitting college or lower notes, these few notes are where they tin can sing the loudest and most comfortably.

Song Warm-Ups for Children

Activities for helping children explore their voices and find their head voice:

Speech warm-ups

Activities for exploring the child's voice and finding the child'south head voice:

Helping children find their head voice

• Have children imitate the sound of a:
  • Wolf, coyote, ghost, owl, siren, train whistle, current of air
• Take them "read" abstract annotation (lines, dots, squiggles) experimenting with different vocal sounds and timbres in their head vocalisation.
  • What does a blue squiggly line sound like? Dark-green bumps? Ruddy jagged mountains?

Warm-up 1

Abstract note: Example 1

Warm-up 2

Abstract annotation: Example 2

Warm-up iii

Abstract notation: Example 3

Help children find their dissimilar types of voices

• Outside, inside/speaking, whispering, singing voice
  • This is my outside voice! (shouting)
  • This is my inside phonation (speaking).
  • This is my whispering voice (whispering).
  • This is my singing voice (sung on Sol Sol Mi, Sol Sol Mi).

• High, low, whisper, projecting
  • I take my voice upward loftier (depression to high),
  • I take my voice down low (high to low).
  • I send my voice out into space and (shouting/projecting)
  • I whisper all around, whisper all around (whisper).
• High, depression, medium
  • Bow wow says the dog (medium voice),
  • Meow, meow says the cat (high voice),
  • Grunt, grunt says the hog (low voice),
  • Squeak, squeak says the rat (very high voice).
• High, depression, medium
  • You lot must pay the rent (depression, Landlord).
  • Merely I can't pay the hire (high, immature daughter Tenant) (Repeat these first two lines 3 times).
  • I'll pay the hire (medium, young male person, Hero).
  • My hero! (high)
  • Curses, foiled again (low).

Singing warm-ups

Doing warm-ups not but helps children explore their vocal range but expand information technology too. As with all pitched warm-ups, start at the lesser of the range and move up in half-stride increments and and so back downward. Some of the warm-ups are quite cognitively challenging.

Number the scale

This is a cognitively challenging exercise. The easiest fashion to sing it is to write the pattern for the do on the board, telling students that each number corresponds to a note on the major scale (1 = middle C, 2 = D, etc.). Subsequently singing from a depression C to a loftier C, reverse the pyramid, and begin and high C and descend down (i.due east. viii, 878, 87678).

i ane

1 2 ane

one 2 3 2 1

i 2 three 4 3 2 1

ane 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1

1 2 3 iv v half-dozen 5 4 3 ii 1

1 two 3 iv 5 6 seven half dozen 5 4 3 ii ane

1 2 3 four v vi 7 8 7 half dozen 5 4 iii 2 1

One, One, I, Ii, I Vocal Warm-up

Bubble Gum Song Warm-up

Selecting and Performing Songs

Children are certainly capable of singing very complicated rhythms and melodies just by listening and aural simulated, but when selecting a song to sing, it is important to find a song that matches the vocal range and the tessitura of the children. A song's range concerns all of the notes in a song from lowest to highest, while the tessitura concerns the role of the register that contains the most tones of that melody. For case, you might have a song with a few pitches that are besides loftier or too depression for the child'due south vocalisation, but the majority of the song lies within a proper singing range for the child. Consider the 1857 vocal "Here We Go Circular the Mulberry Bush." The vocal contains a few notes on middle C, which is a fleck low for young children, simply the tessitura of the entire song contains notes from F to a C', all of which are easily attainable. The traditional Scottish folk song "My Bonnie Lies Over the Body of water" has a range of an entire octave from C to C', but most of the vocal lies within a Major 6th from E to C'.

My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

II. Teaching a Song at the Elementary Level

The Fundamentals of a Song

After finding songs with the appropriate range and tessitura, it is disquisitional to analyze a few additional musical components earlier you teach it. The important things to assess are: the song's meter and then the phrases and sections of the song. The final step is to accept the song downward common cold before attempting to teach it. The aforementioned goes for whatsoever material you want to teach children. If yous yourself don't really know information technology, yous will not be able to teach it successfully.

Finding a Song'due south Meter

If the song is notated, you can simply look on the music to notice the meter (e.chiliad. 2/iv, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, etc.). Nevertheless, if you lot don't take the song written in notation, you will need to determine the song's meter by ear. To detect a song's meter, first observe the downbeat (the strongest trounce) and the weaker beats of each mensurate. Begin tapping on a desk-bound while singing the vocal. If you tap slightly harder on the downbeat (the first vanquish of the grouping of 2 or three or half-dozen in each measure of the song) and begin singing, information technology will assist you to find the meter. Groups of beats in Western music are mostly either in duple (2 or four beats for a mensurate) or triple (three or six beats in a measure), so try borer in groups of two first to run into if that fits, and so endeavour three.

For case, consider the song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Is it in duple or triple meter?

Sing and tap:	1 2 >	1 2 >	1 2 >	i two >
Then attempt:	1 2 3 >	ane 2 >	3 1	2 3 >

Which meter fits the song improve? The first is in duple, the second is in triple feel. The triple feel probably feels better—as it should because the vocal is in a iii/iv meter. In addition to the downbeat and meter, you volition also demand to decide whether the commencement notation of the song begins directly on the downbeat or on a pickup. Songs that brainstorm on a pickup (i.e., a note that is not on the offset beat of the measure) are more than difficult and require a stronger preparation from the teacher (for examples of this, see the section "Fix" on page 104.)

Identifying the Sections of a Song

Children's songs are usually simple in form, oft containing only one or two sections or parts; A one-role song (unitary) is designated with the letter A for purposes of assay, while two-part songs (AB) are referred to as binary, verse-refrain, or poesy-chorus. Songs in which the first section returns again at the cease are known as ternary, iii-part or ABA.

Examples of song forms:

1-part songs (A):

1. "A Tisket, A Tasket"
2. "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
3. "The People on the Bus"
4. "If You're Happy and y'all Know It"

2-role songs (AB):

1. "Yankee Putter"
2. "Oh Susanna"
3. "Home on the Range"
4. "Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow"
5. "Erie Culvert"

iii-role songs (ABA):

1. "Shoo-fly don't bother me"
2. "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"
3. "We Wish you lot a Merry Christmas"

Action 5A

Try this

Now try singing and borer each line to a higher place while singing "Erstwhile MacDonald Had a Farm." Which meter all-time fits the song? Think of some other children's songs you know and sing them to find which meter is well-nigh advisable.

Techniques for education a song

While it may seem quite intuitive to teach a vocal to children, there'southward actually a great bargain to consider. The dissimilar ways to teach a vocal are related to children's unlike learning styles, such as aural and visual learning, and the child's appropriate cognitive development; eastward.g., historic period and grade evolution. The starting time method is to teach a vocal past rote, a technique also known as aural learning, or "past ear." Rote usually requires a cracking deal of repetition. The 2d method is a hybrid known as rote-note, where the vocal is taught mostly by ear, but also involves the addition of some blazon of visual element, such as showing some note. The third method is known as note, which is teaching the vocal using written in annotation (e.g. sheet music). These 3 styles of educational activity not just chronicle to audible and visual learners, simply also correlate to the basic cognitive evolution theories of Jerome Bruner's modes of representation and Jean Piaget'due south iv stages of cognitive development.

Song teaching styles

Vocal Pedagogy Style	Main Learning Mode	Developmental Level	Bruner	Piaget
Rote/Aural Teaching (Sing by ear, no annotation)	Aural	Any age, just appropriate for early childhood	Enactive (activity-based)	Sensorimotor (learning through senses)
Rote-Annotation Teaching (More often than not aural, partial notation)	Aural-Visual	Appropriate for lower simple students (G–2)	Iconic (image-based)	Pre-Operational
Notation Teaching (Teaching a song through written notation)	Visual	Advisable for upper elementary (iii–vi)	Symbolic (linguistic communication-based)	Concrete Operational

Rote/aural education is enactive (action-based) and can exist used at whatever age through adulthood, just is especially appropriate for preschool through early childhood (into the lower elementary grades). Motor skills can be added to a song to increase the learning dimensions.

Rote-note teaching is partially iconic (prototype-based) and appropriate for lower elementary students (G–ii) just learning to read as it involves some type of iconic or epitome-based representation of music, such every bit using abstract note or modified rhythmic or pitch notation.

Annotation teaching is symbolic (linguistic communication-based) and more appropriate for upper unproblematic grades.

Didactics the whole song vs. phrase-past-phrase

The next decision is whether to teach the song equally a whole or by i phrase or line at a fourth dimension. This consideration volition happen regardless of which teaching mode—rote, rote-note, or note—is used. Note that the term phrase refers to the music, while line refers to the lyrics or verse form.

Whole song: Teaching a whole song is exactly what it sounds like…singing the whole song at once and having the students echo the whole vocal right back. This is expert for very short, simple songs; songs that have a lot of repetition either in the words or music; or phone call and response songs with few variables. The benefit of this is, co-ordinate to Edwin Gordon's approach, to have the child experience the whole piece outset, and then acquire what the song comprises in detail.

Phrase-by-phrase education is all-time when the song is longer or has a lot of lyrics or complex melodies. This is the nigh common method for instruction more complicated or lengthy songs. In this technique, each phrase is sung by the teacher and and then immediately echoed back by the students.

For example, consider the song "A Tisket, a Tasket":

A Tisket, A Tasket

American children's game song, late 19th century

Phrase by phrase or line by line:

Teacher: A tisket, a tasket

Students: A tisket, a tasket

Teacher: A green and yellow basket

Students: A light-green and yellowish basket

Teacher: I wrote a letter of the alphabet to my beloved

Students: I wrote a letter to my love

Teacher: And on the way I dropped it

Students: And on the fashion I dropped it

If there is more than one verse to a vocal, afterward didactics 1 poesy, make certain to repeat the beginning poetry several times with the students before moving on to the next verse.

Activity 5B

Endeavor this

You are teaching a group of kindergarteners. Which songs would yous be more likely to teach 1) every bit a whole song; 2) phrase by phrase?

• "Rain, Rain, Go Away"
• "Oh, Susanna"
• "A Tisket, a Tasket"
• "Michael Row the Boat Ashore"

Rain, Pelting Get Away

Traditional children's song, 17th century

Oh! Susanna

American minstrel song, Stephen Foster, 1848

Michael Row the Boat Ashore

African American spiritual, South Carolina Sea Islands, 1860s

Song Analysis

Of class singing a song is fun, but information technology tin can also be highly educational. In preparation for integration, and for using music with other art and subject areas, train yourself to explore the total potential of each song.

Having students identify or "analyze" what is going on in the song is educationally audio and cognitively effective. They are listening, analyzing, visualizing, sequencing, and applying concentrated brainwork to sympathize what they are singing.

Music vs. lyrics

When most people think about "song" they tend to think of the lyrics plus the music together, and often don't realize that the music is a separate entity with its own cohesiveness and structure. Getting students to understand the musical differences between phrases is actually less challenging than you might imagine. For example, if I asked you lot which lines of "A Tisket, A Tasket" are the same, yous would say none if you lot idea of simply the lyrics. But what if I asked you which musical phrases are the same? If y'all have problem, remove the lyrics and hum the melody. At present how many are the same? Three of them—the first, second, and fourth. For instance, the melody for "A Tisket, A Tasket" looks like this, with lines 1, 2, and 4 being basically the same. Line 3 is different.

1. A tisket, a tasket

   

2. A green and yellowish handbasket

   

3. I wrote a letter to my beloved

   

4. And on the way I dropped information technology

   

Having students hum the melody rather than singing words helps them hear the melody separately from the lyrics. Holding upwardly fingers as they sing each phrase marks where they are in the song. Better notwithstanding, have them sing the solfege for the different lines instead of the words or bustling. In terms of analysis, solfege instantly informs the listener or singer which lines of music are the same and helps them compare and dissimilarity each line rather rapidly!

Steps for Introducing a New Song

While many children's songs are relatively piece of cake to sing, most volition need to be broken down into smaller parts (phrases) to acquire easily. Breaking a song into "chunks" helps exercise children'southward cognitive and belittling abilities to sympathise, compare, and dissimilarity the different parts or phrases of a vocal. Beneath are some important strategies for instruction a song either for the kickoff time, or even to review a song or assist children clarify an one-time and familiar song.

1. Provide an opportunity for students to hear the song beginning, preferably past you singing information technology.
2. Always inquire students to listen FOR something. Before didactics it, ask students to mind carefully to something in the song's phrasing, repetition, rhythm, melody, timbre, lyrics, dynamics, rests, mood or impact, etc.
3. Using a pianoforte/keyboard, pitch pipe, or some other melodic musical instrument, detect the correct starting pitch for the range of students in your form.
4. Teach the song by rote using song phrase, whole song, note-rote, or annotation technique (use notation technique in 4th or fifth grades).
5. Develop a style for indicating that it is your turn to sing or their turn to sing.
6. In phrase-by-phrase technique, teach each phrase (or line) of the song separately. Normally phrases vary from four to eight beats in length. For example, run into "Rain, Rain Go Away," "A Tisket, a Tasket," and "Oh, Susanna" above.
7. Effort not to sing too loudly while the class is repeating each phrase; strive for singing independence among students.
8. Enquire the class to echo the song while you mouth the words (exercise not sing).
9. Finally, allow the class sing with no support from you.
10. Variation: Sing each phrase 1 at a time. Rather than having student echo you lot, have them sing the phrase silently, and point to them when it is their turn to sing aloud.

Teaching a Vocal: The 4 Ps

Imagine that yous are at the beginning of a track race. You are at the starting gate, and are anxiously waiting for the point to begin running. Yous hear a count, then a starting shot, and you're off. Now imagine you are at a race in which no count or starting signal is given, simply a called leader just decides to offset running and you are expected to jump in and catch upwards. In some ways, showtime a song is like. Many adults begin a vocal with no preparation and await children to merely jump in, requiring children to effigy out the tempo, the starting pitch, and the lyrics all at the same fourth dimension, and on their own.

It takes just a few seconds to set students earlier they begin a song. Counting them in gives them the tempo, and singing the counts on the opening pitch gives them the starting note. Below are a few hints for starting a vocal that will help students be successful correct from the first annotation!

• Pulse
• Pitch
• Gear up
• Point

Pulse

The pulse indicates the tempo at which you would like to sing the song, as well as the song's meter.

• Kickoff, cheque the vocal's meter to see whether it is in 2/4, 4/4,3/4, or 6/eight (see higher up for how to find which meter y'all are in).
• And so internally feel the pulse or beat of the song. Possibly tap your toe or hit your thigh every bit you sing the song in your head to notice the appropriate tempo.

Pitch

Find the starting pitch for the song on any pitched instrument (i.e., piano, xylophone, recorder, or pitch piping). Keep in mind the kid'due south vocal range and the range/tessitura of the song.

Prepare

When bringing in the children to sing, you need to exist enlightened of whether or non the song begins on a downbeat or upbeat (aka pickup). Many songs begin directly on the downbeat such every bit "Jingle Bells" or "Hither We Get Round the Mulberry Bush," while others such equally "Oh, Susanna!" or "The People on the Bus Go Up and Down" begin with an upbeat or pickup (see below).

• How practise you find out if your song begins on an upbeat or downbeat? Clap or tap to the beat of a song for a few measures, tapping louder on the downbeat and lighter on the other beats in the measure, so begin singing. If you lot first singing while your mitt is hit the downbeat (first and strongest shell of the mensurate), the song starts on a downbeat. If your hand is in the air when yous outset singing, or the song's entrance falls on the weaker beats, that's an upbeat.
• Many pickups begin on a lower note than the residue of the song. For case, "The People on the Passenger vehicle" starts on a pickup or upbeat annotation that is a 4th lower from the primal of the song.

The People on the Bus

At present you have to take all of the above information and somehow transmit it to the children before you sing. Develop a preparatory phrase that y'all experience comfortable with which gives children the pulse and pitch of a song. The following preparations work very well for songs in duple meter if you sing them on the starting pitch that yous desire the children to come up in on.

For duple meter (2/4 or 4/4) songs:

| | | | one-2-3 sing

| | | | | 1-two here we go

| | | | | Prepare and sing now

For triple meter (3/4 or 6/8) songs:

| | | | | | i-2-3 | i-two-sing

| | | | | | Here we go | read-y at present

Point

Add a pointing motion to first them off, such every bit an arm or mitt gesture that lets them know information technology is their turn to sing. Use this same gesture when echoing during the phrase-by-phrase method to help students enter at the right time.

Below are some examples of preparations to sing a few well-known songs.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Dwelling on the Range

Daniel E. Kelley

If You're Happy and Yous Know It

Activity 5C

Effort this

How would y'all prepare students to begin singing the following songs? What is your starting pitch? Meter? Tempo? Is there a selection-upward/upbeat?

• "Frère Jacques"
• "A Tisket, A Tasket" (see above)
• "Hush Little Babe Don't Say a Word"
• "3 Blind Mice"

Frère Jacques

French folk round, 18th century

Hush Little Baby, Don't Say a Word

American lullaby song

3 Bullheaded Mice

English children'south vocal attributed toThomas Ravenscroft, 1609

Resource

Folk songs for children

• http://musiced.about.com/od/lessonsandtips/tp/folksongs.htm

Proper Song Ranges for Children (Kathie Hill Music)

• http://www.youtube.com/picket?5=pyXaQURviAs

Vocabulary

audible learning: learning music "by ear"—learning by hearing only (no use of written notation)

beat: a pulse in a piece of music; the basic unit of time in music

binary course: a song in with 2 discernible sections; also referred to equally verse-refrain or verse-chorus and designated as AB.

chest voice: singing when the audio feels similar it is emanating from the breast or throat

downbeat: the outset beat in the measure out; beat in a measure that is most accented

duple: 2 or iv beats per measure

head vocalism: placing the sound higher upwards in the "vocal mask" or the face, as if singing through the eyes

line: reference to a line of the lyrics or poem when learning music; usually corresponds to a musical phrase

note: learning music past reading the notes; reading the music or score in order to play or learn

notation-rote: song is taught more often than not past ear or repetition, but likewise shows some iconic notation (written notation)

phrase-by-phrase: educational activity a song one line at a time; breaking downward the song into individual phrases

pickup: a note or serial of notes that preceded the first downbeat of the first measure; also called anacrusis

pitch: the frequency of the sound based upon its wavelength; the higher the pitch, the higher the frequency

pulse: in learning music, the pulse indicates to the children the tempo at which you would like to sing the song as well as the song's meter; "feel the shell"

range: all of the notes in the song from lowest to highest

rote: learning through repetition; learning without apply of written music or a score

song phrase: reference to a group of notes in learning music, usually equivalent to a sentence or the length of one line of verse

tempo: pace in which the notes of a song are sung or played

ternary form: equally song with 3-sections, where the first department returns at the cease in verbal form and the eye section is different or contrasting; designated every bit ABA.

tessitura: the part of the register in which most of the tones of the melody or voice part lies

triple: three or six beats per mensurate

unitary: a song with simply one section, and no refrain; can be labeled as A.

upbeat: pickup beat (see to a higher place)

verse-refrain: a verse corresponds to a poetic stanza of a song; usually distinguished from the chorus or refrain of a vocal, which has repeated lyrics (eastward.g., in "Oh, Susanna" the poesy begins with "oh I came from Alabama" and the chorus or refrain begins with "Oh, Susanna, oh don't you cry for me…")

whole vocal: teach the whole song at once without breaking it into individual phrases; useful technique for very short songs

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Source: https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/music-and-the-child/chapter/chapter-5/

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