| From: "Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...> Date: Sat Aug 17, 2002 5:22 am Subject: Re: [vocalist] Child voice, range, repertoire - serious question (kinda long)
| Dear Shannon and Vocalisters:
I taught public school music for over 20 years before moving to college voice teaching. I never encouraged students under the age of about 16 to take private voice lessons, especially if they were blessed with a naturally lovely child's voice. I am not suggesting that it is always a poor idea to do so but only that the odds of finding a voice teacher that is well enough versed about the character and needs of the pre-puberty voice is most unlikely.
Children usually know best what will work for their voice. They do not need a teacher to correct a technique that young children have instinctively. What they do need is an exposure to the best in vocal literature and the opportunity to sing songs that are meaningful to them within their own world.
Today's children are automatically injected into the world of older people (teenagers and adults) and they assume the adult roles and musical desires. Few of these musical choices are fitting for the nature of their pre-puberty voices. Yet many children's choirs and specialists in having children sing do not consider the real nature of these young voices. It is common today to hear children perform in organized ways in their "play" voice rather than their natural singing voice because that is the adult's idea of how a child's voice should sound. Such child singing is a creation of an adult mind and an adult concern for a preconceived "product" when the only concern that should be considered for a child is the "process " of doing the activity.
If you are seeking musical skills for a child and desire that the child learn the discipline of music I would suggest piano lesson for at least a few years. Piano lessons teach a broader understanding of the skills needed by a musician and provide the most useful background for the young singer when he/she begins voice lessons a few years after puberty. Lessons before puberty must be handled by a specialist in that field. Most voice teachers are not well equipped to teach young children.
-- Lloyd W. Hanson
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