Michale and Vocalisters:
Children should be taught to sing with their "singing" voice, not
their "play" voice in classroom singing. Once the child is shown the
difference he/she understands completely how to do both. A child's
natural singing voice usually has a range between middle C and G5.
Although the child can sing below Middle C, continued use of the
voice in this range is eventually damaging to the voice. The child's
singing voice is clear, rich, and easy. It seldom can achieve a
volume above mf and it should not be expected to have a wide dynamic
range. There is no distinction between the female and male child's
singing voice. Prior to puberty the vocal mechanism is identical.
Children singing in their singing voice should not be confused with
the trained boy sopranos that are found in choral groups from the
English Cathedral tradition.
With the advent of Rock and Roll and all of its various forms,
children have been encouraged to sing in their play voice, perhaps to
emulate the volume and rough vocal qualities that are so desired in a
lot of Rock style singing. Similar ideas about singing for children
have also found their way into Broadway especially with the advent of
musicals such as "Annie" in 1977. Although it is possible for
children to produce remarkable volume and tonal intensity such as is
often is displayed on TV programs such as "Showtime at the Apollo"
these are the exceptions to normal childhood singing.
Many states do not require that a music teacher have vocal training
to be certified to teach singing in the schools. It is quite common
in some states for instrumentalist to be teaching singing on the
assumption that they are, first and foremost, trained musicians and
singing is not a special skill that must be taught and learned. It
is a grave error that has the fatal results of producing a population
that no longer sings much and seldom sings well.
--
Lloyd W. Hanson
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