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Mari
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| Posted: March 15 2006 at 9:17am | IP Logged
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I was wondering if there was anyone of you who has experience in training voices. I always think that having a vocal gift is wonderful because it is part of you (and you don't have to carry it around in a case!).
My youngest dd has the voice I dreamed of! She is only 5 but her life is revolving around music - opera. She is already learning arias on her own from her favourite operas (listening to recordings and reading the score). She learned to read like this - although it meant reading in Italian first! (So much for all the primers picking up dust....)
At the moment I cannot afford for her to have singing lessons. But I would like to help her in the most responsible way possible. I have a musical background which should help. I am an accomplished instrumentalist and I was told I had a good voice. I was first taught music by the Kodaly method. However by the time I was 6 I was so occupied with the violin that I never did more than amateur choirs and some small solo parts so I never had any classes. Therefore I know nothing of what this training consists of.
I was wondering if there was anything I could read on "training" young voices. Also are there any course or method books that we could use to keep her interested and helpfully challenged. I don't want to push her but she is already showing that she needs more than I am doing.
I have read that too much singing young (I suppose that means repetitive training and not pleasure singing round the house) can ruin the vocal chords.
She plays some violin, piano and recorder with me with pleasure. We sing a lot of different songs of different styles from around the world and I help her discover more operas in her favourite "bel canto" style, but I feel that I shall soon be failing in fulfilling her singing needs.
I hope that with the right resources I can help her up to a certain stage before getting lessons for her.
I hope that one of you can give us a lead! Thanks for reading this.
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Mari, mother of 2 loving daughters aged 8 and 10
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kingvozzo
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| Posted: March 15 2006 at 10:36am | IP Logged
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Our parish music director in Houston offered voice lessons. He was in the Houston Symphony Choir, and was extremely gifted musically. I inquired about lessons for a friend's 10 yo dd, and he was strongly against lessons for children that young. He said that there is still too much maturation that takes place in young voices for lessons to be of any benefit.
I think it's wonderful that your dd is so musically inclined, and exposure to great music and the opportunity to sing somewhat informallly, such as church choirs and local theater groups might be enough for her for a while.
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Noreen
Wife to Ed
Mom to 4 great kids and 10 sweet ones in Our Lady's arms
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: March 15 2006 at 11:06am | IP Logged
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I was also thinking about voice lessons for my 4yo songbird. She has nothing of the talent diplayed by your dd, but she does love to sing. I was told that I should perhaps inquire at the local university music department and there may be a student that would be willing to give lessons relatively inexpensively. I havent checked into it yet, though. Perhaps you have a university nearby that you could check out?
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Sarah
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| Posted: March 15 2006 at 11:07am | IP Logged
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I was a voice major in college. I think that you should be very careful about a child's voice. It should sound light, free, and very high. In order for her to hit higher notes, you think of the sound coming straight from behind the front teeth as opposed to back in the throat or chest.
Never let her force her voice to sound like an opera singer. She should use no vibrato- straight tones only. She shouldn't sing much in her chest. She shouldn't sing loudly. Children's singing voices aren't loud.
Sometimes people make the mistake of letting children sing very loud and forced, and while it may sound okay for a while, it will ruin their voices in the end.
Sliding around to find notes, using vibrato, and a chest voice are all things to avoid.
A good model of how a child should sound would be a Vienna boys choir sound or similar reputable children's choirs.
Since she is only five, she should sound very light. Although listening to Opera is great, be sure that she hears a child's model and doesn't imitate opera. even in college in my early 20's my teacher wouldn't let me sing some things because my voice wasn't mature enough. A soprano voice is mature at 24 years old.
An example of bad singing and improper technique is that girl from Wales, I forget her name. She's popular. . .  Can't think of her. But that's a model to avoid. She'll have no voice as an adult.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents.
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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stefoodie
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| Posted: March 15 2006 at 11:35am | IP Logged
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Wow, Sarah, what an education I got reading your post! Though my kids (so far) have no aspirations to be opera singers, they do all have good voices and my 14-yo is thinking of taking voice soon. She is a Charlotte Church fan (among other things), but I like it when she uses her "regular singing voice" as opposed to imitating CC, and I tell her so. I think the attraction there is sometimes kids want to sound EXACTLY like the singer. Thanks for the information. I'll be sure to pass it along to her.
PS. My daughter's also a fan of Lea Salonga (of Miss Saigon fame, also sang as Eponine and was Jasmine/Mulan's singing voices in the Disney productions). Lea's mom really took care of her daughter's voice and stage commitments when Lea was a child; she wouldn't let Lea over-extend herself, even as her daughter got older. Lea is still performing on stage, and expecting her first child soon.
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stef
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Mari
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| Posted: March 15 2006 at 4:00pm | IP Logged
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Thank you, all of you, thank you! I was feeling a bit lost and it is so encouraging to have all your support.
I just needed all this advice to make me know that she can just grow in our natural musical home environment for several years to come.
Sarah - you have really made my day with your descprition of the voice. She does sing very high but because it does not sound forced/strained and feels so light, I didn't realise until I tried to get up there myself. Now I understand why dd #1 says her sister sings "up in the clouds". Two of my brothers were a cathedral choristers and there is the same "pure" quality there but, yes, she is only 5 so it is "light"
Thank you for warning against imitating mature or any other voice. I could well have gone down that lane! I had just this week started suggesting that she "pump up the volume" (sorry dd) so I shall stop!
For the moment she has never tried to imitate an opera signer - I suppose she is more intelligent than me... Thinking about it, it would be as if little children tried to speak with adult voices! That would be ridiculous.
Yes, I would totally agree with the vibrato/sliding. I hand't thought about that either. And I wouldn't even dream of letting her do vibrato on the violin until she were quite competent! Thank you for pointing that out!
Can you suggest any favourite recordings of children's voices?
I shall sleep lightly tonight  I didn't realise how much worrying about this was weighing me down  .
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Mari, mother of 2 loving daughters aged 8 and 10
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4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday
Topic: Any singers? I have a little nightingale
