Choral singing with sheer musicality is dependent upon children having a sense of meter, a sense of tonality, experience engaging in movement with all dimensions of music learning, and children’s ability with rhythm dialogue, macro/micro beats, resting tone, tonal dialogue, Art Songs and Gem Songs in the beginning singing range (tessitura D-A above middle C). Moving children to the next level is one of propelling developed audiation into the higher singing range.
Children with developed skills in the beginning singing range may be musically ready to move beyond it, but there are many factors that can influence the journey to choral singing. The young child can be shy about moving beyond his comfort zone into the higher singing range, as it demands greater sustained energy. Some children become self conscious and tend to fall back into tonal babble. Interestingly, when a musically developed child slips back into tonal babble, he is usually not aware that he is not singing tunefully. He is singing rhythmically and in a sing-song voice, yet not propelling his secure tonal skills into the higher range.
The challenge is not one of learning to “match pitch,” learning vocal technique, or learning to use the “head voice.” The young child with a developed sense of tonality in the beginning singing range, who sings tunefully in that range, will sing in the higher range tunefully, with proper vocal technique and lovely head voice, once he gets over the bridge to choral singing.
Songs worthy of children’s artistry are essential to moving children on the bridge into the higher singing range. Appropriate songs with and without words in various tonalities and meters inspire audiation to express itself in singing. Texts that respect the artistry of tender ages, and musical lines that stir the soul draw even the most shy children into musical expression in singing. Songs that place the child voice in the range where children’s voices ring enable children in learning to use their voices. The contour of a line that builds from the beginning singing range to the higher range, with breath energy and movement built into the expression of the line, empowers young singers to use their voices properly in expressing the energy of the line. Making exciting music moves the musical mind, body, and voice to become one.
A musical environment in which young, developed musicians can lose themselves in the music and movement helps children cross the bridge. Their little musical generators are more apt to power up when they are lost in being musical. The sound of a bit more experienced singers comfortable in the higher range can also help those on the bridge to propel music skills into the higher range. Hooking into the sound created by the ensemble can not only provide for children to lose themselves in the sound, but it is exciting for children to literally resonate with the sound of others.
Movement is essential to powering the body for vocal production in the higher range. The jump, in particular can help children experience their own sound in the higher range, at least temporarily. Vocal production in the higher singing range requires muscular support. The jump mobilizes the musculature for singing as well as for jumping. A child who is jumping and singing more easily pops into the higher singing range, as sustained jumping takes muscular energy—the same energy necessary to sustain sound in the higher range. Occasional jumping while singing propels energy and sound quality in the higher range with most all choristers. Once they experience their own energized sound through jumping, it is easier for them to produce it without jumping, as they feel the difference in their own musculature, their own sound, and their own energy.
A child may still not be aware of when he is singing on pitch or singing the right rhythm and the right words yet in tonal babble, but greater experience in feeling and hearing his own voice powered through jumping will help him sense the difference until audiation pilots the voice in the higher range. Even the child who is usually tuneful in the higher range can slip back into tonal babble when distracted, self-conscious, or struggling with song words. The young child who is reluctant to express his musicality in the higher singing range will march to the beat of his own drummer across the bridge, just as the child who is reluctant to speak up for himself walks the road to greater self-assertion. Singing beautifully is an act of faith that requires audiation, self confidence, and a supportive, energized, musical environment.
Children’s musical readiness is essential to developing an ensemble of young voices. Musically developed five year olds who can sing tunefully together in the beginning singing range, are ready to move on to the choral experience. A bit older or more developed peers with an established sound in the higher singing range can serve like sourdough bread starter to bring fledgling choristers into a quality sound in the higher range.
Musically developed five year olds are surely ready for an exciting choral experience, but putting children on stage in an ensemble before five years old is counterproductive. Young children are better served musically with broadened experience in the beginning singing range, with more advanced rhythm and tonal activities and more difficult Art Songs and Gem Songs, in the context of a class rather than chorus. Some may sing in the higher singing range at two years old, perhaps singing whatever an older sibling’s ensemble is singing, but do not have the readiness for a choral ensemble experience until about five years old. Musicality through age appropriate musical experience, not performance, has to be the goal with young musicians.
Children who are on the bridge to choral singing in both music development and age are ready to become choristers, with more advanced rhythm and tonal activities serving as warm-ups. These children are moving beyond games, toys and props in “playing music,” as musicality becomes its own motivation, just as it is for professional musicians. These young singers are ready to engage in exciting music making in an ensemble of little artists, in which they can become lost in their own musicality and in the choral sound, on their way to new horizons as choral musicians.
