The child voice is a beautiful instrument in every child. The individual child voice and a lovely choral sound bloom through the development of audiation, engagement in movement in all dimensions of the choral art, and musically worthy songs that serve vocal development.
You can build a lovely choral sound in your classroom or chorus, whatever your level of expertise with vocal technique. Developing artistry through audiation, movement, and song literature can lead to a fine choral sound in your classroom or chorus without ever having to coach vocal technique.
Did your children ever sound like a group of kids off the street with one song, yet like a fine children’s chorus with another? Many goals of vocal production can be achieved by the songs you choose. The range, tessitura, and construction of a song are prime factors in shaping the sound of your singers. A well-written song can facilitate the natural production of the desired “head voice” and the unification in sound of the lower and upper range, without any mention of “head voice,” “chest voice,” or vocal technique. Songs worthy of children’s artistry that promote vocal development can seduce children to use their voices properly, breathe appropriately, and create a beautiful sound. Once the desired sound gets into the ears and voices of the children, that sound can be transferred to other literature.
Vocal range is a major factor in the development of the child voice. The beginning singing range is from the D above middle C to the A above. This is the range in which children best learn to audiate and to vocally produce what they hear. It does not generate the greatest sound or vocal technique, but the greatest tonal skill and sense of intonation, essential to vocal development. Songs that include middle C or the higher Bb are ok, as long as the tessitura (where most pitches fall) is between D and A. There is a voice break around the B above middle C. Children’s voices really ring just above the voice break to the higher D and E. A supported sound in that range is the sound you hear in fine children’s choruses and should hear in every music classroom. Children secure in that range may also competently deliver Fs and Gs, but children’s voices should not have to sing higher than that G, or lower than middle C.
Engaging in movement of the energy of the line while singing mobilizes audiation and vocal production, inspiring both musicality and quality choral sound. The difference in the sound of singers with and without movement is stunning. As children become the song, movement, in itself, stimulates breath and the energy to sustain breath throughout the line the children are creating in song and movement. The more children engage musically in movement while singing, the more they breathe properly and at the right time. Every dimension of choral singing can be animated in movement—dynamics, articulation, phrasing, style, vocal technique—making both musicality and vocal technique more tangible. What the body does, the voice follows. Overt movement while singing in the classroom or rehearsal setting leads to covert movement in performance—vitality, musicality, artistry.
Vowels essentially carry the vocal sound, and consonants articulate that sound. We might say that vowels deliver tonal and consonants deliver rhythm. A quality song that promotes tonal audiation also promotes vocal sound, with rhythm necessarily taking a back seat to tonal, diminishing the consonant interruption of the sustained sound of vowels. Certain vowels naturally elicit a more desirable vocal sound than others, and certain consonants can get in the way of the vocal sound more than others.
Children produce the most desirable choral sound with “OO”s and “AH”s. “EE”s, “AY”s, “I”s and short vowel sounds can be modified or shaded to produce the more desirable sound. [Try having children sing “EE” with a smile, and then again with the mouth shaped for an “OO”. Try having them sing a long “I” sound as an “AH”. Ask them to sing a long “AY” sound with an “EE” coloring.] Listen to the difference in sound produced by each. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Children enjoy playing with sounds, and the contrast between two extremes attunes children and teacher to the more beautiful sound, and promotes a unified sound.
Some consonants like “T,” can help to initiate the sound, as it does instrumentally, whereas “R”s, “N”s, and “L”s can interrupt a lovely choral sound. [Ask the children to sing the word “Star,” and then ask them think “AH” when they sing the word, which will minimize the “R.” Ask them to sing the word “Shine,” and then ask them to think “AH” when they sing the word, which will minimize the “N.”] You can “fine-tune” your ensemble by simply tweaking vowels and consonants.
The songs you choose provide the framework for the development of a quality choral sound. The development of audiation provides for the acquisition of rhythm and tonal skills, including intonation. Engaging in expressive movement while singing inspires musicality as well as vocal technique and breathing. You and your children have the potential to create a choral ensemble that sings musically, with a lovely choral sound.
There is nothing more beautiful than children—except children singing beautifully!
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