Children steeped in meters, tonalities, syllables, and rhythm and tonal Discrimination Activities are very adept with multimetric songs. A well-written song, in which the changing meters accommodate the natural expression of the text, are well within the capabilities of children four and older, and the texts support the rhythmic challenge.

Shifting tonalities within a song, however, is much more difficult for children. That is not to say that children cannot learn a multitonal song, but that song difficulty increases exponentially with multiple tonalities within a song. It is a far richer and more musical experience for children to sing songs with beautiful melodies that reflect the expression of text within a given tonality, with rhythm that mirrors the natural expression of the text.

Similarly, songs with accidentals add considerable difficulty. Again, children can learn songs with accidentals, but the beauty of children’s voices in the purity of a single tonality, with a full palette of tonalities and a full array of meters, provides for such musical richness that accidentals are not only not essential for quality choral literature, but often take away from the beauty of tonality with children’s voices.