Finding your Singing Voice

I tell my students a story about my Mom every year. When she was little and going to school at the convent, her music teacher divided the class into “Blue birds” and “Crows“. The “Blue birds” could sing and the “Crows” could not. The “Crows” were told to mouth the words so they didn’t ruin the quality of the music. We go on about “How terrible and mean” this was for my Mom. Then tell the kids that we all have a singing voice, we just have to find it!!!

You might be born with your singing voice ready to go. You might develop your singing voice in kindergarten. it might take you until grade 6 to find your singing voice. Your singing voice is really your ability to match pitch. What we struggle with is that we talk and talk and talk all day. Our talking voice is not super high or super low, it is perfectly comfortable. To find our singing voice, we need to “BREAK FREE”

I draw their “Voice Box” on the board and show them how we stay inside this box while we talk all day.

To develop our singing voice, we need to be find our higher places for our voice. I talk to them about how they don’t have girl voices or boy voices – they have Children’s Voices. I let the boys know their voice doesn’t get lower like their Dad’s voice until they are in grade 7. Then we BREAK FREE!!!!

As I swoop each arrow, they make that sound with their voice. Finding that higher place.

On Monday, we will be doing this and then we will be playing with these autumn vocal exploration cards.

I made up this little poem:

Swirling swirling all around

Watch the leaves fall to the ground

Intro poem by rote
Use the vocal exploration cards as a B section
With scarves, create your own vocal pathway and follow it with your voice for the B section

Form

A – Poem

B – Vocal Explorations

A – Poem

I add a simple broken bordun in the Bass Xylophone to glue this form together.

Give it a try !!!! The cards are on my visuals page for you to download. I have loads of others as well in the vocal exploration page.

Have a Super Saturday,

Take care,

Syndi

Star Light – A Pathway to Melodic Contour

I always love this little piece, so simple and sweet, great teaching potential!! And I have a funny story.

I was teaching a grade 1 class “Star Light”. I told them that if they sang with all of their heart, that the wish they made at the end just might come true. At that exact moment, an educational assistant entered the room and whispered to me that we were going to have an early closure because of a snow storm. We did our little “Star Light” and made our wish and I said “I wish we could go home early today.” The principal came on over the PA system and announced “All students return to your classes. We will be having an early closure today.” My class thought I was magical for the rest of the year!! BAHAHA.

Such a great memory.

The way I use “Star Light” has evolved over time. I use it as a pathway to melodic contour. Here is what I do with my K’s:

Intro the song by singing it with the Bass Xylophone accompanying.
Continue the accompaniment and echo each phrase. Sing through together.
Pass out the stars. Mirror the high/low contour with the stars. Students are still other than the melodic contour.
Students sing and show melodic contour independently with accompaniment.
Teacher plays melody on Bass Xylophone. Students take their stars for a gentle “star dance.” Back to their spots by the end of the melody.

Form

A Song with high/low contour

B Star Dance

A Song with high/low contour

Transfer the high/low movement to their shoulders and hips for phrase 1 “Star Light, Star Bright”
Present the following visual (These are 4 separate stars)