Teaching Kids to Sing

Rating:
Summary: Overall approach to effective vocal production in youth.
Review: This book explores the history behind American vocal training, describing how different attitudes towards school singing has affected the choral sound as we know it today. The author also effectively presents how singing is a psychomotor process, and one that is not always easily taught or learned. He reviews the vocal parameters of younger and developing voices, and explains the difficulty with the adolescent voice change (especially with boys). He also encourages teachers to express singing as a "sport", one that requires physical involvement of the body! The second half of the book is dedicated to 90 specific exercise methods for teachers to use in developing their choir. He has broken it into three age levels so that teachers anywhere within the grades 1-12 spectrum can use it effectively, or just use it to supplement a program they may already use and like. The exercises develop repiration, phonation, resonance, diction, and expression within choirs. Eighteen wonderful vocal exercises are explained for each of these areas. This would make an excellent reference book for any music teacher who is involved with teaching singing to any age level. The exercises are specific and help coordinate the students' overall approach to singing.