Are all children born to sing? Singing is a learned behavior. Teachers should include various vocal exploration activities at the beginning of each lower elementary music lesson. Students will explore their speaking, deep, and head voices during these activities. Teachers may use book reading activities to help children explore their singing voices and maintain the rhythm when reading.
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Rather than running through songs in the class, teachers must check children’s singing constantly, both as a group and individually. Motions, games, and call and response singing are tools that can be used in the classroom to promote accurate singing. Relating songs to musical concepts and teaching breathing skills can help children sing more accurately in the music classroom. Ensuring children are ready for the singing activity, for example, instructing call and response before assessment, is critical in assisting children to perform well at the lower elementary level.
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The ability of children to match pitch is related to their ability to sustain and differentiate different pitches. Since the child’s speaking voice is close in pitch to the singing voice,
adults singing for children should use a higher range to promote pitch matching. To help children expand their singing range and sing accurately, the researcher suggested that teachers sing in a
higher range, between D4 and C5, specifically for children aged five and seven. Singing in a higher range consistently will encourage children to use their heads and singing
voices.
Children as young as 5 years old can sing in rounds. Unison is all voices singing the same melody with the same rhythm. A round is a melody or rhythm that is repeated exactly by a second,
third, fourth, etc., voice. Young children will sing by themselves when performing a round.
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