Oh, children use chest exclusively. I'm really talking about HS kids in choirs that come in with these tiny little peeps and carry it all the way down below middle C. Meaning that they never make it much past middle C. I don't advocate raw chest - but there's no mix whatsoever.
Christine Thomas, Mezzo Soprano
"I love to sing-a, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a!" ----- Original Message ----- From: Lloyd W. Hanson To: vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2002 10:25 AM Subject: Re: [vocalist] Re: classical isn't the only way (was amplification)
Christine and Vocalisters:
You wrote that "I've also heard kids (since most of my students are middle and high schoolers) that avoid it (chest voice) because they think it's ugly or scary or their choir director doesn't like it."
Chest voice in children is a concern of mine because I think most singing by children today is too much in chest voice. I am speaking of children's voices prior to the voice change. It is common to hear children's choir directors ask for chest voice in an attempt to get a louder, more vigorous child sound. In other words, these directors are asking the children to sing in their at play voices ("play" voices).
This is reflected in the pitch level of songs now provided for children in their elementary and junior/middle school song books. Most songs are pitched between A3 and A4 with C5 (C above middle C) as the highest note. If one compares these classroom song books with those in use up to about 1970 you will find that the earlier song books pitched the songs between C4 to C5 with G5 as the highest note. Clearly there has been a major change in song range emphasis and I think it is a reflection of the pitch range necessary to get children to sing only in their "play" voice which is their chest voice.
When these children go on to high school choral programs they continue to sing in a chest voice. Because their voices have gone through most of the voice change the tone they produce is not a desirable one for the choral groups and the choral director is faced with the problem of how to modify this raw tone. Sadly, many choral directors mistake a breathy, poorly phonated tone for head voice and teach this tonal quality as the only desireable one. It may be this quality that is displayed by your students.
What is needed is a two-fold change.
First, have children's singing be done in their singing voice, not their "play" voice. There is no need to develop the play voice. It is part of their everyday voice usage. But the singing voice is not used often in everyday activities. It is saved for the beauty of song. Children instinctively know this. If they are asked to sing in their singing voice they can all do it rather easily. But children must be taught to sing in their chest voice because it is not as natural for the production of song.
Second, train choral directors to better understand what is true head voice. It is not difficult. The process of teaching them how to have their high school singers develop a proper onset of tone will go most of the way toward solving this difficulty. Onset of tone exercises can be done very successfully in groups the size of most choirs (25-60 students) and the director can check each student by moving among them and listening to them individually as they practice unison onset exercises together. -- Lloyd W. Hanson
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