Vocalist.org archive


From:  norma bowen <normasings2000@y...>
Date:  Thu Dec 26, 2002  12:54 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] 11 year old friend's critiques


It is sad to see what peer pressure can do to children.I do agree with you that
the peers have more influence than the parents and the teachers. Where did that
word come from anyway? In my childhood there was no such word.
At what age is it safe to begin training children's voices. I once turned down
a request to train a 4 year old and the mother was not pleased when I said no .
I tried to explain that the child was too young but the mother told me that in
Paris she had a voice teacher to the child.
EdgewoodVoiceStudio <EdgewoodVoiceStudio@a...> wrote:Dr. Dean
wrote:>>>>>>>I'd hate to see her give up because of a
few remarks by "friends."Any other experiences?>>>>>>>>>

I've had a similar experience with an 11 year old. A distraught mom
emailed me saying her 11 year old (my student) was in tears because the
girl's friend told her that she was singing in a "fake" voice and the
mom tried to spell "falsetto" and wanted to know what that meant. I
have been working head voice with the girl, (as well as chest voice!)
head voice tends to be very breathy in 11 year olds until they learn all
the coordination needed.. anyway, all I did was explain about head voice
and what the word falsetto really means and so on and that satisfied
everyone for the moment. Peer opinion has so much more influence for
kids than voice teacher opinion or parent opinion. I can see why people
home school more and more, that way, at least, the family's guidance has
more sway. I have a just turned 13 year old boy student who is an
amazing guitar player and is learning to sing so he can do both well in
performance. He doesn't have any hang-ups about what peers think
because he isn't around them all the time, because he's home-schooled.
Deanna

---








---------------------------------





emusic.com