TIPS ON TEACHING CHILDREN TO SING IN TUNE

Denise Gagne author of MusicPlay

Singing in tune is developmental and experiential. If your children are not in tune
yet, there are many exercises that you can do with the entire class to help voice
flexibility. At the elementary level participation with energy and enthusiasm is just
as important as matching pitch and the participation should be reflected in grades
given in music. (If you have to give a grade.) If the children continue to sing with
enthusiasm, they will eventually sing in tune. NEVER fail a child in music because
they do not sing in tune! The assessment process is done so you know what skills
you need to focus on in your teaching. If a majority of your students are not
matching pitch, you may need to include more vocal warmups and exercises than
you have been. Choose one exercise each class. (Or every day!)
Exercises to help children find their singing voice:
1. Sing oooo from a high pitch to a low pitch.
2. Do roller coaster voices. Draw a roller coaster on the board and sing
up and down the way the roller coaster goes.
3. Play a slide whistle for your students. Have them make the sound of a
slide whistle with their voices.
4. Turn the lights off and use a flashlight on the wall. Have them sing up and
down the way the flashlight goes.
5. Say poems in contrasting voices - one line high, one line low. This helps
to develop voice flexibility.
6. Say helloooooooo, elongating and vocalizing on the vowels. Have
conversations with the children stretching out all the vowel sounds. (Silly
hellos).
7. Sing a song using meow instead of the words.
8. Say spooky hellos in a ghostly voice.
9. Sing alone or in small groups. Some children havent found their
singing voice because theyve never heard themselves singing alone.
Playing guessing games such as Whos That give the children a
non-threatening way to sing alone.
10. Give a group of children a long piece of yarn and have them hold sections
of it up high and down low. Vocalize showing the way the yarn goes up
and down. Use a variety of sounds; oo, ah, zz, bbbb.

Cathy Seipel, Spring 2014