Helping Homeschoolers Find Their Voices
Voice Training Is About Communication
As a vocal coach, I work with a lot of kids from 2nd graders on up. Much of this is with children’s choirs, but a surprising number of our new private students are homeschoolers. Parents are recognizing that for a student of any age to learn about their voice is a very valuable pursuit. Why? Because, Voice training is about communication! And being a confident, clear communicator will help a child excel in any future vocation. In many pursuits, communication is absolutely necessary.
Teaching (Homeschool) Kids to Sing (And Speak!)
We originally developed our Teaching Kids To Sing (TKS) series with the children’s choir and traditional classroom in mind. But we are excited to see that TKS has become a huge hit with homeschool families. We are proud of every report we hear from parent telling us how TKS is helping their kids learn how to properly use their voice.
Our goal is to teach children about their voices. Then, to help them experience what good posture, warm-ups, tone, diction and meaningful dynamics feel and sound like—all while having fun. Not surprisingly, parents are learning as much as the students and it has become a great family-learning experience in many homes due to the clear layout and interactive format.
We Are Here to Help You Along the Way
Homeschool Help
We have a special page on our website just for Homeschoolers! Just go to vocalcoach.com/homeschool. We have lots of information about how to use our Vocal Coach products in a homeschool environment, answers to common questions, and even an exam and answer key in PDF format for download.
Face to Face Online Training
It’s also worth noting that our Face to Face Online Training is great for group learning and can really be a good cap to a semester of vocal training. After working with our teaching tools with your student(s), you may want to solidify what they’ve learned in a personal way. I’d love to meet you for an online session via Skype or FaceTime.
Whether you have one or five students or even a larger homeschool group, and on line session can offer spontaneous, interactive teaching and inspiration. You’ll be surprised how much progress can be made in a single session when the students are already familiar with the fundamental from our training CDs.
Any Questions?
To make this experience more available for this summer or for the start of school this fall we are offer our 2DVD/1CD Teaching Kids To Sing package for a special price. Please go to your store and explore the Teaching Kids To Sing section.
And as always, if you have any questions along the way just go to my blog. There is a wealth of knowledge already there, and you can submit a question directly to me using the Ask the Vocal Coach form. I look forward to hearing from you!
It is very important for children to practice singing correctly using dynamics, tone, diction and following directors cues.
So true. It’s no different that training young athletes thoroughly so they conditioning, agility and understand the rules of the game. They must also understand the need to take instruction from coaches if they are to be the best team player possible. For singers the same truths apply.
I have a BME from years ago, with voice as my major instrument. I eventually went into a different field, but continued singing sporadically throughout the years. My voice has never been easy, as I have a rather big range but a significant “break” area that has been hard to manage. Most likely it is due to irregular practice habits. In any case, here I am at 56, back into choir singing and wanting to enjoy my voice. Additionally, as I have been a private piano teacher for years, I am now embarking on teaching voice. I have my first student this evening, and eleven year old girl. I would love some suggestions on how to start with her. Thank you!!
Thanks so much for your questions. First, most people are able to smooth through the “significant break” issue you mention but it’s a process and takes some time. It also takes the right concepts and exercises. Otherwise you end up trying to trick, rather than train your voice. Our Complete Expanding Your Range is a very, very good tool for this.
Second, regarding your new voice student: After 50 years of teaching I have rather strong opinions regard how to lay the foundations for a student and it isn’t by having them just sing songs. Many piano teachers who also happen to teach voice don’t understand that and just end up being accompanists with a little coaching. I believe you absolutely must start with a fun, practical approach to posture (not the “pull your shoulders back” approach which is totally unnatural and unhelpful), breathing (not the “breathe from the stomach” which is a digestive organ) and tone. The most thorough, tested and fun approach to those areas are . . . no surprise . . . Vocal Coach CD’s. You can download the foundational series like Vocal Coach Singer or just a few like Breathing and Tone, and Expanding for yourself in a matter of minutes from our store. This is an inexpensive and proven way to train yourself and your students. I’m also available via email to answer teaching questions along the way.
I really hope this helps and I applaud you on venturing into this new area.
For Vocal Coach,
Chris Beatty
Other than opening the mouth and raising the soft palate, are there any other suggestions you would give to someone who sings with a nasal quality?