ashleyscho
How To Properly Belt When Singing - How To Always Sing On Key. Like most voice teachers, I never thought I would teach little children singing lessons. I had heard that voice teachers tend to avoid pre-pubescent students because their voices are fragile and their vocal aptitude is disappointing. I am glad that I ignored these uninformed warnings and dove into the world of teaching children to sing. I have since become a successful teacher and author on teaching young children to sing. In this article, I hope that I will be able to share with other teachers and parents some of the strategies that I have learned and developed for giving singing lessons to children.
Why Teach Children?
Traditional music education for children has included group choruses and perhaps private piano lessons. While I whole-heartedly support both of these activities, I would suggest that they are insufficient for the child who wishes to become a good singer. In children's choruses, participants are usually simply expected to sing the right words and pitches. They are almost never taught much vocal technique and certainly are not given individual attention. This environment is often the genesis of bad vocal techniques such as straining the lower register on high notes (ie. bad "belting"), breathiness, neck and throat tension, etc. Sometimes a child will not receive the additional attention they need to address pitch problems and they turn into a "mono-tone singer." Because children's minds are so impressionable, these bad habits can solidify and be very difficult to change later. On the other hand, good techniques learned at a young age will also solidify into a steady, dependable singing voice for the rest of their lives.