TEACHING CHILDREN TO SING!       DFO1107  11/2/81

         1. SINGING JUST COMES NATURALLY TO MOST OF OUR FAMILY. But it's just like any kind of instrument: You might be able to pick it up by ear & accidentally sort of learn how to use it, but if you have real training & teaching in it & study it, you can do much better.
         2. Go over the choruses you normally sing, try them on your little piano or organ or pitchpipe or whatever, & see if the highest & lowest notes are within the children's range. You must use your organ or pitchpipe, unless you've got perfect pitch.
         3. One octave is about average for a child. (An octave means 8 full notes on the scale.) It's a little difficult to get any higher or lower--but they need to practice it. Find out what their range is, how low & how high they can sing.
         4. One thing you really need to practice is VOLUME & your power of singing so you can develop a little louder voice if you're going to lead the children. Children can have plenty loud voices when they want to & they've just got to put that energy to work singing for the Lord!
         5. The best time to have your voice class is in the morning, but be sure you have it at least two to three hours after breakfast, otherwise you don't have enough room to get the sound in & let it echo around. You can sing much better on an empty stomach. Right before mealtime is the best time, when the past meal is well digested & out of the way & not heavy on the diaphragm or the stomach & you can really sock it to'm.
         6. (TO THE CHILDREN:) YOU HAVE TO SING REAL LOUD ON THE LAST NOTES THAT ARE UP SO HIGH in order to hit them. Ask Jesus to help you hit that last "DO" way up high! You've gotta reach for it! You've got to get to the top of the mountain before you start running downhill, & stay standing on top for a little while & just hold it. It takes strength & you've got to work hard & you've got to sing loud in order to hit it--& hit it real clear! Put a lot of umph behind it & push from clear down here, right down here at the bottom of your chest.
         7. At about the level of your bottom rib there's a big muscle called your DIAPHRAGM, & it goes all the way back clear across through your body. One of the most important things it does is hold up your voice. Power comes from here, but the full tone resonance comes from your chest & nasal cavity, low & high. Feel it moving down there, just below your ribs?
         8. That's why Jesus said, "Out of your innermost parts"--this is your innermost parts, right here--"shall flow forth rivers of living water." (Jn.7:38)--Meaning your words for the Lord & the things He gives you to say & sing--they flow out of way down here.
         9. It's like your vocal chords are strung across the wind. The "wind" is coming from your chest, going up through your vocal chords & coming out your nose & your mouth. The vocal chords vibrate according to the way you stretch them. You kind of let'm hang loose & limp for low notes, but when you sing up high they get tighter. The sound column vibrates all the way down here from in your diaphragm up to your throat. You push it from your diaphragm & the sound echoes & reverberates & finally the sound column comes out way up here, actually through your nose, & you can feel it vibrating up in your head.
         10. THERE ARE SOME CHILDREN WHO WERE THOUGHT TO BE TONE DEAF & utterly ungifted for singing.--But if you give them a note & they can hit the same note, then they're not tone deaf. And that means they can carry a tune with a little practice & teaching & training & stay on pitch & not get off key, if led well. So correct them when they make mistakes.--If you let them get away with it, they'll think it's alright to do that. You've got to set the example for them to really do it!--Nothing short of right is right!
         11. With young children especially, because their range is so limited, you have to find songs that fit it, rather than have them straining their voices.--And try not to pitch their songs out of their range, beyond what they're able to bear. The Lord tries not to give you more than you are able to bear, so if it happens, He always makes a way of escape, & the kids will find some way to escape, don't worry!--They'll just pitch it someplace else or slide down out of tune, out of time & off-key, because they just refuse to go up there because they can't.
         12. So try to find a repertoire of songs that are easily within their range! It's much better to sing a few songs well. The variety & the number of songs is not what counts.--It's the quality, not the quantity.
         13. A vocal teacher usually starts you on "AH" sounds, because this helps you get it up in the nose where you resonate--especially beginning with M & N. "AH" seems to conform to the natural shape of your mouth & the roof of your mouth, & you can hit the "AH" sound better at those very high tone levels than you can any other vowel.
         14. It's hard work singing!--You've really gotta PUSH it!--If they really sing, & sing out, an hour is about all most people can stand of a vocal lesson. I wouldn't push them too hard, it might not be good for them.--Better even a half-hour to start.
         15. IT'S BETTER TO MEMORISE SONGS!--Then when you get up to sing for the Lord, just sing to the people from your heart. If you have practiced the technicalities sufficiently at home, they will come naturally as you sing in public from your heart. If you learn good habits in singing, they'll come automatically & you will just sing for the people & for the Lord from your heart with real expression.
         16. And please remember: There's nothing like INSPIRATION!--I'd rather hear someone sing with feeling from their heart in the power of the Holy Spirit, than a professional perfectionist who gets all the technicalities perfect but has no real love & sounds like an empty hollow noisy "sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal"! (1Co.13:1)--That's the very first point! GBAKYAMYAB!


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