I always wonder how singing students and teachers plough through that sea of songs available for each grade.

I come from an instrument (piano) which has a list of only 18 pieces for each grade. And there are audio tracks available for each grade, to help the teacher and student choose 3 pieces suitable for them. The process is pretty simple and short.

But with the singing syllabus, there are over a hundred songs in each grade, and many of them are not familiar to everyone. I wonder if the singing teachers are able to read the list and say to the student: "Ah, this and this suit you. Let's take these few songs for the grade. Settled!" Do teachers make the decisions? Does this come with years and years of teaching experience? Or do students do research and shortlist their favourites?

I spend alot of time trying to decide the songs for the next grade. I combed the library last weekend to hunt down as many scores in the syllabus as possible. That took me more than 6 hours to consolidate everything. Then I went online (YouTube) to hunt for all the songs I have the scores for. Now I am listening to the playlists I have created, in hope that a few songs will stand out and "beckon" to me. After that, I have to present them to my teacher and we'll then choose the final pieces. Finally I will have to purchase the books, with fingers crossed that they are available in the local bookstores.

I am just worried that my initial choices will be unbalanced, due to the types of songs that I personally prefer. Is there some kind of recommendation of what mixture of moods/tempos should go into a higher grade (6 to 8) programmes?

I would like to try French and Latin songs, but I have zero knowledge of these languages. Is there some resource I can tap on to learn the basic pronunciations of words that are commonly used in songs?

How does everyone else decide on what songs to sing? I would like to get some ideas, so that I can make my own research more efficient.

I'm an inexperienced student as well, so these are just a few things I've found helpful.

First is the great resource that is Schubertline. You can find music here for a huge number of pre-twentieth century pieces; look at the scores online, hear how they sound, and transpose. If you take out an annual subscription you can print as many as you like, or you can pay as you go.

Secondly, The Language of Song is a new series of books which contain a lot of the repertoire. They come with CDs which have native speakers reading the words of the songs. An accurate translation is provided so that you know which words are the most important.

As far as choosing material is concerned, I have looked at suggestions from my teacher based on what she thinks would suit my voice, and I have also taken songs to lessons I have found and liked the look of, and asked her to advise me about their suitability.

From a teacher's point of view:
Over a period of time you get to know your students and what type of songs they like. There's enough songs on the lists not to suggest one they won't enjoy - it's counterproductive because they won't practice it!
So - I suggest songs according to the student's gender, age, voice type - high/low, light/weighty, classical/not, personality - shy/outgoing, personal preferences, etc. So you see, that narrows it down quite a bit - which is why there are so many songs on the lists.
I then suggest several songs which tick all the boxes. Students learns several songs from each list, and eventually compiles a contrasting programme from the songs they prefer and sing best. We leave the unaccompanied until last as this a free choice and can be used to balance the programme. That's not to say they don't work on this component along the way - new folk songs are always being entered into festivals, so they will have one "up their sleeve" to add to the programme.
I think that, particularly for younger students and earlier grades, this always needs to be done with a teacher's guidance, because some songs are just not suited to a student or their voice for various reasons. You would be hard pushed to find a library here with many songs from the lists, if any, other than theatre or oratorio. So I have my own library which can be used to show students new songs. Then if they like them enough to learn them, and they are suitable, they can buy their own.

So do we!

Why particularly so for List B?

I find asking advice on here is very helpful too!

Also many of the translations are naff! The words are just too old fashioned.

Hmm, yes, but the language they are translated from is old-fashioned as well - no German these days talks like that. For the sake of being authentic, you would probably translate into a rather "old-fashioned" style. If I translated Shakespeare Sonnets into German, I certainly wouldn't put them into today's language, neither should Goethe or Holty be put in today's English

Just my point of view of course ...

Most of my younger students don't find list B appealing either - it is a completely different case with my adults though. Most of them absolutely love Schumann and Brahms ...

Totally agree with you Mezzo - but it is still the reason most don't want to learn them - even the adults. The art songs are also a lot more interesting in the higher grades.

i started singing schumann stuff when i was around 13 ish 14 and really enjoyed them....

german has never been a problem as i studied it from year 9 till A-level.

Oh I see... interesting coments on List B. I actually like so many songs in List B that I am spoilt for choice
I guess it helps that I understand German. The melodies are very classical or romantic. Just like for the piano, List B is always my favourite

The lists I have major problems with are A and C. List A is rather baroque and opera-like, isn't it? I am not exposed to opera yet, so I am quite taken aback by the long list of unfamiliar and chant-like songs. Often I feel like I am at a church mass...

I am still trying to figure out the style of List C in Grades 6 to 8. A few that I find are old American folk songs, that are extremely foreign to me.

What exactly is List C? Is it folk songs?
And is List D jazz, blues, broadway musicals?

My teacher uses picks out the songs which will suit me and i can try them and see which i like best and pick those for the exam.

As I treat singing in foreign languages as just part of singing and my German is fine, I just slip list B songs in as part of the general flow of things concentrating more on range and passagi of the pupil and their vocal techniques. Once they have been introduced to the idea of singing in Italian or Church Latin, French or German, is just another logical step, and I make sure good word for word translations are provided.

When I was 15 and taking grade 5 the challenge of singing Seligkeit in German was just one of those things I took in my stride, and I expect pupils to do the same.

The Language of Song books which come with a CD containing the Pronunciation together with a backing track are more use for the pronunciation guide as for anything else. The elementary book has a very good selection of songs, many of which end up on B lists for ABRSM exams. Likewise the ABRSM songbook CDs also have pronunciation guides.

Given I have had a 6 year old sing in German as I taught her phonetically. I know it can be done. It is a case of not making a mountain out of a mole hill.