How young should a person begin formal singing lessons? my daughter is 9 and dances, acts, sings and she has performed in a few professional touring stage shows. I have been advised to leave her voice to develop naturally as damage can be done if lessons begin too young. Has anyone got an opinion on this.
Would be interested to here other views and experiences.

Hello!

I started having one to one lessons at the age of 11..but it was never more than a bit of fun then and wasn't taken too seriously. Very important at the age of 9 as it is still so young...

You must be very careful when choosing a teacher because young voices are so fragile.If bad habits start to creep in unnoticed it can be INCREDIBLEY hard to undo and can indeed be very DAMAGING. I am now studying at music college and bad habits that I was allowed to get away with for years are now causing my grief!

When I started my lessons, my teacher taught me basic technique and performance skills and we did light repertoire such as folk songs, parlour songs, operetta etc and I think that was a good age to begin for me..however everyone is different and some people come to singing much later which is no bad thing as the voice matures very slowly and gradually anyway.

The main thing is that your daughter ENJOYS her lessons and is not exposed to anything too difficult for her age (think of Charlotte Church singing operatic arias at the age of 10 or 11..!! Ridiculous!!)

Of course, if aural skills and sightreading is learnt too that is invaluable too.
lots of luck to you both!

QUOTE (songflower @ Mar 2 2005, 05:53 PM)

think of Charlotte Church singing operatic arias at the age of 10 or 11..!!

Ugh, I'd rather not. And look what happened to her...

As songflower says, make sure that she doesn't do any damage to her voice. It might be worth contacting a few local singing teachers to find out if they teach many young children.

If you're anywhere near a large church or cathedral, why not speak to the organist or choirmaster there? They're used to dealing with developing (boys') voices.

Above all, make sure she continues to enjoy music.

I started having lessons at the age of 11, but before then I sang in choirs and sang solos in the odd festival or concert. I agree that formal training shouldn't begin too early; I personally would wait a few years before giving her singing lessons. Good luck!

Hi Mumoftwo
You don't mention whether your daughter plays any musical instruments. Big choirs here in Japan offer aural/pitch-training/theory tuition as part of choir practice - that might be one lowkey way to give your daughter some basics in music and voice training without going the whole hog. However, the time commitment might be too much if she is already involved in lots of other things.

As for individual tuition...if your daughter sings all day every day anyway, what are you losing by letting her take voice lessons? (Supposing that's what she wants, that is). IF you think that she will surely want to start voice lessons before she turns 12, AND she is begging for lessons now, then it might be wise to settle her into lessons now than wait until the middle of her most rapid growth period. On the other hand, if it's just a matter of taking lessons eventually as part of her all-round training, then there's no rush, right?

I'm facing this debate with my son now too - he's just turned 11, and is starting to think about whether to specialize in instruments, singing, or composition. I'm no expert on music, but I've been thinking hard about growth during puberty. Given that girls start to mature earlier than boys, both your daughter and my son are probably about a year away from the start of a major growth spurt, which also lengthens vocal chords - in girls as well as boys, though not so dramatically of course. My instinct is to avoid *starting* lessons during this rapid growth period, though I don't have any useful information on the best approach, sorry!

QUOTE (all ears @ Mar 3 2005, 12:30 AM)

I'm facing this debate with my son now too - he's just turned 11, and is starting to think about whether to specialize in instruments, singing, or composition. I'm no expert on music, but I've been thinking hard about growth during puberty.

My son has been able to sing since age 3. At age 10 he wanted to audition for a civic boys' choir, and for the first time he wanted me to take a good look at what he could do, and accompany him for an audition.

External teachers had advised that training such students to sing has huge down sides but anyway we did some work -

He seemed to have a lot of breath and from diaphragm area - we did just a little work on that. (I'm wondering now if shallow breathing develops as the child takes on more and more stresses and anxieties?) The vocal line benefitted from more discipline in certain vowel sounds. Attention to rhythm, dynamics and tempo changes were all covered.

That was all the intervention that I thought was necessary and safe, and future coaching did not go much further than that and learning of repertoire. He sang some solo parts. He later performed solo for "Hear My Prayer"/"Wings of a Dove" at one stage for a church service - (for this work a recording from Kiri te Kanawa gave him a wonderful introduction to the power of rubato). At a local Auckland concert, he sang with 11 other children backing Russell Watson - and there is a commercial CD of that.

So the initial objectives of some training on rudiments of singing were achieved:
(a) ability to pass audition and contribute to choir
( confidence to take on a solo if requested

Looking at the question more generally, I believe that musicianship was greatly enhanced by some experience and training as a singer. The student made sense of the concepts of phrasing, "cantabile", "rubato" even diminuendo and crescendo?

Also venturing into some foreign languages, exposure to a wide range of composers, periods, styles - you can cover so much repertoire so quickly as a choral singer. Travel, choral friendships .. I could go on.

My son's voice has now broken at age 13 and he is taking a spell from singing .. I am not sure what he will want to do next with voice. But I know he would not trade the last three years of voice for all the world.

I hope the above assists the quoted subscriber.

Thanks from me at least for the detailed reply!

Thinking back, I think that we would have allowed my son to do the choir audition he was invited to do, if he had not at the time had a bad cough most of the year (reaction to cold air)...he was certainly keen on the idea at the time, and I've heard from friends that choir was very enjoyable for their kids. For Mumoftwo, that probably goes double - here in Japan, mixed choirs have hugely more girls than boys!

George Burrell, when PM is available again on the forum, I hope we can get in touch - we'll be in Auckland later this year (and my older son is the same age as yours).

One thing you must be careful of, and please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I understand things it's much easier to damage a young girl's voice than a boy's voice; boys can be pushed further vocally, whereas a girl's voice would be damaged by the same level of training. So make sure, if your daughter does have lessons, that the teacher has experience of girls' voices. Agree about Charlotte Church - not only did she sing stuff that was way beyond her musically and emotionally, the last time I heard her sing you could hear the damage that had been done to her voice. Really sad.

QUOTE (all ears @ Mar 3 2005, 12:30 AM)

You don't mention whether your daughter plays any musical instruments. Big choirs here in Japan offer aural/pitch-training/theory tuition as part of choir practice - that might be one lowkey way to give your daughter some basics in music and voice training without going the whole hog. However, the time commitment might be too much if she is already involved in lots of other things.

My daughter is the theatrical/performer and it is my son who is the musical one , but who is not so keen on performing unless he is behind his cello or piano. We have quite an array of instruments at home and my daughter tinkers to a basic standard with several, so you could be confident in saying that she enjoys music and singing, but it is the stage that she loves most.

Thanks to all replies! I think most of what has been said has confirmed what I was feeling already. We will wait until my daughter is at least in high school, before we consider formal singing lessons, there is no rush. My daughter is not begging for lessons yet. She sounds us out, from time to time ( her friend has been having lessons since age 7!), but there is no pressure. Therefore, I do declare that 9 is too young!

I would say it's very difficult to put an age limit on something like this. It will all so much depend on the individual concerned. I would say that if someone is already singing in choirs or shows etc. then even at 9 years old they would benefit from some less formal lessons focussing on how to sing better in those situations. You can't do much with the voice at 9 years old but you can do a lot of musical/theory/aural work which would put them ahead for when they are 11 or 12 and when more formal singing lessons may be appropriate.
David

QUOTE (mumoftwo @ Mar 4 2005, 04:35 PM)

QUOTE (all ears @ Mar 3 2005, 12:30 AM) You don't mention whether your daughter plays any musical instruments. Big choirs here in Japan offer aural/pitch-training/theory tuition as part of choir practice - that might be one lowkey way to give your daughter some basics in music and voice training without going the whole hog. However, the time commitment might be too much if she is already involved in lots of other things. My daughter is the theatrical/performer and it is my son who is the musical one , but who is not so keen on performing unless he is behind his cello or piano. We have quite an array of instruments at home and my daughter tinkers to a basic standard with several, so you could be confident in saying that she enjoys music and singing, but it is the stage that she loves most. Thanks to all replies! I think most of what has been said has confirmed what I was feeling already. We will wait until my daughter is at least in high school, before we consider formal singing lessons, there is no rush. My daughter is not begging for lessons yet. She sounds us out, from time to time ( her friend has been having lessons since age 7!), but there is no pressure. Therefore, I do declare that 9 is too young!

Have you considered formal Speech and Drama training? Your daughter sounds like the ideal candidate, and age is fine.

While this training is directly applicable to the interest of your daughter.. this background can be excellent for career options such as broadcaster, trainer, journalist, .. In fact good communication is a brilliant background for everything now.