angles of zingen met kinderen inhoudelijk (2)
Renée Harp © Conservatorium van Amsterdam DOK 2011
Some facts:
Length of vocal folds: adults have longer vocals folds than kids. Preferred octave to sing: c’-c”; registers: chest / head (passaggio: around c’)
Teens: girls: air on the voice due to growth larynx; boys: mutation: voice drops an octave as a consequence of growing vocal folds
Length of vocal tract (sound tube): grown ups have a larger tube than kids
Stamina for breathing: kids have less lung capacity, less muscle strength and less mental control
Musical memory increases in age; compare remembering loose words or a phrase; remembering a phrase of which you understand the meaning, or nonsense.
Pitch perception: high low
Sound colour in different instruments
The role of singing in playing an instrument:
Suzuki: “Learning music is like learning a language. How does a 2 year old learn a language? Imitation: I repeat the sound mother makes, she doesn’t react, I try again. She reacts but not in the way I want, I try again. Now she reacts with the wished for thing (drink f.e.) -> I found the right word for what I desire. Imitation – reaction
What does singing do?
You train your physical feeling for a melody: higher notes require a bit more energy in your body, more tension in the vocal folds.
You hear the song you have to transmit to grasping the strings or keys. You can check by hearing it halfway outside your mind instead of completely outside your mind.
You can feel:
Phrasing, connection, legato
Breathing, timing of breathing, anticipation of breathing
Meaning, expression (text), rhythm
Intonation, hitting of the right pitch
Memory of a melodic fragment, dynamics
You don’t need complicated grepen on your instrument to be able to produce the song asked.
Problems for children:
Identification with another timbre; with another octave/register; with unfamiliar motives
They need to feel the vibration of another voice to identify.