Chorus Begins in Kindergarten
Gwendolyn McGraw

Reprinted by permission. CMEA Magazine: The News Magazine of the California Association for Music Education. Fall, 2001. Margaret Stevens, Editor.

“Kindergartners can’t sing!” That is what I was told by seasoned K-6 music educators when I was fairly new to teaching. Thus was a pretty scary thought to one who had just signed on to teach six sections of kindergarten music, along with six sections of “older” students, all in first grade. As the years passed, later assignments included four-year-olds, three-year-olds, and even the terrible two’s. Over time I came to believe that “Chorus begins in Kindergarten.” Children who learned to sing well at an early age were those who elected to join elementary, middle school, and high school choral groups.

Like John Feierabend of the Hartt School of Music, our early childhood clinician at CMEA 2001, I am convinced that the pitch range chosen for early childhood singing is critical for later development. Feierabend taught many songs utilizing a fairly limited pitch range, but it was not D to A singing range so frequently advocated by early childhood professionals. Instead, it was the range of a fifth or sixth in the key of F or G major (rather than C or D major). As he stated in the introduction to the singing section of his First Steps in Music (2000), “Sing these songs in the key of F or G. For some, these keys may seem a little high, but by singing lightly these keys will best prepare the child to eventually use his/her correct singing voice.” Hopefully, many children in California will learn to sing at an early age through such an approach. For other children, however, remedial “singing education” will be the order of the day in primary grade music classrooms.

Interestingly, the historical practice in American music education was to develop the so-called “singing voice” (or head voice) first, and then to extend the singing range downward. There has been a troubling reversal of this practice in recent years, coupled with the seeming assumption that singing ranges of young children who learn to sing in the so-called “comfortable” range (or chest voice) will naturally expand upward with increasing age. Recent research (Brown, 1988; Wurgler, 1992; McGraw, 1996) challenges such assumptions. Results reported by these researchers suggest that range restriction rather than range expansion is characteristic of primary grade children who have learned to sing using chest voice as a result of an early childhood emphasis on lower range (middle C to G/A).

Brown (1988), who did her master’s research under the guidance of Dr. Mary Goetze, found that children’s ranges remained both limited and low across grade levels– unless children received coaching in the use of head voice. Wurgler (1992) found that nearly 60% of 285 students in grades K-6 had chest voice production problems which included range restriction and high levels of pitch inaccuracy. McGraw (1996) similarly found that 70% of second graders in her study using habitually used chest voice for singing by the age of eight. As in the other studies, high levels of pitch inaccuracy and restricted vocal range characterized the singing production of these seven- and eight-year old children. Clearly, the range restriction and pitch accuracy problems reported by these researchers are inherent to chest voice production for young children because of a register break at the lower end of the treble staff (F/G/A). Note that the upper limit of the range associated with chest voice for the young child corresponds to the upper limit of the early childhood “comfortable” singing range. Because an array of production problems are associated with the use of chest voice by young singers, a number of writers have suggested that primary grade children will not learn to sing well unless they are instructed by a teacher who both models and teaches head voice production in an expanded singing range (Stofft, 1979; Phillips, 1985; Brown, 1988; Wurgler, 1990; Atterbury and Richardson, 1995: McGraw, 1996, 1999, 2000). Campbell and Scott-Kassner (1995) have also alluded to the need for head voice training at the first and second grade levels.

A review of related research indicates that there is a two-fold pedagogical problem when working with first or second grade chest voice singers. First, students must work to break existing singing habits. Second, a new singing production must be established. “Shock therapy,” which is singing only in the range D down to G on the treble staff, helps to solve both problems. There are also two levels or tiers of difficulty as primary grade children develop singing skills. Tier One involves the use of a vocal model (preferably a female singing in light head voice or a male singing in falsetto). For young children with a chest voice “habit,” the vocal model is critically important as they “find” their head voice, echo melodic patterns, and echo a song, phrase by phrase. The model really seems to help as young children attempt to sing using a new type of production. Tier Two tasks require more independent singing and are difficult for children until their “technique” becomes secure. The skill sequence listed below ranges from simple to more complex, and has been tested with second grade students who received head voice training in group settings.

TIER ONE: Head Voice Production in Response to a Model

1. The student can find head voice (i.e., with coaching in group setting).
2. The student can echo melodic patterns sung on neutral syllables (descending patterns recommended).
3. The student can echo a phrase of a song (F/G major)
4. The student can echo a song, phrase by phrase (F/G major)

TIER TWO: Independent Head Voice Production

5. The student can sing a phrase of a song (F/G major)
6. The student can sing a song (F/G major)
7. The student can sing a descending major scale (F/E/D/C major)
8. The student can sing an ascending major scale (F/E/D/C major)
9. The student can sing an extended range song beginning in upper range
10. The student can sing an extended range song beginning in lower range

Young children who have learned to sing using chest voice may come to music classes using a variety of (inaccurate) singing productions. It is most helpful to remember that one is hearing “singing habits” that are not indicative of some serious conceptual or processing problem. While you may hear some disturbing “singing” (or non-singing) sounds, they are almost always manifestations of register-related range restriction. I once heard a children’s choral conductor assert “What you hear is NOT what you get!”– apt advice for any music teacher of primary grade children. My research with young children gives continued support to the principle that singing performance in lower range (middle C to G or A above) is NOT predictive of the vocal tone or pitch accuracy which will emerge following period of coaching in the use of head voice. Indeed, the research cited in this article calls into question the rationale for a focus on the use of lower range for singing at the early childhood level, reminding us that the singing productions associated with the use of chest voice and head voice are physiologically different at the laryngeal level. No wonder music educators like Feierabend encourage us to focus from the earliest years on use of the “correct” singing voice!

It’s past time to grapple with the idea that the lifespan of the child/adolescent/young adult singer must be considered when thinking about the teaching of singing skills. What is the relationship of developmentally appropriate practice to long-term musical development? Is it pedagogically sound to advocate the use of a specific range at one age if students form singing habits which are counter-productive when taking the long view?

Clearly, pedagogy at any age affects what happens later! At each stage–early childhood, primary grades, upper elementary, middle school, and high school–we must determine the relative worth of short term gains within the “singing life” of the student.

Asking ourselves some hard questions may help. Is our pedagogy physiologically sound? Will it ultimately help the student to access the two-plus octave singing range? If “chorus” does, in fact, begin in kindergarten, then it’s important to be aware of what we are about!

References:
Brown, C. (1988). The Effect of Two Assessment Procedures on the Range of Children’s Singing Voices. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Atterbury, B. and Richardson, C. (1995). The Experience of Teaching General Music. New York: McGraw Hill.
Campbell, P.S. and Scott-Kassner, C. (1995). Music in Childhood. New York: Schirmer Books.
Feierabend, J. (2000). First Steps in Music for Infants and Toddlers. The Curriculum. Birth Through 36 Months. Chicago: GIA Publications, Inc.
McGraw, G. (1996). An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Vocalizes in Training Elementary School Children to Sing Using Head Voice. (Doctoral Dissertation, The University of Georgia, Athens). Dissertation Abstracts International.
McGraw, G. (1999). “The Effects of Head Voice Training on Register Classifications, Pitch Accuracy, Singing Habits, and Singing Skills of Young Children,” in Children and Music: Developmental Perspectives. Barrett, McPherson, and Smith, eds. University of Tasmania.
McGraw, G. (2000). “Reclaiming the Singing Voices of All Our Children” in Conference Papers of the Early Childhood Music Education Commission of the International Society for Music Education: Music Within Every Child, July 10-14, 2000. Edmonton, Canada.
Phillips, K. (1985). “Child Voice Training Research.” Journal of Research in Singing 8(1), 11-25.
Stofft, 1. (1979). The Range and Registers of the Pre-Adolescent Singing Voice: A Review of Writings with Conclusions Applicable in Teaching Children to Sing. (Master’s thesis, University of Southern California at Los Angeles).
Wurgler, P. (1990). A Perceptual Study of Vocal Registers in the Singing Voices of Children. (Doctoral Dissertation. The Ohio State University). Dissertation Abstracts International, 52, 461-A.