#vocal development

The Five Stages of Singing 

Babbling: From ages 0-2, sounds the child is making in response to music that is present, or has recently happened

Spontaneous Song: The child breaks out into song about their day, things they’re doing, have done, or are going to do. It could be sung to the tune of song they already know, or it could be completely made up. This is a basic form of improv, and the child is typically looking around, and takes pauses or stutters 

Potpourri: This is when the child combines 2 or more songs together. For example, the child is singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and then suddenly is singing the ABC’s

Learned Song: An established song that the child knows the melody, rhythm, and words to, but has inaccuracies throughout

Formal: The child can sing accurately, can make artistic decisions, and is able to give a high quality performance. This usually happens after puberty, but can occur at any time. 

The babbling stage is always from 0-2, but any stage after that could happen at anytime, and in no particular order!

Children’s Vocal Development and Range

Four to Five (Kindergarten): discovers differences between speaking and singing voices, shift song qualities from light & airy to playground yell for lively songs! Sings spontaneous songs spanning two octaves, and can sing in tune within range of five pitches, d to a. 

Six to Seven (First Grade): sings in tune in range of C to b, with smaller tessitura. Can begin to develop head voice with guidance, and begins to have expressive control of their voice. 

Seven to Eight (Second Grade): Sings in tune in range of octave, about c to c’, or D to d’, with smaller tessitura. 

Eight to Nine (Third Grade): Sings in tune from B to e, with smaller tessitura. Can perform fundamental harmony songs such as melody over vocal ostinato or sustained pitch! 

Nine to Ten (Fourth Grade): Sings in tune in range of A to e, with smaller tessitura. Sings with increasing resonance, and could possibly experience their first vocal change (boys, beginning age 10). They can perform rounds, descants, countermelodies, and can sing with appropriate phrasing given proper guidance. 

Ten to Eleven (Fifth Grade): Sings in tune in range of A to f, with C to c octave tessitura. They become selective about song choice, and prefers songs that stay in their middle range. They also prefer songs without sentimental or babyish texts, and can perform two-part songs. 

Physical Training for the Child Voice

Private lessons are best reserved for later years (adolescents-adulthood)

Songs, vocal games and drills will quicken the pace of development and extend the child’s capacity for musical expression

PSP

Perfect Singing Posture

Imagery and exercise can lead to the correct stance for singing

Show your students correct posture with you as the model

Toward Accurate Singing

Kodály hand-signs are useful for encouraging students to sing accurately 

Provides a physical context for where the pitches in the scale are

Children are more likely to sing accurately when they can discriminate between high and low 

The Vocal Model

Children sing in the manner that the song is presented to them

It is important to sing in the octave, style,and phrasing you want your students to sing

28/12/14

Today we looked at accents and character voices to see if we could come up with something to incorporate into our pantomime characters.

We also had another think about things that we can put into our personal warm up routines and discussed what exercises are for improving certain qualities in your voice. This is because your routines have to be aimed at you personal weaknesses so you need an exercise that targets those certain qualities. 

We looked at some videos explaining how to accents. The first one we looked at was how to do an Australian accent and then some volunteers had a go at them. Then we each discussed what accents we can do or would like to be able to do. After this we all tried to think of a way our characters could speak that we haven't already tried out. I tried changing my accent from cockney to northern as the cockney accent has not worked out for me so far.

I used all of the gestures, movements, stances and facial expressions that I have already rehearsed because I was not concentrating on changing these at that particular moment in time I was concentrating on my voice.

I explored accent but I also explored if I could use a different tone/pitch for my character but what I tried out didn't really work so i went back to what I have previously been doing in rehearsals.

I'm not going to keep anything I explored today for my pantomime character as none of it was as good as what I am already doing for my character.

As feedback our tutor told us to think about vocal opposites for example what if the genie instead of having a a low pitch voice had a high pitch voice with a Scottish accent because this is not expected of the character it would be funny.

I do not feel as though I need to do much further research into my characters  voice other than the fact I could try and come up with a better accent for her. However I would like to explore and learn other accents as I find the fascinating.

Strengths - I have started to think about how I can change my characters accent in the pantomime as the one I am currently doing is not working.

Weaknesses - I am not very good at many accents so I do not have much choice in what to do about my accent. 

For next week I need to improve...

My accent I need to either master the one I am using or come up with another.

I need to look at the written side of my work as I am concentrating too much on the practical side.

21/12/14

Today we did work on emotions and looking at how the same words can be changed to fit different emotions. 

We also took a look at some other things we could include in our personal warm ups and disused how far people had come with their personal warm ups. We were asked if we had started to think about them yet and everyone had which was a good start to the lesson.

Today we were all given a sheet with different lines on it and we had to pick a line and an emotion to say it in. I picked the line "Blood will flow before this day is over" and I said it in an angry way.

I used facial expressions and gestures to show the emotion I was portraying. I did this thing where I approached the audience slowly to create tension and then pointed my finger at them at the end to raise the tension.

I explored the vocal traits of pitch, tone and pace because I spoke in a low tone and pitch and a slow pace this also helped with the building tension side of things. In addition to this I started quiet and got louder this was also a way that I was trying to build tension with.

I think I am going to keep the way I delivered the line for when I am standing up to Jaffa in pantomime in act 2 scene 1. Because it was very effective and I want to try and create tension in this scene also as I did in the one today.

This week I did not get peer feedback as such. However they did try to guess what emotion I was going for at the end of my performance and everyone who guessed got it 100% correct which must mean I performed the line very well.

I do not think I need to do much research after todays lesson apart from the fact I could research into tension building as I may have missed a technique that I could us in pantomime.

Strengths - I think am very good at identifying which skills to use to create tension effectively.

Weaknesses - Because I started quiet and got louder I have noticed on the video taken that it is hard to hear me at the start of my line.

For next week I need to improve...

My knowledge on tension building. 

I would like to explore other emotions I could have used.

14/12/14

Today we looked at pantomime gags and how to deliver them properly we concentrated mainly on... 

Vocal timing

Pace

Pitch

We also disused how far people have come with creating their personal warm up routines and some things we could consider putting into our warm up routines.

The activity we did today was to get into pairs and choose 2 gags of of the sheet to practice and perform to the class. I worked with Beth on my 2 gags this week. The effect this activity had on my vocal skills is that it got me thinking about what equalizes you need to tell an effective joke. 

I used the skills of facial expressions and gestures along with my voice today because they made the gags even more effective and funnier. One facial expression I used at the end of the first gag actually got quite a big laugh so it just goes to show it's not all about the words used in a gag.

We explored vocal timing and how it can be used effectively to make a gag even funnier. We also looked at how pace and pitch can effect the funniness of a gag. Even though it wasn't on the syllabus to study today Beth and I also thought about how accents affect the funniness of a joke so we did one gag in a posh accent and the other one in a common accent to see the difference in reactions from the audience.

Nothing I explored today really fits my pantomime character the only thing I can think of that I could keep for the part of Marketeer 1 would be the accent for the common gag Beth and I did. 

Feedback from peers told us that our over the top facial expressions and gesture were effective and that the posh accents were funnier than the common accents we did.

I don't feel that I need to do any more research on what we did today ad it doesn't particularly relate to my pantomime character and I had quite productive lesson so I got everything finished and it was all understood well.

Strengths - My strengths today were my accent, facial expressions and gestures and my ability to contribute original ideas has gotten much better.

Weaknesses - Beth and I didn't spend as much time as some other people thinking about pace and pitch for our gag because we got too caught up in the accent side of things.

For next week I need to...

Think more about what pace and pitch can do to gags to make them funnier. 

Think about whether anything I did today would suit my pantomime character and if so I should try it out. 

7/12/14

Today we explored what qualities our voices had to them. For example whether our voices are whiny, high pitched, nasally, throaty, gravelly, soft, loud, shrill etc. 

We got into pairs and had a conversation so that we could assess what certain qualities our voices had, Feedback told me that I had a fairly low voice, however I tend to speak really high when I get exited. I also found out that my pace is very fast when I speak.

I did not use any particular skills such as facial expression, gesture, emotion or reaction as the task was just to have a conversation with someone so there was not really any acting involved.

As it is mentioned above I explored the vocal trait of pitch and tone as the feedback I got about my voice was to do with these two traits.

There was not particularly anything from today I can keep for my character in the performance as I was just speaking as myself and didn't really do any acting.

The feedback I got this week is all mentioned above as the point to the lesson was to get feedback off of a peer. 

I need to do a little more research into my voice because peer feedback didn't tell me much. I will try talking to my family members about my voice qualities because they are the people I know best and that have heard me talk most.

Strengths - I was told that I had a naturally loud voice which is good because it means that I am good when it comes to projection exercises.

Weaknesses - I am not too good at evaluating other peoples voices because I was with Molly in a pair and I don't feel as though I gave her enough feedback.

For next week I need to improve...

My skills at evaluating other peoples voices

My knowledge of my personal voice qualities 

I found some of the exercises we have done have really had an effect on my vocals. For example I have really improved my breath capacity using the breathing exercise we have done in class and it helped so much I decided to put it into my personal warm up I created. Also the scales exercises I have been doing from my personal warm up have really helped my range when singing because I have noticed I hit a few note I couldn’t before when singing with my drama group. In addition to this the warm up where I do tongue twisters has helped because I have noticed an improvement in my pronunciation, pace and Clarity.

I have learnt during this topic that my voice is very versatile when it comes to pitch and tone as I naturally change my pitch and tone a lot when I speak. I have also learnt that I am very good when it comes to projection as I speak very loud. I have found out that I am not too good at many accents so I am going to work on this as accents are something I really want to be able to do well.

I didn’t really get any feedback on my vocals on the final performance or at all really as I barley had any in commedia or pantomime. However I like to see the fact that I didn’t get any feedback as a positive because it means that the lines I had were performed well as I would have been informed if they weren’t.

I am going to continue with my whole personal warm up routine (Breathing exercise, scales, tongue twisters, toffee chewing exercise etc.) because I have realised that warming up improves my performance so I will do this warm up routine before any show and before rehearsal if I get the chance to.

Strengths and weaknesses at the start of the course…

“Targets for Improvement:

I am going to improve my sight reading by reading more regularly such as in the evenings. I am going to improve my body awareness by thinking more about my body than my speech when rehearsing and then hopefully I will have it set in my head for when I perform. Also I am going to work on projecting so that I can be heard properly in the dome. Finally I am going to research into the words I don’t know and find out there meanings so I can do an accurate assessment next time.

Areas of strength to practice and develop:

I have quite good breath capacity and I will improve this by doing breathing exercises, this will also improve my breath control. I also am quite good at inflection but I will practice and develop it further. Finally I am okay at using dynamics in my speech but I am going to improve this by practice and developing it.”