"The sun'll come out..."

Today was a pretty great day, apart from the heat and stuffiness of the choir room. It made me physically ill after lunch, but I still did my lessons with each class as planned! I was just caught off guard by it so I was a bit unfocused for eighth grade.

Started teaching the choirs "You'll Never Walk Alone," from Carousel today. Love, love, love that song. And the students enjoy it, too! Praise God for small miracles.

I'll try to get a full program up tomorrow of what each of the choirs is doing for the pops concert in May. Got some Wizard of Oz, The Wiz, Sweeney Todd, Lion King, and Akon. Because why not? I have to listen to the song and see what I think.

We got to actually use the SMART Board today with the choirs! Huzzah!! Goal is to use it tomorrow in sixth grade as well, so we'll see how that goes.

My lesson today with the sixth graders went really well. I could have gotten the ball rolling a little quicker as far as getting them involved, but after a few minutes it picked up steam. We're learning about singing in different registers in a healthy way so that 1) we can sing melodies more accurately, and 2) no one has to have throat surgery because of poor vocal habits.

I played some examples of pop singers using different parts of their voice, and pop singers with different voice types. Students had to identify first whether the person had a high or low voice, then see if they could tell what register they were using. They held up thumbs up by the top of their head if it was in head voice, thumbs down and near collar bone if in chest voice, thumb sideways and by cheekbones if somewhere in the middle. It got a bit tricky for some singers, either because of their smooth transitions, or because of gender/developmental differences.

Example (which I may briefly touch on tomorrow): If you were to sing an Usher song (I used "Without You"), chances are that you would sing it where it's most comfortable for you. Ladies (and early adolescents), that means you would sing it in a lower part of your voice. However, Usher is singing in the higher part of his range. You're both singing exactly the same pitches, but you are each in a different part of your voice. So now take "Without You." Sing the first part in a comfortable part of your voice. Then when he sings that main part again, only higher, you flip up as well. Yeah, it's pretty darn high. If this didn't make sense to you, I will be glad to demonstrate sometime and you can laugh at my lack of high notes.

So anyway.

After identifying what part of the voice the singer was using, we then identified which part of "Yonder Come Day" that voice would work best for: low, middle, or high. We did some experimenting and found a few things that worked.

I also wanted to use this as an opportunity to prove to the students that most of the men you hear sing on the radio do not have low voices. I played a few extreme examples of high voices and registers, such as Mika ("Love Today") and Usher ("Without You," linked above). Then I played "Afternoons and Coffeespoons" by Crash Test Dummies.

That is...not a voice you hear every day on the radio. I love that example.

For female voices, one example I played was the beginning of "Samson" by Regina Spektor, as she does some really lovely things. I only played the beginning of each song, as I wanted to move on quickly. If I'd had time, I would have used "Us" as an example of her using really strong head and chest voices.

Instead, for an example of a female singer frequently switching between head, mixed, and chest voice, I used "Toto Dies" by Nellie McKay [mc-KYE]. The only video of this song I can find on youtube is of a guy conducting along to it. So there you go. The chorus is really where you can hear the different registers kick in. ("Oh-wee-oh," "Maybe I'll get some Chinese," etc.)

Then we transitioned into vocal health. I briefly brought my chest voice waaaay too far up in pitch, and asked them for some descriptors. They gave me: squeaky, scratchy, creaky, weak.

I then played for them, "Someone Like You," by Adele, and pointed out that even though I love her music, artistry, and expression, she just doesn't provide a healthy vocal model. There are some times when she does flip up into a clearer head voice, and those notes are lovely and sweet. We paid special attention to the line "Don't forget me, I beg" in each chorus, and how each time she brings her chest voice up too far. Emotionally powerful, but you can only do that so many times before your voice gives up.

I asked the students to clap their hands together ten times, as hard as they could. They were wincing, their hands tingling. "Your hands are Adele's vocal cords," I explained. "Could you do that for three every day for even a week without hurting your hands?" I briefly defined what a vocal nodule is, and the kids were sufficiently freaked out. (For a good time, look up "vocal nodules" on youtube. I dare you.)

Don't get me wrong. I love listening to Adele as much as the next person (which judging by her popularity, would be a lot). She has great artistry and soulful yet catchy music. However, much like with Ke$ha/Kim Kardashian and their fry tones (see previous entry for link to article on fry tones in speaking voices of college-age women), younger and younger girls are starting to imitate Adele's voice. Sing her songs, fine. Imitate her style, fine. But middle school and high school girls don't understand that most of their voices are not developmentally anywhere near the singers they hear on the radio.

I really can't stress enough that I do enjoy listening to Adele (except for those few points when it's clear why she had surgery). But I know enough that when I sing along with the radio, I don't try to imitate her voice, particularly on sections such as the one mentioned above. And I don't feel bad because it doesn't sound exactly like her. You don't have to know much about music or the voice to know that each person's sound is different. What we are trying to do in the sixth grade class is embrace those differences and allow each student to find their singing voice where it currently is.

I got a bit ranty. I apologize. But I'm leaving it there so future me can see it.

Another favorite part that former CMU voice pedagogy students might enjoy (if you've had Mary): one girl raised her hand and asked, "Didn't the girl who played 'Annie' lose her voice?"

"I AM SO GLAD YOU BROUGHT THAT UP. HIGH FIVE." We then talked about how the same thing happens with Annie kids that happened with Adele. The quality of the sound is different, but children are asked to shove their chest voice up into their upper range. This leaves them with a really undeveloped head voice...if it doesn't destroy their larynx first.

I think the kids got all the different points I threw their way. At the end of class I asked why it's important to learn to sing healthily in the different registers of the voice. Here are some of the answers I was given (not in this specific order):

"So that you can sing pitches better all over the place."

"So you can sing one note here and one here and one here but still sound good."

"So you can sing high, even if you have a low voice, and low even if you have a high voice."

"So you don't lose your voice."

"So you can still sing when you're older."

"So you don't have to have surgery."

"So you don't have to spend thousands of dollars on surgery."

That last one cracked me up, and yet it is perfectly valid. Gotta love eleven-year-olds.

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I feel like I have to say again that I have a lot of respect for Adele in her individuality and artistry. I just don't think adolescents should try to be imitating her sound. I feel like someone is going to read this post, get very indignant, and then angrily comment before reading the rest of my thought process. So I thought I would just sum up that thought here at the end and make it very clear.