Hi everyone!
I've been teaching piano for a couple of years now and want to start teaching voice....I have read that it is best to start with simple melodies in a progressive order to start. What resources do any of you who teach voice use? I'm trying to find vocalises for very beginner students to help develop their ear for intervals and singing syllables in different keys and meters..Does anyone have any favorites?

Teaching voice is vastly different from teaching piano, because first you have to build the instrument, then you have to teach them how to use it. Most of the time, you will have to do both things simultaneously, rather than one before the other, because students will expect to be working on songs almost right away.

The most important thing for a voice teacher to know is the function of the vocal mechanisms. There are two basic functions: the lower register which uses the thyroarytenoid muscle (the muscle that spans the entire vocal fold) sometimes referred to as "chest" voice, and the upper register, which is when only the edges of the folds vibrate (without use of the muscle). This is also known as head voice in women, or falsetto in men. Both registers need to be exercised and strengthened separately, and then coordinated so that they can function properly together. In men, you will also have to teach covering, as they use a lot more "chest" voice in their upper range which requires a adjustment to allow for that.

There is also the breathing which is totally counter-intuitive for most singers and must be taught. It is a simple concept, but it takes a lot of work to be able to do easily at first. The breathing entails the expansion of the intercostals (abdomen) when you inhale, and then keeping those intercostals out as you sing to prevent too much breath from pressing against the cords (subglottal pressure).

I'd be happy to recommend certain texts for you to better understand these functions. It is imperative that you do prior to trying to teach voice, otherwise you will find yourself working against the natural process that the voice needs which will result in frustration on the part of teacher and student. When one works alongside the function of the voice, all the rest is quite easy.

Vaccai has some wonderful little pieces that illustrate each interval and also gives them exposure to singing in Italian (which is by far the best language to learn to sing), but be forewarned, the first song, La Scala, is probably the hardest one because of its range. Concone also has some wonderful songs without words that you can choose whichever vowel to sing on. I rarely use these anymore, however, finding what I need in regular repertoire. "The First Book of Soprano Songs" published by Schirmer which has several volumes and is also in Mezzo soprano, tenor and baritone/bass volumes are good selections to start with. Of course, the "24 Italian Songs & Arias" book by Schirmer is a standard as well.

I teach them how to stand first. Do you know how to stand? Morodiene, men have a head voice too, its not falsetto.

kbk, I know, but I was speaking only in terms of isolating the registers and strengthening them. Generally, you do not want to teach men to sing in head voice.

If their doing a pop repertoire its essential. I call it Barry White-not!

Actually, no matter what style of music they're doing, proper vocal function will always be best. Just because people can rely upon effects and reverb to do the work for them, doesn't mean they should. :P

Using the head voice is proper functioning. It's the voice beyond the chest (but not falsetto) and needs to be available.

Only for women. Again, for development purposes, the falsetto and chest voice in men must be strengthened, and then coordinated. Isolating the registers is key. Deciding how much chest to use (at one extreme in head voice, with only minimal chest voice participation or the other extreme of mostly chest voice) depends on how high the pitch, the volume, and musically what is intended.

A good reference site for anyone who is interested is the Classical Singer's forum: http://www.classicalsinger.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?category=1

There are a lot of discussions regarding vocal function that are quite interesting to read.

I would contend that strengthening the falsetto is good for the voice (I can sing G 1 and 1/2 octaves above middle C) but it is a different voice from the head, which sounds quite natural. The falsetto sounds false, which is where it gets its name from.

That is my point. You don't want men to perform in falsetto (unless in jest), but strengthening the falsetto is very important. Head voice has a small amount of the thyroarytenoid action, so it is not pure falsetto.

You do want men to perform in falsetto if they're counter-tenors!

... and if they're cheap, they may be classed as bargain-counter tenors! [1]

[1]thanks to Peter Schickele

Regards,

LOL!

lilgracenote why is it all of a sudden you want to teach voice? Do you know enough about the voice to be able to teach it without harming a voice? There are so many more things you have to take into consideration vocally because the body is the instrument, whereas a piano remains the same and you are teaching technique of how to play on an instrument that remains the same. Your body doesn't remain the same and is in a constant state of flux, from emotional, to physical, to psychological, to age of a student. Very generally and I do mean very generally starting with a begining student you don't want to sing things with a lot of skips and jumps but more stepwise patterns. And I agree if you don't go over posture you will never have good breathing techniques. The student also needs to have a general understanding of how their body and voice works together to achieve correct support.

Opps I forgeot to add Dodds published by Augsburg has some very basic and simple vocalise which are wonderful for beginers.

Everyone,

I do know about the voice, I've had voice lessons and been involved with my university choir for the last four years. I just graduated with a degree in Music and so yes, I have some understanding. I only wanted to know what kind of resources some of you who teach voice prefer...Thanks anyway

That's good to hear. I just know of so many teachers of singing who have no idea how the voice actually works, and so that was my concern.

"Easy Songs for the Beginning Soprano" and "Easy Songs for the Beginning Mezzo-Soprano" are good ones to work with young voices, but that's more of a collection of songs rather than technical exercises.

I generally choose pieces that do not have too extreme a range (no higher than F5 natural, preferably lower than that). I also like to use the Reliquary of English Songs (my favorites are Willow Song, Have you Seen But A White Lily Grow, and Now is the Month of Maying).

Another source I use are Broadway pieces for kids. There are several compilation books that contain classic pieces like Castle on a Cloud, songs form the Sound of Music, The King and I, as well as some more contemporary musical theatre numbers.

The older student (around grade 8 and higher) I generally work on technique with them for the most of our time, and during the school year I select pieces from the Solo/Ensemble list, which is also a great reference for popular teaching songs. I often will learn new pieces just by looking at the list and picking them out for a student.

Thanks!