Engaging and Educational Resources for
Young Singers

I offered the animal themed group voice class (ages 6-8) this summer. After the first few classes, I received an email from the mother of one of the quietest, most reserved students in the class. Her mother wrote that every time they drive past the studio her daughter exclaims, “That’s where I go for singing class! I wish I could go there everyday. It’s AMAZING!”

I also just wanted to say how much I appreciate your resources. They have been instrumental in helping me go from "how am I going to fill these 30 minutes" to "How did 45 minutes fly by so fast?" I SO appreciate that many of the songs you highlight offer an opportunity to explore really good vocal technique, without being too "conservatory" feeling! And, I have especially loved the small solfege study songs, and once a student know Do-donut and So-Mi monsters REALLY well, we break out the solfege cards and start composing little songs for each other, first with just notes all of one length, and then playing around with rhythm. I love it because I feel like this skill of 'creating' was something that was completely unthought of in my own years of studying singing and I want my students to understand that writing and creating with music isn't something really complicated, instead it is yet another buildable skill!

'When Winter' by Ben Bowen is giving me a SIMPLE YET BEAUTIFUL folk/pop song and I'm using it for my group class but I also gave it to a teen student who is going from Zero to Hero in her singing, and I'm really excited to see what she does with it. She latched on to the tune quickly and her singing tone is getting stronger, and THANK GOD for songs like Ben's that are interesting to both the singer and the listener, not childish, easy to sing, and also emotional and beautiful. I will also use it in my Adult Group Class when we talk about tonal colours and choices in contemporary voice!

I always liked the song My Best Friend is A Kangaroo. I contemplated purchasing but it didn't feel relevant my Indian majority. Last year when I had a few students from Esperance Australia join my group vocal lessons I was so excited. I immediately purchased the song. The second lesson was combined with a few students from different parts of the world who had no idea what any of the animals in the song were. The next week, one kid came back and said "I've rewritten the song Ms Arpana". And now my students from sing My Best Friend is an Elephant and and My Best Friend Is A Panda. This became a whole geography and biology project and there was so much learning that happened across different subjects and cultures.