Singing

[planet]

Do your kids carry a tune?

I have one who has struggled to stay on key with the abc song and one who has had the most amazing ability to match sounds from a very early age. I hadn't thought that an 'ear' or voice was a trait and now I wonder how much can be learned that is not innate.

Sally??

Yes. It is amazing to me the songs that Anna comes up with, modifies words to, or just plain remembers. It is a contrast to her sister who stays on tune but not like Anna.

And lately she has been thinking she is an opera singer. I know she thinks she sounds wonderful and I'm not about to inform her to the contrary but...O...M....G.

both of mine seem to have gotten their father's sense of intonation. Quinn really does put his heart into it though.

I firmly believe in an innate gift. I'm sure my kids have an innate gift, I just still need to identify it.

[Phoebe]

Both girls can carry a tune, just not on tune. Avery makes up songs and sings herself to sleep at night. Ella just yells, but loves to sing and is a sign she is a happy girl (most of the time).

[mommax3]

It is innate *and* it can be learned.

Matching pitch is a skill that emerges in children, with certain benchmarks at certain ages to indicate average musical ability. The first pitches that are supposed to be recognizably sung are the pitches of the minor third, from sol descending to mi (g to e on a piano) if you learned solfege syllables in music class, or if you didn't, the little tune that goes with "nanny nanny boo boo", the in-your-face song that so many kids sing. I don't remember the exact developmental milestones, but by 1st grade, an average child should be able to match between 3 and 8 pitches while echo singing. It is much easier for a child to match a sung note than a note played by a piano or another instrument because they don't perceive played notes as something they can echo. The kids that echo early on are probably on the "gifted" side as far as musical ability, but don't give up on the ones that don't! It definitely can be taught, and I have done it, even with adults, but it is SO EASY to discourage a child about this, and SO HARD to undo the discouragement once it has taken root.

True story....when I was in college, my roommate was also a music major who played violin and piano. She could not match pitch (with her voice) to save her life. We would sing along to the radio in our dorm room, and it was SHOCKING to me how bad she was, and she knew it, too. We had to be able to sight-sing to pass music theory, and she had a horrible time in that class. But she worked really hard the first two years of school, and by our junior year, she could sing as well as any non-voice major I knew. So that was an extreme case, but it just goes to show you that it can be taught.

If your kids are singing at all, regardless of how it sounds, it is a great thing! If you sing at all, see if they can echo sing with you, one or two notes at a time. My kids could match notes that I would sing between the ages of one or two, just one note at a time, but DH and I are both singers and they have always been exposed to quite a bit of music. One thing to keep in mind....a child's voice range is limited and is on the high side. A lot of preschools do songs that are comfortable for the teacher to sing, and they end up being too low for the kids to sing accurately. One reason I like Laurie Berkner so much is that her songs are pitched appropriately for children. If your kids are screaming instead of singing, encourage them to use their soft voice (or their siren voice) instead of only using their chest resonance (where they speak).

All my boys have shown a good amount of musical ability, but my youngest is quite the little singer. We got him a karaoke machine a couple of years ago for his birthday, and it is some of the best money I ever spent. He will go in his room and just sing for long periods of time, not realizing that we can all hear him through the door. It is really cute!

[Vanquisher]

My 3 year old can sing quite well - a lot better than her 9-year-old brother who, unfortunatly, was not born with much of a musical gift. When people hear him sing, they are likely to say, "Awww, is that because of his deafness?"

What am I supposed to say to that? Yes, it is because of his deafness in one ear that he can't sing his way out of a paper bag. In contrast: No, he was just born tone deaf too?