Book Review: Teaching Singing to Children and Young Adults

For the past 20 years, I've been advocating for the development of effective and demanding voice pedagogy for children. Ten years ago, when I published the DVD The Kid and the Singing Teacher with Robert Edwin, we were two of only a very few people who even acknowledged that children not only can, but should receive singing training at an early age.

I like to think our profession has come a long way since then and we have - despite still running into the occasional matriarch or patriarch who insists that children should all be funneled into piano lessons regardless of their level of interest (or lack thereof). There are now numerous resources for teachers who want to work with pre-pubescent and pubescent children. One that I enjoyed very much is Jenevora Williams' Teaching Singing to Children and Young Adults.

This book and DVD set puts the teaching of children into the proper context. That is: as with any student, each child will have their own set of strengths and weaknesses, capabilities, and limitations. It is incumbent upon the professional teacher to know how to discern these in a child singer and provide training that brings the child to their maximum potential.

In times past, an argument for avoiding teaching children to sing was that physically they are not finished developing. Therefore it was feared that training would injure them. (Interesting however no one told children not to sing. They just told them not to take lessons...) In 2008 the American Academy of Pediatrics changed their long-term stance against strength training for children. This statement was re-affirmed by the organization in 2011. the AAP discovered that more children were injured in unstructured activities on the playground than in properly supervised activities led by properly trained coaches. Therefore it stands to reason that training children for strength activities serves them better than leaving them to their own devices. I feel this way regarding the voice. However, please note my emphasis on "properly trained" coaches.

Because the majority of singing teachers today grew up in a world where teaching children was discouraged, many are unfamiliar with the physiologic and developmental information that they need in order to fully engage with young singers. Robert and I worked to rectify this in our DVD. Jenevora Williams does a very nice job in this regard as well. The book includes chapters on the development of the vocal mechanism from infancy to adulthood, learning theory (cognitive and motor skill acquisition), the adolescent voice change, and vocal health. She provides sample structures for lessons for various ages and addresses the matter of children with special needs.

The DVD portion of her publication is primarily a set of sample lessons with a number of her students. My only complaint is that she does not present enough live examples of children at a variety of ages. Her examples were predominantly in the adolescent age group, which most singing teachers are already comfortable with. If she were to publish a second edition of this package, I would suggest adding numerous sample lesson segments of younger students.

If you enjoy or are considering teaching children to sing, I recommend this book and DVD set for your library. It is an enjoyable read with relevant and accessible pedagogical information.