Tone-deaf youngsters
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 543
    Part of my duties as parish DM and organist is that I teach the parish homeschool co-op basic singing (solfege, hymns, psalm tone propers, maybe some rounds) once a week. Based on our first day today, I can say with reasonable confidence that three of my four late-middle-school-aged boys seem unable to match pitch at all. The remaining boy, and the rest of the students I have charge over, seem to have no problem at all with basic pitch-matching and simple solfege exercises. Any tips for getting those three boys to match pitch, if nothing else? For context, I'm new to this position. Thanks in advance.
  • davido
    Posts: 874
    With 12-13 year old boys, you are probably dealing with the changing male voice. Boys that age are reluctant to sing in treble head voice, and unable to sing yet in male chest voice. If their voices have already dropped, they may have great difficulty getting above the bass clef in pitch.
    While they may be tone deaf, I would guess that the changing voice and shyness are more likely culprits. Can they can match pitch in any part of their range? Can they still get the treble function to make sound (imitate for them in falsetto)?
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  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,724
    Good point. I was relatively talented singing-wise as a kid, but it really IS difficult to sing while you undergo the transition, and you need to “refind” your voice. It isn’t immediately apparent or natural to do, even if you really like to sing.
    Thanked by 1Bri
  • ClarkeMitchell
    Posts: 10
    Are they matching pitch by singing a fifth or third above or below the note? If so, you can try retrieving them this way.
    A. Sing a note and ask them to match pitch.
    B. Have them hold the note they are sining and you match pitch with them.
    C. Have them move up with you to the note that you started with.
    Sometimes they don’t come up all the way, in which case you can repeat until they do.
    The basic idea is to help them learn to feel when they are matching pitch and when they are not, and how to move higher or lower in order to get there.
    (This is what my old choir director used to do.)
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Having them singing just once a week is also a block to finding voice. Is there reinforcement to try to sing every day from the other teachers? Is singing a crucial part of the curriculum? The whole notion of making music a “special” is an erroneous (anti-human) philosophy that was introduced in the educational system years ago. I always work with all the administration and make sure that they realize singing is an “essential.” When a child sings in a large group every day, many times this brings them into matching pitch.
    Thanked by 4CHGiffen Anna_Bendiksen LauraKaz Earl_Grey
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 543
    Music is indeed one of the main subjects and not a special. However, this is a small co-op for homeschoolers and meets only twice a week (once a week if one is in middle school). This is simply the way things must be resource- and size-wise, at least for the time being.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    Rant: "Singing" is taught to teacher candidates as a means to many other ends: classroom management, memorization of texts, etc. "Now we keep the classroom clean/ Now we put our mittens on/ Paul Revere rode up and down." When teaching these songs, teachers sometimes encourage shout-singing, looking for volume and rewarding "participation."

    For some students, these exercises wreck all sense of pitch. Their sense of what singing even is has to be unlearned and then re-learned, which as all musicians know is a much more extensive process than just learning.
    Thanked by 4trentonjconn CHGiffen LauraKaz Earl_Grey
  • Carol
    Posts: 849
    I taught first grade for many years and we sang at least once every day. When I run in to the parents of these students I am pleased to find that many of them ended up choosing to major or minor in a music degree. It makes me happy and I wonder if I set them off on a good footing. Don't be discouraged, your boy students may come around.
    Thanked by 4CHGiffen Anna_Bendiksen trentonjconn LauraKaz
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 543
    It's gotten worse, y'all. There are four boys. One of them is great. The other three not only can't match me, they can't match each other. I get three different notes when I ask them to match me.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,372
    Have you tried an app like Nail that pitch? It will show you/them on their phones the pitch they are actually at, and then they can watch their attempts to raise or lower it.
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  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 543
    That's a thought for sure. They really need one-on-one work with me, which unfortunately isn't possible with the current schedule.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    You probably already know this, but, I don’t know how many people who are in the class, but you need to surround each one of them with people who sing on pitch. you have to separate them. Also, everyone needs to sing pianissimo. When children sing loud, they go off pitch.
    Thanked by 4trentonjconn Carol Anna_Bendiksen ServiamScores
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