I offer these first few techniques to those who are interested in and / or teach the adolescent child voice but are perhaps a little unsure as to exactly what to do or perhaps you are a home school parent. To those who perhaps think that children can't sing well like unto an adult, well, I hope you will re-examine that attitude too! For the sake of where to begin, assume your child is a beginner vocally (irrespective of age). Oh, an one more thing, get use to the idea that repetition and review is a GOOD thing. How you use repetition and review, will determine whether you bore your child or begin to develop fun and exciting anticipation in them. MAKE A GAME OF IT! Also, remember, the story of the tortoise and the hare - true progress in anything comes by doing small little increments CONSISTENTLY everyday; don't skip a day and don't over tax the child. Five to ten minutes per each learning session, in the beginning, is plenty.

1) Start the child out by practicing "Yawning." This is of the utmost importance. Yawning helps the surrounding muscles of the neck to relax and allows the thyroid cartilage (Adam's Apple) to lower. This lowering thyroid cartilage position allows maximum air flow and relaxation for the vocal cords to produce at their optimum best. While practicing "yawning," also focus on breathing properly - in through the nose and out through the mouth. When practicing this breathing exercise, when you inhale, make a game out of how long the breathe can be held. Then, when you exhale, gently and with great care and extremely slowly, have your child blow the air out in a very small opening of the lips in an "oo" position or as if they were blowing all that stored up air through a coffee stir straw.

2) Next, start out by having the child "hum" AMERICA (My Country Tis of Thee). First in G major and then is A major. Next, have your child sing the same song on "loo" in G major, A major and now in C major too. NO WORDS YET.

3) Now for a fun song. Use the refrain of, "Funiculi, Funicula" also on "loo." No words yet. After a few weeks of all of the above, try having your child learning the entire song of "Funiculi, Funicula" on "loo."

(At each session, repeat and review everything from the beginning. As your days and the lessons progress, just keep repeating from the beginning while adding on a new exercise, song or study).

3) Now for the very young, Pre-K to 2nd grade, start having them singing "loo" to traditional Nursery and Folk Songs whose melody tends to start out with a descending interval of a 3rd like, HOT CROSS BUNS, LIGHTLY ROW, RING AROUND THE ROSY, MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB, etc. This will keep both you and your child busy for weeks!

3a) For children grades 3 - 5 that are beginners, all of the above plus perhaps the chant "Adoro te devote" and "Pange lingua" on "loo." There will be a lot of "looing" at first!

3b) For older children (grades 5 - 8) all of the above plus the first eight measure phrase of Mozart's "Alleluia" in F from the Exsultate Jubilate. All on "loo."

So far, all this should keep you quite busy for a few months.

It is my sincere hope that this might help someone. If you are interested in more, I would be glad to share what little I know.