Child loves singing, what can you recommend?

MiAn

New member
Hello, my daughter loves singing. She is 6 years old now and once we noticed that she loves to sing and has good memory for the texts, we bought small home recording pack and started do records. I have chosen few songs for her to sing that were suitable as I think.
English is not her native language (as well as Chinese). She is going for a vocal lessons but it's not in English and they teach her different songs, songs in English I learn with her, but I am not a singer at all :) What do you think, should we continue this way or it's better to be done with professional vocal teachers? Can someone recommend songs in English or may be in Spanish or in Chinese that would be suitable for a 6 years old child? Most of the songs that I know are about love and relationship and it's difficult for a toddler to get the sense of the song properly :)
Sorry, if I post it to a wrong thread :) I also wanted to share links to the songs that we already recorded and get some recommendations, but can't do it until have few other posts.
 
Hi! Welcome to the forums.

If she loves it and shows an interest then feeding it in any way possible is more than half the battle. What you're doing is great! ^

In terms of recommending songs, or even languages, music is music..I'd ask her what she likes, or wants to sing. ;)
If she wants to sing disney, sing disney. If she's digging the beatles...do the beatles.
It's all experience and practice so you may as well let her call the shots and 'own it'.

"should we continue this way or it's better to be done with professional vocal teachers"

I don't think it's a 'one or the other' scenario.
Keep doing what you're doing but, certainly, but bringing a vocal coach on board is always a good thing, particularly at such a young age.

Having the opportunity to learn breathing and phrasing techniques so young is so much easier than trying to learn them after all the bad habits are ground in.
You don't need to spend a fortune and you don't necessarily need to send her for weekly lessons for the next 10 years,
but semi-regular input from an experienced or professional singer will go a long way, in the long term.

She's got tune and she looks like she's enjoying it. :) Nice to see!
 
Hi! Welcome to the forums.
If she loves it and shows an interest then feeding it in any way possible is more than half the battle. What you're doing is great!
Thank you! and thanks for your response and recommendations.

In terms of recommending songs, or even languages, music is music..I'd ask her what she likes, or wants to sing.
for example, she tries to sing Whitney Houston I will always love you, doing it pretty good for her age, but I have doubs about such songs for 6 year old kid, it's about love, about feelings...I jsut told that it's too early for her to sing such songs. She was upset :) I try to show her different music. Now we are learning with her Wonderfull World by Louse Armstrong, this song is easy to understand. Sometime ago she wanted to sing No Roots by Alice Merton and we spent quite some time discussing about who are the gypsies :) She is quite interested and she likes all the music that I give her and hopefully she will not lose this interest. If anyone can recommend some beautiful songs with good, understandable sence that could suit for her to sing and understand that would be great.

You don't need to spend a fortune and you don't necessarily need to send her for weekly lessons for the next 10 years,
Why not for next 10 years? She sings in a chorus now with other kids. But the songs they sing is different, not modern. however I think it's good to go there and practise with others and take lessons.

What about vocal lessons by skype? does it work?
 












(doesn't seem to be easy to find well-known age appropriate music for a 6-year-old [;) she's not a toddler, lol!])

I'd say that the most important thing right now is developing her ear for music. It could be a great time for her to learn a musical instrument, too, especially if she is motivated through the singing. Danger is that children can switch off if you don't let them find their own pace.
 
(doesn't seem to be easy to find well-known age appropriate music for a 6-year-old [;) she's not a toddler, lol!])
Thank you for your recommendations! yes, it's not easy to find :)
;) and yes, she is definitely not a toddler, thanks for mentioning this, ;) now I know the exact meaning of this word
 
If you’d like for her to develop her vocal talent, please get her a good vocal coach. She’ll learn proper techniques,that’ll giver her better tone, accuracy, and prevent her from hurting her voice. The voice is an instrument, and like other instruments, a good teacher is the best approach.
 
Thanks for your feedback. Yes, she is taking vocal lessons with a good coach and sings in a chorus. However, at the class they sing different songs, those songs that they sing in a chorus, may be it's good for practice and development of vocal skills, but not making her very interested. Unfortunately we don't have a big choice of vocal coaches in the place where we live. That's why I am looking for some interesting songs for her to listen and try to sing and we are trying to make the whole process interesting for her: learning texts, understanding, singing, recording and making video as a final result. She now understands that nothing is that easy as it seems in the beginning :)

I was thinking about getting a vocal coach for her to have on-line lessons by Skype, but i think she is too small for this now, may be later, after 2-3 years.
 
I take it, the vocal coach she has now doesn’t give private lessons? Just tossing songs out, without knowing her voice, and ability, could potentially harm her voice, and mental attitude towards singing. Maybe play songs on the radio she likes, encourage her to sing along, then get her Karaoke versions, and a system. Although I still stand by the, if you’re really serious about getting her voice/ singing developed, look for a quality vocal teacher, used to working with young children, even if it’s online.
 
Thank you for your recommendations! yes, it's not easy to find :)
;) and yes, she is definitely not a toddler, thanks for mentioning this, ;) now I know the exact meaning of this word

Well yes but "Imagine" is pretty reactionary! I bet Trump hates it! Yes, get her a coach, as much for her vocal health as singing development.

Getting her onto an insrtument is IMHO vital and the best is a keyboard I would say. The last thing you want to do is make this a chore but if she can be gently introduced to musical structure and theory it will give her massive confidence later in life if she continues a musical career. A good singer/piano player will never starve!

Dave.
 
I take it, the vocal coach she has now doesn’t give private lessons? Just tossing songs out, without knowing her voice, and ability, could potentially harm her voice, and mental attitude towards singing. Maybe play songs on the radio she likes, encourage her to sing along, then get her Karaoke versions, and a system. Although I still stand by the, if you’re really serious about getting her voice/ singing developed, look for a quality vocal teacher, used to working with young children, even if it’s online.
Thank you!
yes, she is taking private lessons with this coach, they do different vocal exercises during the lesson. I choose this coach because she is working with kids for a long time, at this moment it's the best that we have here, I think. But during private lessons they still sing the songs that chore is singing and she is a soloist in some songs as well. We tried other private vocal teacher before but I noticed that that coach didn't have experience working with small kids, so we stopped going to those lessons. As I am not a musician it's difficult to understand if the vocal coach is good or bad, I can only rely on my intuition :)
 
Well yes but "Imagine" is pretty reactionary! I bet Trump hates it!

this is really funny, I bet he would hate it more if he knows that Russian girl is singing it ;)

Getting her onto an insrtument is IMHO vital and the best is a keyboard I would say. The last thing you want to do is make this a chore but if she can be gently introduced to musical structure and theory it will give her massive confidence later in life if she continues a musical career. A good singer/piano player will never starve!

Dave.
We tried piano lessons when she was 5 and a half, but it didn't go. Strange thing..she can remember the texts of 5-6 songs (in English, Russian, Chinese and Spanish) and sing those songs without mistakes, but for 6 months she couldn't remember 7 notes and kept forgetting "on what line each note is sitting" :) I have decided it's just too early for her may be. Will definitely give it a try next year or later. You are right, singer/piano player will never starve. We don't have intention to make her a professional singer or musician, I hope she would choose different profession in the future though. :) At this moment I think it's good to give her opportunity to try different things and give her opportunity to develop her talents and enjoy it (most important).
 
this is really funny, I bet he would hate it more if he knows that Russian girl is singing it ;)

We tried piano lessons when she was 5 and a half, but it didn't go. Strange thing..she can remember the texts of 5-6 songs (in English, Russian, Chinese and Spanish) and sing those songs without mistakes, but for 6 months she couldn't remember 7 notes and kept forgetting "on what line each note is sitting" :) I have decided it's just too early for her may be. Will definitely give it a try next year or later. You are right, singer/piano player will never starve. We don't have intention to make her a professional singer or musician, I hope she would choose different profession in the future though. :) At this moment I think it's good to give her opportunity to try different things and give her opportunity to develop her talents and enjoy it (most important).

Ha! Yes, don't push her to learn an instrument until she is ready. As to a later career? I don't know how she fairs academically but say she became a maths teacher? Having voice and piano and "reading" as a second string to her bow* has to be an advantage.

*But you would have to be a VERY forebearing parent if she took up the violin!! (or have a soundproof room)

Dave.
 
Hello, interesting to know your feedback on this video and a song. This is Cat Stevens song, “Where do the children play?” It was the most challenging song for her, usually she learns songs pretty quickly, but this one she liked very much but couldn’t get it properly for long time. Probably due to her age, she just turned 7. Finally we came to the best (to my opinion) that she ever could do and made a video clip. :)

YouTube
 
I'm not going to comment on the video itself.......as I'm no expert in that field.....except to say that I thought it had some nice qualities and wasn't boring to watch. I did enjoy the song performance of the instruments and the vocal. She definitely has good potential and that would certainly be a tough song......on a number of levels........for an experienced singer.......let alone a 7 year old. I do like her voice......and her timing is very good and her overall pitch is also very good....with a few minor exceptions where she wanders a bit out of pitch when sliding into and out of phrases. I don't see any reason why she can't progress and become an excellent singer. She's right on the doorstep. Keep us posted so we can enjoy her journey. Thanks for the listen!
 
[MENTION=160917]Mickster[/MENTION] thank you very much for this nice feedback. :) She is really a hard worker, she likes the idea to sing and make video clips,so her friends, relatives and other people could watch it an enjoy. Behind each 3 -4 minutes video stands months of work, we chose songs, together, I try to find some interesting songs for her that is appropriate for her age,then we discuss it and she is learning it just repeating after original.

here are couple more new songs and videos
YouTube Once Upon a December from Anastasia cartoon (this one is my favorite) :)

YouTube What a Wonderful World (some pronunciation issues here but we left it as is, she was 6 y.o. when we made this record)
 
We have made on more video :) hope you enjoy watching and it's great if someone can share the feedback for future improvement :)

YouTube

Somewhere Over the Rainbow
 
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