One of the things that’s been mulling in my brain this summer is the reluctant singer. We all have one (or more). It could be a kindergartener scared to death or a sixth grader who thinks singing is too “cool”. Now, I will come right out and say we will not have 100% of our students 100% of the time. We won’t even get 100% of our students to like music even 30% of the time! However, there are some tactics I’ve used that have been successful in the past to nudge that “non-singer” over to the singing side. They may not be PERFECT, but in my book, encouraging the child to enjoy singing is a major success in my book.

PRIMARY GRADES: If you have taught kindergarten, you know that, sooner or later, you will encounter the extremely shy child. For grades K-3, I use the Echo Roll Call from One, Two Three, Echo Me! (Loretta Mitchell, published by Heritage Music Press). Some students sing their names back with gusto. Some, especially in early kindergarten, will look at me with terror in their eyes. Some will only SPEAK their names back. Some are just a little obstinate on purpose. In these cases, I don’t make a big deal out of it.

For kindergarten, I usually don’t start this song until the second or third week. We do other echo songs, and I note who loves to sing and who is scared to death of singing. This is where my daughters’ massive collection of Beanie Babies comes in VERY handy! Once I found out that reselling Beanie Babies was not going to match my Missouri Retirement, I brought them to school. They are GREAT tools! Give each student a Beanie Baby and ask the student to let the Beanie sing. It’s amazing how the shyer students will let the “animals” sing for them. Of course, you need to establish Beanie rules. I usually tell my students the Beanies are their friends, and then we review how we treat our friends. (If a student decides to throw his friend in the air or twist his friend’s tale, the friend gets mad and leaves.) You can also use puppets. Garage sales are great places to find small little critters that your primary kids can use to help them through these first few rough weeks.

Praise the students who match pitch or TRY to match pitch by giving them thumbs up. If you hit upon a student who is being obstinate, do not scold him. Don’t make a big deal out of it. Simply shrug and go on to the next student. You do not know WHY this student is appearing to be stubborn. Maybe he IS spoiled. Maybe his daddy doesn’t let him sing in the car. Maybe someone has teased him about his voice. Maybe he was allowed to stay up too late. If you scold this child, you will be rewarding the attention-seeking child’s negative behavior. If you scold this child, you will be reinforcing a shy child’s shyness. For many of these students, once they see the other students getting thumbs up for trying their best, eventually, most of them will start singing or trying to sing, then THEY will get the thumbs up.

You will want to start a strong foundation for a love of singing at this age. The older they get, the more difficult (but not impossible!) it will be.

But, you can still get the older students more comfortable with singing based on your approach. For second and third graders, you might want to get away from the Beanie Baby approach, but the thumbs up and the “shrug and move on” works well, too. At this age, you can also explore with partner/type songs or songs with ostinati that incorporate singing against chanting, allowing the reluctant singers to perform the chanting parts. Just make sure you rotate parts so that all get a chance at singing and chanting.

Once students reach fourth grade, some will become victims of the “coolness” factor. This affects both girls as well as boys. It will be your job to make singing “cool”! This doesn’t necessarily mean fill your music library full of the latest arrangements for pop songs!

Once again, do not give in to the attitudes. Once the students reach fourth grade, the thumbs up MIGHT or might not work, depending on the personalities of your students. Nice, positive competition might. One method I use is Vocal Football. I set up a bulletin board like a football field and make little “jerseys” for the students (multiple jersey graphics) that they color and number at the beginning of the year, one per student. Each student starts at the 50 yard line. I set up a series of vocal warm-ups and song motives, progressively more difficult, that each individual student performs when he or she is ready. The student goal is to reach touchdown, then they are rewarded with Composer Bucks. For the more advanced students who love challenges, I then have them label a little football graphic, and they start over with more difficult song themes for the Superbowl. The students can choose whether to sing from their seats or standing up. It’s amazing, but once one “cool” kid jumps in and decides to sing because his or her reputation rides on tackling all challenges, the other kids jump in!

One particular challenge is working with boys in later fifth grade through sixth (often into seventh): the famous boy’s changing voice. KINDNESS and EMPATHY are the keys here. The boys are self-conscious enough with their body changes and cracking voices. We, as teachers, need to work with them to avoid teasing without giving in to the easy side. If their range during this time is limited, work with them and work within their ranges, and CONTINUE to work with them as their ranges change. Do not force them into a range with which they are not comfortable. You do not want to do physical damage to their vocal cords by forcing them to sing something they can’t. If their voice hasn’t changed, don’t force them to sing baritone just because you need baritones. If their voice is changing, you need to say goodbye to your boy sopranos. For the most part, these kids are going to be honest with you, and you can tell whether something is forced and whether it isn’t. Rule of thumb: fit the music to the voice, not the voice to the music. (This is the rule of thumb of the Cambiata Concept: http://www.cambiatapress.com/CVMIA/TheCambiataConcept2.html)

The next few ideas cover the gamut of ages:

Now, I’m going to be blunt: I absolutely abhor hearing about the music teachers who tell students to “move their lips and pretend to sing.” If you do that, please stop! Nothing bursts a bubble in a student faster than to do something like that. If you have a student who has difficulty matching pitch, work out your riser arrangement so that student is not so prominent. Put that student next to a stronger, independent singer (better yet, in between two strong singers). Spend time before or after school working with this student one-on-one if he or she wants to improve. I remember one student I had years ago who could not match pitch in fourth grade. By a few strategies, by the time she was in sixth grade, she was able to sing a solo in the sixth grade program. I’m not saying that your vocally challenged student will become a Charlotte Church, but at least, she won’t leave hating music. If you give a child the attitude that he or she cannot sing, you cannot expect that child to cooperate with you during class. Encouragement is the name of the game! Making singing a fun and positive thing is the name of the game!

Do NOT allow other students to tease the reluctant or struggling singer. (This pertains to any age group.) You might want to preface your singing activities for younger kids with a talk about respecting others and helping others. One of the neatest feelings I get as a teacher is when a student has struggled or has been shy about singing (or playing for that matter), then conquers the very thing that has been giving them trouble. It’s even better when that child’s classmates start applauding! What a glow for that student, and what a positive feeling that student will have about your class! If this happens with older students, do not make a big deal out of it, but turn the subject away to something else. If you start scolding the teasers, the “teasee” will become even more embarrassed. I ran across this very incident just this past spring when I was discussing the formation of a school choir with one of my fifth grade classes. Surprisingly enough, a couple of the football “jocks” thought the choir sounded like a cool thing. IMMEDIATELY, the “King of Cool” said, “You’d want to join a choir?” I simply said, “(King of Cool), see me later, please”, and continued talking about my plans and told the other two boys I would be glad to have them if they chose to join. After class, I talked to “The King of Cool”, and point blank asked him if he thought being in a choir meant those boys would be poorer football players. He had no answer for me, but I think I made my point. To your benefit, if, in your high school’s program, you have athletes who are also involved in choir, invite them to talk to the students. One of my most memorable students was a boy who, in sixth grade, had a wonderful voice and had no problem singing solos. He was also a very active athlete. This boy was a dedicated football player AND choir member in high school, to the point of shaving a patch off his head for his part of the monk at the high school Madrigal Dinners!

Have a wide variety of literature available. I strongly promote Music K-8 Magazine from Plank Road Publishing. Paul and Teresa Jennings provide a resource with a wide variety of styles, from piggyback songs on classical literature to arrangements on folk tunes to Orff arrangements to original songs cross-curricular. There is also a great selection of unison and two-part music out there in octavos that is enjoyable to every level of elementary. Make sure your literature also includes something different instead of all singing: body percussion, Orff, recorder, or acting.

Make sure your classroom activities are varied. You are not going to get 100% of the students wanting to sing (just like you won’t get 100% to enjoy recorder, or composing, or playing a xylophone, or moving). You can guide them to enjoy singing more, but it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. If you make sure your classroom activities are varied with composition, instrument playing, movement, and music appreciation, you are probably going to be guaranteed to have something that just about every student enjoys. And, if you hit upon something a student enjoys doing, chances are this student will be more willing to cooperate in activities he or she enjoys less.

Diffuse the attitude of “hating singing” in your parents. I CRINGE when I meet some new students at Open House, and their parents come in and point blank say one of these gems (in front of the child, no less!):
? Well, he’s never liked singing. I hope you can change that
? I was never a good singer when I was in class
? He needs work on his singing. Poor kid can’t carry a tune in a bucket
If you run into a situation like that, talk to the student, not the parent. Ask the student what kind of songs he likes. Take the student around the room AWAY from his parents if possible. Discuss what activities he does like in music. Then, when possible, when the student is away, talk frankly with the parents. (You might have to make a follow-up phone call or a special conference). Tell them you need their support, but you were concerned about their words and how those words might affect their child. Discuss with them what you do in class and invite them to sit in sometime (once the child is acclimated to your classroom situation). Keep in touch with all parents, inviting them not only to your school events, but other vocal events in the district, community musicals...anything to expose the parents to good singing.

Gosh, I could write a book on this topic! Point is....singing does not have to be a scary thing. This is coming from a person who was one of the original band geeks and whose strong suit was NOT singing! Attitudes about singing can be changed. Your attitude towards the students and your approach makes a world of difference.