Students of song

You can always tell when life's become a little busier here.  I just don't have time to get onto the computer that often!  We've had birthday gatherings, with many more to come.  Most of our family seemed to be planned to welcome in the Spring; so we've had our prelude with the August babies, another in early September, then we'll have another long run of birthdates from late September through to early December.  Two new nephews/nieces will be added to the extended family fold during that time, too.

Another reason for my busy-ness is due to a few new singing students I've taken on.  Two of these are sisters with the most beautiful, clear Celtic type voices.  Ahh! They're going to be just a delight to teach, as I'll get to hear their developing song every week.

I thought I'd take the opportunity to list some music resources I've found useful.  Let's start with theory.  The theory books I'm recommending to the youngest students (ages 8-9) are written by Lina Ng.  She has some very, very easy, colourful, fun 'sticker' books called "Theory Made Easy for Little Children".  Maestro's first violin teacher introduced us to this series.  I'd recommend them to children as young as 5 yrs old through to 9 yrs old if they're happy to use stickers.  Otherwise, move further along the series to the more advanced books, beginning with "My First Theory Book".

For vocal warm ups and exercises, I'm falling back on some well-learned exercises I remember from my choir days.  We had a standard repertoire of drills that I'll never forget.  However, I also wanted something for the students to see, and also so I can expand on some of my knowledge too.  So, after a visit at a music store in the city, I came across some books by Nancy Tefler, called "Successful Warmups".  I'm really glad I picked them up when I did as in checking online now, I can't seem to find a source for you (sorry!)  I know that there are other books out there, but I do like how these are set out with little exercises which build up skills gradually.

Now, finding the songs that we're learning has been a fun task!  For the younger ones, some songs from a program put together through the ABC is being used.  Most schools use these books/cds now.  In fact, I remember when I used this program at school, but we all had to tune into the radio at a certain time each week for our singing lesson.  Maybe some of you remember using these books too? Sing! is available through ABC shops.  I've sourced the 2008 and 2009 editions, and will collect the 2010 as the price goes down toward the middle of next year.

Besides this, I'll be looking for other materials as we go along.  I have some of the AMEB vocal exam books, of which "Singing for Leisure" is easiest to use with the backing cds.  Thankfully I also have a store of manuscripts from my choir and school days, too.

Oh, and I must also mention that I've found some inspiration from a blog: Singing Teaching in Paradise.  I came across this lady through the Down to Earth forum.  Wonderful!  She has some resources mentioned that I'll be trying to track down as needed.

That's all I have on that for now.  If anyone knows of any other wonderful resources, I'd love to hear from you!