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Age Appropriate Song choices - your expertise please :)

Mon, 1 Jan 2007, 10:04 pm
SLE14 posts in thread

Before I go any further A HUGE THANK YOU for all the wonderful people who I know are going to reply and send me valuable info and who I would love to jump thru the screen and hug and thank personally but I know that would be a huge pain in the proverbial for everyone who'd have to sit thru them all... so this is a thank you to everyone now to get it out of the way... consider yourself thanked and cyber-hugged :)

Now for the question ...

Looking for "age appropriate songs" for my 9 year old who will be 10 when she needs them.  Well, she will be 10 when she sings the song so let's aim for something age appropriate for a 10 year old...

Can't be a "belting" song so nothing like Tomorrow from Annie... (I'm no expert or singing teacher so can't explain why but something about my daughter's voice and the word or description coloratura and her future and waiting until she has stopped growing and THEN teaching her chest voice techniques is ALL I can tell you about why she is not singing belting/chest voice types songs that are typical of kids...and her singing teacher is not just any old singing teacher so we bow to her wisdom...)

... so we're looking for songs sung in ... have no idea what you'd call it - head voice?  soprano?  let me put it this way - she wants to be an opera singer when she is older but also wants to do musical theatre maybe... (she's 9 - she can be a brain surgeon if she wants!  I don't care what she becomes as long as her ambition is higher than a coles check out chick or a stripper! but since she was knee high to a grasshopper right thru to now, she's always said when she grows up she is going to sing for people, so for now, as we have done the past 8 or so years, let's just go with that...) ... she sings opera songs that people her age aren't supposed to be able to sing (Mein Herr Marquis from Die Fledermaus; a modified Poor Wandering One... that sort of thing) plus things like Bali Hai and Camelot - using her soprano/head voice.  So hope this description helps you when you are thinking of age appropriate songs that have to pass an adjudicator in a competition...

There is a local talent quest held here each year and she has won either her age group vocal or musical theatre group every year so far... I've been tipped off that the only reason she didn't win both sections last year was song choice (hey - they haven't invented any opera songs for a 9 year old!)  Anyhow... I've been trying to coax her into doing one of the Little Red Riding hood songs from Into the Woods but she's humming and hahing and then it occured to me - YOU guys!  You are my experts :)  I figure if you don't know, nobody will!

Can you think of any non-belting age appropriate songs for a 10 year old soprano?  For a general vocal section AND a musical theatre section.

If you need more info - just ask :)  And again - thank you soooooo much for any help you can send.

Happy new year everyone!

DFE

Have a look at The Secret

Mon, 8 Jan 2007, 09:44 pm
Have a look at The Secret Garden (by Marsha Norman I think) - the Mary Lennox songs from that are gorgeous. Also I know a ten-year old who does wishing you were somehow here again from Phantom and it's beautiful. Doesn't matter at all that the character is older - it still works. Umm and there's also the Sound of Music, even though I loathe the show. It seems to work for the kiddies.

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