Age Appropriate Song choices - your expertise please :)

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

On the G&S theme, I suggest Yum Yum's thing from The Mikado, The Sun Who's Rays... It's heading towards colleratura range, quite difficult really, should "score" if the adjudicator/judge knows their stuff. It's the one she sings as she waits for her wedding and is, from memory, all about vanity. Might be fun. Major inspiration: Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Very appropriate and absolutely beautiful if sung correctly. Too many try to belt it and they shouldn't. Snoopy the Musical (Schwartz & Tebberlack ...can't spell, sorry). Written for adult children. Godspell. Lot's of good songs for all ranges, usually quite effective...but not Day By Day, that's a belter in my opionion. Where Are You Going is usually a duet but might work solo... Wonderful Wonderful Day from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a little showy too.

If I get any further inspirations will write...good luck!

"Papa, where is Mama? They tell me she has gone away, where is she?"

Didn't know snoopy was a musical!  :)  Great... are there some high singing songs in there that would suit her?  Lucy maybe or someone? 

She likes the DVD I got her of the Mikado and she has already learned The Sun Whose Rays are all Ablaze and it was just a song to learn for her - didn't jump over the moon about it...

What about from the Phantom of the Opera, that song Wishing You were Somehow here again... do you think she could get away with that?  Given the character is an older person?  I mean she much prefers 2 other well known songs that character sings but we've been told not to attempt them because she's 9 and I get the impression even when she's 10 she'd be considered too young - wonder if she could sing that song though and get away with it?  I wish I knew a judge!  :)

What about She Moves Through the Fair... Charlotte Church and Hayley Westenra and others sing it - it's quite famous I gather and very haunting - but even though women sing it, it's actually about a guy singing about the girl he's going to marry... if it's a traditional song are these held against kids for being age appropriate or not?

thanks :)

Donna

You can download this on limewire if you aren't familiar with it - but my question is has anyone heard La Pastorella (Charlotte Church's version)... Is this from an opera?  Or is it a traditional Italian song?  It's sung in Italian (not a problem - daughter can sing in Italian ) and I found a translation and it is about a little shepherdess. Here's what I found out about the song itself on the internet:

My question is... drum roll please... would this pass as 'age appropriate' for a 10 year old?  Daughter is 9 now but will be 10 when singing it (maybe). And I found an English translation together with the Italian words and it looks harmless enough - the translation I found is this one (but she'd be singing it in Italian):

I am the beautiful shepherdess,
who descends every morning,
and offers a basket full of
fresh fruit and flowers.
Who comes on the first harvest
will have nice roses
and very good pommels
come to my garden.
I am the beautiful shepherdess,
who descends every morning,
and offers a basket full of
fresh fruit and flowers.
Ah.

which during the frightened night
the right way is lost,
in my shelter
you will find the fireplace
come, oh passer-by
the shepherdess is here,
but her inner thoughts
will only be given to one!
Come, oh passer-by,
the sheperdess is here,
but her inner thoughts
will only be given to one!
Ah.

Hi... I have no plans at the moment to go see Deadwood Dick - not because we don't want to but because budget is a bit tight after Xmas and the past couple of months I have spent a small fortune on tickets to various shows - first there were the tickets for all of us to go to the opera (saw daughter's favourite opera - The Magic flute - she LOVED it - she's an opera fanatic) and I've just bought tickets before Xmas to see Beauty and the Beast at MPAC this month and then recently splashed out big time on tickets for all of us to go up to Perth to see Fiddler on the Roof.  My daughter just LOVES that movie and gets up with Tevje when he sings IF I was a rich man and does the funny dance with him (and expects any of her friends who are over to do the same!) Gosh, I hope she doesn't do that at Burswood!  :)

But if I can wangle it and tickets are still available, we'd like to go so if we do I will keep your invite in mind :)  thanks!

Cheerio,

DFE

thanks Tony... you know, that never occurred to me - what you said about the songs being imposed upon her and not being her choice or whatever... I wonder how we can get around that?  She chose a song to sing in a talent quest last year - I emphasise, SHE chose it - I didn't and even her singing teacher said it probably wouldn't pass the age appropriate test but we had a "she wants to sing it so let's give it a whirl" type attitude... so she sang Mein Herr Marquis (The Laughing Song) from Die Fledermaus.  She had a ball and loved every minute of it - which to me is the important thing.  She got a lot of lovely attention and nice feedback but yes, when it came to the judging, she was marked down and it was clearly stated that it was because the song wasn't age appropriate.

She loves those types of songs though and if she had her way she'd sing The Doll Song from Tales of Hoffman at the next comp because she loves that too, but after the Laughing Song experience, being marked down for song choice supported me in my argument to her that maybe she should wait until she's older and she can sing her favourite songs then... I'm still trying to convince her to this day :)  Hence my idea to get opinions and at least interest her in some song choices that will be considered age appropriate.  She's at least agreed to this and we have a list of:

Bali Hai

La Pastorella

Castle on a Cloud and Where is Love (suggestions from this site!)

This is for just the vocal section - not a musical theatre entry - but still, has to be age appropriate and I don't know about those first 2 options which are leading in the favourite stakes so far...

As for her being "lucky" - I don't know about that - we, her parents, consider ourselves the lucky ones.  According to the experts over many many years we never be parents.  She came along many years later when we had given up all hope and weren't even thinking about it anymore due to our ages... she is our little miracle and there is nothing we wouldn't do to support her and give her an enriched, fulfilled and happy life experience :)  Especially as we can't give her a family and brothers and sisters which she would have loved to have had!

:)

DFE

Thanks - I'll check out the Secret Garden - hope I might find somewhere online that has some samples to listen to if I can't download anything... and my daughter likes that Wishing You Were Somehow Here again... but knowing her luck, even though other 10 year olds might sing it and get away with it, she'd probably not - we tend to live our lives according to Murphy's Law and she appears to have inherited it :)

Thanks for the Secret Garden tip though,

DFE