Music Monday - Encouraging good practice habits in young singers

Most of my practice these days is incidental. I warm up my singing voice in the car on my way to school or waapa, then sing as required during lessons to demonstrate aspects of vocal technique. On piano, I accompany at least one song per lesson so most of the student repertoire is under my fingers when needed.

However, in these past few weeks I have had to play some new repertoire for exam recitals and audition self-tapes. This has necessitated some more formal practice sessions. One song accompaniment required quite a bit of work to master some tricky rhythmic passages. As always, I recalled the words of past piano teachers – my maternal grandmother and, later, Stephen Dornan. They emphasised the critical importance of regular (little and often) repetition of problem passages. Over a week I did some daily (tedious) slow practice on the accompaniment and was rewarded with the buzz that came when I could get through the whole song without mishap. The reward was quite tangible – without the practice sessions I couldn’t play the accompaniment without a sense of embarrassment. After 5 days I could – and then again, after a few days break from practising that song, the notes were still there under my fingers.

This set me thinking about the difference between motivating young instrumentalists versus young singers. With instrumentalists (young and old) no practice = an obvious inability to play the music and audible wrong notes. However, with young singers the songs are often musically simple. Singers with a good musical ear and quick memory, can sing a song with minimal practice. It might not be a convincing performance, text wise, nor use appropriate registration – but they will be able to find the notes.

So how do we motivate the young singer to practise? 

Classic FM published 10 tips to help you practice.

Most articles on practice emphasise the importance of goal-setting. For young singers, we can set specific and measurable goals around technique -eg sustaining a hiss or hum for a specific number of seconds / being able to produce a light, clear tone / brassy, louder tone, etc.

Bur when it comes to solo song repertoire, we teachers must work a bit harder to set goals that are recognisable by the student. It could be something like aiming for a particular vocal quality at certain phrases or assigning specific acting thoughts (actions) to phrases. Even then, the achievement of those goals is easier to recognise in the reaction from audience than by the singer themselves. 

As young singers mature and tackle harder repertoire, the rewards from productive practice are much more obvious to them. But good practice habits are best started early in life.

What are your thoughts on this? We would love to hear of your success stories!