Critique Merrill

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Merrill, J. D. (2002). Successful Singing for All in the Elementary Grades. Music Educators Journal, 89(2), 50.

This article provides a music educator with real legitimate techniques that can be used to develop the voices of young children. James Merrill, a classroom music teacher in upstate New York, points out several different methods of engaging all different aspects of the student as they can use their voices, ears, minds and bodies as they make music.

He opens his article by offering a suggestion as to how a music teacher might open up their school year with particular vocal warm-ups that get the student used to expanding his or her voice. The warm-ups that Merrill suggests involve the students using not only their voices, but their bodies, as they show the direction of their improvised warm-up melodies. The article goes into more depth by offering more specific techniques explaining ways to teach children how to sing in their ‘light voice’ or head voice. Merrill suggests throwing a ball, or an imaginary ball, at a target and singing ‘woo’ in a descending voice until the ball lands on the target. In my own experience, I have seen this work well using a scarf. The teacher or a student can throw up the scarf and sing ‘woo’ from a high pitch (in head voice) to a lower pitch as the scarf slowly falls to the floor.

Merrill continues sharing his techniques with his readers in the areas of breath control and ways to teach posture to young students. He explains that sometimes students learn well by seeing the opposite. For example, the teacher can demonstrate poor posture to show the students the wrong way to sit, and the student will then display the correct posture. The author summarizes the vocal skills section of his article with a clear summary of the techniques that can be used to teach these elements of music. The rest of his article goes on to tell the reader about ways to develop listening skills. The particular type of listening skills that he is working on is having the students listen to themselves sing. As the students sing in small groups within the classroom setting, they can offer their classmates constructive criticism on their performance. This is useful because it can enhance their auditory discrimination skills. Merrill describes specific teaching techniques on how to improve students’ vocal accuracy in melodic passages with skips.

I feel that this article is full of very useful and practical information. In my experience as a music educator, I have focused on instrumental music education. Along with my college classes, this article has shown me some techniques that can be used to teach young students how to sing. I thought that Merrill provides the reader with very specific tools that can be used and manipulated to fit the teachers’ goals in many situations.

The first large section of the article focuses on vocal skills such as head voice, breath control, posture, the open mouth shape and the necessity for a relaxed body. Each one of those five basic elements of singing that are listed by Merrill are accompanied by funny anecdotes or techniques that I think are child-friendly. I especially like the section on breath control where the author suggests that the student say “The breath is the power of the voice,” with an emphasis on the word power. This is such an important element not only in singing, but in instrumental music and in our everyday lives as communicators. Another important element that can be translated into all forms of musical performance is the need for a relaxed body. Merrill describes one particular relaxation technique that opens up the students’ lungs and body so he or she can make a larger, well-supported sound.

The sections on listening skills and group performances are also very important to the musical development of students. I have always believed that one of the most important tools you need to create music is a good ear. As musicians, we are always self-critiquing ourselves as we perform. If children are taught the skills to do this at a very early age, it should help their development immensely.

In the final section of the article, Merrill gives specific teaching techniques that can be used to teach passages of songs. One thing that he thinks is very important, that I agree with, is the necessity for students to sing by themselves in front of the group. This is done by having a student sing a short solo section as the rest of the class sings the chorus section. The author proposes that we write notes on a seating chart as to how well the soloist performed the section. I feel that this is a very easy and effective way to record the successes of the students. This might also allow you to change the seating chart of the class to put weaker singers next to the stronger singers so the weaker singers might improve as they listen to their stronger classmates.

I also thought that the part of the article that dealt with the singing of vowels in place of the words of the song would be a helpful technique in finding correct pitches. Using this method, the students only have to focus on the correct pitch and not on forming the correct sounds and shapes with their mouths. After they find the correct pitches, the students can focus on the sounds and the pronunciation of the words.

I feel that all of the points that Mr. Merrill suggests throughout the article are valid and useful. I’m sure that if I were trained specifically in the area of vocal skills that I might feel different, but everything presented in this article seems to be logical and makes sense in the grand scheme of teaching young children how to sing. There are so many aspects of the elements of music that transfer between the vocal and instrumental realms. This article sheds light on techniques that I already use, but never noticed, in my teaching of wind instruments. Now that I am aware of their deeper implications, I can focus more deeply in them in my classes and hopefully that will benefit the children more.