How to Develop Your Ear: Part 1- Finding Your Head Voice

Music in the Home, Every Day, Every Way!

“Psychological complexes are more difficult to overcome than physiological misfits are to adjust,” G.B Lampert.

After my last post, there were requests for app suggestions to help develop your voice. I am in the process of reviewing a plethora of options but the glaring issue of not singing “monotone” should be addressed first. I wanted to give some quick helps that you can use today, in your home, and with your children to improve in-tune singing.

Locating “both” voices

I hesitate to oversimply this, but in short, you have two voices, the head voice and the chest voice. With children I refer to the head voice as your “singing voice” and the chest voice as your “speaking voice”. Inability to get in the head voice or stay in the head voice does NOT mean you are tone deaf. It just means you or your child need to practice. 😊  This can be achieved in so many simple ways. For a child it is fun and playful, for an adult you may want to do this in the shower or during your solitary commute if you feel a little silly. This is truly the first step to in-tune singing. If you hear someone singing “monotone”, this is why, and this is how to correct it!

1.       Start as high as you can and sing “whoo” down and up again. Imagine you are a ghost in a haunted house scaring some trespassing teenagers. This will help you to slide into your head voice. Try putting a bucket on your head while you do this. It not only magnifies the voice, but contains it to a safe environment if you are feeling shy.

2.       Vocal play: When you go up the stairs, show it with your voice. When you lower the blinds, sing them down with the slide of your voice. When your two-year old plays with his cars, have him brum-sing going up and down. When you zip up a jacket, sing that jacket up. When you call your children to dinner encourage them to sing responses to your “Din-ner” (G-E) with a “Com-ing” (G-E).

3.       Sing! Sing! Sing! Make singing a part of your routines. Don’t make a big deal about it. My mother would sing “Now the Day is Over” almost every night when I was a young child. I remember her changing keys three or four times over that two line song. She sang “La Cucaracha” and “Happy Birthday” and “Let us All Speak Kind Words to Each Other”, NEVER on pitch, but always musically. She sang with her heart. I still love sitting next to her at church as she boldly sings the hymns. Her joyful song has always given me confidence to sing next to her. Sometimes she would giggle when she went out of tune, but she sang on. Make singing normal in your home. Find ways to add it to your family meetings, to disciplining, everything. A favorite song from a friend is “Whiners, Pouters, Shouters Never Get,” (basically sing those words over and over to the tune, “If You’re Happy and You Know it.”)

 In the morning when I wake up my girls I sing “Good Morning to You.”

 Eventually, this simple, cheerful melody can be sung as an easy round in three parts. 

Another friend taught us the tradition of when you go through a tunnel while driving on the road you sing a note with the word “tunnel” for the duration of the tunnel. 

Eventually my girls have started to harmonize to my note.

As you use your head voice, your ear will naturally take control of the vocal cords and with time your ear and voice will find confidence in singing in a group. But you must practice. A playful vocal child does these voice sliding exercises over and over in a day. Make sure you and your children are too.

What do you do to bring music into your home?