Singing As An Art: Expressing Emotion And Building Connections
As an art, singing has good reason to be seen creatively. The way that singers express themselves, portray themselves, is what gives us the ability to relate to them. It is more than just words, more than just music, and involves the performance itself. The way that singers relate to the audience using music and words is what brings meaning to what they do, and how we feel about them, about ourselves; who we are, what we are, where we are.
Although these are very adult ideas, they are just as true for young children. Children also have a level at which they are able to relate, able to feel, able to respond to music, and this is an area that all the science, check lists and tick boxes in the world can never categorically predict or guarantee. Creating this experience as an educator can be daunting indeed! But these experiences are what make us human, make us feel, bring us feelings of joy, newness and excitement.
Singing As A Science: Understanding The Mechanics And Benefits
Singing is also a science, and with our better understanding of the body, we are better able to understand what needs to change in order to create and deliver the sounds that we want to create. We know that to sing longer notes, we need to exercise our breathing; to sing in tune, we need to listen and sing along with the songs we enjoy, the songs that make us feel; to sing higher or lower, we need to listen and copy those notes often; to sing with feeling, we need to move, to visualise, to mentally experience the feeling that we are trying to convey.
These are all aspects that we can more or less measure: either we did or didn’t sing that note long enough; or sing the right note at the right time. In one sense, this can give us confidence that singing correctly will help us teach singing better. And yet, these are the same measurements that can be sung in a different way, can fail completely according to pre-set standards, and still sound amazing, still evoke feelings, and still move us.
Overcoming Music Performance Anxiety Through Singing
Cole’s 2022 article on Reclaiming Singing As Art argues that singing should be recognised as art, but this view is also what makes most of us feel like we cannot sing, even should not sing. In fact, it is potentially the cause of a major performance problem, Music Performance Anxiety, MPA. Instead, understanding the science of singing and the role of performance helps to manage this condition better. Put simply, repeatedly practicing something we enjoy makes us better at it, and sharing singing with others who love singing helps us not to feel judged, but appreciated and valued.
Separating singing into science or art, though, creates what Dewey (1934) calls the “fundamental fallacy of separating creature from environment” – like using laboratory results without applying it in real life.
Remembering that performance is play, experimentation, and communication, can give us confidence to find our tribe, our supporters, our cheerleaders, and we can sing our hearts out for them!
Sleep Baby Sleep
Sleep, baby, sleep
Your father tends the sheep
Your mother shakes the dreamland tree
And from it fall sweet dreams for thee
Sleep, baby, sleep
Sleep, baby, sleep
Our cottage vale is deep
The little lamb is on the green
With snowy fleece so soft and clean
Sleep, baby, sleep
Sleep, baby, sleep
Down where the woodbines creep
Be always like the lamb so mild
A kind and sweet and gentle child
Sleep, baby, sleep
This lovely traditional lullaby is in the rocking rhythm of 6/8 timing. The music gently drifts up and down, echoing the words and sentiments of the lullaby, all working together to help little ones relax and drift off to sleep. Understanding the way the song was written can help us to understand how to sing it better – and moving (rocking side to side) helps us to create a rocking rhythm ourselves.
All The Pretty Horses
Hush a bye, don’t you cry
Go to sleepy, little baby
When you wake, you shall have
All the pretty little horses
Black and Bays, dapples and greys
Coach and six-a-little horses
Hush a bye, don’t you cry
Go to sleepy little baby
This song has a more horse-like, trotting rhythm in 2/4, with long, flowing lines that drift along. This combination of musical techniques creates a reassuring feeling of safety and security, sending little ones to sleep. Moving along to songs and music while we learn it, finding physical ways to express and copy it, can help us to not only create it more easily but also helps us to remember it more accurately.
Edelweiss
Edelweiss, edelweiss
Every morning you greet me
Small and white
Clean and bright
You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow, may you
Bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever
Edelweiss, edelweiss
Bless my homeland forever
This well-known favourite from the Sound of Music was written as a waltz, or 3/4 timing. Its similar flowing motifs and descriptive imagery also work to create safe and secure feelings that we need in order to rest well. This is another reason that is had become a popular modern lullaby.
Singing is more than a combination of scientific noise and silence, and more than random personal expressions of emotion. Understanding the purpose behind songs, beyond the musical choices, makes the experience of singing not only easier to understand but also easier to teach and deliver. Through this, we become bigger, better and more whole as people. So sing!
