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Extra-curricular activities

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Original poster

Singing lessons can harm young voices, can anyone advise on this?

103 replies

ZZZenEggain · 02/04/2013 11:12

I have been reading that it is unwise to really train a girl's voice before the age of 14, some say even 16 because it is fragile while they are developing and can easily be damaged. I don't personally know anything about this but it might be wise to investigate.

My dd is 12 and has started having lessons which she enjoys. I am a bit concerned now after googling it whether she shouldn't wait a couple of years. Apparently you can really damage the voice if you train it in the wrong way, too intensively or too early.

AFAIK she does some warm up exercises, is working with Vaccai bel canto course (which I think is singing scales) and then they sing a couple of songs. Does this sound alright for her age or is it better to leave it till she is older? I like the teacher and so does dd, she enjoys the lessons. Dd has quite a low speaking voice and the teacher does rewrite if dd is finding the higher notes difficult.

OP posts:
Original poster
ZZZenEggain · 02/04/2013 11:23

Thank you for that Gruntfuttocks. Polly, I have read that singing in a choir can cause the same damage, I suppose it depends on how the choir is handling things. There are good and bad choirs presumably when it comes to training dc. Perhaps singing once a week in choir is not as bad as daily practise of the wrong things?

OP posts:
pollypandemonium · 02/04/2013 11:19

Grunt - when you say forcing the voice does damage, does that mean that the untrained school choir voice is more damaging for children? I am interested in this as dd is frequently told to push her voice very hard in choir.

Gruntfuttocks · 02/04/2013 11:16

Sounds like the teacher is doing sensible things with her. Perfectly ok to have singing lessons at any age as long as the teacher knows what they are doing. Forcing the voice too hard certainly can do some damage, but it doesn't sound like that is happening with your dd.