When you teach children to sing...?

Question

is it necessary to teach them to pronounce words like grass as grars? i live in the north and we say grass (like the a in hat) but my colleague wants to teach them to say it like grars (rhymes with ****).

is it not correct to respect their accent?

why should we change the way we speak? unless it is for the rhyme

is it correct to do that when teaching singing???????

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

hmmm...he can teach it that way but he should also teach it the other way it will depend on the kid on which way to say it.they say to-mate-o i say to-mot-o

Answer 3

I'm trying to say grars and I can't get passed the gr.

I'm no pro, but I am in broadway, and I'd never say it like that. As long as she doesnt' stretch out the vowels in their long sound, and she has good addiction and breathes through her diaphragm, she'll be fine...

And has a good voice... XD

Answer 4

i think a certain amount of corecting pronounciation in songs is ok as long as kids aren't given the message that there is anything wrong with their accents.

I hate structured singing assemblies!  Maybe you could even it out by singing fun songs in your class room when there is chance so they learn the fun of belting out a funny gutsy song with out having to concentrate on pronounciation and dictation.

Answer 5

It's difficult when rhymes and accents clash. I think, if you need it to rhyme, perhaps sing it with the corresponding accent, but if not then stick to their real one.  Music should be about children expressing and enjoying themselves, not making them conforn jsut for the sake of it. I say yes if the rhyming scheme needs it (cos it sounds a bit odd otherwise) but definitely no otherwise.

Answer 6

up to the 'boss', but have you ever noticed that no-one on the radio has any kind of accent when they are singing?

Answer 7

it depends on how old the children are...while pronunciation is important. i say its a lil bit too technical to teach them pronunciation this early. There are different pronunciation for singing. For children, i say as long as the vowels are enunciated and the word is understandable and they dont stay too much on the consonants they should be fine Please clarify your question, i dont understand what you mean by "grars", does your colleague pronounce grass differently?

Answer 8

You should teach the kids how to say the phonetic spelling of the word! It's 'a*s' so should be 'gr-a*s'. Not 'a*se' as in 'gr-a*se'!!!!