One Friday evening per month, students are encouraged to sing in a practice recital. The threefold purpose of this recital is:
1.To encourage students to practice more, knowing that they will need to sing in front of parents and other students.
2.To give students opportunities to sing in front of an audience and gradually get more comfortable performing.
3.To learn by listening to other students’ strengths & weaknesses
As opposed to singing an easy song that will show off the voice to its greatest potential, students are required to sing a song that works the weakest part of their voice. For example, a large percentage of teenage girls tend to have strongly developed chest voices with very weak head voices. To bring balance to the entire voice, the head voice must be developed and strengthened. Therefore, the songs we work on in class and what will be sung at the practice recital will be higher pitched so that the student is required to spend more time practicing that area of the voice.
In addition to the monthly practice recitals, students will participate in two benefit concerts--one in the summer and one around Christmastime. The proceeds from ticket sales will go towards a children's charity. Students will be able to sing songs which best show off their voices at the time of the concerts.
There are also many other opportunities for singing, such as auditioning for musicals, singing contests, etc. that I regularly pass along to students as they come available. When students have a purpose and goal they are trying to attain, they will put more time into practicing and hence see quicker results.
