The voice of the children when they sing in chorus

Let's analyze together the way children sing when they express themselves inside a choir.

It is not sang because you are happy; You are happy because you sing.
(William James)

The characteristics of use of the voice of the small chorister vary according to the repertoire, but certainly we can identify common aspects such as:

• The group's sound cohesion;
• The high frequency on supported notes;

Due to very large repertoires, which are prepared simultaneously, there is a continuous passage between different eras that requires a constant sound adaptation, in order to make it congruent with the style of the time; In this way there is a continuous change in the vocality that is at the expense of the individual vocal identity. During the tests it often happens that the choral group finds itself having to repeat small sentences many times because they work in the economy of the overall surrender, with evident function overloading.

By singing in the choir, the tendency to lose support is manifested; In this way, there is a risk of a reduction in the vocal tract and a laryngeal raising with consequent fatigue of the vocal cords.

The young age of the components of the choir of white voices does not allow them to self -marinate with a view to vocal prevention; It is for this reason that it would be desirable to support the master of the choir the figure of the speech therapist who on the one hand actively participates in the technical training of the small singers, and on the other it is able to identify the signs of vocal stress and therefore prevent the 'Insure to pathologies. Since the self -listening for the dominance of the choral sound on that of the individual is considerably reduced, the emission control component is lacking with consequent fatigue.

This aspect was frequently found by me in the field of my experience conducted within the choir of white voices of the theater of S. Carlo (carried out until 2015/16) within which I dealt with vocal pedagogy; The control and possible correction of the attack of the sound of the members of the choir, by the speech therapist, is certainly very important not only from a musical point of view, but also for the safeguarding of the voice of children which as a result of an attack of the incorrect sound can face vocal fatigue phenomena.

The absence of amplification and the reduced volume of the childish voice means that the directors often ask the children to "sing more", the children almost always respond to this invitation by shouting, in an attempt to increase the volume, thus meeting Vocal stress and obtaining a decidedly bad acoustic result: in fact, in this case only the transition from the serious register to the acute one is felt, and a modification of the vocal color is obtained in a negative sense. The risk of pathology is therefore to be related to:

• Prolonged forms for tests for tests with consequent phonastenia and risks of assimilations of hypercinesia compensation;
• Difficulty of self -dating for deficient acoustic feedback;
• Lack of amplification of the item;

as well as to:

• Possible postural changes due to the habit of trying in a seat position: children during public executions are very careful to maintain a correct posture, but during the tests, taking advantage of the distraction of the masters engaged in teaching musical notions, they abandon themselves more "comfortable" postures in contrast with the emission needs;

• Problems related to the executive environment:
  ° Midness of temperature or vocal production in an air conditioning environment, often present in the rehearsal room;
  ° Environmental overheating;
  ° dust: the theater is full;
• Phonation during inflammation of the upper airways;
• Abuse of spoken vocality;
• Vocal malmenage, that is, not perfect possession or depletion from external causes (inflammation, insecurity or technical immaturity)
• Performance anxiety.

Read also the article: the child's voice: vocal problems vary according to the time