6 year old having problems singing a note.

[john90]

My 6 year old has problems singing in tune, even problems singing a note I play, or sing myself.
He is usually off by as much as a quater of a tone, all the time. When I ask him to sing a scale it goes way off, with notes getting closer together at the end.

I have a few days to coach him. So far progress is slow. Me singing a note, getting him to adjust.
When I use a piano his accuracy is worse. Any ideas please?

[keyboardclass]

Your voice is too low.  Get mum to teach him.

[ongaku_oniko]

Most little kids have this problem. It'd be amazing if he didn't. Don't worry, it'll likely get better in a few years.

[john90]

I noticed a difference in his accuracy almost straight away when Mum sang.
We now use Julie Andrews Do Re Mi song clips to get the scale right! 
Thanks for the tips. I am now a lot less concerned.

[keyboardclass]

I've taught kids singing for twenty years now.  There are techniques that will get even the most persistent growlers fluting away.  It often takes a pretty extensive knowledge of the child's voice to be successful.

[dbmusic]

I noticed a difference in his accuracy almost straight away when Mum sang.
We now use Julie Andrews Do Re Mi song clips to get the scale right! 
Thanks for the tips. I am now a lot less concerned.

I sing rather than play when I want children to sing back to me. I also talk about using their singing voice and their speaking voice. Children do pitch their voices a lot more accurately to the female voice rather than to the piano or a low voice which can be a problem in an exam situation. In our exam system all notes or melodies to be sung by the child will be played on the piano since the examiner could be male! I'd be interested to know if your son pitches his voice better to a recording or to his mother singing 'live'.

[keyboardclass]

I sing rather than play when I want children to sing back to me. I also talk about using their singing voice and their speaking voice.

Many children (and parents) don't realize they have a beautiful singing voice up there!

[john90]

I've taught kids singing for twenty years now.  There are techniques that will get even the most persistent growlers fluting away.  It often takes a pretty extensive knowledge of the child's voice to be successful.

He has improved quite a bit now. We try once a week or so. I since discovered he had an ear infection 3 weeks before we first started, so that was another possible factor. We are still not perfect, but better. Technique is an issue too. There was the tendency for him to start off pitch, drift towards the note, and then waver a bit at the end. This is much better now after more practise.

I'd be interested to know if your son pitches his voice better to a recording or to his mother singing 'live'.

We get better results with Julie Andrews recordings. Me telling mum what I want her to sing is more of a distraction that me rewinding an MP3 to a given time point. Flash cards for Mum might fix that!

We also practise clapping rhythms, he is amazingly good at this, and it gets him to listen. I used to sing in a choir as a boy, but since my voice broke, I never trained the new one properly.

[keyboardclass]

All good news.  Make sure he does singing with others at school - he could bring the music home to practice.