Pitch Matching

Pitch matching means a child accurately matching the pitch of their voice to those of others, either a teacher or another child/class.

Encourage children to sing on their own, giving them lots of praise and encouragement when they do. Help them to use their singing voices rather than talking or whispering voices. It can take time for some children to distinguish between these! The aim should be to encourage them to be as comfortable with their singing voice as with any other voice.

Very few children are unable to sing if they are given help, but the development of young voices happens at different rates, so some will join in more naturally and their voices develop faster, whilst others may take longer. Some children will have a voice which is naturally higher or lower than other children and may find it difficult to match the pitch of a song if it is not within their natural range. Give them lots of encouragement, both to help them to recognise that they can make their own voices change in pitch and also to match pitch with others.

As you work with your children, you will get to know which children naturally sing high or low, and those that can sing exactly the notes that you sing. Gradually help them to become more accurate in their vocal attempts so that they begin to match the pitch of the notes you sing. For example, if a child naturally sings with a low voice, start off at that low pitch and then over time, try to encourage the child to sing a little higher.

Try the following, singing just with two notes or three notes:

Teacher: Hello! What’s your name?

Child: Jessica

or My name is Jessica

And

Teacher/Class: Cuckoo, Cherry Tree! Can you sing your name for me?

Child: Charlie

or My name is Charlie

This can be sung as a ball is rolled to the chosen child. They have to sing their name and roll it back.

Some songs can be used to encourage individual pitch-matching as well as a class response. The following simple game can be played with any three objects that happen to be to hand. With the children sitting in a circle, ask them to close their eyes and hold out their hands. Give each of the objects to a different child and sing the questions using just two or three notes:

Who has the ball? I have the ball.

Who has the teddy bear? I have the teddy bear.

Who has the racing car? I have the racing car.

Once again, if you are aware that a particular child is more comfortable singing at a high or low pitch, try to sing at their pitch and then gradually get them to change.

Note that some children whom you might not expect to sing on their own may well do so as they have their eyes closed and therefore don’t feel that they are being watched by others!

You can also explore making up tuneful questions and answers on two and three notes:

Teacher: Who is wearing red today?

Child: I am wearing red today.

Class: [NAME] is wearing red today.

Hand puppets

Puppets can be extremely useful for encouraging a more reluctant child to sing. They may feel able to sing to a puppet while they are not yet confident enough to sing to another person. The “hide away” puppet can often persuade a child to sing in order to see the puppet pop out.

Child: Little Rabbit, where are you?

Teacher/Class: Peekaboo! I see you.

Some children may still be reluctant to sing on their own within a group. However, you may well find that they are happy to sing with a friend, or that they may be confident enough to sing to the puppet when the rest of the group is no longer present.

If you don’t have a pop-up puppet, try hiding a toy in a bag.