If you have children who love to sing, and can sing on pitch, they may be ready for part singing. Most children are not ready before age 9 or so. Younger children tend to "slide" into other people's parts. You'll recognize their readiness by their ability to sing a simple part and not be distracted when hearing another part sung simultaneously. This takes concentration and a certain maturity level. We highly recommend that you start with our ROUNDS tape. HOMESTYLE HARMONY and LEARN CHRISTMAS HARMONIES - Family Style can be quite challenging for the beginner. Start by learning the melody to the song you are working on. Sing it in unison as a family often, just for fun. All of the songs on our tapes have nice learnable melodies that are fun in themselves. Doubling up can help the beginner build confidence once you start breaking the song up into parts. Learning the two part songs first makes sense, of course, as they are easier. The 3 and 4 part songs can be first learned as two part songs, too; Working up to 4 parts as the children become enthused. Unwilling children should not be pressured; encouraged and praised, yes!

Family singing has its own unique problems. One is that voices change as children grow, so what works for your family one year may not work the next. At this time our 3 oldest boys (we have 5 sons) have bass voices. Boys often go through a period during puberty when their once-very-reliable voices become an embarrassment to them. They can't sing high, they can't sing low, their voices make strange sounds that they didn't mean to make, and they decide they just can't sing anymore. In their late teens their voices usually settle down and their confidence returns. This is why Damian's voice is not heard on our new HYMNS tape. On our ROUNDS and HOMESTYLE HARMONY tapes Damian is the most frequently heard singer; but, at age 16, he feels he needs to take a break from our family recordings. Gabe, who had a sweet, but wobbly voice at age 7, has a nice, steady voice at age 13 and can sing well in an ensemble. He sang soprano in our CHRISTMAS HARMONIES tape at age 11, but he's an alto in our HYMNS tape. In another year or two he'll be a tenor or a bass. Mom, being a solid alto herself, now has to take Gabe's place and sing soprano on HYMNS... a real stretch. Ben, age 7, is still a little young for part singing, but in a year or so he'll take Mom's place singing soprano, and she can go back to alto.. (It must be easier with girls!) Steve,- (Dad) sings tenor or bass, whichever he has to sing but he is clearly a tenor.

The moral of this story is: Learn to be flexible. Try singing in all ranges, even if they're not comfortable for you. Make a game of seeing how high everyone can sing a particular song (and still sound pleasing), and then how low you can sing it. If you don't have anyone who can sing low in your family try singing the tenor and bass parts up an octave for an unusual but pleasing sound with tight harmonies. Once you know the songs well, you can change the keys to suit your family's range.

Above all, have fun! The mom and dad who sing in harmony together, just for fun, are priming the pump for their kids to do so also. So, be a good model! Sing for joy whenever the mood strikes, day or night, and you'll pass on the attitude that God's precious gift of music is for everyone! So let’s enjoy it!

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