Alfred Publishing made me a very happy teacher when they started the Read to Sing...series. Three of the four books were edited by Jay Althouse, who I will refer to frequently in these posts. He has compiled, edited, or composed a majority of the music I use for beginning singers. The fourth book Ready to Sing...Broadway was edited by Andy Beck.
Easy piano accompaniments double the melodic line to help students who are not as independent yet. Probably my favorite feature of these books is the reproducible melody-line song sheets. This is my one exception to the "NO PHOTOCOPIES" rule and it is because Alfred has printed on each of the song sheets that I can copy them for studio use. It's totally legal, and in fact, the reason they made these books. I often assign a song or two from one of these books when I first meet a student. They are handed a one or two page lead sheet and then I have a few weeks to figure out exactly where I want to go with them before sending them to the store to buy music.
Some of the songs in the folksong and spiritual books are simplified versions of the same arrangements that you will find in other Alfred folksong and spiritual books. For example, the melodic line of "Poor Wayfarin' Stranger" is almost exactly the same as it is in Folk Songs for the Solo Singer Vol. 2. There are just a few rhythm changes and the accompaniment has been adapted to double the melodic line while maintaining the same character.
The next group of books has gone through a lot of name changes since I first encountered them. Frederick Harris Music has published all of the editions of the voice books for The Royal Conservatory of Music Program. The 2nd edition was called the Songbook series. I have a few volumes from that series. A few years ago, I purchased the complete set of of the 3rd edition called Voice Series. Then The Royal Conservatory of Music teamed up with Carnegie Hall to bring us the Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory The Achievement Program (TAP) with 4th edition voice books titled Resonance. Then Carnegie Hall dropped out of the project and we had another name change. The books are still titled Resonance, but now the program is called Royal Conservatory Music Development Program. At this point, I have only purchased the Level 3 book, but I like what I've seen so far.
The 4th edition has added a few musical theatre/popular style songs to each book while maintaining many classical songs in a variety of languages. The new editions also come with accompaniment CDs. I would feel comfortable assigning most of the songs in the Introductory, Level 1, and Level books to Baby Beginners. Although I like this series, it barely makes the cut for this post because I rarely have students buy the book, because although I like the songs, there aren't usually enough that the student likes to justify the cost. These youngest and least experienced singers don't seem to connect as well to the songs from before the 20th century. The more contemporary songs tend to be a little childish for my 10-12 year old students (even though I've had a few adults that would like them). I no longer teacher children under 10, so these books don't work for me as often. However, I have a friend that teaches young children and she says they love the songs.
The last group of books I will cover in this post are Joan Boytim's 36 Solos for Young Singers and 36 More Solos for Young Singers. Like the Royal Conservatory books, these books come with an enhanced accompaniment CD. Most books from Hal Leonard now come with the enhanced CDs that enable you to change the key or tempo of the song. This can be extremely helpful in allowing students to sing certain songs that may be out of their comfortable range when sung in the written key. Again, although I have had students purchase these in the past, since I'm not teaching younger students as much, I'm not using the books as much even though they have many good songs in them.
In the fall, all my 2nd and 3rd edition Royal Conservatory books and my 36 Solos books will become part of the Lending Library and then I will have students purchase a second copy if they decide to perform it for contest. Certain songs in these books would work very well for my younger high school students.
Click here to read the overview and see what other topics I will be covering in this series. The next blog will cover Baby Beginner books specifically for young men.
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