I think Halloween is my favourite “season” in my voice studio. With fun costumes and decorations, the dramatic season makes it easier to engage students in learning new exercises and repertoire. In addition, Halloween recitals can be a fun event for families who may be too busy during the Christmas season.
It doesn’t take much to spook up the voice studio (online or in-person). So here are my top recommendations with links to spooky singing!
Warm-Up Activities
Songbird Warm-Up game (Halloween Edition)
Kids of all ages (including teens and adults) enjoy the mystery of the Songbird Warm-up Game. You can modify each exercise for the age and ability of your students. This choose-your-own-adventure game challenges singers of all ages with:
- Terrifying Tongue Twisters
- Evil Ear Training
- Minor and chromatic melodies to explore
- A Terrifying exercise for Teachers too!
- Movement and expressive singing challenges
Halloween Vocal Study: Halloweeeen!
Halloweeeen! By Donna Rhodenizer Is a spooky vocal study focused on singing chromatic passages. The piano track with the melody guide will be helpful for your beginner students. However, the piano track alone will challenge your older, more experienced singers with pitch accuracy. (FUN!)
Active Listening
Guided listening exercises are important for all singers. If you have someone who is not in the mood for singing or needs to rest their voice, ask them to listen to themed music and:
- Clap the beat of the song
- Identify the instruments playing the music
- Determine if the song is major or minor
- Identify the dynamic shape of the song
Score discovery
Helping our students to follow and understand the endless instruction on a piece of music is also an essential activity for our singers. If you are teaching online, share the screen with the music score and use the annotate feature to mark it up for your students.
Halloween-Themed Repertoire
Our fabulous composers have written some amazing songs for this season. These songs can be enjoyed year-round, but they fit this season beautifully. Teacher Tip: Halloween recitals can be a hit with beginners new to performing and are appreciated by families that may be too busy during the winter holidays.
Fun Fact: Kids and teachers love these songs so much that they are our top-selling downloads.
Did you know our song download packages include helpful backing tracks? and, YES! you can make copies and share the sheet music and tracks with your students. You can also share performances of our music online.
Dark and Dingy by Glyn Lehmann (🇦🇺 AU song here). Storms can be scary! Especially if you are a dog. The first half of the song is about the storm. The second part is about reassuring the pet that they will be ok. An expressive, heartfelt story for young singers.
What’s that Sound? (Zombie Cat) (🇦🇺 AU song here). A mysterious sound in the dark!? Inspired by a story written by young singers Leah and Esther, this fabulous song encourages enthusiastic story-telling and introduces singing tricky chromatic passages.
Friends and colleagues! I wish you the most fabulous spooky singing, and we will see you back here for Winter holiday music! ~Nikki
