Youth Vocal Arts: Colour and Canvas

 Kowhai 
6-8 year olds

When young children sing, it is instinctive, expressive and fearless. At Rata, we want to ensure every young singer continues to feel comfortable in their voice, so that they can bypass the stage of self-consciousness.  Welcome to Kowhai class, voice lessons for 6-8 year olds.

This course will include playful experimentation and exploration of sounds, words, rhythm and melody, helping ‘Kowhai’ students to get to know and gain confidence in their voice. ‘Kowhai’ students will be introduced to a variety of songs with discussion on differences in melody, style and emotion. Focus will be given to understanding and portraying the meaning of the words. Songs will be prepared as a group, developing performance skills. The term will finish with a performance for the children’s families.

Course Outcomes

Kowhai students will:

• develop their voice in range, volume, tone.
• build their vocal (and social) confidence in a friendly, safe and inclusive environment.
• explore methods of song learning.
• learn the importance and methods of understanding and portraying song meaning.
• learn performance skills.
• participate in a group performance for their families.

Timetable and Enrolment

About Ruth Armishaw

Ruth Armishaw is a performing and teaching freelance musician based in Wellington. With a Bachelor of Music and a BMus(Hons) in Vocal Jazz Performance from Massey University and the New Zealand School of Music, she also holds a Performers Certificate in classical piano from Trinity College London.

Ruth’s teaching experience spans 16 years, covering all ages and class sizes, from individuals to large groups, including choirs and musical theatre classes. Specialising in young voices, she is currently vocal tutor at Musical Stars, a musical theatre school for children, and has enjoyed leading the choirs and teaching music theory at Wellington Music Centre for 11 years. Ruth was Musical Co-Director for the Wellington region’s ArtSplash children’s festival for 4 years and has tutored many school choirs. While teaching piano and singing for 5 years at Chilton Saint James’ School, Ruth taught students individually across all year-levels including primary-school children, believing that if a young child has the passion for singing and the focus to work one-on-one, a teacher can harness that without pushing the voice to develop too early. As an itinerant vocal tutor at several high schools, Ruth has helped advance many teenage voices, including preparing students for NCEA performance assessments.

Ruth is working towards accreditation in the Estill Voice Training Programme and has completed the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses. This a method which focuses on safely exploring a full range of vocal expression, tone and style, through learning to finely control the various structural components of the voice. While giving Ruth a deeper knowledge and versatility of her own instrument, this has in turn helped her understand her students’ voices and ways of building and fostering them.