One of the life's little miracles is hearing young voices singing in tune to the delight of their audience. 

Faced with shy, reluctant or inexperienced singers, the responsibility of turning them into a sweet-sounding, audience-captivating choir can be a daunting job for any music co-ordinator, but there are lots of practical steps you can take to ensure that you all have a fighting chance...

Easy to overlook, but let's say right away that the room must be well ventilated and not too warm. All that breathing…!

Make sure that everyone is breathing correctly (not over-breathing enough to pass out!) Hankies out – noses clear. Can they breathe through their noses? – It's quieter than gasping for air.

Posture must be good too. By all means get them to stand up stand up (straight! - it wakes them up), but not for too long - they get tired. Sitting straight is ok too and chairs with backs can help.

Always start with a warm up – try This Old Man (moving up the scale) is a great one for kids of all ages, available for download on our free resources page.

Get them used to singing scales at the beginning of the rehearsal as a routine. Useful sometimes to start high and sing down the scale rather than always singing up the scale. (Get lots of harmonised scales accompaniments from our free resources page.)

Sing songs from memory. If you can afford the time, teach them the words yourself by rote (no temptation to look at the copy). Where possible, use a harmonised accompaniment. Try not to play the tune in octaves. Hearing notes in context always helps intonation.

Don't be shy about demonstrating what you want by singing it yourself.  It'll brighten their day if you sound awful – as long as it's in tune!

Finally, remember these little ears haven't heard as much music as you have. Broaden the musical outlook of the children by giving them songs in a variety of keys. You'll find that they often understand 'key colour' instinctively.

You'll find lots of great ideas for songs to sing with your class or choir in our Young Voices category.