I have a few playlists on Spotify that I maintain to collect tunes that would be fun and appropriate for people to sing and play regardless of age. I send students and parents the links so they can listen and choose some options. Generally, I find that the parents are relieved to have a kid-friendly playlist that doesn’t drive them bonkers. The kids still have freedom of choice, and I’m always pleasantly surprised by what they choose. They like music that’s older just as often as they like brand new stuff. They just need the opportunity to be exposed to it.
There’s a whole world of “Kindie” music that I’ll post about another time, but these playlists are made up of tunes that are just a good for grown-ups as they are for kids.
As I keep adding to the playlists, they’ll eventually be split into more specific genre categories. I’ll share those with you as they are created. For now, several are mixed together.
Click the green Spotify icon to open the playlist in the Spotify app. Once in the app, you can add a playlist to your library by clicking “Follow.”
Rock-Pop
Funk-Soul-R&B
Country-Folk
Jazz-Blues
Feel free to share suggestions in the comments below!
Jess is a creativity and artist coach, contemporary voice specialist, indie soul singer-songwriter-producer, and owner of True Colors Voice and Artist Coaching.
Throughout school, she sang soul, jazz, pop, and musical theatre alongside choral and classical music. After completing her master's in classical vocal pedagogy and performance, she devoured whatever she could find about CCM (non-classical) vocal pedagogy, attended her first CCM Institute in 2009, and was eventually appointed to the faculty of the Institute in 2016. Her love for popular music in particular led to the creation of Singing in Popular Musics, a blog by and for voice teachers.
Right after grad school, she started her personal artistry walkabout after a teacher led her to The Artist's Way. It was the first of a non-stop string of books about creativity, coaching, psychology, productivity, and healing, all of which found their way into her teaching as well as her own artistry. While she still loves nerding out on vocal pedagogy and helping singers create the sounds they want, her true passion is in helping singer-artists connect to the why behind their voice, songs, and style, walking alongside them as they find their own path to artistic authenticity.
She’s currently a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the Association for Popular Music Education, and the Creativity Coaching Association.
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