Free Vocal Music
When Love is Kind
Free vocal music "When Love is Kind" is one of those traditional songs you frequently find in older vocal music books. Download it for free, in four keys!
Big reasons to use this song
There are two major reasons I give this song to all my beginning singers:
- Difficult lyrics. Like much of the English language, the words of this free vocal music are full of dipthongs and other problems, which give singers opportunities to learn how to deal with these issues.
- The shape of the melody - all of the interval jumps. I'll talk more about that farther down the page.
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
A nicely sung performance
Here is a performer singing When Love is Kind, accompanied by a pianist playing a familiar arrangement of this song. Very nicely sung indeed, with a very smooth sound and no affectation, by a 10-year-old girl named Gabrielle. A pleasure to hear:
What's so difficult about the lyrics?
"When love is kind, cheerful and free, Love's sure to find, welcome from me." Just in the first sentence are a number of lessons in correct singing pronunciation.
In a word: DIPTHONGS
What about dipthongs?
"Kind" and "find" need to have the sound of "ah," not the awful dipthong "uh-ih-EE."
Here is where students hopefully start to develop the good habit of elongating the first vowel sound of a dipthong, and either dropping off the final sound altogether, or tucking it in quickly with the final consonant.
Thus, "When love is KAH-AH-AH-AH(eend)... and "Love's sure to FAH-AH-AH-AH(eend)"...
In the key of Eb
How to illustrate dipthongs
(To illustrate for beginning singers just what a dipthong is, I have them listen to me drag out the sound of the word "boil." Not pretty. It goes something like this: "Boh-ih-ee-yuhl.")
Likewise, the EEE sound in "free" and "me" needs to be softened by dropping the jaw for a "north/south" orientation, rather than "east/west" with a wide smile. Think TALL, not WIDE, with the mouth. Flat, relaxed tongue.
And final consonants
And putting consonants on the ends of words...
There are lots more vowel and also consonant issues to be learned in this simple song...
For example, ending the words with strong enough consonants to be really heard. I sing along with my students quite a bit initially in a song like this, exaggerating the final consonants.
In the key of A
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
Exaggeration!
"Kind" becomes "Kah-ah-ah-aheeNNNDDD!"
I tell my singers, "Unlike regular talking, you want to over-do your words. Pretend you are telling a story to a group of three-year-old children who are having a hard time understanding you! Or elderly nursing-home residents.
"Don't worry; eventually, the exaggeration makes the lyrics audible, and not overdone as you might suspect."
Don't insert "h's"
Another issue that pops up is the use of the "H" sound when only a vowel should be heard: I call that singing with "Hah-hahs."
You know what I mean - some people do it ON PURPOSE when singing melismatic passages such as are found in "For Unto Us a Child is Born": "bo - ho - ho - ho - ho - ho - ho - horn" etc.
It is true that it is much easier to move through the notes that way, and even, perhaps, easier to be accurate, but it gives a staccato feeling to the music, not desirable in small slurs such as we find in "When Love is Kind."
This song jumps high and low
Another reason I find this piece useful -- as well as pretty! -- for beginning singers are the interval leaps which happen over and over.
Navigating "the break"
For girls and women, they must go through their lower break area (around E above Middle C) again and again, up, down, up, down.
This brings home to them the issue of having a consistent sound over their breaks, and learning the difference between the registers called "chest" voice, "middle" voice, and "head" voice.
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
Of course, this is classical singing style we're talking about.
For popular/rock/folk genre songs, rules are much more flexible (even, perhaps, non-existent for rock singers who are pursuing a unique, individual sound).
Despite how catchy the tune is and how cute the words are, I won't promise this free vocal music will be your students' FAVORITE song.
But they will learn a lot. Sometimes, I just don't offer them a choice. "You're going to sing this song," I say, and that's the end of the discussion!
The vocal links:
Download When Love is Kind free vocal music in key of F
When Love is Kind free vocal sheet music in G
When Love is Kind for beginning singers in A
When Love is Kind in the key of Eb
Dianna:
Your website is a light in the darkness. THANK YOU for all you do in helping to spread the love of music. It matters!
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Liz:
Hello - I just want to say THANK YOU so much for the duet version of Oh Holy night (in Bb too!), which is great, as I have two students at school that are going to sing this in a concert in 3 weeks.
With not much time and no budget, it is so nice to find an arrangement! Thank you.
Carrie,Voice and Piano Teacher:
This site is FABULOUS.
For all the reasons you explain on the site itself--this is exactly what piano teachers need! (I still need to go look at the vocal music). Wow. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
About the Author
Hi, I'm Dana! (Say that like "Anna".) I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com, and a newer site, SingTheBibleStory.com.
Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and have added a few other instruments along the way, plus an interest in arranging and composing music.
You can find out more about me and the reason for this website at my About Me page.
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