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MANAGING THE STAGES OF VOCAL CHANGE

In document Becoming a Choral Music Teacher (Page 47-53)

M IDDLE S CHOOL S INGERS : C HANGING V OICES ,

MANAGING THE STAGES OF VOCAL CHANGE

Consider this scenario: A rehearsal room full of middle school students is assembled and you are excited to begin teaching what you have spent your lifetime learning to master—the music! You decide to ask the newly assembled choir to sing in unison a simple tune that they

probably know, such as Row, Row, Row Your Boat. You give them a starting pitch in the key of F Major, along with your well-trained conducting preparatory beat, and you hear a vocal sound that disturbs your musically trained ears. You think that perhaps a different key will help them. You try again in the key of C and the results are no better.

You think, “How could this be happening when the music is so simple?

Something is terribly wrong! I must have chosen the wrong pro-fession!”

The scenario above is not unrealistic. In fact, most music teachers have been there and done that at some point, and some have even changed professions! But do not fear—knowledge of the adolescent voice through study and practice will prepare you to achieve success with this age group. In the scenario above, the persistent teacher found that unison singing of a song with an octave range was not the way to produce a successful middle school choral sound, due to the varying and often limited ranges of the boys’ changing voices.

There are many theories, labels, textbooks, courses and opinions on the boys’ changing voice. Some of the most important scholars on the topic (and their associated label for the changing voice) are Duncan McKenzie (the “alto-tenor”), Irvin Cooper (the “cambiata”), Frederick Swanson (the “adolescent bass”), John Cooksey (the “eclectic theory”), Anthony Barresi (the “adolescent voice”), as well as those of Henry Leck (the “high road”), Sally Herman (the “road map”), Lynne Gackle (the girls’ changing voice), and others including the American Boychoir, and Kenneth Phillips, author of Teaching Kids to Sing (1992).

Despite the many theories of the adolescent changing voice, the bottom line is that puberty causes the lengthening, widening, and thickening of the larynx (“voice box”) and vocal folds (“vocal cords”) along with the growth spurt of the rest of the maturing body. Although both girls and boys have treble ranges of more than a tenth above middle C in the elementary school years, both boys’ and girls’ vocal ranges begin to lower in the middle school years, and sometimes as early as the 4th grade. Voices are typically unstable from three months to a year, with the peak of voice change considered to be the 8th grade (Sataloff, 2000). The growth of the larynx from front to back as evidenced by the “Adam’s apple,” combined with the lengthening of the vocal folds, causes boys’ voices to drop approximately an octave in pitch at the peak of the change. Girls’ voices change in adolescence as well,

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but in more subtle ways with regard to range and quality (Phillips, 2004). Vocal development nears maturity by age 16, making high school choirs much more stable than middle school choirs (Sataloff &

Spiegel, 1989).

The challenge with the changing voice is that in a classroom of 7th and 8th grade boys, no two change at the same rate or at the same age, despite research that suggests that boys progress from one predictable stage of lowered voice change to another (Killian, 1999). Most middle school choir teachers find that their singers are a unique group each school year. Some male voices may change from soprano to baritone over summer vacation, while others may change little by little through-out the school year (Sataloff & Spiegel, 1989). Some adolescent boys may experience embarrassing “cracks” when they speak or sing, while others barely notice the gradually lowering voice. A demonstration by the American Boychoir at Indiana University revealed that some boys completely lose their ability to sing except for a few high and low pitches, while others lose their high and low pitches and have only a middle range, and still others will continue to sing with ease throughout the change. Some can sing in the alto range at the begin-ning of the semester, but by the holiday concert can barely sing at all, and by the spring concert can sing a few baritone notes (Leck, 2001). This creates a challenge when trying to select singable repertoire and when working to balance and teach voice parts in preparation for concerts.

An additional challenge is the embarrassment and/or discourage-ment many boys feel when they can no longer sing as easily as they did in the 5th grade, or the avoidance of middle school choir altogether because of these difficulties. How do we keep our middle school choirs balanced with male and female voices when this happens, and more importantly, how do we keep boys interested in high school or lifelong choir singing if they become disenchanted with it during the critical middle school years?

Fortunately, there are many practical solutions to all of these prob-lems, and the old view that boys should not sing during the voice change is no longer a valid one due to the evolution of knowledge regarding the benefits of training the voice during puberty (Cooksey, 1977). Duncan McKenzie, Frederick Swanson and Irvin Cooper were pioneers in the development of the “new” view during the mid-1900s.

First,

• it is important to listen to the boys’ voices, individually or in small groups, approximately every six weeks to note any changes in range, quality, and ease of production;

• octave displacement is often utilized to limit a song’s range or intervals; and

• the teacher may have to put arranging skills to work to create parts that the boys can sing with ease, even if it is a limited note vocal ostinato at times.

While it may not be easy to listen to individuals frequently, or to re-arrange compositions and voice parts, especially as the concert date approaches, it is important to keep the boys singing comfortably and contributing to the choir’s sound.

Second,

• it is often beneficial to plan to have separate gender choirs, so that the boys can experience their vocal change in the privacy of other boys who are and will experience the phenomenon, and without the pressure of the possibility of being laughed at by the girls.

A separate girls’ choir can be beneficial as well to help them work through their developing registers without the distraction of the oppo-site sex during rehearsals. The separate gender choirs work best if there are enough boys and girls involved in each choir to make a substantial choral sound. Another solution is to bring the two separate choirs (or

“sectionals” if you wish) together for mixed choir repertoire. In order to avoid the assumption of gender-biased groups, labels for these groups may be “treble chorus” and “bass-clef chorus” (Swanson, 1973).

Third,

• role models are important to all of us as we go through life, and that is no exception for middle school boy singers.

Male choral music education majors would be wise to consider student teaching and then teaching for a few years at the middle school level, and later decide if they want to move on to teaching at the high school level. Middle school boys often value having a male choir teacher who validates the fact that choral music needs male voices, and learn best from a male vocal model who can sing in their range and has first-hand

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understanding and experience of the adolescent voice change (Barham

& Nelson, 1991). Female choir directors may invite male colleagues into the middle school choir to inspire the young males, or play record-ings of the many truly extraordinary male choral ensembles, such as the American Boychoir, Chanticleer, Take Six, and so many others.

Lastly,

• another successful approach is to keep the boys singing in their high range throughout the voice change.

In Henry Leck’s Indianapolis Children’s Choir, boys continue to use their high voice (head voice) throughout the voice change in order to keep it. Many boys choose to continue to sing soprano or alto during the voice change, even after their voice settles into the tenor or baritone range. As we will discuss later, warm-ups and vocalises that start in the head voice and move downward, including vocal sighs, are helpful in making the transition throughout the range. Leck’s video, The Boy’s Changing Voice: Take the High Road (2001), is a helpful demonstration for teachers of middle school singers.

Ken Phillips, along with the other changing voice theorists, agrees that vocalizing from the high voice downward is effective for assisting with the registration problems experienced by adolescent boys. In fact, Phillips (1992) and Sally Herman (1988) suggest that a key to develop-ing a high school tenor is to vocalize the middle school boys in the upper register. Specific warm-ups for the changing voice are presented in the next chapter.

A visual explanation of why unison singing is ill-advised for a middle school choir with changing and changed voices is presented in Example 2.1, with half notes indicating the range of each voice part, and quarter notes indicating the tessitura.

Considering only the unchanged (treble) and tenor voices, one can see that the only overlap in unison range is a major sixth from b-flat to g1, but when considering the tessitura (the notes that can be sung easily), the common tones are almost non-existent. Similarly, among the baritone/bass voices there is an overlap of only a minor third (d to f ) in range and no overlap of tessitura. When combining all possible middle school voice parts, how many common tones can be found among the six voice ranges and tessituras identified by Phillips in Example 2.2?

Example 2.1 Middle School Vocal Ranges and Tessituras (Phillips, 1992)

Example 2.2 Middle School Vocal Common Tones

A careful examination of Example 2.2 shows that there are no unison pitches that all singers in a choir with these six voice parts would be able to sing, which explains the frustrating scenario described at the beginning of this chapter. However, the three lower voice parts have ranges that are similar to the three upper voices, and thus could sing an octave lower. But this range is limited to approximately a perfect fifth, which also illustrates why the octave range of Row, Row, Row Your Boat resulted in the undesirable tone found in our scenario.

Of course it is important to note that these ranges may vary dra-matically based on individual singers and their previous (or lack of ) vocal training. However, the awareness of the theoretical ranges for middle school singers is basic knowledge of the middle school voice.

While the various ranges create challenges for the choir director, there are numerous solutions to creating an effective and rewarding choral experience for your singers.

Fortunately, the published repertoire for the middle school mixed choir is becoming increasingly desirable. Music that is termed

“three-part” often has a part that is singable by everyone, but may necessitate octave displacement. Compositions for SAB and SACB (C 5 “Cambiata” or “Changing Voice”) may also work well. SATB is often not appropriate for this age because of the limited number of true (changed) tenors and basses. There are many outstanding choral arrangements and compositions for middle school singers that can greatly assist the choral music teacher in planning a sound curriculum.

We will examine them in a coming chapter.

MANAGING THE STAGES OF PHYSICAL AND

In document Becoming a Choral Music Teacher (Page 47-53)