The ‘Few Good Men’ in a Choir of Women:
How to Employ Quality Repertoire and Teaching Strategies to Keep Them Singing
Dr. Greg LeFils, Choral Conductor
Seabreeze High School, Daytona Beach
So... what do you do when you have an unbalanced number of male singers to female singers in your high school choral group? This is a predicament I have found myself working to resolve many times while teaching high school. For whatever reasons; required weight lifting for athletes, scheduling conflicts, 4 x 4 block scheduling among others, I had to find ways to keep my guys singing and plugged in to the choral program. After finishing my work at Florida State University, and I was once again confronted with this challenge, I was determined to learn as much as I could about it. In my research, I reached out and connected with Mr. Robert Ivey, the Director of Choral Activities at Brenau University in Gainesville, GA. As Brenau is mostly comprised of the women’s college, he has been confronted with this challenge for quite some time and I thank him for his insight as I prepared this session.
Session Main Topics:
1. The Singer’s Self-Efficacy
2. The Voice Change
3. Repertoire Selection
4. Arranging Music to fit your Ensemble
The Singer’s Self-Efficacy
Efficacy is defined as the individual’s judgment of their capability to accomplish a given task.
“How good they think they are at a task”
Research indicates that individuals with high efficacy beliefs may exert more effort and show higher levels of perseverance toward their goals than do individuals with low efficacy beliefs.
The conductor plays a key role in instilling high self-efficacy in their singers (Bandura, 1990).
Vincent Oaks – Chattanooga Boys Choir – “…it is the confidence of each individual singer which must be carefully considered and consistently encouraged.”
Matching Pitch
For the Self-Efficacy of the few men in your choir to grow, you must know as much as you can about each voice. The student’s inability to match pitch can lead to feelings of non-musicality and a lack of enjoyment in singing. That student could then drop the class.
Find out who those students are as soon as possible using the Group-Test method as provided by Irving Cooper:
Cooper Group Test - “Jingle Bells”
· D Major – tap all boys singing lower octave and matching pitch (Bar/Bass)
· G Major – tap all boys singing high octave and matching pitch (trebles)
· A Major – starting on middle C# - remaining boys that match pitch are Cambiatae
· The boys not matching… bring down to the piano and evaluate as a small group
Dr. Alan McClung, UNT and the Cambiata Institute – Individual Training
1. Have them sing a pitch and the teacher matches
2. Have the teacher sing a pitch and the singer matches
3. Pitch sliding to desired pitch
4. Repeated pitch on “Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey”
Boys with Gaps in their Range
If you’ve got a boy with a blank space in the middle of his voice… it’s temporary. Some Vocal fold coordination training is required.
· Descending sighs on the schwa [ә] vowel
· “pweep” descending tones (5 or 3) from high voice through to low voice
· Sliding from high to low [oo-oh-ah]
· Encourage lighter singing through a lifted space
The Voice Change
When novice boys first start singing, the initial product may be poor. Many of the boys tend to drop to the bottom of their range and somewhat speak as they sing. Although training helps, teachers are encouraged to be patient and positive during this time. Kenneth H. Phillips provides a clear historical perspective of some of the leading figures of research as it pertains to the male voice change.
Irvin Cooper – describes the changing voice as the “Cambiata”; advises against unison singing; the group-test method in classifying voices
Duncan MacKenzie – unchanged boy voices moved from soprano to alto based on reading ability; alto-tenor as the voice began to change; tenor and then baritone/bass; listen to the speaking voice as to classification cue; downward vocalization
Fredrick Swanson – advocates for the retention of the treble voice; recognizes the blank space between the boys’ two registers;
John Cooksey – greater level of sophistication to the different stages of change; assigns a timing schedule to various stages of voice change;
The “Take Away”: These models explain that during voice change the boy’s range fluctuates. Knowing each boys specific range helps us, as conductors, how to choose quality repertoire.
Repertoire Selection
“Choosing effective literature is pedagogically
essential and very important
to maintaining interest and enthusiasm.”
-Henry Leck
Indianapolis Children’s Chorus
When selecting repertoire for a beginning high school choir, rely more on fulfilling the technical needs of the singers over the aesthetic qualities because research shows that greater success can be achieved. – Rebecca Reames (2001)
“What about SAB Literature??”
Sounds logical but… Developmentally and Musically… Don’t do it! There are far more disadvantages to advantages when programing SAB music.
· Poor voice leading for the baritones due to it acting as a compromise
· Baritone part too high for Basses and too low for Tenors
· Newer basses frequently have a gap between their lower notes and their head voice
· This is where much of SAB literature is written.
Even when all the notes are sung accurately, chord voicings will often sound empty and unblended due to the wide pitch gap between treble and baritone voices. SAB pieces can be effectively used in ninth-grade choirs in which most of the male voices have changed or in small high school choirs with few male singers. – Emily Crocker (2000)
A Better Option… Seek 2 & 3 part Treble Literature
Be flexible in adapting parts to accommodate ranges that are comfortable for each singer. Revoice the music so that the men can sing: melody down an octave, an ostinato, or an alto part… OR have them use their high voice. All the while, you’re able to spread the girls across all parts with appropriate range, since it’s treble music.
This is easier with a two-part piece than a four-part piece. Where can a new bass sing most comfortably? If still using his high voice, he can sing in the treble staff. If using his new voice he sings from low D up to G in bass clef. Most boys have difficulty singing across the break from D to F in between the staves and this is exactly where SAB music often puts the baritone part.
Arranging Music to fit the Needs of your Ensemble
Frederick Swanson – “Innovative teachers - Such a class cannot progress unless there is a teacher who is experienced, adaptable, and innovative. A teacher must be able to transpose, play a tonic sol-fa chording in any key, manufacture a simple descant, even write out a three-part arrangement of a favorite song.”
“Bass singers, even a few, doubling a sop melody down the octave merely reinforce the melody without drawing attention to a low part that might not balance if they were singing a bass part against two or three other sections. Higher boys can double the soprano two at actual pitch, and changing boys can double the alto at pitch. These decisions must of course be made individually for each piece based on numbers of boys and their range abilities, but the general idea can translate to many, many SSA or 3-part treble selections.”
- Bowers, J. (2008)
“Few Good Men” Bibliography
Apfelstadt, H. (2000). First things first: Selecting repertoire. Music Educators Journal, 87 (1), 19-22.
Bradley, L., & Robertson, H. (1982). General suggestions for finding treble choir repertoire. Choral Journal, 23 (1), 23-27.
Brunner, D. L. (1995). Choral music that matters: A composer's perspective. Choral Journal, 36 (3), 29-31.
Brunner, D. L. (1992). Choral repertoire: A director's checklist. Music Educators Journal, 79 (1), 29-32.
Crocker, E.. (2000). Choosing Music for Middle School Choirs.Music Educators Journal,86(4), 33–37.
Dahlman, H. N. (1992). The effect of choral program size, teacher experience, and teacher education level on the selection of high school music literature (Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1991). Dissertation Abstracts International, 52-10A, 3551.
Decker, H. A. (1967). Choosing music for performance. In K. L. Neidig & J.
Demorest, S. M.. (2000). Encouraging Male Participation in Chorus.Music Educators Journal,86(4), 38–41.
Demorest, S. M., & Ann Clements. (2007). Factors Influencing the Pitch-Matching of Junior High Boys. Journal of Research in Music Education,55(3), 190–203. Forbes, G. W.. (2001).
The Repertoire Selection Practices of High School Choral Directors.Journal of Research in Music Education,49(2), 102–121.
Gates, J. T.. (1989). A Historical Comparison of Public Singing by American Men and Women.Journal of Research in Music Education,37(1), 32–47.
Heffernan, C. W. (1982). Choral music: Technique and artistry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Hoffer, C. R. (2001). Teaching music in the secondary schools (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Koza, J.E. (1993-1994). Big boys don’t cry (or sing): Gender, misogyny, and homophobia in college choral methods texts. The Quarterly, 4-5 (5-1), pp. 48-64.
Leck, H. (2001). The Boy’s Changing Voice: Take theHigh Road, Video, Hal Leonard.
Lawrence, J. E. (1989). The right stuff: Success begins with the director. Music Educators Journal, 75 (6), 37-39.
Locke, J. (2000) Some Thoughts Concerning Education, ed . John W. Yolton and Jean S. Yolton (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). Originally published in 1695.
Mayhall, B. (1994). The quest for high-quality repertoire. Choral Journal, 35 (2), 9-15.
Reames, R. R.. (2001). High School Choral Directors' Description of Appropriate Literature for Beginning High School Choirs.Journal of Research in Music Education,49(2), 122–135.
Richmond, J. W. (1990). Selecting choral repertoire as pre-curriculum: Planned serendipity. Choral Journal, 30 (10), 23-30.
Sateren, L. B. (1963). Criteria for judging choral music and those straight-tone choirs. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.
Stamer, R. A.. (1999). Motivation in the Choral Rehearsal.Music Educators Journal,85(5), 26–29.
Swanson, F.. (1984). Changing Voices: Don't Leave out the Boys.Music Educators Journal,70(5), 47–50.
Turley, P. W. (1989). Activities and philosophical principles employed in selected Indiana high school choral departments (Doctoral dissertation, Ball State University, 1988). Dissertation Abstracts International, 49, 2577A.
Wendy K. Matthews, & Anastasia Kitsantas. (2007). Group Cohesion, Collective Efficacy, and Motivational Climate as Predictors of Conductor Support in Music Ensembles.Journal of Research in Music Education,55(1), 6–17.
Wyatt, L. D. (1995, February). Choral literature performed by high school directors in South Carolina (1993/1994). Paper presented at a meeting of the South Carolina Music Educators Association, Columbia. Unpublished study.