It's so difficult to get boys to come to the school choir. I try to select songs that aren't too girly, and include drums and body percussion where possible. However, we still have a ratio of girls to boys of about 10 to 1.Our rehearsals are held at lunch-time, which I'm sure is part of the problem. Boys have other things to do at lunch-time and don't want to be cooped up inside.
I know one music teacher who had a good idea for getting boys involved at her child's high school. Every member of the rugby team had to also participate in the choir. It was called the "rugby choir". Suddenly choir was cool.
Once you actually get the boys to turn up, you often have the "bull-frog factor": they sing in a low-pitched drone, emulating the male performers they hear on the radio. To improve their pitch, they need to find their "head voice". There are lots of fun exercises to help with this - "siren" warm-ups for example.
Sometimes, just when a boy is really starting to enjoy singing, their voice starts to break and they are again discouraged from singing out. We need to help them re-learn the art.
I believe it's really important to help boys discover the joy of singing when they are little, before they have learned to be self-conscious. Then at least when they're bigger, if they won't sing in public, they can do it in the shower!
Please leave a comment if you have any other thoughts/ideas on how to get the lads involved.Image 1: 'So happy =)'
www.flickr.com/photos/97831130@N00/1066368855
Image 2: 'Three'
www.flickr.com/photos/11741717@N03/1332038002
Posts
2 comments:
Hi Kerryn
Yes, this is a perrenial problem and I have no simple answers! It affects boys and men of all ages. In my choir (85 singers on the books) we have around 10 men, and it's taken almost that many years to get them all. Even when we can persuade a bloke to join, he often doesn't stay.
I wrote a piece on my blog a while back that you might find interesting: Where are all the male singers?. And even when you do manage to get blokes on board, they're often the "bull frog" type singers you describe, have difficulty pitching, and can't seem to remember songs!
I'll be writing a post about that in the future: The problem with men. Part of the problem I think is that most blokes are baritones whereas we're trying to get them to sing tenor or bass, but they don't quite fit into either range.
Of course, it's a whole different ball game if there are only blokes in the choir: see the Spooky Men's Chorale for example.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for my very first comment! You are so right, I love the guys in our (grown-ups') choir, but they do seem to have trouble remembering what they have to do, bless 'em. Maybe it's the repetitive nature of the bass part. The Spooky Men are awesome.
Post a Comment