Tactics for Building Success in Novice Male Singers

Tactics to Build Success for Novice Male Singers

Our most difficult scenario is getting our freshmen boys from THIS, to preparing for an International Barbershop Harmonies Competition (we finished third in our category) or NCAA DII National Baseball Championship.

I’ve worked with Men’s choirs/ensembles forever and have loved every minute of it. There have been a LOT of mistakes made BUT I’m going to save you the time and effort of failures that I’ve incurred and hopefully steer you in the right direction.

We work extremely hard to get the guys in our ensembles, and it seems to be increasingly more difficult to do so. The research suggests that prepubescent young male singers may try to sing in Elementary school, but because of peer pressure, stereotypes, and their voice change, they usually will stop singing in Middle/Jr. High School and unfortunately, we don’t usually get them back. That’s why it’s so important to be patient with them and assist them THROUGH the voice change, and don’t exclude them because of this natural (albeit scary) developmental process. Phillip’s story…

So, if I can encourage our Secondary MIDDLE SCHOOL directors for a moment. PLEASE don’t give up on your guys. Their Pre-frontal cortex is STILL developing, and they really CAN’T help making bad decisions. This will oftentimes spill over into freshman year through Christmas break. Somehow another miracle of The Season occurs, and they seem to grow up a bit in January.

We don’t have time however, in this session to work through the prepubescent scenario so let’s assume for a second that you somehow managed to talk a group of guys to join choir after their voice change, post-pubescent, but they have little to NO choir or musical experience. These are the guys we’re targeting in this session called “novice” singers. We usually define this group as having less than one year of singing experience. I’ve had various scenarios in my career…

1)             Both MS and HS choir director (only my fault)

2)             NO MS feeder program

3)             Started a MS Choir CLUB met once a week

4)             Worst case, one MS feeder FABULOUS and the other ZILCH (no program)

5)             NOW I’m in heaven at SFHS with Caylen Stewart as my feeder. Her students come in looking at new music with me singing and using Curwen hand signs!!

Quick backstory on THIS research: I was teaching at Oxford High School in Mississippi whilst working on my master’s degree. In MS their fine arts requirement is one year of anything “fine arts” to graduate, so there would be quite a few Seniors guys who would wait until their last year of HS to come to me and say…

GOAL; POUR A FOUNDATION OF CONFIDENCE AND SELF-EFFICACY, that makes them believe they CAN do it.

So here’s what I decided to do;

STEP ONE;  DETERMINE THEIR VOCAL RANGE AND VOICE PART USING HABITUAL FREQUENCY (and pray they weren’t tone deaf tonedeaftest.com, later I added this component during registration). Quick spiel on Amusia (tone deafness only about 4%). MOST people who say they are tone deaf are really tone lazy or tone ignorant, not understanding the breath-making mechanisms of their body, and/or utilizing them correctly.

(I had been doing some research on “habitual frequency”...)

a.              Have them read a short paragraph in their “normal” speaking voice and determine their common pitch from a keyboard OR

b.              Use a pitch analysis app such as PitchChecker to accurately assess their speaking tones (if you or your students are the nerdy sciency type…)

c.              Once you discern their habitual frequency, have them match a small series of pitches with “do” as their habitual frequency. I started with do, re, mi, re do but later went to do, re, do, ti, do. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT; research also suggests that novice male singers will respond and be more accurate with a male voice model. If you’re a female teacher with NO male colleague nearby to help you, use a piano and make sure you’re playing in the correct octave and do NOT try to match them an octave higher. This does not promote the self-efficacy we’re targeting.  If you get them to sing just a few notes correctly you can encourage them immensely and create a positive framework from which to build. THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT!

Now you have a novice singer with confidence that he CAN sing (even if it’s just a few notes to start) and you can build from there.

STEP TWO; BUILD THEIR RANGE

                      Establish a basic understanding of the vocal apparatus and breathing exercises. If they can’t breathe correctly, they can’t sing correctly. Do not start with difficult vocal exercises that span an entire octave. Do no more than a fifth to start. After an almost exhausting and annoying emphasis on breathing exercises and the importance of the diaphragm, I usually start with the three pitches do, re, do, ti, do and ascend by half-steps. I ALWAYS start low and get the “basses” to go as high as they comfortably can, adding baritones and tenors as you ascend. Make sure you tell them to drop out when it starts to feel uncomfortable and keep the energy and encouragement going the whole time. You can even make it a competition with incentives. (Most of the time, guys LIKE and WANT to be challenged!)

STEP THREE; SPRINKLE IN MUSICIANSHIP AND HARMONY SKILLS as you have opportunity with simple literature and listening examples. Start with thirds and fifths to build chords and discuss harmony and chord progressions. Rounds are NOT as beneficial for novice singers IF they have a wide range. Get them excited to sing! Show a few videos from Barbershop Groups and Choirs. Just recently there was a great group of guys from an inner-city Chicago School on AGT.

When they develop some, there are great resources at barbershop.org.

No One Sings Higher Than Me (LISTEN TO THIS LATER, IT’S HILARIOUS!)

Never be too proud to ask for help. Find a local barbershop group that can volunteer.

STEP FOUR; LITERATURE don’t overshoot with beginners (again, a LOT of what we’re doing at this phase is building CONFIDENCE not ability). If they don’t believe they can do it, they’re a lot less likely to try. You’d rather have them start with easy and have success RATHER THAN struggling through a difficult piece that won’t sound as good.

JW PEPPER Simply TB from Heritage Music Press Reproducible EPrint book is 49.95

(This is a great bargain!)

Experiencing Choral Music TB books McGraw Hill WITH CD TRACKS! :)

YES, SHAMELESS PLUG next…

Links to my arrangements at drbrownsmusic.com;

My Mother Told Me Norse folk tune (TB w solo) optional piano

Dead Horse (Sea Shanty) TB w optional piano or guitar

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum! (TTBB) a cappella

Gaudeamus Igitur (TBB) accapella

Great is Thy Faithfulness (TBB) accapella

America the Beautiful (SAB) accapella

That's All (SSATBB) Jazzy accapella

Star-Spangled Banner (SSA) a cappella

America the Beautiful (SSAA) a cappella

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE send me links to videos and recordings if you do get one of my songs. I’d LOVE to hear it!!

Questions?

Contact ME!  Email - drbrowns.music@gmail.com