“The School Choral Program: Philosophy, Planning, Organizing and Teaching”

Written by Michele Holt and James Mark Jordan

Chapter 11: Working with Male Voices
Presentation by Douglas Ritcher
MUED 376
December 4th, 2018
Main Ideas
- Registers for male singing
- Chest/Low
- Middle/Mixed
- Falsetto/Vocal Harmonic
- Categorization of Male Voices
- Baritone
- Most common
- Resonant through low G-F
- Can fairly easily sing up to E-F# above middle C before breaking into falsetto
- Many will sing Bass or Tenor 2
- Tenor
- Resonant until low A-Bb
- Can sing up to G without flipping into falsetto
- Bass
- Resonant down to low Eb-D
- Breaking into falsetto around Eb
- Strategies for categorization
- So-Fa-Mi-Re-Do on “Bee, bee…” starting on D major going down chromatically
- Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-Fa-Mi-Re-Do on forward vowel “ee” starting on G major going up
chromatically
- Do-Mi-So-Fa-Mi-Re Do on “ee, ah” starting on G major going up chromatically
- Building Vocalism in Male Singers
- Developing the male voice involves attention to keeping balanced tone throughout many registers.
- Primo and secondo passaggio
- Primo
- Around middle C for an average baritone
- Where the mixed register can be accessed
- Secondo
- Around F above middle C for an average baritone
- Where an untrained singer moves to falsetto and a trained singer can use head voice.
- Teaching Resonance
- Importance of space
- Creating space is often the most important factor in creating resonance in inexperienced
singers
- Three Places of Resonance (and how to approach them)
- The passage into and including the mouth
- Start externally: Place three fingers in the mouth vertically for an “ah or “oh”
sound.
- Put a finger over the mandibular joint (on the ear flap.) Drop the jaw until you
feel the hole open up.
- For inside the mouth: yawn to feel the soft palate raised and the tongue flat
 - Imagine you are taking a drink from a drinking fountain to feel the same
sensations.
- The throat (above the larynx and vocal cords)
- Breath with the mouth already open to the vowel shape and feel for a cold
sensation on the back of the throat
- Take a “surprise” breath to make sure the breath is silent
- The nasal cavity
- Singers cannot manipulate this space, but they can change how much sound they
are sending there
- Placement or “buzz”
- Exercise for forward placement (descending)
- So-Fa-Mi-Re-Do starting on A(So) above middle C on “Bee, bee” descending
chromatically
- Encourage singers to maintain weightlessness as the cross passaggios
- To maintain the light tone have singers go through vowel: “oo, ee, oh, eh, ah”
- Exercise for forward placement (ascending)
- Do-Mi-So-La-So-La-So-La-So-Fa-Mi-Re-Do on
yah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee” starting D below middle C, ascending
chromatically to Bb major
- Encourage singers to sing quietly and with staccato articulation
- Moving between vowel shapes
- Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-Mi-Do on “Zee-ee-ee-ee-ah-ah-ah” in the middle of the range.
- Vowel Unification
- Awareness to the feeling of vowel shapes in important as unified vowels create blend and
the best vocal quality.
- How to explain and unify vowels
- “oo”- You are pulling the sound through a drinking straw with thumb and
forefinger and thumb pulling the sound
- “ee”- With the same puckered lips from “oo”, pull the sound from the bridge of
the nose to encourage forward placement and ring
- “oh”- Draw a circle around the mouth to create the same shape
- “ah”- cup your hand on the side of your face to encourage mouth space. Pull
your hand to the sky as you ascend, keeping the tone light
- Choosing Literature
- “Men don’t sing” misconception
- Men DO sing. Singing provides a social setting for men as well.
- Factors guiding literature choices
- How many singers are in the ensemble
- How advanced the singers are
- Building tone through literature
- With new choirs, choose literature that will development tone and technique.
- Music that is too difficult will result in focusing too much on notes and vocal
technique will not be developed.
- Unison literature
- Unison singing in folk songs or liturgical music for example allows for focus on
blend, weight and tone.
- Homophonic literature
 - Homophonic literature like hymns or other songs arranged homophonically
allows for blend and tone development as well as vowel unification.
- Renaissance literature
- Renaissance literature often has high enough tenor parts that they will be
flipping into falsetto. This gives a chance for singers to develop lightness of
tone.
- Social Pressures
- Adolescent males will usually try not to be singled out or do anything
“embarrassing.” Be aware as you select repertoire that might put them in this
uncomfortable position.
- Appropriate keys
- Consider changing keys to pieces to better fit your group’s passaggio. Having
the right key can improve many aspects.
- Seating and voicing
- Voicing the choir in similar timbres
- Have the choir stand in a circle. Have individuals sing short sections of
well-known songs. Put students in order of lightest to darkest voices. Regardless
of arrangement of sections have similar voices together.
- Seating arrangements
- For security of parts, consider starting everyone in their own section.
- Eventually mix Basses and Baritones. Mix the Tenor 1’s and 2’s as well.
- Finally mix all singers together
- Experiment!