Hearing the Voices of Adolescent Boys in Choral Music: A Self-Story

Abstract

The techniques of narrative inquiry may provide a framework for investigations of how the social, academic, and musical needs of adolescents can inform the process of teaching choral music in the middle grades. While a burgeoning body of narrative literature illustrates the musical experiences of individuals during instruction, missing from this dialogue are the voices of "marginalized singers" -those who want to participate in choral music but who feel excluded because of perceived ability or other attributions. When teaching strategies do not reflect the changing needs of young adolescent boys, the result can be an experience of frustration and disempowerment; this was the personal experience of the author. The author draws upon his selfstory to suggest that listening to the stories of young adolescent boys about their singing experiences may provide a more complete understanding of how success and persistence can be planned for within the choral environment of middle schools.

‘I’ll sing with my buddies’ — Fostering the possible selves of male choral singers

“…Doug's comment about the men he sees singing in the church choir offers some encouragement to music educators concerned about the 'missing males' problem in choral music (see Freer, 2006Freer, , 2007. The increasing social complexity, academic demands and extracurricular options encountered during the transition to high school may result in a diminished number of boys electing to sing in choirs.…”

The Adolescent Female Changing Voice

“…Beyond Cooksey, researchers associated adolescent male voice change with various topics, including participation in choir (Kennedy, 2002), attrition and retention of males in choir (Freer, 2006), male gender identity (Elorriaga, 2011), and the theory of possible selves (Freer, 2009b(Freer, , 2010. Despite different foci, each of these studies highlighted the influence (both positive and negative) of peer and teacher interactions on developing male singers as well as the importance of vocal modeling for male changing voices.…”

TheAccafellows: exploring the music making and culture of a collegiate a cappella ensemble

“…In traditional ensembles, the director typically assumes responsibility for the music learning process and makes all decisions, and the members are expected to comply. Without an opportunity to contribute to the musicmaking process, students may feel frustrated and discouraged (Freer 2006), which occasionally was the case with Bryan when other members of the group did not take his ideas seriously. Research by Allsup (2003), Claire (1993/1994), Scruggs (2009 and Wiggins (1999Wiggins ( /2000 that investigated teacher-and student-centred approaches in various music settings and research with adolescent boys by Freer (2006Freer ( , 2007Freer ( , 2010 and Harrison (2010) support this finding.…”