Degendering Voice Parts for Changing Voices

I rarely meet teachers who chose to major in music with the hope of becoming a middle school teacher. I am no different. I started my freshman year of university with plans to become a very serious choir director . And my coursework reinforced this, preparing me to direct a children’s choir of treble singers, lead a high school choral program, or work with a community choir of adults. But the amount of time we spent on middle school students was negligible. What to do with changing voices? Not an issue that we spent much time discussing.

So where did I promptly land my first teaching job? You can probably guess. In my first few years as a middle school choir director, the classic adage of “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” was really more like, “Try, fall flat on your face, listen to your students, research the concept, re-design your ensemble structure, completely reconsider your repertoire choices, try again.” Repeat, repeat, repeat. Here are a few things I’ve figured out along the way…

1. Expand the voice parts in your choir as needed

I cringe at the way I casually grouped all of my male students as baritones in my first year of teaching. Fast forward to the current year. Depending on the exact mix of students, I know that I may have students of all genders singing soprano, alto, cambiata, baritone, and/or bass in my middle school groups in a given year. I just did voice part classification with my eighth-grade students and among those identifying as male I have a true soprano who has yet to begin changing, a trans male student who sings alto, two cambiatas who are in the middle of changing, three baritones, and one bass. Many of them will move sections at some point during the year. And it goes without saying that seating is then based on voice part, not gender, the same as it would be in any other ensemble, such as band or orchestra.

What I call baritone is essentially a voice that is going through the second phase of changing. I typically don’t classify middle school students as tenors, unless I have a true tenor who has emerged in eighth grade. And I wholeheartedly embrace the voice part of cambiata. This is the student whose voice is in the first stage of changing and who typically feels comfortable singing right around and above middle C. Having an ever-changing section of a few cambiatas in middle school has been a game changer. The personal system I’ve put together over the years is based on Cooper’s method for labelling the changing voice, which you can read much more about in a Choral Journal article by Leon Thurman here .

2. Involve your students in the voice classification process

At the beginning of the year, I spend time teaching the system of voice classification to my students. I emphasize the difference between range and tessitura, explaining that I want everyone to be in a section in which they can both physically sing the notes while truly feeling they are performing at their best. Then we spend a day or two doing warm-ups and vocal exercises, trying out easy unison songs in different keys, and taking notes about how it all feels in our voices.

At the end of the process, the kids submit their thoughts about voice placement to me. If anyone isn’t sure—particularly those who are brand new to choir or who I know are going through a voice change—they come in to sing with me in small groups so I can help with their decision. But by and large, my adolescent students are incredibly self-aware and make great choices for themselves.

3. Be purposeful with your language

Like many of you, I grew up hearing my choir director use terms like “girls” to refer to the sopranos and altos and “boys” for anyone sitting in the middle tenor, baritone, and/or bass sections. When I began that first teaching job, I continued using those words myself. As a young teacher and cisgender female, I was horribly ignorant of the effect of the gendered language I used in rehearsal.

Not only were those words poor identifiers for the actual vocal sections of my choir, but they created stress for those students who didn’t identify with the gendered terms I was using. I now purposely avoid using gendered language in both rehearsal and performance, instead using voice parts to clearly identify who I’m addressing: “Sopranos, here’s your note,” “Baritones, stand up and get us started!” and so on. To help myself make the switch, I put reminders on my piano and music stand for an entire year.

This conversation on gender inclusivity extends to repertoire selection, ensemble names, concert attire, and many more issues. I recommend this Alfred blog post by Dr. Stephen Paparo for further reading.

4. Be flexible with your repertoire selections

As middle school choral conductors, our job is to help our students find joy and confidence as young singers. Accordingly, it is far better to sing a quality two-part choral well than to struggle through a complicated four-part composition that is barely ready for performance.

I don’t even consider programming 3-part mixed or SAB music until the second half of the year, when I typically have larger cambiata, baritone, and bass sections. Instead, I start the year with simpler 2-part voicings in which my sopranos sing part I, my altos and cambiatas sing part II, and my baritone and bass singers take one of those parts down the octave (usually part I, depending on the range). This allows those newly changed voices to focus on pitch while singing mostly melody. And I make adjustments on nearly every page to fit the voices of the singers in my ensemble.

Do you have suggestions on working with changing voices? Please contribute to the discussion by leaving them in the comments below!