Differences in boys' voice changes

[PaulWSpaceRockDodger]

Last year I had an unexpected contact with a music teacher in south London, who told me that one of his students, who dropped out of Libera when his voice changed, had been obliged to take an extended break from singing until his voice "settled down". As my own voice changed only gradually, I did not experience any particular problem in singing during my transition years, but this music teacher's comments reminded me that the voice change process doesn't go so smoothly for some boys. I would be interested to hear any comments on this subject from people who have experience with music teaching or choir directing. What proportion of boys experience significant disruptions in their ability to sing when their voices change?

[Yorkie]

I have no experience or specialist knowledge in this subject but that seems to be a rather old fashioned view that was widely held in English choirs some decades ago but seems to have been discredited in recent times.

There used to be a theory that you could irrevocably damage a voice by singing through the break and that the boy should abstain from singing until the voice had settled in to its new range. That pretty much seems to have gone out of the window these days and unless there is some particular problem with holding or reaching a note, no reason not to sing - in a lower range of course - through the change.

[paul]

When my voice broke many many years ago, during the transition period, my voice was up and down like a yoyo. There was no sudden break... I'm sure, that if a boy does not sing during this period, it is not to prevent damage to his voice, but to prevent damage to the person(s) listening

[PaulWSpaceRockDodger]

I recently came across the website of Professor Martin Ashley (Edge Hill University, UK), who has done some very interesting research into boys' choirs in general and voice changes in particular. His website is: http://www.martin-ashley.com