“How do you get so many boys to sing in your choir?”

The truth is, I don’t.  I do nothing to encourage them.  I don’t tell them singing is cool.  I don’t battle against the stereotype that ‘singing is for girls’.  I don’t do ‘boy friendly’ songs.  I think the fact I’m male has no influence.  So why does my school choir have so many boys?  It doesn’t.  In fact, I think it has an unremarkable number of boys.

I work in a big state primary.  Just over half of the children are boys.  It stands to reason then that about the same ratio would be represented in the school choir.  And it is.  In fact, as it currently stands, the percentage of boys in choir is almost exactly the same percentage as the number of boys in school.

On a Friday just before Christmas we were asked to sing at a local civic event.  It was at this event that I was asked the question again.  It was prompted by the, shall we say ‘exuberant’, performances of 3 boys in particular on the front row:

“How do you get so many boys to sing in your choir?”

“I don’t. They just come and sing”

“But boys don’t usually like to sing.  It’s so refreshing to see them joining in so enthusiastically”

“Don’t they?  Why not?”

“Well.  It’s just not seen as a boy thing usually”

And so – I guess he answered his own question.  “It’s just not seen as a boy thing.”

Who doesn’t see it as a boy thing?  Not the boys, that’s for sure.  The children in my school all sing.  Singing is not an exclusive hobby. The choirs take place during the school day.  The weekly singing assemblies are led by a variety of staff.  In our recent Christmas performances, all children who celebrate Christmas sang.  In fact the most the most memorable performers were mainly boys.  Why?  Because we don’t expect anything less from them.  We don’t excuse them if they’re lacking in enthusiasm one day.  I don’t see them as a challenge.  I haven’t decided that they need extra focus.

Now – here’s a thing.  I’m in a primary school.  I don’t have to cope with the world of breaking voices and teenage hormones.  Maybe it’s easier for me.  They’re not as easily influenced by their peers at that age.  Yet I recently saw a remarkable choir from an inner city boys school.  I put the question to their head of music.

“They sing in assemblies, and music lessons, and choir is treated as a privilege.  They commit to choir, they come to 2 rehearsals a week during school time, they get to go out and about.  They often have a tricky period when their voice doesn’t really know what it’s doing, but we can cover that”.

When I asked a friend who runs a big department in a mixed secondery, her response was only a little different.  Her Junior Choir (KS3)  has some, but not a huge number of boys, but her senior choir has penty.  The school also has a successful award winning barbershop group.

“they sing in year 7, then drop out in Y8/9 and return when their voices are sorted.”  They’re currently thinking of setting up a boys choir to try and cover those ‘lost’ years when voices are trying to work themselves out.  Her expectation is that the boys will return to it, and in the mean time is looking for a way for them to comfortably keep singing.

If boys and their singing is a problem for you, maybe turn the quetion around.  “How do you get so many girls to sing?”  Getting girls to sing is no different to getting boys to sing.  Or atleast, it shouldn’t be.  If your choir is disproportionately girl heavy, it’s time to go back to basics.  An ingrained attitude to singing can’t be cured over night so scrap the choir and have a whole keystage singing session once a week instead.  Don’t ‘invite’ boys to choir, tell them they should be coming.  Sing in music lessons.  Sing across the curriculum.  Place the expectation of full engagement in front of them and watch them rise to the challenge.  Make singing about the school community.  Praise the boys and girls singing in equal measure.  Give them solos.  Give them the responsibility to assess their own singing.

How do you get boys to sing?  You expect nothing less from them.