If It Were Easy, Choirboys Would Do It

I’m departing from my planned blog because of something I just read in the March 2014 National Geographic, and it pushed all kinds of buttons.  In the piece called “People of the Horse,” the author quotes an announcer making the calls during a demanding horse/rider relay race at Crow Fair in Montana, billed as an All-Indian rodeo.  There has just been a bad crash requiring an ambulance, and the announcer says, “This is a tough business.  If it were easy, choirboys would do it.”

If it were easy, choirboys would do it?!?!?!

If it were easy, choirboys would do it?!?!

Excuse me, but singing is not for wusses!  It requires fine muscle coordination in the jaw, tongue, and throat,  and strong rib cage and abdominal muscles.  It requires deep, controlled breathing within a relaxed body, directed inhalation and exhalation, intense concentration, and highly skilled eye/brain/muscle coordination.  It’s downright athletic!  Plus, a singer needs an ability to quickly read what is essentially a different language and translate it into music.  AND, choral singing requires an ability to lay aside one’s ego and work within an organization for the greater good of that organization and the community at large.  It takes strong people, physically, mentally and soulfully, to do all that.

I love National Geographic; this has nothing to do with the magazine, or Native Americans either.  It’s a vivid image, easy to grasp, and I can understand why the announcer used it.  But that’s the problem; it’s indicative of the prevailing attitude in our society that men who sing, unless it’s in smash-up rock bands, are not manly men.

I beg to differ!

And it’s time to push back against that attitude!

Many school and church choral programs are crying out for boy singers.  Just like many choruses, my chorus, Master Chorus Eastside, always has a tougher time filling the tenor and bass sections than filling the women’s sections.  What are we going to do about this?  Unfortunately I don’t have any easy answers, or even hard answers.  It will be a long, slow change, but it needs to happen.

Choir geeks one and all, stand tall and proud!  Let’s hear it for the boys and men who have the courage, and the strength, of body, mind and will to swim against the current and sing in a choir!

Dr. Linda Gingrich

Artistic director and conductor

Master Chorus Eastside