I went to a middle school choir concert last night. It is one of the gifts of having been able to move close to where our grandchildren live. I’ve made it through life long enough to be one of those grandparents that you always see at school programs and concerts. What hair I have left is pretty much all white and my white beard distinguishes me as an elder in crowds. I don’t mind being identified as a grandpa. I rather enjoy the distinction.

I enjoyed the concert. The 6th grade choir sang selections from The Wizard of Oz. Those songs have been around for a long time. The movie was released in 1939, before the birth of the teacher and before the birth of most of the grandparents in the audience. Prior to preparing for the concert, those songs were far more familiar to folks my age than they were to the young people performing on that middle school stage. The teacher had choreographed fun hand movements and gestures for the choir, which added to the fun of their performance.

After the sixth grade choir performed their numbers, the combined seventh and eighth grade choirs sang. Their program was more varied than that of the sixth graders, including a couple of solos, a duet from Phantom of the Opera, and a six voice girls’ chorus.

Sitting in the audience watching the performances reminded me of my years of singing in choir. I don’t remember that singing in the children’s choir at our church was an optional activity. I don’t think I was ever asked whether or not I wanted to be part of that group. It was simply something that all of the Sunday school kids did. I liked singing songs and I memorized the lyrics pretty easily. Choir at school was a different experience for me. I can distinctly remember not liking choir in the sixth grade and in the seventh and eighth grades, when choir was optional, I did not sing with the group. I returned to singing in the choir in the ninth grade, which was freshman year in high school for our school system.

My experience was pretty typical. And it appears, that is pretty much the case today as well.

Somewhere around 11 years of age, about the time of sixth grade, a boy’s voice begins to change. This usually occurs after a pretty big growth spurt, and it doesn’t occur all at once. The timing is different for every individual and some boys’ voices change more quickly than others. Mine took quite a while to make the change to my adult pitch. On the way, my voice cracked at unexpected times, usually when I was raising my voice or pushing to reach a particularly high or low note. An unpredictable voice can make one shy about singing in public. In my case, my voice settled down pretty much by the time I was 14 and in the ninth grade. I have a tenor voice and never developed the full rich bass pitches to which i once aspired.

In last night’s concert, the entire sixth grade choir sang in the upper register. Every number was sung in unison. That doesn’t mean that none of the boys in the ensemble were going through the change of voice. It meant that those whose voices are deepening were afraid to sing out loud enough for the audience to hear them. Sitting where I was, it sounded like there were only high treble voices in the choir. The choir sang well. I’m sure the teacher is well trained in changing voices. I’m pretty sure that singing an octave lower was allowed. But we couldn’t hear those voices in the audience.

Then, as the sixth-graders marched off of the risers and the seventh- and eighth-graders took their places, it was obvious that this ensemble had only one male. While about a third of the sixth-grade choir was male, the percentage dropped dramatically in the older ensemble. Welcome to changing and unpredictable voices. I opted out of choir at that phase of my life, too. The one male who did participate in the choir sang beautifully in the lower register. He sang a solo and sang in a duet. His voice was clear, though very soft on the lowest notes of the duet. Phantom of the Opera is pretty challenging music with a very wide range. I know I can’t reach all the notes of that song. When the choir sang, his voice was strong enough to be heard alongside all of the treble voices.

Out of the entire middle school, only one seventh- or eighth- grade boy went out for choir. I don’t know the statistics, but I’m guessing that is pretty typical for middle school choirs.

Years ago, when I was active in producing an annual summer music, arts, dance and drama camp, we had professional musicians screen each participant to check their vocal range. Students were allowed to sing inside of their natural range, even if it changed during the week. The composer and arranger with whom we worked was careful to arrange music in a rather narrow range to make it singable by those with changing voices. And there were a few weeks when music was changed and rearranged during the week to adapt to the voices of the campers we had. The average middle school music teacher doesn’t have the luxury of a staff of musicians. That person is usually working alone and is responsible for a whole classroom of students at the same time. Getting students to match pitches at all and soliciting ensemble sound from the group is a challenge. I think the sixth grade choir has been working on their 15-minute set since school started in the fall. Four months of singing the same songs over and over would try the patience of anyone. Kudos to the choir director.

Our youngest grandson is only 11 months old. That gives me roughly 13 more years of middle school choir concerts. On the other hand, with some luck, I’ll be attending high school choir concerts within a couple more years. At least I hope our grandson will either stick it out or come back to choir when his voice settles down. In the meantime, the middle school choir director has my sympathy and my support.