now boarding

Voices don't break, they change.

The boy's time in the choir is a very precious time, determined at one end by a mix of natural potential and aptitude and at the other by their changing voices and the move on to senior schools.

One is used to hearing about voices breaking, but the more acceptable term these days is of changing. This from Wikipedia:

Under the influence of androgens, the voice box, or larynx, grows in both sexes. This growth is far more prominent in boys, causing the male voice to drop and deepen, sometimes abruptly but rarely "over night," about one octave, because the longer and thicker vocal folds have a lower fundamental frequency. Before puberty, the larynx of boys and girls is about equally small. Occasionally, voice change is accompanied by unsteadiness of vocalization in the early stages of untrained voices. Most of the voice change happens during stage 3-4 of male puberty around the time of peak growth. Full adult pitch is attained at an average age of 15 years. It usually precedes the development of significant facial hair by several months to years.

Since September we've seen three of the current year eights become 'non singers' (they continue to board during the week, but can take full weekend leave) and one more whose voice changed at the end of year six. This leaves just four year eights in full voice and going on the past years, it wouldn't surprise if we've just left with one or two come July.

Just this week one of the year seven boys saw (heard?) his voice change; in fact it happened over just a few days according to Tom. I sat next to his Father at Sunday's Evensong, who was typically pragmatic about it "One door closes, another door opens", but obviously sad for the boy who has been a stalwart when it comes to the tricky or high octave solos. This boy already has a place at Eton.

We also saw one of the year five boys need to rest his voice for 8-10 weeks, apparently due to nodules on his vocal cords. This from Wikipedia:

The nodules appear as symmetrical swellings on both sides of the vocal cords. The cause of these formations are usually strenuous or abusive voice practices such as yelling and coughing. Persons who are often susceptible are those who use their voice constantly in a loud environment. Examples include teachers, cheerleaders, politicians, actors, preachers, singers, and military drill instructors.

 Precious time, precious ability.

More links:

The Male changing voice: http://www.leedberg.com/voice/pages/male.html

The different ways boys voices change: http://www.cambiatapress.com/CVMIA/differingways.html

A 'gap' in boy's changing voice:  http://www.choralnet.org/view/281969

 

 

 

Doctors, Dentists and Haircuts.

Some of those tasks you take for granted are not easily factored into the life of a Chorister family, not for us anyway. Regular health check-ups and haircuts need to covered off outside of the school week or during holidays and that takes a little organisation and perseverance; During those precious weeks I'd guess that the last thing Tom thinks of is a visit to the Dentist for a check-up.

For obvious reasons the Choristers are registered with a GP local to the Cathedral and the two nurses on duty are extremely competent and there's always a fluorescent orange first aid backpack close to hand. Should, however the boys need to visit a doctor when they're at home, they'll need to register as a visitor, even though they may have been to that Doctor since birth.

Tom still has his local family dentist which he needs to attend during holidays; there's an arrangement for emergencies when boarding although I'm not sure of the detail. One thing that we do need to look out for is that his brushing regime at school is a good one. 

Curiously a good haircut has been the thing to catch us out. Although the boys don't have regimented haircuts that we've seen at one or other Cathedral, the school is quite hot on neat and tidy so whilst day boys can get away with longer hair, that's not an option for the Choristers. I'm not sure that very short suits them either, at the end of the day the Cathedral is quite conservative. One time the school even took Tom and Angus out to a local 'salon' such was the state of their hair. We were billed for the pleasure of course.

So this morning, much against his will (for these were precious hours on Saturday leave), I took him to a local barber for a 'short back and sides, but not too short'. A little chocolate bribery may have been involved but the experience was very good all round (phew!)

From top to bottom, inside and out, he is every inch a Chorister.