GSU Home
Flex 3

GSU Flame

Flex 3
flex3.gsu.edu

Boys To Men

  • Home
  • Georgia State Research Magazine, Arts & Culture, Education & Leadership
  • Boys To Men
Patrick Freer Rialto College of the Arts
fl3xThree2019-05-01T00:00:00+00:00
[templatera id=”56″]

This is custom heading element

[post-fields post_field=”wpcf-subtitle”]
[easy-social-share buttons=”facebook,twitter,linkedin”]

[post-fields post_field=”wpcf-byline”]

Patrick Freer Rialto College of the Arts

D

uring puberty, a boy’s vocal folds elongate, causing his voice to deepen, sometimes by an octave or more. As boys mature through these changes, it may become more difficult for them to control their voices. Historically, male singers were sidelined during this time, sometimes kicked out of choirs or told to stop singing until they were adults. Music education professor Patrick Freer knows this firsthand.

“I was a boy who was told my voice was ‘broken’ when it started to change,” he says. “It took years for me to make my way back to singing. It wasn’t until college that I found a teacher who said, ‘Well, let’s see what you can do instead of what you can’t do.’”

For decades, Freer has focused his research on how choral teachers can more effectively guide boys whose voices are starting to change. His work earned him an invitation to spend the fall 2018 semester working with faculty at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, one of Europe’s leading music conservatories. While there he became involved in a project with the Vienna Boys Choir, which was established more than five centuries ago and is one of the best-known boys’ choirs in the world.

Its conductor, Gerald Wirth, has made the group notable for their inclusion of boys with changing voices, Freer says.

“He has developed a system of working with adolescents that has become informally known as the Gerald Wirth method,” he says. “At first, the choir’s funders were simply interested in codifying his technique, but as more researchers got involved, it moved beyond that. Now we are focused on analyzing what makes his method and that of good choral teachers in general so successful?”

To do that, the choir’s leadership has brought together an interdisciplinary team of researchers. There are neuroscientists who are interested in studying how different choral instruction approaches affect the brain, as well as the resulting musicianship. There are computer scientists who are developing simulated classrooms to train educators and technology to analyze choral teaching techniques.

Freer and his colleague Helmut Schaumberger of the Mozarteum are working to inform those efforts by contributing their expertise in instructional methods and teacher training. In February, they began working on a review of the existing research into effective techniques of successful choral instructors and conductors.

“We do know that there are choral teachers who are more successful than others, but we haven’t necessarily done a good job of figuring out exactly why that is,” Freer says. “There’s an old adage in our field, which is ‘We had a great choir program in our school, and then she left.’ I hope this project might lead to a more evidence-based set of standards and methods and tools that can be applied in all different kinds of singing communities, not just those that include middle-school boys.”

Freer stresses that getting it right in adolescence is critical when it comes to music education. He has conducted numerous studies showing that if people, particularly boys, stop singing in adolescence they will likely never sing again.

“Many teachers will say that adolescent boys don’t like to sing,” says Freer. “Well, that’s not what I find in my research. Boys do like to sing. It’s choir — the method or format of the instruction — that’s the problem. So now the question is, what do we do about that?”

 

Photo by Meg Buscema

<< Spring 2019 Issue

RELATED CONTENT

NOTEWORTHY

View More
[ess_grid alias=”noteworthy-sb”]
[templatera id=”55″]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Related Posts

Georgia State and Perimeter College students Watema Emmanual, Mohamad Alo and Mohammad Tamer bag supplies

A Voice for the Vulnerable

Georgia State faculty have come together to study how the pandemic is affecting refugees in Clarkston — and help address... read more
Javier Stern working at his computer

This is Your Brain on Salt

Professor Javier Stern and colleagues recently uncovered surprising new information about how salt intake affects the brain — findings that... read more
proctor creek watershed westside greenway

A River Runs Through It

Georgia State researchers worked hand-in-hand with residents of Atlanta’s Westside to map environmental health threats in the Proctor Creek Watershed. read more
Portrait of Vonetta Dotson

The Science Behind Staying Sharp as We Age

A new book by associate professor Vonetta Dotson explains how to help keep your brain in fighting shape throughout your... read more
Portrait of Stephanie Y. Evans

Self-Care as an Act of Resistance

In a new book, Georgia State University professor Stephanie Y. Evans uncovers the history and importance of self-care in Black... read more
Charlotte Alexander posing inside the Georgia State College of Law building

Sorry (Not Sorry)

Using big data analysis, associate professor Charlotte Alexander is decoding #MeToo defenses. read more
Image of a podcast microphone with yellow crime scene tape on a grey background

The ‘Serial Effect’ — Unpacking the Phenomenon of the True-Crime Podcast

A criminal law specialist delves into the rise of true-crime podcasts to investigate their impact on juries and trials. read more
Two researchers working with a student on a MRI machine

Helping Students Build a Better Brain

Researchers and students at Georgia State's TReNDS Lab are collaborating on paths to better brain health for college students using... read more
Yuping Chen demonstrates her virtual reality video game

Transformative Technology

Associate professor of physical therapy Yuping Chen is using virtual reality to improve the lives of kids with cerebral palsy. read more
Richard Milligan

A River, Revealed

Assistant professor Richard Milligan was part of a team that recently helped develop a new vision for the Chattahoochee River. read more

Recent Posts

  • Energy Earthshot: Fueling The Clean Energy Transition
  • Helping Students Build a Better Brain
  • AI Research: The New Frontier
  • Open Mic: A Conversation with the Minds Behind Georgia State’s Music Distribution Label
  • More than Smart: Computer Science Research Aims to Make Intelligent Vehicles Affordable and Eco-Friendly

Recent Comments

No comments to show.
White Georgia State Flame
Georgia State University33 Gilmer Street SE Atlanta, GA 30303404-413-2000
Contact Georgia StateView legal statementPrivacy NoticesState AuthorizationEthics HotlineWebsite Feedback©2024 Georgia State University