Real Men Sing!

We've decided that it's better if several of us take turns writing posts for this here blog so that you, our readers, get some different, more complete perspectives. Here's a post from one of our men about an awesome event the men in BYU Choirs put on earlier in the year to try to make a difference in some lives. They certainly changed the world!

On Jan. 14, young men from two local high school choirs learned an invaluable truth: real men sing! The high school men we worked with that evening are the future of the BYU choral program, and we wanted them to have a taste of what singing at BYU is like.


Together with the men from BYU Singers and Concert Choir, these young singers participated in a workshop directed by Sister Hall and Dr. Staheli. Sister Hall opened the workshop by teaching two staples for good choral singing: supported breath, and flexible head tone. It was awesome to hear the high school men experiment with the things Sister Hall was teaching. You could see their eyes light up as they noticed the improved sound they were producing! We had a short break for sectionals, where we got to test out our good technique with Handel’s Hallelujah, Amen! When we came back together, Sister Hall directed us all in singing it. We sounded pretty good considering we worked on it for all of half an hour!


After singing the Handel, Dr. Staheli took over to unfold the mysteries of shaping musical phrases. Using a simple version of Homeward Bound arranged by Jay Althouse, we learned about finding the top of the phrase and singing towards it, "strong-weaks", and singing the words, rather than just the music. We wish we could have been learning things like this in high school—as any Singer knows, shaping is one of the things we work the hardest on during our daily rehearsals.


After all our hard work, it was time for some entertainment. The men of the BYU Men’s Chorus flooded the room and performed several pieces they’ve been working on. It was a potent example for those young high school men to see how much fun real men have when they sing!

And as I had to reveal to some of the young men we met in England last year, real men actually do sing, and girls actually find it really attractive! Bonus!