My elementary school choir teacher, Zelma Crider, nurtured my soprano voice as well as anyone could, I think, and the years singing for her from 2nd through 6th grade were magical for me.

I never saw the Jr High School wall coming…

Suddenly a new teacher “knew” that I was a baritone, with no room for singing any of the tenor parts which were so desirable to me.

It was the first time in my life that I openly defied a teacher. Once I was convinced she would not budge I left the class and went directly to the school office and dropped choir.

For 7th, 8th and 9th grades I only sang in Church, where I was encouraged to sing the part that felt right to me. Slowly, at my pace, I began to flirt with the bass notes my brother sang so beautifully.

When Philip Greene came down to the Jr High from the High School to audition voices for his concert choir, I showed up, and he immediately knew I was my brother’s brother. He announced on the spot that, if I would commit myself fully, he would take me into concert choir AND the madrigal vocal ensemble in the fall.

Standing by his side, the Jr High school teacher was flabbergasted.

“Why haven’t you been singing in MY choir for the past three years?”

It was satisfying to remind her that I had indeed been one of her students for a short time.

The story doesn’t end there though.

Over the years I tended to sing popular music in my head voice (I’m a huge fan of Marty Robbins, Roy Orbison and Burton Cummings) while in choir, musical theater and opera buffa, I would sing either “Broadway baritone” (Don Quixote) or baritone bass (Don Pedro/Il Commendatore)

It was Halbert Blair in L.A. who first surmised that I might have the instrument of a Heldentenor. Unfortunately, that was at the end of my classical voice training at BIOLA, and I never seriously committed myself to discovering if that was so.

I know I’ve gone on and on here, but I’m going to leave this intact with the hope that sometime in the future a young soprano turning to baritone might read this and seek out the teacher who is best suited to guide him as he discovers his true instrument.

Thank you, Judy.

I subscribe to the unified voice approach, which it sounds like you do, too. A boy should be able to sing a two+ octave scale with ease, with excellent legato, with no one note being allowed to be louder or softer than any other. This requires, of course, a knowledge of passagios (passagia?) and what to do when approaching such. What works particularly well with boys is to ask them what their favorite beverage is, then have him imagine he is drinking from a huge vat or bottle of the stuff (usually they will say “Coke”) as they ascend vocally. Of course, this helps him by natural means to keep the vocal mechanism from rising.
It would be nice to know that this is helpful to the few of us who take on preadolescent boy students!