This session will focus on how to use cambiata/changing voice approaches to encourage

boys to keep singing during voice change (KS3-4).

We will briefly explore the physiology of boys’ vocal change and how this links with their

developing/changing identities (who am I?) before moving on to explore and try out

practical approaches that can be used in the classroom/rehearsal room. Topics will include:

warmups for changing voices, choosing effective repertoire that your group will love to

sing, classroom/rehearsal room layout, how to structure and run a changing voice

rehearsal, what to do with Y7/unchanged voices.

Ian Crawford is Director of Music at The King’s School in Macclesfield and musical director of Cambiata North West.

He has arranged music for cambiata voices, including The Gospel Train for the Emerging Voices series (Oxford University Press).

Ian Crawford

Musical Director, Cambiata North West & Director of Music, The King’s School in Macclesfield

Ian Crawford is a composer, conductor and teacher. As a music teacher and Director of

Music, Ian has over ten years’ experience of creating and growing successful, highly

popular cambiata/changing voice programmes in secondary schools (both single-sex and

co-educational settings).

Ian has been Musical Director of Cambiata North West (abcd’s regional choir for boys

whose voices are changing) since 2014. That year, they appeared in the War Horse Prom at

the Royal Albert Hall and were subsequently invited to perform at abcd’s 2015 International

Gala Concert (RNCM) where they received a standing ovation from over 200 choral

directors. Ian is regularly invited to speak at UK conferences and lead workshops for

changing voice groups across the country.

A prolific composer and arranger of music for changing voices, Ian’s work is published by

Oxford University Press in their ground-breaking Emerging Voices series. Two volumes of

his arrangements, Changing Voices and Changing Voices Christmas, were published by

Novello in 2017. For more information about Ian’s music for changing voices, including his

latest work, please visit his website: www.redscarfmusic.co.uk

Singing in the Classroom