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On Tuesday 17th June, we were very pleased to welcome Dr. Martin Ashley, PhD., MPhil., BEd., FHEA, LTCL, PGcertHE, who is currently ‘Reader in Education’ at Edge Hill University.

Trained first as a sound recordist for the BBC, then as a music teacher and later as an author of some very important books and research documents, he has become the world’s ‘Number 1’ expert when it comes to questions like, “Why Don’t Boys Sing?”

Keen to find answers, he has travelled all over the place to interview pop stars (especially boys, teenagers and young men) as well as hundreds and hundreds of primary and secondary students to gather their opinions about singers and their ‘media image’!

Armed with a big working model of a larynx (or human voice box, or “Adam’s Apple”, or vocal chords), he met with 7R2 Music students and challenged us all to think again about TV programmes such as “X Factor” and “Britain’s Got Talent” that show boys singing in an operatic or church style.

Using some software called “Sing and See”, he recorded two boys’ voices to detect their musical pitch, proving some interesting facts. Everyone watched and heard clips of boys singing as they aged from 7 to 16 years old and Dr. Ashley went on to thank 7R2 for filling in a very important questionnaire.

Mr Reeve