Yes, altos add so much more to the sound. broadway4246 is right, be proud to be an alto... at least you're not a second soprano.

i disagree with everyone who says altos dont get good parts. altos get AWESOME parts. the altos are very loved where i am...hence the t shirts...altos can do anything haha. plus...if you are obsessing about having a cool or more interesting part...you most likely arent blending well with the choir. the joy in choir is the music you make with your singing as a whole not everybody's individual parts. if everyone in the choir is singing well and actually focusing on making music and singing as a choir rather than as individuals than it will be enjoyable no matter what. also...ive had plently of solos as an alto.

I'm adding my 2 cents to the rants. I've sung everything from tenor to coloratura soprano, but when given the chance, I choose to sing alto. Yes, when we sing Mozart, we learn to love G (maybe he had a failed affair with an alto and promised to punish the rest of them), but anyone can find the melody (sorry sopranos). Altos get the real technical challenge in the choir, and often have the most interesting notes in the chords.

My biggest beef is that, in so many choirs, the altos don't sing out, so their lines, regardless of the complexity, can't be heard in the audience. In my choir, it continually bugs me when the director has the first tenors sing with the altos when he wants to bring the line out. He's usually telling us to match the tenor tone, often for good reason. However, it's nice to be able to belt out that sexy warm alto voice once in a while!

Check out Dvořák's "Te Deum" for some wonderful alto lines. Our director's usual instruction for that one is to sound like a group of Russian women washing clothes by the river, especially in the "Aeterna Fac" section, where the altos run the show.

Go altos!

I have to say, I disagree. Altos have great parts.
I'm a guy, although I do sing the alto part (à la falsetto) in a quartet with my friends. You should look at stuff by Byrd, you know, all the English Renaissance composers, if you're looking for decent parts.
The only time the alto part is boring is in Bach Chorales - mostly on the same note, see.

altos get beautiful melodies as well! it's more challenging than sopranos- as someone said... everyone can learn the tune...
being an alto makes you better at sight singing, and without altos, the choir would sound so empty!. so i'm proud of being an alto. :-)

i agree with you about the solo parts though =S

everyone's has said what i was plannig on saying
just want to add one thing
i'm a soprano. my chor teacher said the alto's are like a cello. no celllo no completion
u guys rock and alto's sound awesome, so keep up the great work

No tears. Just enjoy your alto voice. I sang alto in a small church choir. Then we lost some members and I was the only alto left. I got to sing the harmony all by myself. It was great. The other members, including the director, used to tease me and say, "after the sopranos, tenors and basses practice their notes, the altos get the leftovers" the hardest parts to sing. I loved it even though I never soloed.

I know what you mean. I'm an alto in my schools chior and we never get any of the pretty parts. And always the first sopranos would make fun of us because "we sing like men". But of course at districts the judges said the altos did the best and the sopranos were way of key. I love singing alto. I think its the prettiest sounding voices. But then again no one hears us because the human ear naturally hears higher pitches more that lower pitches.

Just read the recent replies. I originally posted this topic. Our church choir is made up of about 12 sopranos, 4 altos (usually only 2 show up), 6 tenors and 4 basses. I am lovingly referred to as Super Alto because I tend to carry the section, sometimes alone. I do get solo's every once in a while. I recently got one and there was only one note at the end of the verse that challenged me, it was only a D and I choked, cracked like a squeeky mouse. Oh well the rest of it was beautiful.