From: Tako Oda
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Subject: Falsetto ( was Speaking/ Singing voice )
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

"CAIO ROSSI DE OLIVEIRA" wrote:
> There is singer from down here in Brazil named Edson Cordeiro, who
> used to sing a lot in falsetto. He goes really high ( he says
> to reach 4 octaves, but I know it will cause great discussion here.

I believe he has a full baritone range in addition to his upper voice.
Supposedly he has a G6, so that amounts to about 4 octaves...

> The point is that this teacher I had had been his teacher too and she
> said that she had heard that he was not doing falsettos so often again
> because of his voice health.

I've never heard his upper voice, but perhaps it's whistle voice. It is
distinct from "regular" falsetto in its production and can be awful for
the voice (I used to use this register myself).

> Concerning countertenors being Asians, I think it has to do with the
> height and size. Small guys tend to have small larynx(es?), therefore,
> a more female-like voice. Edson Cordeiro, Andre Matos ( from Angra
> band), timo Kotipelto ( from Stratovarius band ) all sing very high
> and they are pretty pettit.

Not to be contrary, but I think this is only true for tenorino
countertenors, who have extremely high natural speaking voices in
addition to their upper extension. The majority of countertenors have
normal-sized voice boxes. For instance, let's look at the examples I
gave in my earlier post

Randall Wong: baritone speaking voice
Brian Asawa: tenor speaking voice
Yoshikazu Mera: high tenor speaking voice
David Lee: (never heard him talk...)

A pretty good distribution of voice types, I think. As it turns out the
man with the highest singing voice (Wong) has the lowest speaking voice.
Just to throw me into the mix, my speaking voice is not unusually high
either.

Tako Oda
Graduate Student in Composition
Mills College Music Department
http://www.mills.edu/PEOPLE/gr.pages/toda.public.html/music/singer.html