You sound like someone who could be a baritone or a tenor. Try to sing
things in keys that suit your voice, and don't invite you to force the
tone, and maybe it'll eventually become clearer. You're very young yet so
don't worry about getting opera jobs just yet, and bear in mind that some
very famous tenors started their *operatic* careers as baritones. Most male
humans are baritones - more controversially I might guess that a lot of
tenors are actually baritones who have found a way to live in their upper
range for longer. Not all tenors have reliable high Cs by the way, since
only a few (admittedly high profile) roles require them.
If it's really burning you up, perhaps you can send a smallish MP3 of your
singing to interested people for feedback. But the bottom line: you're
probably too young for it to be clear unless you're an extreme case. john
At 09:37 PM 6/4/01 +0000, you wrote:
>Dear vocalisters,
>
>here's Martti back from lurking, a Finnish opera singer -wannabe, who
>has just turned 18 and got started with singing lessons several
>months ago. The bad thing is that I haven't had lessons very
>regularly, because things just won't always work out: firstly, I have
>to go 70 km away to have a lesson, secondly, my teacher doesn't
>always find a place to teach. Life's hard, isn't it?! I think I'm
>going nowhere with that kind of study!! I'm not sure what to practise
>at home either and if I do something at home I can never be sure if I
>get the things right. This damned feeling iz really driving me crazy.
>
>I'm not sure if I've fully got the idea of appoggio.... My teacher
>tells me to breath low so that the areas in my lower back, on the
>sides and below the ribs expand. He expands like a balloon but my
>body does it only slightly. I hear him say that the sternum should be
>at high position so that it neither rises nor falls during the
>breath. The teacher tells me to keep the posture during the exhale
>and that's what I find difficult, especially during singing. I have
>problems with the long "ssssssssssssssss" exercise also. After 20-25
>seconds or so I get really dizzy and my "sssssssssssssssss" gets "sss
>s sss ss ss ss s sssss". Is it lack of lung capacity or is it due to
>a misunderstanding of the technique?
>
>Another thing I'm amazed of is whether to be a baritone or a tenor.
>The teacher says it's too early to tell for sure but I might be a
>tenor. Before the lessons I sent a sound clip of my (poor) singing
>(without any true knowledge of technique) to the maestro David Jones
>and he told me that I'm probably a baritone. So I feel a bit mixed-
>up, not really knowing who I am! Anyway, I sing only middle voiced
>songs (Schumann: Dichterliebe, for example) on the singing lessons
>and sometimes when I sing the songs at home I feel it would be easier
>to sing them a whole step higher, because all the forte high notes
>are in my most difficult passaggio area (E4, F4). If I sing in the
>baritone key, I tend to sing more heavily and my voice gets strained
>quite fast. More about my voice: my vocalising range is from low F#/G
>(everything below low Bb is quite amusing) to the tenor high C/D.
>With lip trills I can get to F5/G5.
>
>I believe that's enough for this time, hope you people can help me a
>bit,
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Martti Savijoki
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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