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From:  PCT Hiker <pcthiker@y...>
PCT Hiker <pcthiker@y...>
Date:  Fri Aug 24, 2001  3:31 am
Subject:  Fach this Vocal Identity Crisis!


New list member here with a burning question ;-)

I'm a 30-year-old amateur choral singer who is looking to start serious
classical vocal training. My voice has really been frustrating me and I
don't know how to classify it, so I thought I'd give some details (probably
too many) and ask for some informal advice here. I've been singing in
ensembles for over 15 years, the vast majority of this as a baritone or
bass in a Baroque or early music context. I feel awkward in SATB settings
because the lowest bass often feels too low, whereas the high tenor
tessitura makes me hoarse and sore within a few minutes. I usually wake up
able to vocalize a low bass E2 or even D2 quietly, but my low register is
quite fickle in general. On some days I'll have a decent mezzoforte low
F#2 or even F2 at absolute bottom when warmed up; this happens more
frequently now than when I was 20 or 25, and especially when I am on
vacation, am feeling generally relaxed, or have been singing a lot
recently. On such days my voice feels full and rich in tone and has decent
weight with some vibrato, and I can sing along with most Bach or Handel
bass arias convincingly.

On the flip side, at evening rehearsals after work I often lose these low
notes and can't sing much below A2 or even Bb2! On those occasions my
voice often sounds weak and crackly, and I feel more like an adolescent kid
whose voice is breaking. At a recent audition where my voice sounded this
way, the asst. director asked me to consider singing tenor! My low
register is not very strong in general, and my last true forte note is
usually the A2. My preferred tessitura is B2 to D3; I can hit good
occasional high notes in chest voice up to Ab3 above that. My falsetto is
decent, and I can usually sing along with male countertenors like James
Bowman without too much embarrassment ;-) My telephone speaking voice, if
that matters, is normally between A2 and D2.

I feel physically and psychologically most comfortable singing as a
baritone, but believe I'd never be able to do solos in public without
gaining mightily in consistency and resonance in that low F2-C2
register--baritones don't live there, but it seems like every aria has at
least a couple "money notes" down in that range (usually prefaced by some
#$%$ high notes). SO: Should I expect that increasing age will help with
this? Does the fact that I *sometimes* have those notes mean that I will
be able to develop them consistently through purposeful training? Do I
just need to learn to relax more? Or, alternatively, should I quit
deluding myself, concentrate on my high register, and try to become a tenor
of some sort?

I realize that I'll need to consult a teacher who can actually listen to me
and explore these things. I plan to do that in the near future, but I'd
still love to hear any opinions or anecdotes from personal experience.

Thanks for wading through all this,
Adam


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  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
13830 Re: Fach this Vocal Identity Crisis! Tako Oda   Fri  8/24/2001   3 KB
13833 Re: Fach this Vocal Identity Crisis! Margaret Harrison   Fri  8/24/2001   3 KB
13835 Re: Fach this Vocal Identity Crisis! Ciro   Sat  8/25/2001   4 KB
13854 Re: Fach this Vocal Identity Crisis! Vallate@a...   Mon  8/27/2001   2 KB

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