try this one: there is a 'heavy' mechanism and a 'light' mechanism (see
meribeth bunch on the subject). both can be adducted or, not. male
singers, in general, and a lot of non classical female singers (most or, some
of the time) sing in 'heavy' mechanism. female singers of classical and
some musical theater rep. and counter-tenors sing in a 'lighter' mechanism
(the E string on a violin is of lighter guage than the G string so, this is
not intended to belittle 'lighter' guage).
the confusion comes from the wide variety of resonance schemes available
to all singers. high larynx, low larynx, different pronunciation of
vowels, differently shaped vocal tracks, etc., all affect the signal from the
vocal folds. the signal from the vocal folds is not as varied from voice to
voice as is the effect of resonance from voice to voice. adding to the
confusion is our inadequate descriptions of these differences that result in
conversations that resemble blind people discussing color.
if the majority of the pitches one has to sing fall within the range of
one guage of mechanism, it stands to reason that one should take advantage of
that mechanism unless the sounds it produces are unacceptable. having
chosen a a mechanism to sing with, we are sometimes challenged by having to
sing pitches that lie at the extreme of that mechanism's capabilities. in
these instances, we are faced with having to make a choice between switching
mechanisms or extending the one we usually use. should we decide to switch
for such passages, if we don't want that switch to be apparent, we have to
cover it by using some kind of resonance adjustment to disguise it.
there are some, yodelers, various pop singers (whitney houston, mariah
carey, jeff buckley, etc.), some country singers like leann rimes who switch
back and forth without disguising the switch. there are some who switch
back and forth but make the switch longer and more gradually over the course
of their entire range (caetano veloso comes to mind. tako, in the samples
i've heard of your singing, this seems to be what you do as well).
i can't remember what else i was going to say...oh well, don't
relax...i'll probably think of it.
mike
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