Hello Everyone!
Two questions...
When I was practicing on Thursday evening, I noticed a MASSIVE break in my lower passaggio (around E4), but this area normally isn't much of a problem for me. I usually use a chesty-head mix in that region, but I could not phonate on an "open" vowel, such as the [a] (as in "father") unless it was in an odd, breathy, pure head voice tone, or pure chest. It was like this throughout my low register. I could, however, produce my normal 'mixed' tone using the vowel [i] (as in "eat"). I tried repeatedly to slide from the [i] to [a] on a single pitch, but it was as though I could actually feel my vocal folds separate. What accounts for this? I've been studying voice for nearly 8 years now, and only in the past year have I been able to equalize these two vowels. The solution came when I suspected that my vocal folds just weren't adducting as they should for the [a], and I had to consciously work for more closure, without over doing it.
I woke up with laryngitis on Friday. I found it odd, considering I do not have a cold, cough, flu, fever, sinus infection, or anything of the kind. Also, aside from that registration problem in my lower range, my voice sounded great the night before. I've never 'lost' my voice before without being sick otherwise, and I haven't been abusing the voice in any way lately, aside from perhaps singing Thursday when (unbeknownst to me!) laryngitis was on its way. I know this is probably more of a common sense question, but is this common?
===== April Salerno B.M. in Vocal Performance Baldwin-Wallace College Class of 2002
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