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From:  Isabelle Bracamonte <ibracamonte@y...>
Date:  Tue May 30, 2000  10:56 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] female falsetto (was: countertenors etc.)


> I wonder if, Isabelle, you feel that your head and
> chest voice are
> separated in a particular zone, or if, as I do, you
> feel you can take chest
> up high or head down low?

Like all sopranos, I can take my head voice down into
the "chesty" area (below middle C), although it
becomes pretty inaudible below an A (the famous "Deh
vieni" A). I could, if I wanted, take my chest voice
up to a C5 or above (the C above middle C), but I find
that damaging to the cords, both in terms of the
dangers associated with belting and in terms of muscle
memory.

A chest voice aside: Many of the "great" singers who
biographies and books I have read (Nordica, Lehmann, a
handful of the sopranos in the Hines book) repeated
the old rule that a soprano should never, never take
her chest voice above an E4. My teacher also advises,
when singing chest-voice exercises, not taking the
chest voice above an E or F4, which is my policy. Do
others do this, as well?

I think my voice is pretty typical of most sopranos,
except I don't have a freaky-high whistle register (I
top out at an F6, sometimes a G). Do other sopranos
on the list feel that they could sing, say, a B5 in
two different voices -- supported and then that funny
flip-falsetto feeling?

Isabelle B.

=====
Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte@y...




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