Dear Friends,
Once again, please allow me to draw on the collective wisdom and experience
of the list for a problem I have when I sing in church choir (RC). By way
of background, I am a community singer and tenor in an auditioned community
chorus (Camerata Singers-Monterey), have been studying classical voice
seriously for about 5 years (although I sang from elementary school through
college in school choirs). Currently, my working range seems to be from Bb,
a ninth below middle C, to the tenor's C; and absolute range is from Ab
(sometimes G) to the F above the tenor's C w/o falsetto. Some of you may
remember me as one of the list docs, Despite the range, to my ear my voice
probably "sits" a semi-tone below a true lyric tenor (passagio C# to G).
That said, here's my problem with church: The choral praise book is written
with the tenor part very low, probably more suitable for baritone. There's
also a lot of SAB work. Our basses love it; they just bellow away (often
not successfully, but nevermind). I find myself singing in pure chest
through most of the service. Try as I might I can't maintain a mixed voice
down that low. After awhile, even the precious few "high" notes in the
tenor line (E4-F4) seem *very* high. Most of the stuff I sing in Camerata
sits between A below middle C to an octave above, and is no problem. But in
church, after pounding away at those low notes along with the basses, even
mixed voice becomes hard to find. The choir director asked me to just sing
the descants so as to stay in my higher voice. But I'd appreciate hearing
if others (especially tenors) on the list have encountered this difficulty,
and how they overcame it.
Thanks in advance,
GWendel, tenor
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