Dear GWendel, Randy and List:
--- In vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com, GWendel Yee <gwyee@r...> > >
> Hmmm...letsee. It varies a slightly depending on whether I'm singing with
Camerata (when I can bring my mix down to about Ab below middle C), or in church
(where B-Bb below middle C is about it).
Before you and Randy go back and forth I thought I would add my $.02.
It's easy to get all caught up in arguments over "words" - meeting in
person would be so much better for this discussion and would quickly
settle the issue. I suppose if you are in the Chicago area someday you
could arrange a lesson with Randy!
If I understood correctly, you don't like to hang around your lower
register much because you have trouble "staying in mix", and you can
stay in mix down to about B3 or so. If that means you don't like to
sing much lower than B3, than your voice is being weighted very much on
the light side, almost like a counter-tenor. Such a "weighting" choice
allows you to sing comfortably in the octave A3 to A4, and if you go
into a lighter head voice above that, then alto range would be
possible. If that is what is best for your voice, so be it.
It's funny - I just had a voice lesson today and I complained that I
felt like I was creating a hole in my voice in an attempt to have a
smooth passage up into my lighter/higher head-voice range. The
teacher's solution - to make sure that in my lower range it really was
chest, and not a breathy mix, and to lose vocal weight in the right
place and not too enter "mix" too low.
On the one hand, my reaction to your posts is to think that you are
"mixing" too low. Just out of curiousity, what pitch would be the
"center" (if you can imagine such a thing) of your speaking voice if
placed in a relaxed but resonant range (so not scraping the bottom)?
I am inclined to guess, (and take it with a grain of salt!) that your
voice would be freer and work better if you found a way to really go
into chest voice for the low notes rather than remain in mix.
On the other hand, I understand that there are different ways to think
about chest voice, and one can hit a lower note with a certain buoyancy
and a feeling of the upper voice, rather than pressing down on it. For
me, there is a mini-break around G3, just below where you describe, and
in Richard Miller's tenor book that note is the start of "lower middle
voice" - still the chest voice but with the beginning of a bit of head
resonance and a sense of mix. So perhaps the "mix" you refer to is
this "chest mix" below the passagio, as opposed to the "head mix" in
the passagio.
Cheers,
Michael Gordon
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