> At any rate, John Moody has a point of view, and he has every right > to express it. I have read and I own 2 books by Cornelius Reid, as > well as Anthony Frissel's "Tenor Voice" book, and John's writings > mirror these books, as John himself states. Personally I believe > there is merit to what those books are saying, but there is a lot of > opportunity to misinterpret and to question what is really meant by > those authors. I do not believe these author's writings (Reid, > Frissel) represent our current best understanding of vocal > functioning or vocal pedagogy. Nonetheless, if exercises inspired or > suggested by these books are helpful, go for it. >
Michael,
Kudos to you for an excellent response for this thread. I think you accurately described how this list can be helpful to many people - and I think that that honestly has to do with people making their own decisions about some issues. The nice thing about the Vocalist is that sometimes you can learn about different possibilities, whereas it is very hard to find this information anywhere else. I've known you really don't believe this falsetto stuff for years (I remember some interesting threads in the original Vocalist). However, you stated your opinion in a way that acknowledges that though this way doesn't work for you - it is a documented method that seems to have worked for others, you just don't recommend it.
As an interesting aside, I found some posts in the archives that mention that your voice naturally goes kind of "high" in its tessitura. Lloyd once wrote that his voice naturally went to head voice and he actually had to LEARN how to sing in falsetto.
My voice actually seemed to lean "low." My chest voice seemed to be exclusive, and there was no head voice participation in my tone at all. The OTHER voice I had I labeled with the term falsetto - it surely seemed disconnected from my chest voice, AND a tone that I really didn't psychologically want to pursue (no, I don't WANT to be a countertenor). By fluke, however, I found that this very same useless voice that I defined "falsetto" could transform itself to a resonant singing voice.
I'm interested in another quote of yours:
"but I did not lose the ability to produce "falsetto" - meaning (in the lower range) a truly breathy, frankly horrible and without aesthetic merit sound."
I have a similar sensation in the lower range. It's not in the UPPER range, however! For sake of description, let us say I take my "head voice" down below middle C. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to line up with the chest voice right, and a truly disconnected "false" voice occurs. With work I can sustain this voice for a short range - but generally it feels the same as my "head voice" (which I have called falsetto, anyway) at about the F or G above middle C. So, I CAN get a REALLY false tone from about the D above middle C to the G or F below middle C. Now, I don't have a million books in front of me, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that Garcia's diagram seemed to put falsetto LOW in the voice and some other voice (head?) higher than the falsetto. I wonder if this is what he was talking about?? I also wonder what the range of Lloyds "falsetto" is?
I believe strongly in what Frisell writes. I took lessons for years and had absolutely no clue what the male singers were talking about when they said to sing in "head voice." It seemed that I had clearly two possibilities - Chest and falsetto. I think I probably have found a true "head voice" now - but it was only after reading Frisell. This "head voice" seems to me still to be very related to what I originally thought was my falsetto. I can just add a whole lot of volume and resonance from my chest voice to this initial tone. Here again, we are dealing with definitions - but importantly, we are dealing with singer's own definitions of what they are doing. This resonant voice can envelop my entire range - also. When it does, I feel there is a column built that connects my highest notes with my lowest notes. Since I sang so many years with this "low" feeling chest voice, however, I sometimes slip into that. I feel that this is a distinct method of production that is different from my "head voice" production. So, I guess, that is how I think the "falsetto" can totally overlap with the chest voice. It is singing with a sense of alignment with the upper range as opposed to singing with a "talking voice" that feels pretty much shut off from the upper range.
Well, I have said a lot here - I hope nothing offensive. My initial impulse was to write something supportive of Michael who offered a very well thought-out rebuttal of some of my own opinions. I think these are well thought out opinions, and hopefully Nicolas will decide what is best form him in an informed manner as a result of all these discussions.
John
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