"If it takes years to develop your head voice, it is taking too long. Head
voice can easily be introduced and made habit in a short period of time.
The oo vowel is very conducive to leading the singer toward heard voice.
Mark"
I agree, Mark, but I have been told MANY times in choral workshops that certain
male choral conductors cannot and absolutely will not use "falsetto" in working
with boys'/children's voices! I do personally sing in falsetto with both
children, altos and certainly with tenors when I sing a choral line. This keeps
me from straining. I've found that if I strain in my "example" THEY will strain
right back for me!
On the matter of Cornelius Reid, Weldon Whitlock, also a major promoter of "bel
canto" used the terms "upper register", "lower register" and "falsetto". He
disliked saying "head" and "chest". The "lower register" is indeed referred to
as "chest" by a great many singers. Tenors and sopranos have this voice just
the same as contraltos/mezzos and baritones/basses. The "upper register" is
blended into this, but at the same time not a pure falsetto. In a great many
male singers, the falsetto in the male voice sounds like an imitation of Dorothy
Kirsten. I rather imagine that a combination of just plain not wanting to sound
like this and unbridled, raw machismo (Let's face it! The tone takes one RIGHT
off the cover of G.Q.!!) drives many male singers to make the claim "I don't use
falsetto!"!
I have found that if I DON'T use falsetto, my boy sopranos evoke memories of
"Froggy" from "The Little Rascals" and any desirable "boy choir" tone they might
have freely produced simply goes right down the drain! Helen Kemp has often
been described as America's greatest Children's Choir Clinician. She heard me
in a workshop a number of years ago and afterward told me I had a beautiful
counter-tenor voice. I thanked her and assured her that the bass-baritone voice
beneath would be more thrilling and mentioned little "Froggy" to her. In the
same workshop, two machos nearby informed all that "I never use falsetto!"!
In listening to Mado Robin's recordings, I've often asked myself if SHE hadn't
figured out how to use her falsetto register! As for chest notes, I recall
reading about a certain mezzo-soprano's voice (in a review of one of her cd's)
that the reviewer/listener disliked her "undernourished chest notes". Perhaps
the lower voiced female singers have a mental image of these "lower register"
notes as sounding masculine. Louise Homer had a very happy marriage, but on her
recording of "O thou that tellest" from "Messiah" she does indeed sound like she
could rotate the tires on a Peterbilt 18 wheeler and drive it off into the
sunset! Madame Homer had a phenominal upper register as well and, certainly,
this must have influenced the development of her wonderful lower register! I'm
grateful for the contraltos, mezzos, baritones and basses who get us thru the
Holidays every year with "chest notes roasting on an open fire..."!!
Ed
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