| | From: "mjmoody2000 <mjmoody@c...
Date: Sat Jan 25, 2003 1:03 pm
Subject: Re: messa di voce
| --- In vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com, "Lloyd W. Hanson"
<lloyd.hanson@n...> wrote:
> It is a major error to practice messa di voce by beginning with a
> breathy tone or a falsetto tone because these tones are the
product
> of partially adducted (closed) vocal folds and the exercise is
then
> one of attempting to gradually close the vocal folds to achieve a
> loud tone and opening the folds to return to the breathy beginning
> tone. Such an exercise does not achieve the goals of the messa de
> voce which is to gain control over the increase in amplitude of
> oscillation of the vocal folds and the resultant adjustments this
> requires of the thyroarytenoid and antagonistic cricothyroid
muscles
> as the amplitude increases and decreases.
Still, I think the primary goal of the exercise is starting with
a "head-voice" tone and adding the weight of the chest voice to it.
I think of MAJOR importance is what the singer feels - regardless of
whatever the voice analyzer is saying is going on. I can start a
tone softly in my chest voice and get it louder again and softer
again, and - big deal. Nothing really was accomplished. On the
other hand, I can start the tone softly in the head voice, crescendo
until I sense that the resonance from the chest voice has been
attached to the tone and decrescendo till I feel only the head voice
is active again. Here I feel something totally different, and the
sound of the tone is an entirely different (and better) sound.
Also, in spite of all the terminology, I feel essentially two
basic "control" groups operate my voice. There is a "thick" control
group that is most like when I talk, and there is a "thin" control
group that I found out about from my falsetto. With each group
there are MANY variations possible, but I can still feel which
function is in "control" of the tone. Reid and Frisell call these
two control groups "Chest voice" and "Falsetto."
I'm not sure exactly what Reid thinks on the matter. I know that
Frisell thinks that ultimately the falsetto group can control the
entire voice from its highest to lowest notes. He calls this
the "head voice training system." To a large extent the basis
behind it is this messa di voce principle. Both "messa di voces" I
described in the first full paragraph have feelings associated with
them. The first example feels like it is controlled by the chest
voice and the second example feels like it is controlled by
the "head voice." At the loud part of the messa di voce the voice
sounds like it is in chest voice but the singer feels like chest
quality is being added to the head voice. When this is strong in
the region of G4 or so (for a male singer) it can be brought down to
the region of C4. When it is strong in the region of C4 it can be
brought down to the region of G or A3. When the G3 messa di voce is
working well the G4 forte will be stronger because the voice will be
able to accept more weight. This process goes on until the singer
feels that the entire range is being controlled by the head-voice
muscle group.
Frisell thinks that any time the chest voice muscle group is
functioning alone it is damaging to the voice. This is the major
difference between his "method" and Reids "method" as far as I can
see.
Once the upper notes are functioning well Frisell contends that the
singer will face an impasse of sorts because the singer will sense
that the lower notes should function the same way, and most often
they can not function that way because the head voice controls are
initially weak in the lower octave of voices.
This is too long. Sorry. I think "causality" is crucial. Merely
starting soft and getting louder and softer again may not be
enough. Merely making a bad tone louder does not accomplish much.
I think the entire goal of the exercise is to attach chest voice
weight to a head voice tone, and this can be a daunting task.
John
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