Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Michael <chosdad@y...&MGXlt2uIrmUJ4v83BpoeBWc>chosdad@y...
Date:  Mon Feb 10, 2003  7:37 pm
Subject:  Re: Is there a "mix-falsetto" thing?

Dear List and unnamed person with a razor:

It would be friendlier if you used your name...

Anyway, you wrote,
"Today,during my warm-ups in my singing lesson,i sung a C5.(By the
way i'm male,bass-baritone still limited in his chest voice.)
It sounded like a very strong,rich falsetto while the tone wasn't
breathy at all.My teacher told me it's falsetto with overtones."

Did you listen to my barbershop clips? Check out "Smilin Through"
(go to the files section on the web site) and listen to the high B
(just below C5) - is that the kind of sound?

Well here's a perspective:

a) It seems it is difficult to get people to agree on vocabularly.

b) Call things whatever you want - let's understand that your vocal
folds vibrate to make sound, and typically no one is going to look
down your throat and take pictures of your folds as you perform to
analyze what you do.

For myself, I identify about 4 different uses of my own voice:

"fake low" - A way of singing low notes that makes a sound, but it's
not very pretty. Some call this a vocal fry or a strohbass.

"chest voice" - Like my talking voice - up to say around E4 a few
notes above middle C.

"extended chest voice" or "mixed voice" or "full head voice" - For me
up to around A4/Bb4 with some consistency, occassionally higher if
done lightly. If I do it right and sing at a medium or stronger
dynamic level, you would think I am still in chest voice, but that
somehow I am able to carry my chest voice up.

"light head voice" - I think this is what your teacher means when he
says "falsetto with resonance" - it is not breathy, but it is a
lighter registration than the "full head voice". In some voices, and
at some higher pitches, the distinction between this lighter voice
and the fuller "mixed voice" can be a fine line.

"falsetto" - to me, a breathy, useless tone, or a higher strained
tone with a raised larynx.

David Daniels, who has a tenor instrument, sings in the high alto
range at the Metropolitan Opera, and he does it extremely well (see
http://www.danielssings.com). We can debate all we want whether to
call his voice "falsetto", "head voice", "mix falsetto", "blah blah" -
but no matter how you look at it it is his "real voice" that is
vibrating and producing the sound.

Is it reasonable to claim that David Daniels sings a C5 (tenor high
C) with the same use of the voice as an operatic tenor like Domingo,
Pavarotti, etc? I don't think so.

Is it reasonable to call a vibrant, resonant sound like Daniels the
same thing as a hooty, breathy tone? Maybe, but I don't think so.

Unless you have reasons to not trust your teacher, I would not worry
about whatever vocabularly your teacher may use. Your teacher is
probably correct in identifying that you are doing something
different hitting the high C, and I believe he is saying that it
(your "mix-falsetto) is not the tone and use of voice he wants for
you lower in your range.

Cheers,

Michael Gordon




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