Vocalist.org archive


From:  Tako Oda <toda@m...>
Date:  Tue Sep 5, 2000  7:52 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: Source of frequencies was:Falsetto Recognition


On Tue, 5 Sep 2000 RALUCOB@a... wrote:
> in my experience with working with both pre-pubescent males and females,
> i have noticed that they both have what is called 'chest voice' and 'head
> voice'. in the case of these two groups, as well as adult females, the
> timbres of these two areas of the voice are more similar than these two
> timbres in the adult male voice (most would probably agree so far). in
> general, the boys, the girls and the women sing in both 'head' and 'chest',
> with the problem of going from one to the other without sounding or feeling
> as if they are 'switching'.

Yes, yes, yes! The problem is that the 'head' voice to which you refer is
unlike that of a tenor 'head' voice. It's very confusing. To my ear (and
in my experience), it is like the countertenor 'head' voice.

> without going into detail, my approach to this
> problem, in all voices, including adult males, is to have the student begin
> 'switching' earlier and finish 'switching' later.

Exactly - which results in the 1 octave passagio zone for women
(and children and countertenors) to which Lloyd Hanson refers. It's a
strategy... it is possible to tackle the registration in a different way.

> the students i find most resistant to this process are men who are
> uncomfortable singing in 'falsetto' and women who are interested in, for want
> of a better word, 'rougher' pop music where the aesthetic is more akin to a
> 'belting' tone than a 'headier' tone. so, i suspect the 'loss of their
> soprano voices', in men, as you put it, is more likely due to cultural
> factors than to physical factors, as it affects both men and women (and i
> suspect that its affect on women may be more pronounced in the past forty
> years relative to the development of pop music).

Yes, pop females have very different registration events than opera
females, usually.

Tako


emusic.com