in my own voice, there exists a light, breathy voice which i would call
falsetto. i can increase volume in two ways with this voice. one way,
when increased in volume, is not breathy, is variable dynamically and sounds
like an operatic female (prompting some of my female students to bitterly
inquire "why are you a better soprano than i?". to which i respond "if i
weren't, would you still be here?" very helpful.). i can get this voice
up to the F, F# below soprano high C. i can get it down to about middle C
with some volume and, to date, cannot get into my 'regular voice without a
complete change, including some sort of break.
going back to the breathy, light falsetto (that's what i'm calling it
for this post. this is not an argument for permanantly labeling it so),
from there, by adding what sounds like the beginnings of an imitation of a
creaking door, i can get to a louder voice that sounds like a tenor's high
range, does extend into my 'regular' voice and that i can actually take
higher than the other (Ab, A below soprano high C).
i usually teach men to do the latter and teach women to do both. when
women do the former, they sound more operatic and also experience the
'disconnection' from their 'chest' or 'speaking' voice (or whatever you wish
to call it). when singing in the second way, they are able to connect to
their 'chest' voice and are able to extend as high, if not higher than the
former. although a woman's sound in these voices is more similar than in
men's, there is still a difference. additionally, a woman's voice, taking
the latter approach, is more variable. and, though not quite as appropriate
for opera as the former method, can be used for classical but, can also be
used for jazz, country, pop, broadway (right up there with such all purpose
terms like 'bel canto' and 'national security'), rock (hard core and
otherwise), etc.
to my ears, julia migenes, marni nixon and julie andrews (pre 'victor
victoria') sing in the second way and giulietta simionato and david daniels
sing in the way of the former (this, perhaps, is why ms. simionato, to my
ears sounds as if she switched into a different voice for her low notes,
sounding almost as if her brother were singing her low notes for her).
i wish i knew what was going on anatomically and acoustically during
these two treatments of falsetto, the fact is, i do not. i have suspicions
as to what is happening but, those are subjective. i do them both by feel
and by intending to make a particular sound (see tomatis.com for an
exposition of his theory that 'the ear must hear the sound before it can be
made'.)
mike
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