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From:  John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...>
Date:  Fri Mar 31, 2000  3:07 pm
Subject:  RE: [vocalist-temporary] Re: Tenor High Notes


Hi Rick,
I'm a baritone who will, this evening, perform both the bass
and tenor II solos in Schubert's Eb mass. In order to be able to do this I
have been very strict with myself in allowing my practice of the tenor part
to employ pure, unmixed head-tone as the core sound (warm -ups have included
descending scales on 'nee' from fairly high up - starting note f# working up
to the b at the top of my head-tone range). If I had indulged in any chest
or falsetto mixtures it would have been too tiring, and would have sounded
strained. Now that I have the part, know what's coming etc, I can cool it
with a little falsetto mix here, warm it up a little with 'chest' there.
Head-tone is the solution. Find out what you can about it, but since
there is a lot of confusion in the literature on this subject, your own
gentle experiments, especially with the help of a teacher who can produce
this pure sound (rare), must be your recourse. A clue: it is surprisingly
easy to get once it's established - no straining for notes: because you
either have them or you don't.
john


At 13:11 30/03/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello to Everybody!!
>
>Thank god for Karen and Isabel. I really was beguining to miss Vocalist.
>
>Anyway, here's my dilemma:
>I am interested in finding out some of the ways singers, tenors in
>particular are able to reach high notes, particularly for dramatic or lyric
>tessitura, such as in Tosca, or Manon, any other time when the Tenor has to
>hit high notes in a manner that powerful, clear and beautiful. I am also
>wondering if it's different for other voices, do sopranos do it differently
>? or mezzos ? or baritones? I realize as a tenor who still hasn't completed
>perfecting and stabilizing my vocal technique, this issue is always in my
>mind as well as the minds of a lot of tenors that I know, whether they are
>beguiners or advanced singers. I realize that for some people hitting the
>high notes dramatically is a piece of cake and for others (like me) hitting
>them correctly takes a lot of hard work.
>
>Any ideas?
>
>thank you,
>
>Rick
>
>
>
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>
John Blyth
Baritone, inter alia.
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada


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