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From:  mikebarb@n...
mikebarb@n...
Date:  Sat Dec 9, 2000  5:11 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: head/chest voice; was: why do women...?




Jennifer wrote:

> > In my high school chorus, I hear other girls
> > in my section (I'm an alto) who just can't hit notes
> > above, say, a B4 or a C5 because they simply can't
> > push their chest voice up any higher. (It makes me
> > wonder if some of these girls wouldn't be sopranos
> > if they'd only use their head voice, but that's
> > a-whole-nother story.)
>
> That was me exactly! I didn't even know what a head
> voice was until I started taking lessons as an adult
> and discovered I was a soprano.

In a similar vein, I also believe that another subset of true sopranos who
sing in alto sections do so because their voices thin and sound strained at
aprox. D5 - E5, and they think that is the limit of their voice or that
their voice breaks there. Been there, done that. However having problems
in this area doesn't mean that one is true alto or mezzo. When I was
young, choir directors always told me that I was a soprano, but I resisted
singing iin the soprano section because what good is a soprano without an
E5? Taking lessons as an adult has helped me a lot.

Barbara Roberts
mikebarb@n...


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