Vocalist.org archive


From:  Tako Oda <toda@m...>
Tako Oda <toda@m...>
Date:  Mon Dec 11, 2000  5:10 am
Subject:  Re: Comparison of female and male singers


On Sun, 10 Dec 2000, Lloyd W. Hanson wrote:
> There is a very active discussion on the list regarding male falsetto, male
> head voice and the fact that these two male vocal qualities occupy about
> the same fundamental pitch range.

If we had Marko's archive's we probably would have to have these
discussions ;-) Just kidding - I'm still learning from these threads!

> 1 The male head voice or the male falsetto, either one, does not have
> register change points within the ranges of these voices. The female
> middle voice or the lower end of the female voice, that is, chest voice, do
> have register change points in the same ranges as the male voices. If the
> voices were the same, the male voices in the ranges in question, would have
> register changes similar to the female voices.

I don't know that I'd argue that they are the same either. What I dispute
is that the registration differences between men and women somehow prove
that their physical structures are different (though they usually are, if
for now other reason that the size thing). The registrational
dissimilarities could also be due to the different techniques men and
women are taught.

Just as a for instance, I have found my registrational "events" to be very
similar to those of contraltos. I have two passagio zones - one around C4,
the other at D5, with some "lifting" that must begin by A4. If I were to
use a tenoriffic strategy, my single passagio zone is more like Eb4 to
Ab4.

I'm going to try to grossly oversimplify here: Below c4, almost everyone
sings in chest. Above c4, almost everyone sings in head. As for the octave
between these points, tenors and female pop singers use a head technique
built on chest - i.e. maintaining some thickness in the folds (hence the
complex spectrum). Countertenors and female classical singers us a head
technique built on bringing the head voice down - i.e. maintaining a
relatively light gauge in the vibrating bodies (simpler spectrum).

They're both head in the sense that there is the zipping up to shorten the
effective vibrating length and that there is tension in the cords. The
difference is in the amount of lateral stretch which thins the folds. One
is specialized to blend seamlessly to a lower range, the other to blend
with a higher one. Some people are better at one than another. Most of it
is biological, the rest is merely strategic.

People are different. Some people (men and women) have healthy careers
singing with a chest based mix in the C4-C5 range, others with a head
based mix. Others are somewhere in between. Sure, there are a lot women
who have damaged their voices singing too high with too much chest, but
the same goes for men too!

Everyone has to find their own optimal registration strategy. There is no
categorically better way. Some are suited to pop, others opera, or
whatever. I suspect my career will last a lot longer as a countertenor
than as a tenor (I'd last about 5 minutes... thank God the Carmina Burana
tenor aria is so short ;-)

Tako


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