Hello Dre and Vocalister:
On 12-Dec-00, Dre de Man wrote:
> So whatever the idea behind it may be, vocal strategies of (lyrical) > tenors are not a good argument to tell women to push up their chest (no I > will not make this mistake again:) voice higher than usual.
COMMENT: Dre, you have defined the problem and the misunderstanding clearly. The male chest voice covers about 2/3rds of the male voice range. This chest voice is topped by about a fourth of passaggio voice which, if it is to be transcended successfully, must eventually become a mixed voice (head and chest mixed) and above this fourth is the head voice. Falsetto is not even considered nor sought.
To define the male passaggio area, Miller suggests that the singer sing in his chest voice in a continuing ascending scale. When the call voice appears one has found the lower passaggio point. When, as the singer continues to ascend the scale the call voice gives way to either the head voice or the falsetto, one has found the top of the passaggio area. With this approach it is usually quite easy to know the problem area for the male voice and then begin the process of implementing the head voice above the passaggio and once that is accomplished , bringing that head voice down through the passaggio and adding in the necessary chest voice but in such a manner that the call voice is avoided. Singing down from the head voice, adding the chest voice to create a mixed voice in the passaggio is the key to building a male voice that does not appear to have any passaggio breaks.
I might add that some natural singers do this instinctively. That fact that they do, does not negate the need for us regular mortals to learn how to do this.
Regards -- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011 Regards -- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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