Hi, Listers
According to Michael's chart showing his and Lloyd's proposed register
distribution, and the information I got from Dave Stroud's site ( an SLS
teacher ), tenors registers are:
Stroud Lloyd Michael
mix ( from E4 ) middle ( from C4) lower middle ( from C4 )
head ( from A5 ) head ( from G4 to C5 ) upper middle ( from G4 )
super head ( from E5 ) upper ( above C5 )
My problem is that my teachers have always been puzzled at my voice. I can
reach A5, and they say that's PROBABLY a mix voice, although they say it
still sounds like chest. The problem is that I don't have any 'symptoms' of
a mix voice when I sing that high, and also, I feel like I'm 'kindly
pushing' that note. If I do scales and go that far up, I notice I'm blowing
a lot of air up and I don't feel resonance in my head. I also have
post-practice problems, with a fatigued larynx and breathy speaking voice.
It simply tires me. They say I have a very high register and assume I can
feel my top note buzzing in my head, but the truth is that I don't feel
that!
A previous teacher I had showed me something very interesting: he
confirmed what Stroud says about the 'symptoms' of a mix and head voice,
like having the area right above your forehead vibrating at mix and the
back of your head, near the neck, vibrating too for head voice. That
teacher showed my his different registers and had me follow them with my
hand on his head.The vibration was really moving backward as he went
higher.
Having that in mind and the information sent last week and cited from
Miller ( about light tenors being able to take their chest voices so high
that they have a problem to locate their head voice ), I noticed that I was
NOT singing in head or mix when I got to A5. Then I remembered I have a
lighter register when I imitate some local singers. I started to explore
that register and noticed that I could go much higher ( I will explore that
with my teacher on Friday to make sure how far up I can go with it ) with
it and with almost no effort ( and most of the effort I still make is only
bad habit carried from my other register ). I can blend that voice with
head and feel my mix. If I put my hand on my head I can follow the
vibration going back as I go from chest to what I think is my real head
voice, passing by my mix right above my forehead, as is described in the
literature and my previous teacher demonstrated to me. It's a completely
new voice to me ( and it's not the same as falsetto or my possible
countertenor register, although it helps me to tune into that new register
too ), it makes my head vibrate as it had never done before in my higher
pitches and I can sing in the mix with an incredible resonance ( at least,
from the inside ), something that wouldn't happen when I did it in what I
think was my chest voice.
Do you think that makes sense? Do you think I could be really carrying my
chest voice up to A5 and, due to the fact that I have a light tenor voice,
my teachers mistook it for a mix register? I can't find another explanation
for that.
Thanks a lot,
Caio Rossi
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