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.>>
lloyd responded:
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 all,
tenors are expected to spend a larger amount of time above the
'passaggio zone' than baritones and basses. a bass who can't sing in head
voice can usually 'woof' his way through the one or two notes in an opera
role that would be better sung in head voice. baritones without head voice
end up singing guglielmo a lot. tenors who can't sing in head voice end up
singing gugliemo a lot or managing resturants if they have no low range.
in addition to a greater difference in gender identity found in opera
than is found in contemporary styles of music, the problem discussed in the
previous paragraph is even worse for women than it is for tenors. if women
sang in the same way men do, mechanically, that is, it would mean spending
even more time above that 'passaggio zone' than tenors do. from a practical
standpoint, in singing operatic female roles, it is the greater strategy to
develope the female equivilent to 'falsetto' than to try to use the female
equivilent to a tenor's head voice for such writing.
in looking at pop music, it is very common for operatically oriented
and trained women to be astonished by how low the music is. women not
operatically oriented (in other words, normal, healthy, well-adjusted women)
look at the same pop music and wonder how they are going to 'hit' the high
notes. training these women in the same way one would train a tenor to
extend his range, is the answer to their problem.
mike
|
|  |
