> baffled when you describe her tone as hooty. The
> usual meaning of the word
> hooty is a tone that is lacking in overtones and is
> much like the tone one
> hears from a tuning fork
I hear Jennifer Larmore's voice as "hooty," too, if
that helps. It's like... a voice that has no sharp,
clean edge to it. It sounds almost hollow, like
someone is singing inside a cavern or in the shower,
just round and over-covered and artificial-sounding,
to me. Not lacking in overtones, because these voices
can be quite bright (in a way), just not that good,
pingy forward-bright... more like a cavernous,
balloon-like hooty-bright.
It reminds me of the vocal tone that deaf people who
have been taught to speak use, if you have ever known
someone like that. Or like Kermit the Frog's voice
(the original Jim Henson one, not the one they have on
TV now, nor the "froggy" voice that people use to
imitate him). There, that's my definition of hooty.
We'll never agree about placement... you say potato, I
say potahto. I think that the simplest and easiest
way for many people to understand and produce a
correct tone is to think "forward." Most of the
female singers in the Hines book say the same thing.
You remarked:
> When a conductor tells a singer to sing more
> forward the intelligent singer can understand
> that he means the tone is too dark and needs
> more high overtone emphasis. The singer can then
> make the necessary adjustments that are effective
> for his/her voice without a need to explain
To me, "the necessary adjustments" are more easily
accomplished by telling yourself, "Think forward, feel
the buzzing in the front teeth and right above the
nose," than by thinking to yourself, "Put more
overtones in the voice," or, "Okay, let's move the
left crico-thyroid three millimeters to the left," or
other such nonsense.
Even the "non-placement" ways of fixing a too-dark
tone -- adjusting the vowel (why, that just means
transforming a backward vowel into a forward vowel) or
fiddling with the mouth space (again, more placement
concepts, just with different terminology) -- do the
same thing. A voice with overtones and singer's
formant IS forward, whether you teach someone to get
it forward by thinking about placement imagery or by
thinking about something else.
For some people, placement imagery isn't needed. But
most Americans, I think, don't have naturally placed,
forward, squillo-laden voices (unlike many Italians, I
have learned). You don't HAVE to teach it, and some
students, of course, don't need it... but to dismiss
it because imagery isn't scientific is to ignore how
singers have been taught to sing for hundreds of years
(and how many of the famous ones still believe they
sing, according to that book).
But, of course, I love to talk about it... and I have
learned a good deal in the Lloyd-Isabelle debates on
the subject. What a lot there is to learn! What a
beautiful thing it is to exchange ideas and discuss
and grow with each other.
Isabelle B.
=====
Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte@y...
__________________________________________________
Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices.
http://auctions.yahoo.com/
|
