Vocalist.org archive


To: "'VOCALIST'" <vocalist>
Subject: RE: Problem with highs
Date sent: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 13:06:00 +0100
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Dear Kurt,

Reading your posts, I can't help but wonder whether you mightn't be looking
in the wrong place for the solution to your difficulty.

If you are a bass-baritone, then the notes above G are abnormal notes. Well,
good singing has very little to do with abnormal notes. It has everything to
do with singing normal notes as well and as easily as possible.

I suspect you won't solve the question of these notes by working on them.
You'll solve it by working on your general vocal technique. The way to high
notes is often barred by tension built up lower in the voice, by working on
the high notes you've got a pretty good chance of accumulating still more
tension. A better approach is to eliminate alll tension from the middle of
the voice.

I had a similar difficulty to you. The maestro showed me how to sing the
normal register of the voice without tension. Then he showed me the
passaggio, also without tension. And then I had all the high notes I've ever
needed, plus one or two. Once the voice is relaxed and functioning correctly
there is no particular difficulty with high notes: they're just a stretch.

On Saturday afternoons on Raiuno there used to be a marvellous series called
Antologia dell'Opera - profiles of singers. I saw one on Lauri-Volpi, where
he talked about this. It was about the time one of his volumes of Voci
Parallele came out (discussions of the techniques of well-known singers, in
every case spot-on). He said the old maestri seldom worked specifically on
high notes, but attended closely to the general condition of the voice,
particularly the passaggio. The interviewer asked the obvious question: what
if the student never developed the high notes? Lauri-Volpi got quite
agitated: 'High notes? In my day everyone had them. It was expected of us,
so we had them. These modern singers who force their tops, in my day they
would have had a career in the chorus at best.' He then went to the piano
and did one of the most extraordinary things I've never seen. He played and
sang the climax to a dozen and a half arias, one after another, without
stopping. Faust, Boheme, Ugonotti, Puritani, Longjumeau, Trovatore, Turandot
- he gave us nearly twenty Bs, Cs, C#s, and Ds. He ran out of arias long
before he ran out of voice. He must have been nearly eighty at the time, and
his voice was no longer beautiful (actually, it never was a beautiful
voice), but every one of the notes was there - easy, solid and reliable.

Message in that somewhere.

Happy singing


Regards / vriendelijke groeten

Laurie Kubiak
Commercial Analyst - Europe & Africa TSMS-2
Infrastructure Technology Services, Shell Services International
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA
Telephone: +44 171 934 3853; Fax: +44 171 934 6674
Mobile: 07771 971 921: E.mail: Laurence.l.Kubiak-at-is.shell.com
Office: LON-SC 631




On Fri, 07 Jan 2000 15:34:23 +0000 Kurt Theurer
writes:
> Dear all,
> I am a Bass Baritone and I have serious problems with my highs, i.e.
> G4,
> Ab4 etc.
> Up to Gb4 no problem but then suddenly I am stuck. Can anyone
> suggest a
> good method of practicing which gets me over this barriere?
> Thanks in advance.
> Kurt Theurer
> Bass Baritone
>

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