In a message dated 8/4/2001 2:02:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time, w.ritzerfeld@c... writes: w.ritzerfeld@c... writes:
<< The down side is that pop/rock singers don't seem to like the resulting sound. >>
absolutely, wim. and, this is the biggest problem with teaching pop singers - how to teach them the safest and most efficient ways to achieve their aethetic goals without compromising those ideals. the further apart the aesthetic desire is from the ideal production, the more likely a compromise will fail as, it will serve neither particularly well.
with regard to pop singers producing much in the way of the 'singer's formant; my experience has been that some produce quite a bit even though their larynges tend to rise with an increase in pitch. i recorded one of my male students (on a cheap tape recorder) whose high range is not unlike cornell's (and this was without the aid of a microphone). using gram50, i did a spectral analysis of his voice and compared it to my own on the same tape (i should mention that all my training has been classical and, though i prefer to sing other music, that training still forms the basis for my singing). we both produced quite a bit of activity in the range of the singer's formant. the differences were that i produced a denser line in the area of 400-600hz. while he produced much more activity above 3500hz. in the analysis of my own voice, i have not noticed and increase in the density of the singer's formant with a greater lowering of the larynx. instead, it seems that the activity above the singer's formant is reduced.
what i have found has more of an effect on all types of singers, in regard to producing more of the singer's formant, is the improvement in the signal from the vocal folds. using the 'door squeak' trick (which i got from seth riggs' "singing for the stars" and lloyd had mentioned in connection with lindquist) consistantly produces the most immediate changes in the largest group of singers, in my experience. and, it would seem that larynx height has far more to do with timbre than power.
btw, i will send you a file of 'say hello 2 heaven'. by any standards, it is astonishing.
mike
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