Hello My Illustrious Colleagues in Voice:
Although I am not a vocal pedagogue by any means and am, therefore, not
truly qualified to speak on these matters, this batch of singers Mike is
referring to are "my boys". In other words, my genre, my niche so I am going
to comment on some of this stuff. Flame me at will. ;)
Chris Cornell really seems to throw a lot of people for a loop for some
reason. Although, I don't know him personally, I know who he studied with. I
therefore know some of the methodology that he was trained in. First of all,
if you listen very closely to the way he sounds in his lower register vs.
the way he sounds in his higher register, there is a definite difference in
timbre, frequencies which are amplified/deamplified, etc. He is in a
well-supported head voice layering rasp on top of the tone. The delivery is
almost a gospel/deep blues one which gives it this wailing feeling and
sound. He's also "dipping" into the chest voice as much a possible. Sort of
leaning into the tone and reinforcing it to the point where if he added one
more iota of lower resonance, he would lose it. That is my take on what he
is doing vocally in his upper register. No magic, just a combination of
techniques which all serve to produce that sound.
In terms of Geoff Tate, he is NOT I repeat NOT singing in falsetto! I know
him through a friend and know his vocal training, background, technique,
approach, etc. and the man is in a full head voice whenever he sings. Listen
to the power and resonance on a song like "Eyes of a Stranger" or "Queen of
the Reich" or "The Whisper" and tell me how on could ever achieve that in
falsetto.
Steve Perry is a natural lyric tenor so he sounds more conversational in
the upper register I suppose. I am the same way. I can sing all of the
Journey material without a problem and in a natural sounding and feeling
manner. Certainly not falsetto. In fact I often practice to the song "Victim
of Changes" by Judas Priest off of the Sad Wings of Destiny album. At the
end he hits a G (above Tenor C) two times and sustains the E for 2 measures
of 4/4. Now I can and do sing that in a full supported head voice. In fact I
can even purposely sing it in falsetto to demonstrate the difference when I
then proceed to sing it in my full head voice. The difference in power,
richness of tone, resonance, carrying power, excitement, etc. Now I do not
consider myself a freak or magical so this must be quite achievable. I feel
no strain, no pain, no reaching, no pushing/pulling, etc.
Yours In Music,
Denis J. Lanza
Lead Vocalist - Infinity Minus One
-----Original Message-----
From: Greypins@a... [mailto: Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2001 12:05 PM
To: vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [vocalist] chris cornell, was: Question about Singing
In a message dated 9/29/2001 2:30:22 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
bluesrocker4u_1@y... writes:
bluesrocker4u_1@y... writes:
<< How the hell does Chris Cornell do it? >>
good question. in a recent discussion concerning the climax of 'say
hello 2 heaven' ('temple of the dog'), wim ritzerfeld suggested that cornell
is actually singing that E above tenor high C in chest. wim makes a
distinction between 'heavy' and 'light' mechanism. in our discussion, he
suggests that cornell remains in 'heavy' mechanism without making the
resonance adjustments that make the difference between 'chest' and 'head' in
the male voice.
other singers of similar styles, geoff tate, robert plant, axel rose
seem
to use some kind of falsetto to achieve their high ranges. steve perry
seems to be legitimately a tenor. his singing is different from the others
as it seems his high range is achieved by more traditional means. one
could
probably say the same thing about paul mccartney.
ingo titze, in an article on the site for the national center for voice
science (http://www.ncvs.org), suggested that we were all capable of such
wailing when we were children and that it was the learning of language that
has inhibited us in this ability (sorry, i can't remember which of the
articles, listed under 'singers', he said this in). from the time we learn
to speak, as titze seems to suggest, the great majority of our vocal use is
verbal. as most of us, in the west and, particulary we americans, seem to
mumble in our lower middle range, we lose contact with our ability to wail.
all styles of vocal music are affected by this. whatever the style, the
beginning singer finds it not only difficult to sing outside of the speaking
range but also, finds it difficult to sustain sound in a manner that is more
like wailing and less like singing.
to me, chris cornell has recalled his ability to wail. our analysis of
what he is doing does not necessarily instruct us in 'how to do it'.
reproducing the sound he makes may be quite different from recreating the
action that produced it which, in another singer may produce very different
sounds.
mike
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