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From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Tue Oct 2, 2001  2:01 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] A question of register

Greypins@a... wrote:


> what i don't understand is, if tenors can go higher than F above middle
> C, without having to resort to falsetto, why do women feel they have to (and
> yes, i do call what classical females sing in 'falsetto' because, that's what
> i think it is)? is it because that is the style or, is it just easier to
> sing that way? female pop singers do not do this.

Mike, I have to respectfully disagree with you. You may
choose to call the way a woman sings unsupported tone in her
head voice "falsetto", but it most definitely is nothing
like the male falsetto. It's an unsupported low-resonance
head tone, that is similar to the male falsetto in that the
singer can do nothing with it. But I think the tone you
call the female falsetto is instead comparable to the
unsupported, low-resonance, "mouthy" sound that a tenor
might make in the main tenor tessitura - sort of like the
way most choral (untrained) tenors sing. And the way most
choral, untrained, sopranos sing. It is not falsetto.

I think the sound in my voice that may be comparable to the
male falsetto is the sound I make at the very bottom of my
range, D natural, D# or C natural below middle C. It's a
sound that feels to me (and sounds inside my head) like the
sound one makes when blowing over the top of an empty 6-1/2
ounce Coca Cola bottle. I can make the tone, but there's no
way I could ever do anything other than make the tone.
Can't make it louder, can't make it softer, can't sing it
any other way than the way it comes out. And I suppose it's
possible that the female "whistle" register is like the male
falsetto, but I've never been able to do whistle register,
so I can't say from my own experience.

Peggy

--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...




  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date  
14393 Re: A question of registerChris Rowbury   Tue  10/2/2001  

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