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From:  "Chris Rowbury" <chris_rowbury@o...>
"Chris Rowbury" <chris_rowbury@o...>
Date:  Tue Oct 2, 2001  12:41 pm
Subject:  RE: [vocalist] A question of register


Peggy wrote:

> 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.

Wow! What a fascinating discussion. I had no idea there was
so much controversy surrounding registers!

I am a male and can sing in what I call 'falsetto', BUT ...
I can make it louder or softer, change its 'colour', etc.

Methinks we are talking about different things then.
This is all so subjective as we're trying to relate our
own internal subjective feelings with other people's
descriptions of theirs.

I'm not classically trained and sing mostly world music
from the oral tradition, which means that I use the upper
reaches of (what I suppose is) my 'chest' voice. I use
the break between that and my 'falsetto' voice to create
the yodels and other effects that you hear in Eastern
European and some African music.

There have been several mentions in this thread about
damaging the voice by, for example, pushing the head
voice up too high. How does one account then for the
extraordinary voices heard in the many cultures which
still maintain a strong oral tradition? Surely these people
should have wrecked their voices in youth??!! And they
didn't receive training either.

All the best

Chris
Coventry, UK

mailto:chris_rowbury@o...



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