I am rather confused about Mary Beth's comments about
(particularly) male head and chest voices. It may be
that there is some confusion over terms and people are
talking at cross purposes, but it seems to me that
Lloyd's comments are nothing to do with falsetto at
all. I am a tenor and I can only go on the sensations
that I feel in my throat/head. There most definitely
is such a thing as head voice, as opposed to falsetto
(and, as I understand it, the vocal chords do not come
together at all when a man sings in falsetto - in that
way it is "false" voice production). However, head
voice (it's a crude term but useful when one is
learning - and I am only learning)is different again
and will occur naturally (if weakly)in all broken male
voices given sufficient breath support. It doesn't
start off being loud (though I'm sure there are some
luck people who have always been able to access this
register in their voice). The mixing area (for me, F
or F sharp to A flat)is most definitely the key to
accessing the very high registers. Without being able
successfully to negotiate that "passage", a tenor has
no hope of being able to sustain high singing over a
long period. The only exceptions are very light
voiced tenors who seem to go through very little
change, and this must be to do with the physiology of
their vocal chords. You can go on for hours, and we
haven't even touched on vowels yet. Surely people
can't seriously believe that people with big voices
produce high notes using a form of falsetto! I think
Vickers, Corelli and Di Stefano would have had
something to say about that. --- "Lloyd W. Hanson"
<lloyd.hanson@n...> wrote:
<HR>
<html><body>
<tt>
>Dear Reg and Mary Beth and Vocalisters:<BR>
<BR>
Mary Beth wrote:<BR>
>There are some defineable boundaries for where
chest, mix, head voice occurs<BR>
>for all voices. The point of reference for all
voices should be to maintain<BR>
>the quality and identity they have in their
speaking voice. If they use a<BR>
>different voice for singing, they are inevitably
setting themselves up for<BR>
>vocal difficulties. Developing that transition
point between chest/head voice<BR>
>is difficult for all of us, however, the
transition happens at the same place<BR>
>irregardless of ascending/descending scale or
style.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
COMMENT: First it must be said that the
transition from falsetto to <BR>
chest voice (men, of course) is most of the time a
clumsy and ackward <BR>
transition. The major difference in vocal fold
function between <BR>
these two kinds of singing is a natural cause of this
phenomenon. <BR>
Few, very few, singers ever learn to make this
transition without it <BR>
becoming an obvious change in vocal function.
This is especially <BR>
true if the vocal folds are oscillating with a high
degree of <BR>
amplitude as they do in loud singing. Loud
falsetto to loud chest <BR>
voice will almost always produce an astonishing
"crack" in the vocal <BR>
production. Interestingly, some techniques use
this very exercise to <BR>
release vocal fold tensions in the chest voice
allowing the voice to <BR>
have more rich chest quality and an extension on the
lower portion of <BR>
the chest range.<BR>
<BR>
Age is a very dominant factor in attempting to
establish register <BR>
change points in the male voice. So is natural
vocal range.<BR>
<BR>
Tenors will have a much easier time of making
transitions between <BR>
falsetto and chest voice and, in many cases, tenors
will not even <BR>
have a falsetto but, instead, a true head voice.
If this is so, they <BR>
can rather easily learn to make the transition from
head voice to <BR>
chest voice because the vocal fold function is more
similar than it <BR>
is dissimilar in these two ranges, unlike
falsetto.<BR>
<BR>
Lower male voices will often have no appearance of
head voice until <BR>
the early 20's and will rely on falsetto with its
inherent tendency <BR>
to "crack" down into chest voice on
descending scales. It is usually <BR>
very easy to discover the lower transition point of
the passage <BR>
between chest voice and head voice (note, not
falsetto) in younger <BR>
baritones and basses by simply asking them to bring
their chest voice <BR>
as high as is comfortable (at which point they will
usually break <BR>
into falsetto). Above this pitch it is common
that only falsetto is <BR>
available until the young voice becomes more skilled
at chest voice <BR>
use and the necessary age maturity occurs. Male
head voice <BR>
appearance can be encouraged by use of the /u/ vowel
in descending 5 <BR>
note scale passages beginning above the upper
passaggio point which <BR>
is,roughly, a fourth or major third above the lower
transition (that <BR>
is, passaggio) point. Words with moderately
percussive beginning <BR>
consonants such as /fu/ 'few', 'shoe' etc are useful
because they <BR>
encourage increased breath flow to produce and this
encourages the <BR>
singer to continue sufficient air flow for the head
voice production.<BR>
<BR>
Singing with minimum or moderate vocal volume has an
effect on all of <BR>
these phenomenon. In most cases the transitions
are more easily made <BR>
because the vocal fold are oscillating at a very
reduced level of <BR>
amplitude. It is for this reason that such male
vocal difficulties <BR>
occur less often for mike singing. Increasing
the loudness to f or <BR>
ff requires that the singer have greater skill at
making these <BR>
transitions because the vocal folds are functioning
with greater <BR>
amplitude.<BR>
<BR>
I am assuming that Mary Beth is using the term
"mix" as I am using <BR>
the term "passaggio", that is, that pitch
area between the function <BR>
of vocal production into another vocal production.<BR>
<BR>
-- <BR>
Lloyd W. Hanson<BR>
<BR>
removed]<BR>
<BR>
</tt>
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