Dear GWendel and List:
I am enjoying this thread since the perspective is so different from mine. I have a highish voice - reliable low is only a few notes below C3 (tenor low C), and I just love to sing in my lower range and never tire doing so - there's not much volume or resonance down low, but it's not uncomfortable. That's not to say that no part is too low for me, but in general choral bass sits fine with me if I am willing to skip singing a few occasional low pitches.
I sense GWendel is resistant to suggestions regarding his singing technique (e.g., that low notes shouldn't be in a mix), and since we can't hear him we might be off base anyway. So here are some purely practical suggestions:
1) Decide to declare some pitch as your lowest practical pitch for choral purposes - it could be fairly high initially - say D3, less than an octave below middle C. After a while you can experiment with lowering this "low boundary". Think of this note as kind of like a "no fly zone" - if a pitch in the music is lower than that, simply don't sing it - you can move your lips and pretend to sing.
2) I think you are associating low pitches with a particular vocal color, and attempting to "sound" baritonal or bassy (sp?) down low. Give up those thoughts. Tenors have the right to sing in the lower part of their range, so sing your low notes as you imagine a tenor would, and don't try to change your color to match the basses/baritones. If the music is SAB, imagine that the composer has written the music as SATB but with the tenors unison with the basses, but with tenors expected to drop out below some pitch (see 1 above).
3) Discuss the issue with your teacher. Explore the idea of strengthening your lower range not in the sense of extending down the range, but of improving your comfort and freedom within the reasonable low range of a tenor. Unless your voice is quite unusual, I would think a tenor would have comfort singing at least down to D3 (which is above "tenor" low C - C3). It has been my experience that freeing up the chest register actually helps the upper range. Again, I am not telling you to try and "become" a baritone or improve how low you can go, only to be come more comfortable within the lower part of your own voice, with appropriate limits.
4) Another possibility would be to "part hop" - switching between say the tenor and alto part for a few measures when the tenor part goes too low.
Good luck, and thanks for the thread.
Cheers,
Michael
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