Kate,
(long, maybe self-indulgent)
I could perhaps offer a male perspective: I used to sing in a choir
in Scotland as a rather loud bass who could force his tone to any pitch. I
must have been valued for my enthusiasm. When I moved to Canada and
auditioned for a choir I was stuck in the first tenors because of my
somewhat belted high A. I knew not subtltey. In the course of a music degree
programme centred on guitar and music history I would very much have liked
to switch to voice, but was (wisely) advised to stick with what I had, which
I did.
After I graduated I sang 2nd bass in the chamber choir here, and
gradually learned subtltey. Sometimes even moderately high notes were hard
for me though, and I mostly thought of myself as a bass. Over the years,
with occasional instruction and listening to and questioning better singers,
I too got better, and singing became easier and easier. Occasionally I would
get a solo part, which mostly demonstrated that I was improving, but had a
long way to go.
Getting an extensive solo part after a year or two of no solos found
me with a rich vibrato that had preveiously been absent, and the local
success that came in the wake of that spurred me to find out all I could
about solo singing and to be the best that I could be. (read every book,
subscribed to Vocalist!)
Yet only a couple of months ago, I could not decide if I were
baritone or bass, and there is still a minority that suspects me of being a
tenor (!). What clinched my present understanding of my voice was a happy
accident: seeing that a second tenor was not on the programme for an
upcoming Schubert Eb mass, I thought I was supposed to sing the part; the
conductor said "Actually we just haven't found a second tenor yet, but,
certainly, you can give it a try". Since the part had an awkward tessitura
and since I didn't want to sound baaad, I really worked and worked on it
employing only head voice, keeping my mouth small, not trying to push
anything forward. I also sang, at very short notice, another extended
tenor solo that took me up to an A.
All of these shennanigans helped me to understand the geography of
my voice more clearly, and the shoreline to the north stops at B, which I
can produce without straining - anything beyond that is hooty falsetto,
which neither feels nor sounds good. Although I can sing very low notes the
strength and richness drops off from the bottom of the clef: conclusion -
I'm a baritone.
But in the Fach system how would it go? Charakterbariton?
Kavalierbariton? Heldenbariton? So it goes on. john
At 23:25 06/04/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi...
>
>I know worrying about your Fach is silly...but I've had some really strange
>things going on this past year and I'm wondering if anyone else has had this
>kind of experience.
... Couldn't hit the high B flat in the composer's aria to save
>my life...hid it away and didn't work on it. However, about 1 month ago,
>something weird happened and my Strauss aria (which climaxed on a high f)
>lost its sparkle and the low note (a middle c) got all chesty and yucky. We
>switched to the high version which was a major third above and it sounded
>great....thing is that I'd tried the high version early in the semester and
>my teacher said it was bad. :) He said, "I don't know where your voice is
>going (meaning registers) but it's going FAST.
>
>Well, he couldn't be more right...in the past 3 weeks I've gained a LOT on
>my top...I'm now able to vocalize to high C easily(haven't tried higher) and
>I can wham the B flat in the Composer's aria and the optional one at the end
>of Dalila's aria...
>
>I'm just wondering if anyone else has gone through this kind of thing...
>My big problem to this point is a shaky jaw which goes away when the jaw is
>completely open. My teacher's solution is to have me sing into the mirror
>(which I hate!)...and I was wondering if anyone's done exercises to work on
>this issue....
>
>:)
>Kate Penney
...
John Blyth
Baritone, inter alia.
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
|
