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From:  "lestaylor2003 <LesTaylor@a...
Date:  Fri Feb 7, 2003  5:07 pm
Subject:  [vocalist] Re: Pavarotti Mezzo Falso

Dear Lloyd, John et al,
Bravo Lloyd! That was, hands down, the best description of the
difference between how men's and women's voices actually work that
I've ever read. Your observations on male versus female passaggi
agrees with everything I've found to be consistent and true. I also
agree that it is important to understand how the mechanisms function.
I do wonder however, how intellectual knowledge of function helps us
to learn to use and manipulate register phenomena? I really feel that
knowledge of function and knowledge of what we each must do to make
our bodies work the way we want them to are not necessarily the same
things. It's a subtlety, but I think an important one worth looking
at in more detail.
***********************************************************
Lloyd: The difficulties they have connecting their high voice with
their chest voice requires that they transcend TWO passaggio areas
<snipped>
***********************************************************
Oh boy have you got that one right! This physical difference between
men and women has caused unbelievable misunderstanding,
miscommunication, incredulity, suspicion and even animosity between
voice teachers for as long as I can remember. A man can't feel what
happens in a woman's body when she sings. All he can do is try to
reconstruct causation, based on the effects detected in a woman's
voice AND it works exactly the same way for women dealing with men's
voices. Once a teacher understands that there's a very real
difference between women's and men's voices, there's no problem with
a man teaching a woman or vice versa, but the teacher has to know
there's a difference of they'll never be as effective nor as helpful
as they might otherwise have been.

You nailed the passaggi for male and female perfectly. You described
the difference between chest, head and falsetto with great precision
and accuracy.

What we still need to know is exactly how to apply this knowledge in
what we do when we sing.


***********************************************************
Lloyd: Although it would appear that the only change needed to move
from falsetto to head voice would be the closing or adducting of the
vocal folds, the fact of the matter is that this a most difficult act
because it requires the coordination of not only the thyroarytenoid
and their antagonistic cricothyroid muscles but also the coordination
of all of the adduction/abbduction muscles (cricoarytenoids, lateral
cricoarytenoids, and interarytenoids).
***********************************************************
It's good that we know what needs to take place in our throats but
how do we learn or teach what to do to make them happen? Yes,
absolutely such knowledge is essential to understand what really
takes place. I believe your descriptions are absolutely true but how
do we get them to actually do it. To my mind that practical sort of
knowlege is real and of value.

There are exercises that provide the opportunity to experience the
necessary function to learn to manage the head voice that can be
accomplished WITHOUT the need of any intellectual understanding by
the singer about what's happening in their throat. Those are the
kinds of things that I truly feel are useful and real.

Unvoiced lip trills, for example can teach breath management without
the need for the teacher to even say a thing other than "Do this and
see if you can stretch it out to 15 seconds." You show 'em how to do
it and off you go! If the student can strech out an unvoiced lip
trill to 15 seconds, they are already starting to manage their
breath! An intellectual understanding of the function of breathing
during singing isn't going to help them do that and in fact may even
cause dysfunction by fostering too much self-consciousness.
***********************************************************
Lloyd: It is much easier to learn the difficult enough process of
gradually transferring the contracting energy of the thyroarytenoid
muscles, which is found in chest voice, to the lengthening effect of
the cricothyroid muscles which is found in head voice. This
transition is necessary if the male singer is to learn to manage his
passaggio and he has a mere fourth in pitch range to accomplish this
act.
***********************************************************
Yep. But what does he have to do to accomplish this? There are three
or four exercises that I know of that help this process. I have found
that singing a five note descending diatonic figure (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
starting in falsetto on a schwa vowel, say around a tenor's high c,
in the range just above the region of passage for most male voices,
then singing down scale, while relaxing into what sounds like
falsetto with chest "added" is a pretty good way for men to "find"
their head voice. In some respects it's exactly like learning to ride
a bike. One has to get a feel first, then they stand a chance of
understanding the description of the actual function you've written
about so well. I honestly don't think it works quite so well the
other way around.
***********************************************************
Lloyd: I have found in over 40 years of teaching male voices that it
is very uncommon for a singer to successfully use falsetto as a
method of learning to use head voice. In fact, falsetto usually
becomes a kind of high voice crutch that the singers musculature
coordination will revert to automatically, pre-empting his attempts
to make the coordinations necessary to move from chest voice to head
voice. I do not recommend it.
***********************************************************
Excellent recommendation. I can't think of very many people whose
understanding, experience and opinions I would value more than yours
Lloyd. I mean that. I would love to know how you teach a singer to
use their head voice. Would you care to offer some vocalises,
exercises, or other suggestions?
regards,
Les





  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date  
22474 Re: Pavarotti Mezzo FalsoTako Oda <toda@m...>takooda Fri  2/7/2003  
22477 Re: Pavarotti Mezzo FalsoMichael <chosdad@y...>chosdad Fri  2/7/2003  
22488 19055, was Re: Pavarotti Mezzo FalsoMichael <chosdad@y...>chosdad Sat  2/8/2003  
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