| Dear Alain and list, >Alain wrote:
> 1) This mode 2 is not a pure "Hansonian falsetto"
> <g>, but since the term
> "mode 2" has been created to 1° avoid using the term
> falsetto and 2°
> underline the fact that there is nothing else than
> mode 1 and mode 2 (except
> maybe mode 0 : vocal fry and mode 3 : whistle and
> maybe mode 0b for
> Strohbass and 3b for flageolet...), this mode 2
> should be falsetto, since it
> is not a "tenor head voice" which is still mode 1...
> Ouch!
Alains explication is highly interesting, but when I try to use this knowledge I get a little bit confused. Maybe this is because my singing lessons never learned me how to treat the upper passagio and above. I hope you don' mind if I tell something about my doubts, concerning what I think is my plain head voice. For me the A4 is a difficult note, in that sense that I can sing it in many ways, and I don't know which one is the right one: 0. I can go on singing quite heavy using more support and heavy vowel modification, trying to open my throat as much as possible. This produces a note that sometimes is ok, but I don' have much control over it, I can only sing it quite loud and it is quite atiring. Holding such a note long is difficult. I don't like to sing like this that much, although this is what my ex-singing teacher wanted me to do. 0a. I can sing lighter and softer and use what is called 'voix mixte', a combination of chest and head. This is a nice way to do an A4 mf, but the tone is not very clear, yet OK. But when using this method carefully, all notes to A4 flat are very beautiful. 1. I can switch to what I think is head voice, the tone is nice, sounds more than the notes in chest voice, and when singing the G4 not too loud in chest you cannot hear the difference (although going down is more difficult!) In this way I can also go higher quite easy, where C5 and even D5 still sounds nice. From that point on the tone looses quality. When doing this wrong, the tone gets a falsetto quality which I hate. (But when doing 0 wrong the tone is even worse.) In this (1) way it is easy to hold the note long and to sing coleratures, and I even have the feeling the faster I do it, the better the change from 0 to 1 goes. When using this method, especially when starting at a long A4, I have the feeling I shift the larinx backwards. 0101a: finally there are many moment where I unvolantarily combine these methods, with sometimes very good, but unreproducable results. I should add to this that I am called a light tenor (high palatum), but with very good low notes (?!??), going down to a clear but light G2 and even a F2 that is acceptable. My lower passagio point is F4 and my voice is not small. At the moment I am also trying to use vowel modification on higher passagio notes, not so much because it is dificult to sing those notes (this not the case when using 0a), but because just to sound not too light in higher notes. Does the description of my voice make sense? Should not I be a heavy tenor when I have such low notes? But singing heavy does not sound good in my case, and singing light can generate very nice tones. Am I right assuming that heavier tenors use method 0, and some lighter tenors use method 1? Is my method 1, Alains method 1, or is it the normal way to sing high notes for a tenor? Is it dangerous the use either one of those methods, could I loose my chest voice by using method 1? My main question is maybe: can a high c be easy? My ex singing teacher told me: 'it is the last thing you learn and the first thing you lose', and that is not how it feels in my case. Oh, I almost forgot: I can also hum all notes I can sing. Sorry for this long explanantion, I know it may sound a bit like: 'listen what a great voice I have' (it is easier to write about notes you can sing than to actually sing them beautifully, I know), but that is not at all what my intention is. I am mainly just afraid I might do something wrong, now I have the feeling that it's time to attack my high(est) notes. Best greetings, Dre | 
