the problem with terms like 'falsetto, head, chest, bass, soprano,
wagnerian counter-tenor with baritone underpinnings, etc.' is that we are
probably looking at notches on the spectrum. to attempt to isolate these
'notches', i believe, is a mistake (except that it's fun to argue about).
we all have different length and width in our ear canals, not to mention
the differences in the brain receiving the messages (see tomatis.com), that
affect the sound we're receiving. the machines that produce spectograms can
be uniform though we are not. our reading of spectograms is visual, not
audio (can we really judge a sound by the color of its spectogram?).
it might be more valuable do discuss different singers in relation to
each other as they stand on any given spectrum as opposed to attempting to
define a notch on that spectrum. pertinent to the subject at hand, i can,
on one note (in my upper-middle) go from a whispery 'falsetto' (or, the
weakest, lightest sound i can imagine producing) to a full, jerry lewis chest
yell with no breaks (i have a lot of free time). the point is, i am not
aware of what is physiologically going on as i do this other than the 'feel'
of doing it, nor do i think it matters. i got there by 'feel' and have
shown others how to do it (we have yet to find the appropriate repertoire to
show off this skill...).
understanding what happens anatomically explains, partially,
theoretically, while i'm doing this, does nothing for me in the long run (if
i waited to understand how a car works before driving, i'd be writing this on
the dashboard of my first car). i am not against science, but, i believe it
to be a tool of understanding what has already happened (how the hell did i
get here from where i started?). it reminds me of the experiment done
throwing darts at the investment page of the wall street journal. the darts
did better than any of the brokers or analysts in the experiment, however,
the analysts had a better explaination of what went wrong than the darts did.
mike
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