On Wed, 13 Sep 2000 09:51:55
Tako Oda wrote:
>I'm beginning to think that men generally use chest or a chest based mix,
>whereas women usually use a head based mix to speak. Many women seem
>unfamiliar with their "open chest" sound for singing and speaking.
>
. It's amazing the kind of prejudice there is in the voice
>literature against a woman and her chest voice - words like "unrefined",
>"rude", "un-ladylike".
>
>
Actually Tako, I would have said just the opposite. I find that in the U.S.,
women use a much lower speaking pitch (in general) so that they can be more
respected by men. A woman with a higher-pitched voice (think Melanie Griffith)
is seen as being stupid. I read somewhere that there was a time in radio
history when women were not desired, because their higher voices would sound
bad or distorted over the radio waves. I've had students who have a problem
accessing their head resonance because they have artificially lowered their
speaking voice.
I just realized, though, that you were talking more about production than
pitch. And I certainly agree that in vocal training, the chest voice is
frowned upon - much to my own detriment.
Sorry for the ramble.
Lisa-Marie
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