Dear co-vocalisters,
1st: sorry for misquoting the title, but I don't have the other emails here. Then: I used Gram, maybe did something wrong, but did not see indications of frequencies, so I went back to CoolEdit.
First I compared a recording of the tenor Hans Peter Blochwitz and of my own voice, both singing the last E4 (begin of passagio) from Schubert's 'Im Frühling', and both with piano. (My recording was made last Sunday). I chose this E, because it is a fermate note, both Blochwitz and I make the same kind of (mf) tone here and you hardly hear the piano in both cases.
The graphs look very simular. My recording was made in very 'dry' (acoustically) room, so that explains probably why there is more to be seen above 15 kHz in Blochwitz' case. Blochwitz was also recorded closer, not unlikely with a Neumann tube mike that will produce some soft extra harmonics and he is singing a bit softer, at least on the beginning of the note, if I am allowed his breathing noise as a reference. (It sounds quite loud on his recording).
Note that both Blochwitz and I don't have a peak at 4kHz, but at 2.5 and 5! When I first saw only my own graph, I thought there was something wrong with my tone production, but since Blochwitz's graph looks the same, I think it might be ok. Besides that there is no dip at 4k, just no peak.
I also tried to make a few other graphs, from notes I just sang for the graphs. That was a disaster: I forced my voice to make a high c that would make a graph like the ones in Miller's book, but it did not work: the fundamental was (slightly, but still) lower than the first and second harmonics, and beside that: it just did not sound good, metal was lacking (it was loud though).
Then I made one graph of messa di voce on a G4 and that was interesting: the pp part still had high peaks around 3 and 4 k, that explains why such tones carry.
So what did I learn, after all? Nothing. Although the graphs of Blochwitz and me look very simular, you can clearly hear differences, so my ears tell me more than the frequency analysis. And although Blochwitz has sung in La Scala, I don't think sending them my frequency graph will make them hire me (the'd better not!)
I did not learn much from the other tests either. Even that the ppp carries I should have known: my pianist tells me so every time when I am in doubt whether to do a morrendo or not. Besides that I've heard it from Cecilia Baroli's concert in a huge hall two weeks ago: she sings quite soft to begin with ( a little bit too soft, I think ), and then makes diminuendo's and sometimes morrendo's: you still hear it very well on the last row. (Though it was so soft that the violist was not able to make a tone that was less than about 5 times her volume; I even pittied him a little, because his tone was falling apart a bit.)
Conclusion: 1. No loud high c's for me for now. 2. What helps me more than frequency graphs, is to listen to my own recording, and of course what other people tell me.
So to conclude this email that is much too long anyway, I will tell how I make my recordings.
The recordings of my practice sessions with my pianist are made in a small room with two microphones at the same position, about 3 meter (9 feet) from me and the piano, at an angle of 90 degrees from each other, using a Sharp MD. (When practising alone in a simular room, but then with a CD-recorder with good AD & DA converters. (The DA converter I use also to play the MD's back.) In this way you record the sound exactly like it sounds, apart from the MD datareduction. The microphones record every frequency between 20 and 20k Hertz equally loud and also don't colour sounds from the sides. Radio recording are sometimes made in this way (but in an acoustically much better environment), CD recordings never: the voice is recorded more close then, which makes it sound warmer and bigger. The piano can be recorded more beautiful and clear as well, putting the microphones closer. But that is not my purpose: I use the recording to hear as critically as possible what I am doing. That in a concert I will sound better, is nice of course, but now I want to hear everything I do wrong as clear as possible! Also the loudness relation voice/piano can be monitored very well in this way. (Although with my pianist it is always ideal:)
Last but not least: I use Bowers & Wilkins DM6 speakers to monitor. Those are the speakers EMI and other companies used 25 (!) years ago to monitor their recordings. (I bought them used and refurbished them.) I also have an exellent set of Sennheiser headphones, but with them I hear less vocal errors and you cannot hear the phase cancellation
Using my speakers I can exactly hear the smallest vowel colouration, the slightiest mispositioning of jaw or tongue, every nasality etc. But I still needed and need other people to make me aware of all the terrible things I have been, and partly still am, doing wrong. I think human feedback still works the best, if you find a teacher that is honest and qualified enough to give you that. (Which I have lately, although somebody who is quite bussy, but that is another story)
Best greetings,
Dre
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