Vocalist.org archive


From:  Tako Oda <toda@m...>
Tako Oda <toda@m...>
Date:  Wed Dec 13, 2000  6:51 am
Subject:  Re: Why do women sing in head voice?


On Tue, 12 Dec 2000, Lloyd W. Hanson wrote:
> > << Even one person may take it differently, depending on repertoire (I
> >
> > Exactly! And I find it amazingly misguided that vocal pedagogues would
> > even write something like the above adding confusion to the whole mix.
>
> COMMENT: I am confusted by the above. What did you mean?

Pardon the horrible analogy, but here's my go:

When driving a manual transmission, one must at some point switch from low
to high gear while accelerating. Exactly at what velocity one makes the
shift depends on the load. For instance, you might switch later on an
incline than on a flat road to keep the transition smooth.

My voice is similar. Depending on the load, I may switch from one register
to another at different points in a scale. With louder singing, for
instance, I may take the lower gear higher. There is a transitional zone,
but at some point, there is a definitive change that I feel.

I don't think this is the experience of a tenor, who has gradual, subtle
changes, but essentially stays in a lower gear all the time. The
transitions for him are more about finessing the gas pedal, etc. rather
than actually changing gears. Some tenors even use overdrive (am I pushing
the analogy too far yet ;-) By contrast, a light soprano might stay in
high gear all the time.

Otherwise, most women, hautes contre and countertenors use low and high
gears. Most men have manual transmissions, a few have automatics. I get
the sense women are about half/half in this regard. Some can tell, some
can't. Tina, am I getting this totally wrong?

Tako


emusic.com