Hi, Listers
According to Michael's chart showing his and Lloyd's proposed register distribution, and the information I got from Dave Stroud's site ( an SLS teacher ), tenors registers are:
Stroud Lloyd Michael
mix ( from E4 ) middle ( from C4) lower middle ( from C4 ) head ( from A5 ) head ( from G4 to C5 ) upper middle ( from G4 ) super head ( from E5 ) upper ( above C5 )
My problem is that my teachers have always been puzzled at my voice. I can reach A5, and they say that's PROBABLY a mix voice, although they say it still sounds like chest. The problem is that I don't have any 'symptoms' of a mix voice when I sing that high, and also, I feel like I'm 'kindly pushing' that note. If I do scales and go that far up, I notice I'm blowing a lot of air up and I don't feel resonance in my head. I also have post-practice problems, with a fatigued larynx and breathy speaking voice. It simply tires me. They say I have a very high register and assume I can feel my top note buzzing in my head, but the truth is that I don't feel that!
A previous teacher I had showed me something very interesting: he confirmed what Stroud says about the 'symptoms' of a mix and head voice, like having the area right above your forehead vibrating at mix and the back of your head, near the neck, vibrating too for head voice. That teacher showed my his different registers and had me follow them with my hand on his head.The vibration was really moving backward as he went higher.
Having that in mind and the information sent last week and cited from Miller ( about light tenors being able to take their chest voices so high that they have a problem to locate their head voice ), I noticed that I was NOT singing in head or mix when I got to A5. Then I remembered I have a lighter register when I imitate some local singers. I started to explore that register and noticed that I could go much higher ( I will explore that with my teacher on Friday to make sure how far up I can go with it ) with it and with almost no effort ( and most of the effort I still make is only bad habit carried from my other register ). I can blend that voice with head and feel my mix. If I put my hand on my head I can follow the vibration going back as I go from chest to what I think is my real head voice, passing by my mix right above my forehead, as is described in the literature and my previous teacher demonstrated to me. It's a completely new voice to me ( and it's not the same as falsetto or my possible countertenor register, although it helps me to tune into that new register too ), it makes my head vibrate as it had never done before in my higher pitches and I can sing in the mix with an incredible resonance ( at least, from the inside ), something that wouldn't happen when I did it in what I think was my chest voice.
Do you think that makes sense? Do you think I could be really carrying my chest voice up to A5 and, due to the fact that I have a light tenor voice, my teachers mistook it for a mix register? I can't find another explanation for that.
Thanks a lot,
Caio Rossi
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