--- Richard Yates <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > It is the belief of many professionals that > singing > > out of one's normal range is bad for the voice. > > The question was whether or not it causes injury. Injury to the voice, right? Every "vocal authority" I've spoken to about the subject has told me that it does. There is medical evidence to support the claim. > > It's not my job to show their > explanation > > is genuine. It's the accuser's job to show their > > explanation is unquestionably a lie. > > A lie? Who said anything about lying? I originally > asked for possible > rationales for not allowing a male student to sing > alto or soprano. One of > your suggested explanations was that singing out of > range could cause > injury. I asked for evidence of this. If there is no > evidence then the TMEA > may simply be ignorant. That does not call their > integrity into question. I didn't mean to suggest that you were saying or even implying this. Other people contributing to this thread called the TMEA members' proclaimed motivation into question. At least one person here said that the real reason was gender stereotyping - the idea that Texas was a "Red state" was offered as an explanation. > Now, if they, or their defenders get all riled up at > the mere request for > evidence, then integrity does begin to look a little > shaky but, as you say, > we don't know exactly what the TMEA members used as > their reasoning. If I'm a "riled up defender," it's just because I get frustrated when people call other people's intentions into question without a fair look - in this case adding in that it's related to the people being from a "red state." This wasn't you. But it was stated. > > Well, I guess I don't know who you are talking about > here. Your were > responding to my questions but all I have done is > ask for evidence and a > clearer rationale for the decision. If you don't > have it then why are you > responding to my questions about it? My point was in part to say that it wasn't necessary. But if you're interested, there are many articles on the subject. Here's one: http://www1.wfubmc.edu/voice/nodules/singer.htm > > > > It also does not answer the questions about who > > > should decide. > > > > Actually my suggestion for the motivation does > cover > > this. Teachers who allow or encourage their female > > students to sing in a tenor range for the sole > purpose > > of "covering the parts" would have shown > themselves > > incapable of the necessary discernment in these > > matters. > > Actually, no one has suggested this motivation in > the teachers. And their > encouraging students for this reason has no logical > connection to their > ability to discern injury. that I can tell. I've suggested that some teachers will allow their students to sing in "alternate" ranges in order to cover parts. It's certainly more common with sopranos singing altos or vice versa, but I've seen it happen with altos being put on tenor lines (and then tenors on bass lines). Whether this is because the teachers don't know better or because they just need to cover the parts doesn't affect the effectiveness of the rule - don't let girls sing tenor and you prevent a majority of the problem situations. > > > Certainly some teachers aren't doing this > > inappropriately. But when some people do, it could > > create the need for a simple rule that's easy to > > enforce. > > This certainly does not answer the question about > who has the right to > decide these things. It answers the question about who should decide these things. If that's the only way it can reasonably be done (and I'm inclined to believe it is), then that's the way it must be done. Parents don't generally have the knowledge. Students don't generally have the knowledge. And the teachers who haven't done what's best for the kids' voices have shown that less than 100% of the teachers will do it - for whatever reason. Tyler __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
