On Jul 22, 2005, at 3:35 AM, dhbailey wrote:
Thanks for that link -- it seems very good. While there is a statement that singing "out of range" may cause nodules, it doesn't define how to determine that. Many females who sing tenor do so because it is their natural range. Many males who sing soprano do so because it is their natural range.
In my experience, only about 10% of women who normally sing tenor in choruses do so because it is their natural range. The most common reasons I've found are, in order: (1) the singer personally identifies with being a "female tenor"; (2) the singer is completely out of touch with her head voice and is only using the bottom half of her range, thus she finds even alto to be "too high"; (3) the chorus director encourages her to sing tenor in order to fill out the section. These tend to overlap, as some chorus director who wouldn't actually push a woman to sing tenor will readily acquiesce if the singer already wants to.
As for the male singing soprano, both Darcy and David F made a similar point by claiming that the Texas countertenor is singing in his "normal" range. I think semantics is getting in the way of information here. I don't want to tangle with the words "normal" or "natural" because it carries a value judgment when you deny that an activity is natural or normal. But allowing the claim to stand is misleading. If Gary sings tenor and Bob sings bass, the two men are using pretty much the same vocal technique in their singing. If Andrew sings countertenor, he is not using the same vocal technique. He is using his voice in a different way. All men have either register available to them, but one is choosing to develop the higher register while the others are not. If the lower register is defined as "normal", then both bass and tenor are normal in a way that countertenor is not.
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