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What Do Classical Singers Mean When They Say Weightless?

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lverixon

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Hi! Newbie on the site, so sorry if this already been discussed.

What do classical singers mean when they say to sing weightless?

Here's some of my interpretations: singing in a metallic mode while giving the perception of neutral - no body, non-metallic, "weightless", a sound that uses more support than needed.

Following are two examples of "vincero", where the second syllable has the high note. The black and white video has "less weight" in his sound even though it's probably a much bigger sound.

Does anyone perceive this with me? How do you explain it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=944jq4AKKrs&t=2m48s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHyYTYnXP0o&t=3m3s

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  • 2 weeks later...

What they mean by weight is if the cords are to thick and youre not singing on the edges the sound becomes pressed and choky sounding.  If you want to listen to a great italian Tenor check out Gianni Raimondi. Great legato great technique.  My technique was taught to me by a Protege of Arrigo Pola look him up. He was Pav's teacher and same old school tech as Raimondi

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  • 11 months later...

Another one of those terms in singing with hundreds of possible interpretations. And consequently one that isn't that helpful for people learning.

I think it's only possible to sing "weightlessly" if you are not pressing down on yourself, which is something most of us do to some degree. A good teacher should be able to observe you doing this and help you stop doing it. It's amazing what can happen (without you having to micromanage it) when you stop doing the wrong thing and hampering your own beautiful and perfect system.

AmandaColeMezzo.com and PerformanceBrilliance.com

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  • 9 months later...

I believe it refers to always singing with the perfectly balanced amount of cord closure.  Even when the voice is engaging in its maximum amount of thyroidarytenoid dominance possible on that specific pitch, the high level opera singer never overblows or throws out this perfect cord closure balance no matter where in the range.  This is also referred to the voice's natural biological weight, which of course is a great if not the best determinant of the voice's fach type (on the lyric side, spinto or dramatic).  Naturally thicker vocal cords resist naturally more the air pressure, and so achieving the proper cord closure amount for a singer with thicker vocal cords means a naturally heavier bigger sound 

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