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benny82

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  1. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Adolph Namlik in How Can I Sing High "ee" Vowels?   
    There is basically three methods to sing an EE up high and every one has its compromises. Let's say your lyrics include the word "feet"
    1. You can use reinforced falsetto, which is what Daniel does in the video on "beleiving". The advantage is that you can sing a clear EE. The disadvantage is that it can be troublesome if it is a single note in a phrase that is on belting volume.
    2. You can sing the note in a covered head voice. This basically includes the modification towards IH. It will enable you to sing the note on a higher volume without needing to belt. Daniel does that on "feel" in the clip. You basically sing "fit" instead of "feet" and make the "I" longer. 
    3. You can belt the note. This needs the heaviest modification of the vowel and has the most powerful sound. In this case you will sing "fate" instead of "feet".
    The covered sound can also be found from the belted sound if you make a diphtong and then hold the second vowel. You sing with the intention to sing "fate" and sing it as "F-EH-IH-T" and hold the IH out long. This helps to get the needed amount of "mass" in the covered sound.
  2. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Robert Lunte in How Can I Sing High "ee" Vowels?   
    There is basically three methods to sing an EE up high and every one has its compromises. Let's say your lyrics include the word "feet"
    1. You can use reinforced falsetto, which is what Daniel does in the video on "beleiving". The advantage is that you can sing a clear EE. The disadvantage is that it can be troublesome if it is a single note in a phrase that is on belting volume.
    2. You can sing the note in a covered head voice. This basically includes the modification towards IH. It will enable you to sing the note on a higher volume without needing to belt. Daniel does that on "feel" in the clip. You basically sing "fit" instead of "feet" and make the "I" longer. 
    3. You can belt the note. This needs the heaviest modification of the vowel and has the most powerful sound. In this case you will sing "fate" instead of "feet".
    The covered sound can also be found from the belted sound if you make a diphtong and then hold the second vowel. You sing with the intention to sing "fate" and sing it as "F-EH-IH-T" and hold the IH out long. This helps to get the needed amount of "mass" in the covered sound.
  3. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Adolph Namlik in Baritone/Bass Singers With High Notes?   
    However, something to think about: While it is possible as a low voice to sing as high as a tenor, songs often sound better in your voice when you lower it by about 2 notes as a baritone or 3-4 notes as a bass. Being a lower voice you can transport the same intensity of the song even on a lower pitch and it will often sound better than the original key.
    In the end (when your voice is trained well) your voice type does not define the range that you can access. It defines the area of pitches where your personal voice sounds best. So make use of that range as much as you can.
  4. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Adolph Namlik in Baritone/Bass Singers With High Notes?   
    I'm a bass, so I have the same trouble on the next higher level  My personal experience is that the absolute priority needs to be to keep a strong twang AND a strong TA at all times if you want to sing high without using lots of falsetto Bee Gees style.
    One of the main troubles is that twanging hard usually increases the tendency to thin out the folds (or "tilt"). This needs to be prevented by dampening the sound (which activate the TA). The trobule with dampening on the other hand is that there is usually the tendency to reduce your twang while dampening.
    So the difficulty is to keep both up at the same time. The third trouble is that if you dampen too hard while twanging you will start to sound like Kermit the Frog. So it is all kind of a balance act.
    It is probably individual, but here are two things that work for me:
    1. start from a Kermit-the-frog-sound and carefully open into a clear vowel while keeping the same "strength" in the sound
    2. Focus on the soft palate in a way that you keep it flat but closed. One possibility is to pinch your nose and make the sound as nasal and loud as possible. The intention for nasal sound will lower the soft palate, but the pinched nose will prevent you from actually leaking air through the nose creating the tendency to keep the nasal port closed even while lowering the palate.
    All this pretty much comes down to a TVS Edging placement
  5. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Robert Lunte in Baritone/Bass Singers With High Notes?   
    However, something to think about: While it is possible as a low voice to sing as high as a tenor, songs often sound better in your voice when you lower it by about 2 notes as a baritone or 3-4 notes as a bass. Being a lower voice you can transport the same intensity of the song even on a lower pitch and it will often sound better than the original key.
    In the end (when your voice is trained well) your voice type does not define the range that you can access. It defines the area of pitches where your personal voice sounds best. So make use of that range as much as you can.
  6. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Robert Lunte in Baritone/Bass Singers With High Notes?   
    I'm a bass, so I have the same trouble on the next higher level  My personal experience is that the absolute priority needs to be to keep a strong twang AND a strong TA at all times if you want to sing high without using lots of falsetto Bee Gees style.
    One of the main troubles is that twanging hard usually increases the tendency to thin out the folds (or "tilt"). This needs to be prevented by dampening the sound (which activate the TA). The trobule with dampening on the other hand is that there is usually the tendency to reduce your twang while dampening.
    So the difficulty is to keep both up at the same time. The third trouble is that if you dampen too hard while twanging you will start to sound like Kermit the Frog. So it is all kind of a balance act.
    It is probably individual, but here are two things that work for me:
    1. start from a Kermit-the-frog-sound and carefully open into a clear vowel while keeping the same "strength" in the sound
    2. Focus on the soft palate in a way that you keep it flat but closed. One possibility is to pinch your nose and make the sound as nasal and loud as possible. The intention for nasal sound will lower the soft palate, but the pinched nose will prevent you from actually leaking air through the nose creating the tendency to keep the nasal port closed even while lowering the palate.
    All this pretty much comes down to a TVS Edging placement
  7. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Robert Lunte in Chest and abdominal support   
    Yeah, that is something I learned the hard way too. When I started singing all things i heard were about "belly breathing", "deep breathing", "diaphragmatic breathing" etc. The problem is that the diaphragm is a very strong muscle compared to the other breathing muscles. If you breathe very "low" it means you are only using your diaphragm, if you breathe a little higher you are also using the intercostals, which are not as strong as the diaphragm, but more flexible inhaling muscles.
    The problem is when you only breathe diaphragmatic ("into the belly") you will have a really strong inhalation tension, a really strong resistance to your exhale. This also means that you have to "push" a lot with your exhaling muscles to even get the sound going. The effect is that you always sing very "thick" and "strong" and get into trouble when you have to do more agile stuff or things that require high subglottic pressure. Personally I call this "over-supporting".
    There is one concept that people use for support which is called "kick from the abs". That means that your abs will contract inwards on a strong exhale impulse. To check if you are not breathing overly deep you can try if you still can perform this "kick" easily after breathing in. When you breathe to deep, you will feel some kind of constriction in the area around the abs and the "kick" will not move freely. Of course you will not sing with this kind of pressure all the time. But it means that your support is agile enough to go from low to high pressure very fast if neccessary.
    Another good way to get the breath going freely is to just exhale strongly with a "kick" before even breathing in. Then you keep the tension of the kick slightly after the inhale (so you keep your exhalation muscles active while inhaling) and then breathe in "deeply". This will give a balanced inhalation with diaphragm and intercostal activity. Your belly will usually not pop out on this kind of inhale. You will rather feel the expansion in the lower ribcage and lower back.
  8. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Kevin Ashe in What's a beginners range?   
    There are a few typical "breaking points" that determine the range of a beginner. The lowest notes start usually between E2 and B2 depending on your voice type. From there it is usually about 1 octave range until the first break between G3 and C4.
    This break is usually only there because of lacking intensity/development in the voice and can be removed pretty fast usually by raising intensity and work a little on support. When this has happened most singers are able to go up to the A4 range by just increasing intensity.
    It will usually sound bad, shouted, splatty etc. though, because around D#4/E4 there is a resonance transition for most guys that has to be handled by vowel modification to not "splat" the vowels and ending in uncontrolled shouting.
    Once this has beend handled the singer will usually have 2 octaves of full voice that are well-connected and sound good. This is also the tessitura, the range where the voice sounds best and works most efficient for the singer. 
    From there on you have all the tools to stretch the voice further into the M2 range at the top and into the M0 range at the bottom.
    The step up to shouting an A4 is usually quite fast, the step of developing the middle range around D#4/E4 can take quite some while, but it is very individual. If and how well your voice extends outside of tessitura is also individual.
  9. Like
    benny82 reacted to Robert Lunte in Curbing   
    Of course curbing is important to your singing. If you don't curb sometimes  when you sing, your not singing. Its like saying, is a beverage important when your eating. The question makes no sense because you don't have a choice.
    You do twang when you sing curbing vowels and resonance, but actually, when you sing edging vowels and resonate, you twang even harder. So as far as vocal fold compression is concerned, (twang), curbing is NOT going to give you more twang, edging does. 
    I do not agree that curbing takes more effort then CVI overdrive or belting. In fact, it takes less. The vowels that represent curbing are easier and more "lazy" then the edging vowels and resonance. Thus, curbing is actually a more passive and lazy configuration then edging, making it easier. This is why when we train at TVS, it is advised that 80% of your training be edging vowels, not curbing vowels because you want to actually get a better workout.
    No singing vowel or resonance requires any more commitment then the other. They all require equal commitment. 
  10. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Collin571 in Twang vs Glottal Compression   
    The CT musculature does not add compression to the vocal folds. It elongates them. Actually, when you use the CT heavily there is even the tendency to lose fold compression (which is where falsetto comes from, which is heavily CT-dominant).
    The IA are primary adductors of the vocal folds and are indeed triggered by the swallowing mechanism. But the swallowing mechanism IS esentially what singers call "twang". The swallowing mechanism basically does three things that together build what is called "twang":
    1) swallowing closes the soft palate to prevent nutrition from entering the nasal cavity
    2) swallowing closes the epiglottis to prevent nutrition from entering the air tube
    3) swallowing closes the vocal folds for the same reason (basically a "second barrier")
    When twanging we engage exactly this mechanism. If you engage the CT too heavily while twanging there is a tendency to leave the soft palate open which leads to a nasal/winy sound. This is an issue that some people have while twanging.
    The other type of compression is called "breath compression" or "Bernoulli compression". This type of compression is simply done by "pushing air fast". If you push air fast from your lungs the folds react with adduction and a stronger TA-activation. This also "deepens" the vibration of the vocal folds. However BEFORE you can trigger this kind of compression safely you need to have sufficient primary adduction (twang/IA). Otherwise the folds will just pop open or distort from the air pressure. 
    The strategy to train this kind of compression is usually to lift the soft palate (not only close it) so it shapes a "dome" in the back of your pharynx. This can be done with cosonants like G, B or D. Then you "push a pillar of air" into that dome by using G, B, D + a backward resonant vowel (UH for example).
    Usually you will automatically disengage the twang a little when doing these excercises, so you replace some of the twang compression with air compression. If you fail to release the twang for whatever reason, you will sound like Kermit the Frog. This is typically what happens when you use a "domed" soft palate and strong twang at the same time.
  11. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Adolph Namlik in The Effort of Humming VS Singing   
    There is a "correct" tuning for each combination of vowel/pitch/larynx position. But you are right in that there is no one tuning that fits all these combinations. For example in the low range you will always tune F1, but the harmonics you tune to will vary. If you sing in the middle range/passaggio the "correct" tuning is actually to suppress the formant resonances. This is what people call "covering". Above the passaggio you will open up again when the F2 tuning becomes available.
    The tuning will also change depending on larynx position. When you lower the larynx (classical style) the formants will spread out and lower, which makes your passaggio "longer" essentially. When you sing on a very bright sond color, there will be not passaggio at all because the formants get so close together that you can basically directly transition from F1 to F2. This is what makes the passaggio so easy on a very bright and twangy sound.
    Of course you can look at this from two perspectives: If vowel/pitch/larynx position are set, then there is ONE correct tuning. If you only set vowel and pitch there are several tunings, but you have to modify the larynx position to decide which to access. If pitch and larynx are set, there are several tunings, too, but you need to modify the vowel to decide, and so on.
  12. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Adolph Namlik in The Effort of Humming VS Singing   
    It's pretty simple: Once your singing feels as easy as your humming, you are done with your training. 
    Semic-occluded excercises equalize the subglottic and supraglottic pressure by providing some resistance to the airstream. This makes the vocal fold vibration very efficient and effortless.  When singing vowels you have to learn to create a similar resistance by narrowing your vocal tract in the correct places. Once you can do that consistently, your singing should feel (almost) as easy as doing semi-occluded excercises.
  13. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Robert Lunte in The Effort of Humming VS Singing   
    There is a "correct" tuning for each combination of vowel/pitch/larynx position. But you are right in that there is no one tuning that fits all these combinations. For example in the low range you will always tune F1, but the harmonics you tune to will vary. If you sing in the middle range/passaggio the "correct" tuning is actually to suppress the formant resonances. This is what people call "covering". Above the passaggio you will open up again when the F2 tuning becomes available.
    The tuning will also change depending on larynx position. When you lower the larynx (classical style) the formants will spread out and lower, which makes your passaggio "longer" essentially. When you sing on a very bright sond color, there will be not passaggio at all because the formants get so close together that you can basically directly transition from F1 to F2. This is what makes the passaggio so easy on a very bright and twangy sound.
    Of course you can look at this from two perspectives: If vowel/pitch/larynx position are set, then there is ONE correct tuning. If you only set vowel and pitch there are several tunings, but you have to modify the larynx position to decide which to access. If pitch and larynx are set, there are several tunings, too, but you need to modify the vowel to decide, and so on.
  14. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Robert Lunte in The Effort of Humming VS Singing   
    It's pretty simple: Once your singing feels as easy as your humming, you are done with your training. 
    Semic-occluded excercises equalize the subglottic and supraglottic pressure by providing some resistance to the airstream. This makes the vocal fold vibration very efficient and effortless.  When singing vowels you have to learn to create a similar resistance by narrowing your vocal tract in the correct places. Once you can do that consistently, your singing should feel (almost) as easy as doing semi-occluded excercises.
  15. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Kevin Ashe in Chord Closure On Quiet Notes   
    On quiet notes you want to twang for stronger fold closure. Look for excercises that train your twang. After you have that down you can try to raise the soft palate to make it sound more rounded and less nasty/piercing.
    If you are familiar with TVS  terminology, on quiet notes you want to engage intrinsic anchoring (twang + dampening) earlier to keep your fold closure. 
    The thing is: One part of fold closure is done with air pressure (sometimes called Bernoulli closure or breath compression) and the other part is done through twang (which triggers the intrinsic muscles that close the folds). When you sing loud your air pressure is high so you need less twang. When you sing quiet you cannot use that much pressure, so you have to increase your twang.
    During passaggio you usually engage intrinsic anchoring because you need to keep the volume in line (the volume wants to rise when singing full voice through the passaggio), so it's the same principle. When you lower the volume you need more anchoring to not go into falsetto and lose compression.
  16. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Adolph Namlik in Chord Closure On Quiet Notes   
    On quiet notes you want to twang for stronger fold closure. Look for excercises that train your twang. After you have that down you can try to raise the soft palate to make it sound more rounded and less nasty/piercing.
    If you are familiar with TVS  terminology, on quiet notes you want to engage intrinsic anchoring (twang + dampening) earlier to keep your fold closure. 
    The thing is: One part of fold closure is done with air pressure (sometimes called Bernoulli closure or breath compression) and the other part is done through twang (which triggers the intrinsic muscles that close the folds). When you sing loud your air pressure is high so you need less twang. When you sing quiet you cannot use that much pressure, so you have to increase your twang.
    During passaggio you usually engage intrinsic anchoring because you need to keep the volume in line (the volume wants to rise when singing full voice through the passaggio), so it's the same principle. When you lower the volume you need more anchoring to not go into falsetto and lose compression.
  17. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Draven Grey in Chord Closure On Quiet Notes   
    On quiet notes you want to twang for stronger fold closure. Look for excercises that train your twang. After you have that down you can try to raise the soft palate to make it sound more rounded and less nasty/piercing.
    If you are familiar with TVS  terminology, on quiet notes you want to engage intrinsic anchoring (twang + dampening) earlier to keep your fold closure. 
    The thing is: One part of fold closure is done with air pressure (sometimes called Bernoulli closure or breath compression) and the other part is done through twang (which triggers the intrinsic muscles that close the folds). When you sing loud your air pressure is high so you need less twang. When you sing quiet you cannot use that much pressure, so you have to increase your twang.
    During passaggio you usually engage intrinsic anchoring because you need to keep the volume in line (the volume wants to rise when singing full voice through the passaggio), so it's the same principle. When you lower the volume you need more anchoring to not go into falsetto and lose compression.
  18. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from Robert Lunte in How to "Pavarotti" the high C?   
    Basically what Daniel said. Covering is really the key here. And what Covering mainly is is a modification to more closed vowels during passaggio without losing the "strength" of the vocal fold coordination.
    There are several scales that can help you learn the covering. One of the most popular is the "Caruso scale" (look it up on YT). It usually starts on an open AH ("father") in the low range. This AH should be strong and loud, not breathy or soft. Then you go higher in pitch and modify to AW (as in "law"), during passaggio it will modify to OH ("go") and in the highest part of the range (from something like A4 on) towards OO ("tool"). It is very important to keep the intensity of the strong low AH while doing the modifications. If you sing an isolated OO in your high range without that "foundation" of the low AH it will usually be falsetto.
    With this covered sound the notes up to A4 will usually already sound strong enough. The A4-C5 (with the OO modification) will often be "reinforced falsetto" (M2) when you start out. Most singers need a lot of training to get them as strong as Pavarotti. The thing to do here is to slowly and carefully open up the vowel again. This is a balance act because if you open too much you lose the covering and splat and if you don't open it will stay a reinforced falsetto sound.
    You also have to consider that the A4-C5 area for classical tenors is a range where the voice is "pushed" slightly (which is why Pavarotti entitled tenor singing as "dangerous" compared to bartione/bass singing), a bit similar to belting/shouting in contemporary singing. In a balanced coordination with almost equal intensity between low and high range this area will usually be sung in M2/reinforced falsetto. Until like 200 years ago it was actually "standard" in classical singing to not push the full voice beyond A4.
    Another scale you can try goes from EH at the bottom to IH at the top. This is what Pavarotti does here. You can hear very well here that the top notes are more like reinforced falsetto and not like the more "belty" sound he will use for those epic high notes. But this is really what you should go for at first and from there you can open slightly.
     
     
  19. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from r00dris in Real bass singers   
    So I just played around with it a bit and simulated a normal distribution among passaggio frequencies. Several teachers on this forum have stated that the VAST majority of male singers have their "break" around D#4/E4. So we assume that a break at around 320 Hz is the center of our distribution. Basses usually have their break in the C4/C#4 area. If we adjust the standard deviation in a way that 5% of all singers have their break at C4/C#4 or below, we get a fully defined normal distribution, which tells us the following about break locations:
    C4: 1.2% C#4: 3.7% D4: 10.6% D#4: 21.1% E4: 27.8% F4: 22.5% F#4: 10.3% G4: 2.7% It is easy to see that around 70% of all male voices have their break in the D#4-F4 area. These are the "medium sized" voices. It often depends on definitions by the teacher at what point exactly you want to draw the line between "tenor" and "baritone".
    From my experience the guys with a break of F4 and above are usually the ones you clearly identify as being tenors (35% of all males). The ones with D#4 and below are usually the ones that you clearly identify as baritones (31% of all males). Then we have our 5% basses.
    The guys with their break at E4 are usually debatable and it can pretty much go either way often depending on what the singer wants to do with his voice. 
    My personal "labels" from my experience would be something like this:
    C4: 1.2% low bass, like Eric C#4: 3.7% high bass, I would put myself here, also Johnny Cash D4: 10.6% low baritone, like Ville Valo D#4: 21.1%, high baritones, think of Dawid Bowie maybe E4: 27.8%, baritenor, those are the guys where you are often not sure, as they can have good lows but also tenor-like high notes, Tom Jones might go here F4: 22.5%, low tenor, guys that are clearly tenors but have quite some "meat" in their voice, like Freddie Mercury F#4: 10.3%, high tenor, guys with a very distinct tenor tone, like Pavarotti, Bruno Mars or Adam Lambert G4: 2.7%, tenorino (unusually high tenor), like Chris Colfer
  20. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from r00dris in Real bass singers   
    I would suspect that, too. But I think that the definitions of voice types are a little bit shifted with regards to that distribution. I actually think that the baritone does not sit right in the middle of that distribution, but the center of the distrubtion is pretty much at the point where baritone and tenor meet, so in the light baritone / low tenor area. If the center would sit right in the middle of the "baritone area" then baritone would be BY FAR the most frequent voice type. But most guys are high baritones / low tenors imo.
    With these two assumptions (basses = 5% and center of distribution right in the middle between baritone and tenor) you can basically extrapolate the whole distribution. This would lead to the following implications:
    low basses (like Eric) are even more rare than high tenors (like Pavarotti) tenors are a little bit more frequent than baritones, but really just a little, they are almost equal in numbers around 70% of all males would be "medium sized voices" (= high baritones / low tenors) around 15% of all voices would be voices that you would think of as "lower than average" (low baritones and basses) or distinctively low around 15% of all voices would be voices that you would think of as "higher than average" (high tenors and natural countertenors) or distinctively high I would think that for training purposes it would make a lot more sense to change the position of "voice type borders" according to natural distribution. To have the low voice types (15% of males), the middle voice types (70%) and the high voice types (15%). 
    This would end the neverending debate of "am I a tenor or baritone", which in most cases does not really change anything as most guys fall into the area of voices where it does not really matter much if you are a low tenor or a high baritone. 
  21. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from r00dris in Real bass singers   
    He is a profound bass (low bass) and I think he is actually on this forum as well. @Eric H Hollaway Sr if I'm not mistaken. And yeah, a real bass will sound really full and "ringing" on notes as low as E2 and has easy and natural access to the vocal fry range below C2. Lots of people believe they are basses because they can make an E2 in their speaking coordination and E2 is said to be the start of the bass range. But the note can only "ring" if you can sing it in a singing coordination with a higher placement than "normal" speaking.
    I'm a bit higher than him. Most likely a high bass or bass-baritone, but I don't really care for my exact voice type.
  22. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from MDEW in Let's talk tounge position   
    Tongue position in singing is mostly about what the back of the tongue does, not the tip of the tongue imo. A general guideline is the NG position of the tongue. It is often described as the back of the tongue lifting towards the soft palate and the tip of the tongue resting at your lower front teeth.
    However, depending on the anatomy of the tongue the tip of the tongue will not always be at the lower front teeth. In my opinion it is best to keep the tip of the tongue released at all times, except for the consonants that need it to move up (like L, R or N).
    Here is a simple excercise for a useful tongue placement:
    - close your jaw
    - swallow
    - notice how the swallowing creates a low-pressure in the area between tongue and palate that "sucks" the tongue towards the palate
    - let the jaw drop in a relaxed way and notice that you can actually sustain that low-pressure and keep the tongue sucked to the palate
    - now phonate an NG and notice how the tip of the tongue will drop down in a relaxed way
    This is my way to set up a relaxed NG position. There is only a slight tension neccessary in the back of the tongue. The front of the tongue should be relaxed as well as the jaw. It does not really matter where the tip of the tongue will fall.
    Now try to form vowels with the back of the tongue. Make sure the tip stay relaxed for all vowels. When you make consonants that require the tip of the tongue to move, first make a vowel (like A) with the back of the tongue, and after that just move the tip of the tongue up to make the consonant you want while keeping the back of the mouth in the same shape as for the vowel.
    Same goes for the embouchure btw. You can do whatever you want with it to change your sound in the way you want. Just make sure that setting up the pharynx and back of the tongue (sometimes called "throat shaping") always has priority over anything else. If your focus is on the embouchure or front of the tongue, chances are that the pharynx and ultimatively the throat will constrict.
     
  23. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from KillerKu in Singing at High Level   
    For me high level singer simply means that it is a singer that often sings material that can be called "difficult". The difficulty of that material can be various things, like level of intensity, difficult rhythm or great agility on high pitches. In general you could say that material is difficult if the average Joe needs years of training to sing it without horribly messing it up.
    That said, a high level singer is not neccessarily a good singer. And also, a good singer does not have to be a high level singer, like Johnny Cash was a good singer, but not neccessarily a high level singer.
     
  24. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from ronws in How low can you go? (+ other questions)   
    It is not about what your lowest note is, it is about the lowest note you can produce with a certain tone. That tone needs to be strong and balanced, it should not be breathy and should have a "ring" and "shimmer" to it. Should also sound free and floating. In the video I posted you can easily hear the tenor having some trouble on the G2 and being on the edge of getting airy and losing compression. I would guess his tessitura actually starts a bit higher, like on A2 or B2.
    PelleK uses a different approach. He "forces" his low notes, kind of like Felipe mentioned, to go lower than his tessitura. It is easily audible on this song in the beginning that he pushes his voice down there (using medial compression). He does not have a ringing and floating sound down there. He has great medial compression and if used correctly with good support you can get away forcing the low notes using it.
    Being a bass, the lowest note on which I can produce that "certain sound" personally is an E2. In the high range of course my passaggio is also lower than that of a baritone. It is in the C4/D4 area.
    Using the technique MDEW mentioned I go down to something like C1. But it is not really something I would use in singing, although I sometimes sing in the G1-B1 area using a similar technique as PelleK.
    Excessive medial compression is also the technique you can use in the high range to stretch your full voice further beyond the point where you "normally" would register into M2.
  25. Like
    benny82 got a reaction from muffinhead in How low can you go? (+ other questions)   
    I do think that it is often easier to classify voices based on their low notes as opposed to the passaggio location. Just because the passaggio can be shifted around and can change with volume.
    Here is a really nice comparison: tenor vs. baritone. Listen to the G2 (2:48 in the video) and how resonant it sounds on the baritone compared to the tenor who even struggles a little to keep the note stable. That resonance the baritone gets down there (that "ringing", powerful tone) is just impossible for a higher voice to produce.
    Pretty similar for bass vs. baritone. A bass can produce such a powerful tone on an E2 usually.
     
     
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