Explanation of terms

[wiffleymammoth]

Hi

First i should probably say I'm new to this forum, so if a thread like this already exists, could someone please point me to it??

I'm a 17 year old male and consider myself an amateur-intermediate singer with a tenor/baritone voice (my comfortable range spans from roughly A2-G4). I think I sing reasonably well and frequently perform in a youth theatre group and I'm interested in improving my voice, which led me to this forum!

I've never had a singing teacher, and would love clear explanations, in as plain English as possible, of some of these singing terms I've heard thrown around. I'm confident with the terms 'chest/middle/head voice' as well as 'falsetto', but that's pretty much it. Within just a few minutes on this forum I'd come across terms such as 'overdrive', 'curbing' and 'mixed voice' to name but a few.

I'm not after a comprehensive list of loads of words, just the basics.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT:

Sorry, I just realised the title of this thread my be misleading! Sorry if anyone's viewed this thinking I'm offering an explanation of terms :/

[VideoHere]

Hi

First i should probably say I'm new to this forum, so if a thread like this already exists, could someone please point me to it??

I'm a 17 year old male and consider myself an amateur-intermediate singer with a tenor/baritone voice (my comfortable range spans from roughly A2-G4). I think I sing reasonably well and frequently perform in a youth theatre group and I'm interested in improving my voice, which led me to this forum!

I've never had a singing teacher, and would love clear explanations, in as plain English as possible, of some of these singing terms I've heard thrown around. I'm confident with the terms 'chest/middle/head voice' as well as 'falsetto', but that's pretty much it. Within just a few minutes on this forum I'd come across terms such as 'overdrive', 'curbing' and 'mixed voice' to name but a few.

I'm not after a comprehensive list of loads of words, just the basics.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT:

Sorry, I just realised the title of this thread my be misleading! Sorry if anyone's viewed this thinking I'm offering an explanation of terms :/

may i suggest a good book instead?

[wiffleymammoth]

may i suggest a good book instead?

Well to be honest I thought this might save some time, money and effort, as well as potentially clearing up the issue for anyone else in the same position as me. I also said I wanted the basics, meaning a brief response, not something worth buying a whole book for!

Haha but the thanks for the only response so far - could you perhaps recommend any good books then?

[jonpall]

There are so many terms out there that I doubt someone here wants to take the time to just explain as many as he/she can and just "pour" out wisdom in buckets on this thread. I think you'd get more answers if you were to ask specifically about 1-3 words that you don't understand. Then, after you get some answers, hopefully, you might want to use this thread to ask for a few more. Just a hint.

[wiffleymammoth]

There are so many terms out there that I doubt someone here wants to take the time to just explain as many as he/she can and just "pour" out wisdom in buckets on this thread. I think you'd get more answers if you were to ask specifically about 1-3 words that you don't understand. Then, after you get some answers, hopefully, you might want to use this thread to ask for a few more. Just a hint.

Jonpall, thanks for the reply, that's of course a fair point. However I feel I should perhaps verify the exact purpose of my initial post, as it obviously wasn't clear. I wasn't asking one single person to effectively write a dictionary of technical terms, I was after just a brief outline of a few of the fundamental terms that seem to be thrown around a lot on this forum - only the most basic terms for anyone who might read this and, like me, have a very limited understanding of such things. Maybe the words I chose in my initial post contradict my aim if they themselves are more advanced terms, however I obviously wouldn't know this as I don't know what they mean! Maybe I'm too new to singing to understand this - maybe there are no "fundamental" terms. However surely when someone learns all this they aren't bombarded with a list of terms and definitions all at the same time? They must be presented to them in a logical order, starting presumably with the "basics"? This is what I was after - a way of summing up the most fundamental terms in as basic terms as possible. I was hoping that anyone who came across this thread might offer a word or two :S

As I said, maybe this isn't possible, in which case I apologise for my ignorance!

So essentially - I'm following your advice and asking for the few most fundamental words that could perhaps follow head/chest voice? Mixed voice maybe?? That sounds fairly essential from what I've heard of it. What is it? Can anyone provide any examples of a brief explanation of how it can be developed?

[jonpall]

First of all - a passagio is the place where amateur singers usually have to "flip" into falsetto because as they go up in pitch, they get louder and louder and higher and higher until they can't get any higher with that loud sound and flip into falsetto. This spot occurs around F#4-G4 for me, personally, also depending on how loud I sing - that is, if I deliberately sing like that, which I try to avoid nowadays. But most vocal instructors will tell you that you SHOULDN'T get louder like that as you go up in pitch. I think there are exceptions depending on your singing style, but mostly I agree.

Now, mixed voice:

IMO, what some people refer to as mixed voice is when a singer sings notes fairly close to his passagio (probably in the C4-C5 range for males, where C5 is the male high C and C4 is the C note an octave below) with a sound that sounds nearly as powerful and "chesty" as when they sing notes a bit lower (in their "chest" voice, say, in the C3-C4 range). Many people will feel that this "mixed" sound resonates both from the chest and from the head, hence the term mixed voice.

One good way to produce that sound (and I'm simplifying here) is to add a very slight "cry" sound to your voice, like when you're crying or in pain, or "holding back" the sound. You're holding back air a bit, which helps you a lot to sing effectively through your passagio and into your head voice with one, seemless, powerful voice, which most singers dream of having. In CVT terms, this is called curbing. Make sure that the volume is medium, i.e. you will feel that you CAN increase the volume (but then the sound will be more "shouty" and many people will say that you're "pulling chest voice too high") and also that you CAN decrease the volume a bit (then it will sound a bit like you're singing a lullaby). When you sing around your passagio, make sure that you modify all vowels a bit towards the vowels "Ih" as in "sit", "Uh" as in "hungry" or "O" as in "woman", until it becomes more comfortable to sing. If you don't, well it's more uncomfortable to sing that way and chances of your voice "breaking" become much higher.

Note that the term "mixed" voice is only used by certain vocal instructors and is therefore not really a fundamental aspect of singing per say. But the act of reducing the amount of air flow out of your mouth when you sing, especially as a tool to help you sing high notes better, IS a fundamental part of all good vocal coaches. Please note that it's not just a few bunch of singers that use this technique (mixed voice) but a HUGE number of singers - mostly those who are considered to be good, technical singers (some of which took lessons and some of which didn't). There are other ways to sing notes close to your passagio, but this one is probably the most popular and is used in ALL styles of singing and what most people prefer to hear. On top of that sound you can add all sort of effects like rasp, FYI.

As always, if it hurts to sing, surely you're doing something wrong. But note that being tired is not the same thing as being hurt so learn to differentiate between the two.

Hope this helps a bit.

[wiffleymammoth]

Thanks a lot!! This has been very useful and a great after a slow start to the thread!

[VideoHere]

Well to be honest I thought this might save some time, money and effort, as well as potentially clearing up the issue for anyone else in the same position as me. I also said I wanted the basics, meaning a brief response, not something worth buying a whole book for!

Haha but the thanks for the only response so far - could you perhaps recommend any good books then?

there are so many great books, perhaps just buy one on amazon and get your feet wet. if you are desirious of really being a top caliber vocalist, you have to learn from several sources. several of the authors i know personally so i don't want to show any favoritism.

[juliansader]

Hi

I've never had a singing teacher, and would love clear explanations, in as plain English as possible, of some of these singing terms I've heard thrown around. I'm confident with the terms 'chest/middle/head voice' as well as 'falsetto', but that's pretty much it. Within just a few minutes on this forum I'd come across terms such as 'overdrive', 'curbing' and 'mixed voice' to name but a few.

'Overdrive' and 'curbing' are terms coined by the Complete Vocal Institute. For a quick overview of their approach, you can perhaps read the article at http://www.completevocalinstitute.com/node/47. They also have a forum in which these terms are discussed and debated in great detail, together with many audio examples by students.

[kalapoka]

You can also go around the previous topics in this forum and read some of the explanations given out when we/others discussed issues. For example - there is a thread called 'Mix Voice - what is it?'. There you can pretty much find a lot of information.

also, quickly check out the complete vocal institute website to find some basic explanations of the terms they use. Hopefully that will give you enough information in the way that you are looking for.

Good luck!

[classical guitar]

I like Robert Lunte's TVS... Jaime Vendera's "Raise Your Voice" is another favorite of mine...