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CHANGING VOICES

In many respects, singing is a form of sustained speech involving four physical processes, respiration, phonation,
resonation and articulation, breath is taken, sound is initiated in the larynx, vocal resonators receive the sound and
influence it and articulators shape the sound into recognizable units.

Although these four processes are to be considered separately, in actual practice they merge into one coordinated
function and, though many vocal problems can result from a lack of coordination within this process, a singer or
speaker should rarely be conscious of the process involved, their mind and body so co-ordinated that they only
perceive the resulting unified function.

VOICE CLASSIFICATION

Classical music systems acknowledge seven different major voice categories, women are typically divided into three
groups - soprano, mezzo-soprano and contralto, men divided into four groups - counter-tenor, tenor, baritone
and bass and an eighth term, treble, applied to children's voices.

S.A.T.B.

Whilst choral music most commonly divides vocal parts into high and low voices within each sex soprano, contr-alto,
tenor and bass (SATB), the typical choral situation affords many opportunities for misclassification to occur and, since
most people have medium voices, they must be assigned to a part that is either too high or too low for them; the
mezzo-soprano must sing soprano or alto and the baritone must sing tenor or bass and though such options can
present problems for the singer, there are fewer dangers for most singers in singing too low, than in singing too high.

BEGINNING IN THE MIDDLE

There can be dangers in trying to classify an individual's voice range too and, as it can be harmful to the student and
embarrassing to the teacher to keep striving for an ill-chosen goal and, it is best to begin in the middle part of the voice
and work upward and downward, to establish good vocal habits within a limited and comfortable range, until the
voice classifies itself".

When techniques of posture, breathing, phonation, resonation and articulation have become established in this
comfortable area, the true quality of the voice will emerge and the upper and lower limits of the range can be explored
safely. Only then can a tentative classification be arrived at and, that then may be changes as the voice continues to
develop.

As the majority of individuals possess medium voices and therefore this approach is less likely to misclassify or damage
the voice and indeed an individual might be classed in any one of a dozen different identifiable vocal registers.

Any confusion which exists concerning what a register is and how many registers there are, is due in part to what takes
place in the modal register when a person sings from the lowest pitches of a register to the highest pitches.
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The frequency of vibration of the vocal folds is determined by their length, tension and mass. As pitch rises, the vocal
folds are lengthened, tension increases and their thickness decreases and all three of these factors are in a state of flux
in the transition from the lowest to the highest tones.

If an individual holds any of these factors constant and interferes with their progressive state of change, their laryngeal
function tends to become static and eventually breaks occur, with obvious changes of tone quality.

These breaks are often identified as register boundaries or as transition areas between registers and the distinct change
or break between registers is called a 'passaggio' or a 'ponticello'.

BLENDING REGISTERS

With practice, an individual can move effortlessly from one register to the other with ease and consistent tone,
registers can even overlap while singing and, the "blending of registers", through the "passage" from one register to
another, can be achieved by 'hiding' the "lift", the point(s) where the individual's voice changes.

VOCAL TECHNIQUE

The areas of vocal technique which seem to depend most strongly on the student's ability to co-ordinate various
functions are - the ability to extend the vocal range to its maximum potential, to developing a consistent vocal
production with a consistent tone quality with flexibility and agility and to achieve a balanced vibrato, a regular
pulsating change of pitch.

Singing, not a natural process, rather a skill that requires highly developed muscle reflexes, does not require much
muscle strength but, it does require a high degree of muscle coordination and individuals can develop their voices
further through the careful and systematic practice of both songs and vocal exercises and individuals should always
exercise their voices in an intelligent manner, thinking constantly about the kind of sound they are making and the kind
of sensations they are feeling while they are singing.

Too, these three general considerations arise - As you sing higher, you must use more energy; as you sing lower, you
must use less - As you sing higher, you must use more space; as you sing lower, you must use less and as you sing
higher, you must use more depth; as you sing lower, you must use less depth.

A counter-tenor's range is generally equivalent to an alto range, extending from approximately G or A3 to E5 or


perhaps F5, most counter-tenors singing with a falsetto vocal production for at least the upper half of this range and
using some form of "chest voice", akin to the range of their speaking voice, for the lower notes.

The most difficult challenge lies in the lower middle range, for there are normally a few notes (around B♭3) that can be
sung with either vocal mechanism and, the transition between registers must somehow be blended or smoothly
managed.

FALSETTO REGISTER

Though the ability to speak within the falsetto register is possible for almost all men and women, the use of such
speech however is uncommon and is usually employed within the context of humour.

In music, the falsetto register is used by male counter-tenors to sing in the alto and soprano ranges and was commonly
used before women were allowed sang in church choirs etc..

All of us have chest voices, middle voices and head voices, the head voice of a man likely to be equivalent to the
middle voice of a woman, which might suggest that the head voice of a woman is the equivalent of a man's falsetto
voice, though some present-day teachers no longer talk of the middle voice a woman but choose rather to call it the
head voice, as with the head voice of a man.

Falsetto singing, most often used by men, extends the singer's range to notes above their ordinary vocal range, the
voice ordinarily breaking during the transition from the ordinary vocal register to the falsetto register.

Though many books on the art of singing completely ignore the issue of the female falsetto voice, or even insist that
women do not have falsetto voices, arguments against the existence of female falsetto do not align with current
physiological evidence.
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One possible explanation for this failure to recognize the female falsetto is the fact that the difference in timbre and
dynamic level between the modal and falsetto registers often is not as pronounced in female voices as it is in male
voices.

Many young female singers substitute falsetto for the upper portion of the modal voice and the failure to recognize the
female falsetto voice has led to the misidentification of young contraltos and mezzo-sopranos as sopranos, as it is
easier for these lower voice types to sing in the soprano 'tessitura' using their falsetto registers, the term 'tessitura'
generally describing the most musically acceptable and comfortable range for a given singer, i.e. the range in which a
given type of voice presents its best-sounding texture or timbre.

TESSITURA

In music, the 'tessitura' concept addresses not merely a range of pitches but as well the arrangement of those pitches,
considerations include the proportion of sudden or gradual rises and falls in pitch, the speed of pitch changes, the
relative number of very high or low notes, whether lines and phrases of music in the piece tend to rise or fall and the
muscular abilities of a singer may be more suited to one or the other direction.

Too in music, the volume or 'loudness' level which a singer may be required to maintain for dramatic effect will have
an effect on which voice type the singer may specialise e.g. a lyric tenor may have the vocal range to sing Wagner or
other dramatic roles but, to maintain the necessary 'loudness' required for dramatic intensity over the full performance
of an opera, the singer might well inflict vocal damage or task simply be completely beyond the performer's own
innate ability.

Again in music, the falsetto voice has a number of highly specialised uses, in a male choir, to enable the first tenor to
maintain the very demanding 'tessitura'; in yodeling; in 'Barbershop' music, for the tenor voice and occasionally with
the lead and baritone voices in certain, demanding arrangements; for comic effect in both operas and musicals; by
some lyric 'Irish' tenors, folk singers etc.; for pitches which are above the range of the modal register; for pianissimo
tones that would be difficult to execute in the modal register and for general vocal development

Some singers feel a sense of muscular relief when they change from the modal register to the falsetto register and
research has revealed that not all speakers and singers produce falsetto in exactly the same way and though the resulting
sound that may be typical of many adolescents may be pure and flutelike, the resulting sound in others may be more
usually soft and anemic in quality.

The counter-tenor voice went through a massive resurgence in popularity in the second half of the 20th century, partly
due to the increased popularity of Baroque opera and the need of male singers to replace the 'castrati' roles in such
works.

CASTRATI and ITS DANGERS

Castration before puberty, or in its early stages, prevented a boy's larynx from being transformed by the normal
physiological events of puberty and, as a result, the vocal range of prepubescence, shared by both sexes, was largely
retained, the voice developing into adulthood in a unique way.

Castrati should not be confused with eunuchs, they being castrated after puberty and not sharing the physical
characteristics of someone castrated before puberty.

As the castrato's body grew, his lack of testosterone meant that his bone joints did not harden in the normal manner
and the limbs of the castrati often grew unusually long, as did the bones of their ribs and this, combined with intensive
training, gave them unrivalled lung-power and breath capacity and, operating through small, child-sized vocal cords,
their voices were also extraordinarily flexible and quite different from the equivalent adult female voice as well as
achieving higher vocal ranges than those of the uncastrated adult male

Despite the extreme likelihood that many might die in the course of the operation, for many of the boys were
inadvertently administered lethal doses of opium or some other narcotic, or were killed by overlong compression of
the carotid artery in the neck, intended to render them unconscious during the castration procedure, at the height of
the craze for these artificially-preserved voices, in the 1720's and 1730's, it has been estimated that upwards of 4,000
boys were castrated annually in the service of art.

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SINGING SCHOOL REGIMES

The training of the boys was rigorous and, around the early 1700's, the daily regime of one singing school in Rome
consisted of one hour of singing difficult and awkward pieces, one hour practising trills, one hour practising
ornamented passages, one hour of singing exercises in their teacher's presence and in front of a mirror so as to avoid
unnecessary movement of the body or facial grimaces and one hour of literary study; all that before lunch.

After lunch, half-an-hour would be devoted to musical theory, another half-an-hour to writing counterpoint, an hour
copying down the same from dictation and then yet another hour of literary study.

During the remainder of the day, the young castrati had to find time to practice their harpsichord playing and to
compose vocal music, either sacred or secular, depending on their inclination.

This demanding schedule meant that, if sufficiently talented, they were able to make a debut in their mid-teens with a
perfect technique and a voice of a flexibility and power no woman or ordinary male singer could match.

Only a small percentage of boys castrated to preserve their voices had successful careers on the operatic stage, the
better "also-rans" sang in cathedral or church choirs but, because of their marked appearance and the ban on their
marrying, there was little room for them in the society of their day outside a musical context.

CASTRATI and THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

By the late eighteenth century, changes in operatic taste and social attitudes spelled the end for castrati and, in 1748,
Pope Benedict XIV tried to ban castrati from churches, but such was their popularity at the time that he realised that
doing so might result in a drastic decline in church attendance.

After the unification of Italy in 1870, castration for musical purposes was made officially illegal (the new Italian state
had adopted a French legal code which expressly forbade the practice) and in 1878, Pope Leo XIII prohibited the
hiring of new castrati by the church, a ruling was extracted from Pope Leo in 1902 that no further castrati should be
admitted.

The official end to the castrati came on St. Cecilia's Day, November 22, 1903, when the new pope, Pius X, issued
his motu proprio, Tra le Sollecitudini ('Amongst the Cares'), which contained this instruction, "Whenever . . . it is desirable
to employ the high voices of sopranos and contraltos, these parts must be taken by boys, according to the most
ancient usage of The Church", The Catholic Church's involvement in the castrato phenomenon has long been
controversial and there have been calls for it to issue an official apology for its role such matters.

MALE SOPRANOS and ALTOS

While the terms 'male soprano' and 'male alto' have been invariably used to refer to men who sing in the soprano or
alto vocal range using falsetto vocal production instead of the modal voice, this practice, most commonly found in the
context of choral music in Britain, has not been universally embraced elsewhere, general operatic vocal classification
preferring the term counter-tenor or sopranist and some have argued against the use of the terms 'male soprano' and
'male alto' because of the differences in the physiological processes of vocal production between female singers and
countertenors.

The only true male soprano, one able to sing in the soprano vocal range using the modal voice as a woman would,
would be one whose larynx never fully developed as a man's voice should do during puberty and some argue that any
such male would have to be in possession of vocal cords considerably shorter than average and consequently therefore
possess an unusually high speaking voice, a falsettist counter-tenor anyway normally speaking with an ordinary every-
day baritone or bass voice !

Of some converse to the foregoing matters, an 'octavist' or 'oktavist' is a male singer who sings an octave below the
normal bass part, typically in the performance of Russian Orthodox vocal music and the octavist's voice has a much
lower vocal range than that termed "basso profondo" by the Western schools of music, an octavist singing a full octave
below the normal bass register.

TURNING TO SPEECH

Turning now to speech, many people believe that this is the only essential difference between male and female voices is
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pitch, that however is not the case as resonance, also known as timbre, is another important voice characteristic.

Females usually have higher-pitched voices than males, the fundamental frequency (F0) of male voices typically ranges
from 100 to 150 Hz, that of females ranging from 170 to 220 Hz.

In a 1988 study in which listeners tried to identify the sex of a speaker by voice alone, all individuals identified as male
had an average 'F0' of 160 Hz or less and all identified as female had an average 'F0' above 160 Hz.

While some consider that resonance is more significant in "gendering" one's voice than pitch, one woman, who raised
her average fundamental frequency (F0) from 110 Hz to 205 Hz over four months, was still frequently identified as
male on the telephone, which may have been due to the resonance of her voice, others believe that pitch is a more
significant gender cue than resonance, an additional factor being the different size of the average vocal tract of males
and females.

"Resonance", in terms of phonetics, is distribution of formant frequencies which depends on vocal tract length (VTL),
from vocal folds to lips. Men have larger skulls and, as the male larynx is positioned lower in relaxed state, so men
have longer VTL and thus, shortening the vocal tract length (VTL) makes voice to be perceived more feminine.

It's possible to shorten the vocal tract length (VTL) by willpower, shifting larynx upwards and backwards by means of
straining the pair of stylopharyngeus muscles, straining the pair of stylohyoid muscles and posterior bellies of the pair
of digastric muscles also helps and these three pairs of muscles are strained during swallowing and gargling.

Place your fingers on your throat lightly, feel where the 'Adam's Apple' is, swallow, feel how the 'Adam's Apple' goes
far up, then down, learning how to shift the 'Adam's Apple' upwards and backwards while talking is perhaps one of
the keys to successful voice change.

Of speech generally, men, it is suggested, tend to speak in monotonous tones, women tending to use a wider range
of tones when speaking; men typically speak at a steady rate, women tend to speak in shorter bursts followed by
pauses AND, there may too be some truth in the suggestion that men and women tend to pronounce some words
slightly differently.

VOICEBOOK EXERCISES

Apart from those in the musical community who might want to learn 'the mechanics' of developing a counter-tenor
singing voice, there are many other groups of people, who by way of circumstances or inclination, who have an
interest in what might here be best described as 'feminising' their voices, raising their voice pitches and learning, or
even re-learning, new speech patterns.

There are for example 'audibly gender-variant' women, particularly those within the trans-gendered community, who
wish to develop control of their 'masculine' voices in order that the former may be better assimilated into mainstream
society for reasons of employment and social acceptance.

Too, though in lighter vein, there are some actors, some professional, though most likely to be amateur, who may
want to be better able to 'cross the divide' of natural sex differences and learn to 'hide' the "lift" changes, the point(s)
where the individual's voice changes, for better acceptance in their 'role-play', be that for theatrical performances or,
particularly in the case of the latter, simply for fun !

For whatever reason one may have an interest in exploring any of these matters further, there is an excellent guide
online at http://www.scribd.com/doc/502988/Como-encontrar-tu-voz-femenina and though the document has been
uploaded from Mexico, its title in Spanish, the comprehensive voice training guide is written in 'American' English and
a 'companion' Spectogram program, to monitor voice-pitch levels, is also available, thanks to researchers of London's
King's College's Department of Music, at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/hums/music/dlw/ssr/gram50.zip

Though the focus here is simply on speech and not singing, the material generally should be of as much interest to
those in the musical community as to those in any of the other groups noted above.

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