Gary - the classical repertoire is written so that a soprano or tenor has to sing much higher than in folk or ethnic music. A coloratura soprano piece, for example can have notes in the third octave above middle C. You don't find that in most folk music. Folk singers usually sing more in the range of their natural speaking voice, and often add a kind of drone sound on the ends of words, which is a kind of nasal sound, rather than singing mostly on open vowels, like classical singers do. I sing folk music, too, so I am not using the term nasal as a disparaging word. It is just a different sound than classical.

alice