The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #66770 Message #3579237
Posted By: Jim Carroll
26-Nov-13 - 05:11 AM
Thread Name: Shirley Collins - can she sing?
Subject: RE: Shirley Collins - can she sing?
"Hate to appear ignorant, Jim; but could you be kind enough to define 'head voice' in the sense you are using it? "
How do you define a sound in words - beyond me?
Listen to Shirley Collins - she sings in head voice as I understand it.
She handles it well and doesn't show any signs of the problems that come with it.
We're told that this is her natural voice, which makes sense to me.
The many hundreds of women in the revival have adopted head voice when it is not their not natural voice and do have those problems, this is what concern me.
One contributor to a current thread (Criticism in Sessions maybe) has said she sings in head voice and has one of these problems - gear change (change of tone from head to chest when moving up and down her range) - will dig it out later.
I've described a local singer here who has a perfectly good natural voice, but who has developed the habit in singing in head voice and has all but abandoned singing unnecessarily because she can no longer handle long lines, gasps for breath and her singing actually peters out before she reaches the end of the line.
In workshops I've worked in this has been a problem with other women singers.
As far as I am concerned head voice has been adopted by singers to whom it is not their natural voice and they have used it for every song they sing - producing a sameness in performance.
Sorry - must go - will look up the posting I referred to later.
Jim Carroll