Another last: in fact, my teacher told me: "Don't play the MACHO, you are a tenor, like me" :))

Yours, Andrés Magré

Alice Flynn

Amergin

I used to be a classical singer and I am a soprano with over a two (nearly 3) octave range and when I was actually having my voice trained I could get right up to that top top c right above all the staves and bars the ones that float around at the top - and right down to A below middle C.

Of course like an athelete I am out of training and could get those notes still but would pay for it the next day.

Now I sing folk songs in an Irish band and at sessions. Its a lot more fun and less rigid than classical stuff. Plus you get to drink lots of guinnes at gigs and sessions.

Ella

Thank heavans I am not still singing classical! I don't think I did the classical diva thing very well! Far too stuffy

Your comments are proof that "Guinness is good for you!"

I would certainly not totally write out ever singing classical stuff ever again. As I have a very wide music taste. If I was asked, or if something attracted me to sing a classical piece then I would go for it. As I am still fairly young, I could probably go back to it if I wanted to. But I get more fun from the folk stuff and I can improvise a bit more.

Plus it makes me laugh how you can virtually sing for your supper at sessions.

Chanteranger - Yes guinness is definately good for you - very soothing. ha ha! but makes you get no bones in your legs! (wobbly legs)

What I love most about singing the folk songs, is the reactions in the pub/gig when I sing a more slower song without any backing (like A Stor Mo Chroi) I have turned a pub/gig from the usual din and chatter to complete silence and have everyone listening to the words. You could hear a pin drop. And it does wonders for the soul to have all those people listening to you.

What a buzz.

Ella

I know what you mean about having the audience captivated and how high it makes you feel. I have experienced that same rush during poetry sessions (open mike). I love the feeling of every eye in the place looking up at me as I spout off my stuff. The reaction of the audience is the best damn drug ever made.

Amergin

When I lose my voice, I usually lose my top voice, but also my range gets extended about 3 tones lower at the bottom - notes which I can never normally reach.

And if I am going to perform something in public, I have to raise it about 2 tones from the pitch I practice at, as I can get volume on my high voice, but not my low voice.

And the break between my head voice and my chest voice seems to be different depending on whether I am going up the scale, or down.

Bagpuss

Bagpuss

Many people don't know they can sing above the range of the speaking voice, and the best notes can be those that are more brilliant once you have learned how to reach them. Last week I met another singer who had been told he was a baritone, and had performed as a baritone in three Gilbert and Sullivan productions. He was used to pushing the voice (like belting) to get that volume as a baritone, but when I heard him sing higher, I said, I bet you are really a tenor. One guest conductor who had visited the town where he used to live had told him he was really a tenor. We went to my teacher, because I want to learn some duets to perform together, and she said to him, you are definitely a tenor. Now, he just needs to learn to sing with more relaxation throughout his whole range so he can connect the baritone range with the tenor range, where his voice really opens up to some brilliant tones. By learning not to push for volume, he can back off and blend his voice more with mine in harmonies.

I have always thought of myself as a tenor, but my voice teacher has told me I am a baritone, even though I sing higher than any other guy in the church choir.

Voice lessons are one of the best investments I ever made. I have a teacher who is classically trained, a good performer herself, but is sensitive to folk music which she lets me focus on. Like any instrument the voice is one in which we easily have fundamentally wrong technique which we do not even realize and which when corrected allows us to be a whole lot better than we ever thought we could.

Alice

Dead links (Jan 2010): CLICK HERE of the coloratura soprano Amelita Galli-Curci

Thanks for the link.

Bagpuss