Songs for a limited vocal range

Subject: RE: Songs for a limited vocal range
From: Shalini
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 02:52 AM

I love practising just notes and intervals. I started with the easiest intervals (thirds, fifths) and add new notes to my practice as I get comfortable with the intervals. I sing along with a 'Sruti box' drone keeping the key.

It is amazing how much the preceding note changes the sound of a particular note.

Subject: RE: Songs for a limited vocal range
From: Stringsinger
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 10:43 AM

Jim,

My point is this. I also love the traditional singers that you have talked about.
Why limit the human voice to any style? Folk singing is music which means that
there are many different ways to approach it.

Once you place limitations on the creative aspects of singing or using the voice,
you run the danger of setting up some academic principles which can be misused.
You have already said that Jean Ritchie is limited and that Jean Redpath leaves you cold
which is your opinion and that's ok for you.

But it's not ok to make it a dictum for approaching folk music because it limits
the creativity of musical art.

Frank

Subject: RE: Songs for a limited vocal range
From: jacqui.c
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 01:14 PM

Shalini - one of the best lessons I ever learned was deep breathing, so that the lower diaphragm fills with air and extends. Our music teacher made us breath that way and was not happy if she could see the rise and fall of the chest of any of the class.

I'm now learning to use that ability to bring out the high notes, which really do need that extra air.

Subject: RE: Songs for a limited vocal range
From: Ron Davies
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 09:24 PM

Thanks, Jim for your direct willingness to acknowledge that a particular rumor (re: falsetto in this case) has no basis in fact. Would that all the conspiracy theorists on Mudcat were as well-balanced, reasonable and logical as you.   Not that my view on this is important, but you have soared in my estimation.

It's certainly true, as you note, that the breathy "baby-doll" voice in a woman may not be everybody's cup of tea.   But there is a long list of singers and actresses who have made it pay--including Diana Ross, Marilyn Monroe, Dolly Parton etc. Obviously other factors also play a role.   And as long as it sells, it will be prominent in music--and elsewhere.

I was not aware it would hurt a woman's voice.   I certainly don't claim to be an expert on this. I would think it would just be one of many roles a female singer could play. And the more versatile a voice the better.

Subject: RE: Songs for a limited vocal range
From: Ron Davies
Date: 02 May 09 - 11:12 AM

In fact in one of my group's many performances of "Carmina Burana", the sopranos were given the instruction to sing in the style of a flirtatious girl in part of it--I think it was "Kramer, Gip Mir Farve". It was very effective--and very funny. There's a lot of role-playing in music--including "classical music".

Subject: RE: Songs for a limited vocal range
From: Severn
Date: 02 May 09 - 01:46 PM

Listen to Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Drew, Leonard Cohen and some others besides who can put over a song without a lot of range and study how some of these people finesse a note, sing around a note without actually hitting it and manage somehow against all odds and logic.

Know that some of the most influential singers like Billie Holliday and Louis Armstrong really had very little range.

Find songs that fit you that you liked. You master those few that fit you now and you can, after you gain confidence, and you will find out that when you gain your confidence that you can add more songs, including ones you thought you'd never be able to do at first. Just start with the easy and comfortable and the rest will come.

Subject: RE: Songs for a limited vocal range
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 03 May 09 - 03:27 AM

Ron,
Thanks for putting me right - I see no point in going through life with the wrong information - though it can be fun (and convenient) at times!
"I was not aware it would hurt a woman's voice."
It isn't really a case of hurting the voice (at least, I don't think so) but rather, the amount of air it takes to produce exhausts the supply that can be better used elsewhere.
A friend here (in rural Ireland) uses head voice in all her singing. She suffers from chronic hay-fever which has the effect of preventing her from singing throughout the summer, except for when she joins in choruses, which she does for some reason in her natural speaking chest voice - and has no problem whatever.
Personally I find the 'little girl lost' effect produced by head voice far too limiting to be of any great use, especially when you consider the problems it raises, but as people have rightly pointed out, that's personal taste. What does disturb me (not a little) is when a singers never uses any other tone and it becomes their only way of singing.
Singing and music are very much on the up here in Ireland at present and many singers are setting up as teachers and teaching head voice - as a permanent way of singing - I've been to a couple of classes at singing week-ends and seen them in action.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Songs for a limited vocal range
From: Ron Davies
Date: 03 May 09 - 08:47 PM

Re: head voice: I would think it would be up to the woman herself to decide whether she wants to learn this technique. I can tell you that in my 180-voice choral group, which has performed in various venues, including the Sistine Chapel, Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Red Square, Sorbonne, among others, it is considered by the conductor that head voice should be part of the vocal arsenal for women. Falsetto for male voices is also fine--if the transition between full voice and falsetto is smooth--preferably so smooth as to be unnoticeable. That's the key for all voice parts--the transition must be smooth.   As you might imagine, we don't do much yodeling. Though I have nothing against yodeling. I think Elton Britt and Frank Ifield are very impressive. I just can't do it myself.

To return to the thread topic: there are quite a few songs which can be done with a limited range, including a large number of folk songs, as has been noted.. But head voice and falsetto can indeed extend the range.