"Dan McGarvey" <***@nospam.comcast.net> wrote in message news:AO
[snip]
Post by Dan McGarveyI'm really glad you brought this up.
Well, I do what I can :-)
Post by Dan McGarveyThere are a couple ideas about the break: one is that you have one,
singular. Another is that the voice actually has several breaks, only one
of which is prominent enough to be noticed when phonating in that range.
My way of teaching voice endorses the former, as I've never seen any
concrete evidence of these "sub-breaks" in a voice student.
Interesting. I'd always heard there were more, albeit subtle ones, but I've
never heard anyone complaining about more than one in disucssion.
Post by Dan McGarveyOne of the first things I do with my voice students is to have them
vocalize up to their break, feel how it works, then introduce them to
exercises that teach you how to smooth it over, which eventually leads to
the ability to sing strong notes on the break. Yours sits on D. So does
mine, and in fact it's around C# and D for most adults.
Well, that's interesting. At least I'm "average" in that respect!
Using the right exercises, with time,
Post by Dan McGarveyyou could be singing D all the live long day and think it effortless.
Well, since I play in a rock band, and there's a much more significant
chance of a song being in G, D, A, E (mixolydian no less), etc., rather than
B (even bm is far more common) I HAVE to sing Ds all the live long day. But
since it's rock, a little out-of-tuneness is allowed with the appropriate
facial grimaces!
Post by Dan McGarveySo now I learn about a school of thought that espoues avoiding the break
rather than learning how to work through it.
Let's not call it a "school", but a "non-school".
I'm sorry, but I think that's
I agree. It's limiting. I don't think people should limit themselves. What
I'm talking about is within a certain groups of "untrained" musicians. It's
the same people who will put a capo on the guitar rather than learning the
chord forms for other keys. I used to stand there with these guys and
transpose capoed parts by sight as they played (i.e. watching them play a G
shape with a capo on the third fret, and understanding that was Bb) - in a
funny way, they're inability to transpose without a crutch actually helped
me develop my ability to transpose at will. Vocally, I think they're
exhibiting the same "crutch". But they're satisfied doing what they do.
Whatever style or genre you make a living in,
They do it for fun mostly.
the break
Post by Dan McGarveyshould never be used as an excuse to favor certain keys, as it's a very
easy thing to learn to work around, and why limit yourself?
Agreed.
In my experience
Post by Dan McGarveysingers who do that don't get work.
Yeah. I agree again. They're not interested in getting work though, so it's
not a big issue.
Post by Dan McGarveyI think I still have to stand by my original response. I'm not
comfortable with sending a voice novice down that road.
No, definitely not. Anyone getting any amount of training should be made
aware of any such deficiency of thought and actually get to singing. I'm
informing you more from the standpoint of "just to let you know there are
folks like this out there" in case you encounter any, you'd know where they
were coming from.
Best,
Steve