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For the sake of those of us who get driven insane by this kind of thing (and I know the exact feeling; I go nuts whenever people talk about things I'm not familiar with. Like sports. Especially basketball. What was the name of the blue-and-white one again....? ....anyway.....), I've moved this sub-conversation in The Topic Of Great Randomness over to here.
Okay, here's what's been said so far:
Wilf:
quote:
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Originally posted by semiramis:
My father and I both have voices that are about three-quarters of an octave higher than they should be and therefore annoy people to no end... does that count? (j/k)
(Actually... it's really weird. I'm technically, by the timbre of my voice, an alto, but I know lots of sopranos who can go _far_ lower than I can, and even more who can't reach within a P5 of my upper range...)
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How high can you get? I sing bass normally, and I can get to around the G above the C above middle C. Not as highI could get before my voice broke of course, but naturally I can get a lot lower. (Around about G be,ow C below middle C).
~~~
semiramis:
I'm female; my upper range (I count that as when your larynx starts to squeeze its self) begins at around G#ish two above middle C, and ends at around F-ish two octaves above that (that's four octaves and a P4 above middle C, the highest F on a piano for the musical-illiterate ^.^7), although by then I'm starting to sound very much like I'm whistling (except I can't whistle one tenth so loud, or high). I never go this high; one, my music never calls for it, and two, it takes far too much air to sustain for any amount of time. On the other hand, the absolute bottom of my range (i.e., just before my voice starts sounding like a happy diseased cat with two pounds of sand in its throat... although how it could be happy in that situation is completely beyond me...) is somewhere near the F in the octave two below middle C. This is only if I work down to it, and if I've warmed up, on a good day; and my tone quality, while passeable, sucks like a small child on a very big lollipop. If I lived anywhere but San Diego, I wouldn't even be able to get in that octave, given that the weather conditions here are mild (e.g. not too cold or dehydrated), and perfect for the lower range. I never use my range down there, either, because it hurts if I do it too often, and it's too far into the back of my throat for my comfort; the bottom of my comfort-range is about two octaves higher (E-A below middle C, depending on conditions... I'm a weakling, yes, so shut up about that *bonks muse on head for blowing raspberry*). My best friend can get about half an octave lower than that F without warming up, and she's a soprano. I've got another friend, a year my junior, who can sing like that, but she's an alto; I don't know how low she can sing, but it's lower than the previous, I'm pretty sure. I also am acquainted with a contralto (that's a female who has a masculine range/timbre) who is likewise a year younger than me; the upper part of her comfortable range (middle two-and-a-half to three octaves, usually) just barely overlaps the lower part of mine, and I can't even guess at how low she can go.
...it suddenly occurres to me that my range begins and ends on F. Huh. Maybe that's why I always sing/play on d minor (that's actually F Major, but starting on D instead of F).
...or maybe not.
(Sorry for rambling on this; music is one of my three-to-four great obsessions in life)
~~~
Rysade:
WOW. I know nothing about my voice, and your self knowledge about it surprises me. Who could I talk to in order to find this information about myself out?
~~~
Wilf:
I think it is time to introduce some notaion here, to save talking about "the G above the C two octaves middle C" all the time. This is based on what I used at school, and works as follows:
* Middle C and above use lower case letters, below middle C uses upper case letters
* Middle C is written c, the C above that is written c', the c above that c'' etc.
* The C below mddile c is written C, the C below that is written C', the C below that C'', etc.
* Any other note takes the form of the C below it. So, g is the g above middle, B'' is the B above the C two below middle C.
* Any questions? Good...
On this basis, my piano has a range from A''' to a''', a clarinet has the range E to ~a'', and my voice runs from G' to ~ g'.
So, Semi, if I read what you are saying correctly... your upper range runs from g#' to f''', and your bottom note is around F'. Now, that is far higher than any person I have known, which makes me wonder how musical do they actually sound? Also, which part do you normally sing? (S/A/T/B?)
I understand about the rambling thing... my great obssessions in life are 1) Music 2) Theatre (well, lighting thereof) 3) People 4) Books 5) Maths 6) Learning. That may sound like a lot of obsessions, but I lead a very busy life.
~~~
Okayyyy! phew. That's alot. ummmm...
Rysade--I just figured this out by spending lots and lots of down time by the piano ^.^.... Very useful instrument, the piano. Except when it's out of tune. Mine was, because we hadn't had it tuned for five years, but then we had the tuner come in, and it took him about four hours with his little weird t****y-thingies....
Wilf--I sing alto, because that's where my range sounds best/what my timbre sounds like. Oddly enough.
Sorry about my confused notation.... I stated my range based on what I learned in Piano Theory (I took piano long before voice/wind, and by then everyone expected I knew), and they don't really differentiate...
Ummm.... like I said, the top of my range sounds like a whistle. Exactly like a whistle, except maybe a bit more organic. So much like a whistle that people often ask me where I'm hiding my accomplice. Although I think the one soprano aria in The Magic Flute--I forget what it's called, but the Queen sings it.... half of the lyrics are "ahh-ahahahahahhh," and it sounds very bird-like, metinks--actually goes above my range, but I may be wrong about that.
My obsessions are literature (including mythology/theol
Okay, here's what's been said so far:
Wilf:
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by semiramis:
My father and I both have voices that are about three-quarters of an octave higher than they should be and therefore annoy people to no end... does that count? (j/k)
(Actually... it's really weird. I'm technically, by the timbre of my voice, an alto, but I know lots of sopranos who can go _far_ lower than I can, and even more who can't reach within a P5 of my upper range...)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How high can you get? I sing bass normally, and I can get to around the G above the C above middle C. Not as highI could get before my voice broke of course, but naturally I can get a lot lower. (Around about G be,ow C below middle C).
~~~
semiramis:
I'm female; my upper range (I count that as when your larynx starts to squeeze its self) begins at around G#ish two above middle C, and ends at around F-ish two octaves above that (that's four octaves and a P4 above middle C, the highest F on a piano for the musical-illiterate ^.^7), although by then I'm starting to sound very much like I'm whistling (except I can't whistle one tenth so loud, or high). I never go this high; one, my music never calls for it, and two, it takes far too much air to sustain for any amount of time. On the other hand, the absolute bottom of my range (i.e., just before my voice starts sounding like a happy diseased cat with two pounds of sand in its throat... although how it could be happy in that situation is completely beyond me...) is somewhere near the F in the octave two below middle C. This is only if I work down to it, and if I've warmed up, on a good day; and my tone quality, while passeable, sucks like a small child on a very big lollipop. If I lived anywhere but San Diego, I wouldn't even be able to get in that octave, given that the weather conditions here are mild (e.g. not too cold or dehydrated), and perfect for the lower range. I never use my range down there, either, because it hurts if I do it too often, and it's too far into the back of my throat for my comfort; the bottom of my comfort-range is about two octaves higher (E-A below middle C, depending on conditions... I'm a weakling, yes, so shut up about that *bonks muse on head for blowing raspberry*). My best friend can get about half an octave lower than that F without warming up, and she's a soprano. I've got another friend, a year my junior, who can sing like that, but she's an alto; I don't know how low she can sing, but it's lower than the previous, I'm pretty sure. I also am acquainted with a contralto (that's a female who has a masculine range/timbre) who is likewise a year younger than me; the upper part of her comfortable range (middle two-and-a-half to three octaves, usually) just barely overlaps the lower part of mine, and I can't even guess at how low she can go.
...it suddenly occurres to me that my range begins and ends on F. Huh. Maybe that's why I always sing/play on d minor (that's actually F Major, but starting on D instead of F).
...or maybe not.
(Sorry for rambling on this; music is one of my three-to-four great obsessions in life)
~~~
Rysade:
WOW. I know nothing about my voice, and your self knowledge about it surprises me. Who could I talk to in order to find this information about myself out?
~~~
Wilf:
I think it is time to introduce some notaion here, to save talking about "the G above the C two octaves middle C" all the time. This is based on what I used at school, and works as follows:
* Middle C and above use lower case letters, below middle C uses upper case letters
* Middle C is written c, the C above that is written c', the c above that c'' etc.
* The C below mddile c is written C, the C below that is written C', the C below that C'', etc.
* Any other note takes the form of the C below it. So, g is the g above middle, B'' is the B above the C two below middle C.
* Any questions? Good...
On this basis, my piano has a range from A''' to a''', a clarinet has the range E to ~a'', and my voice runs from G' to ~ g'.
So, Semi, if I read what you are saying correctly... your upper range runs from g#' to f''', and your bottom note is around F'. Now, that is far higher than any person I have known, which makes me wonder how musical do they actually sound? Also, which part do you normally sing? (S/A/T/B?)
I understand about the rambling thing... my great obssessions in life are 1) Music 2) Theatre (well, lighting thereof) 3) People 4) Books 5) Maths 6) Learning. That may sound like a lot of obsessions, but I lead a very busy life.
~~~
Okayyyy! phew. That's alot. ummmm...
Rysade--I just figured this out by spending lots and lots of down time by the piano ^.^.... Very useful instrument, the piano. Except when it's out of tune. Mine was, because we hadn't had it tuned for five years, but then we had the tuner come in, and it took him about four hours with his little weird t****y-thingies....
Wilf--I sing alto, because that's where my range sounds best/what my timbre sounds like. Oddly enough.
Sorry about my confused notation.... I stated my range based on what I learned in Piano Theory (I took piano long before voice/wind, and by then everyone expected I knew), and they don't really differentiate...
Ummm.... like I said, the top of my range sounds like a whistle. Exactly like a whistle, except maybe a bit more organic. So much like a whistle that people often ask me where I'm hiding my accomplice. Although I think the one soprano aria in The Magic Flute--I forget what it's called, but the Queen sings it.... half of the lyrics are "ahh-ahahahahahhh," and it sounds very bird-like, metinks--actually goes above my range, but I may be wrong about that.
My obsessions are literature (including mythology/theol
), to try to get some confidence into the really timid students (although looking back I suppose the slide exercize has a greater potentual of making you feel stupid than confident....)
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