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sir_quirky_k (

sir_quirky_k) wrote,
@ 2007-09-21 23:19:00

Life in holding pattern
I'm severely envious of Florence, who goes to Dartington this Sunday.

I've told Mum about the singing lessons for the first time. Or rather, she made me, for she had noticed a distinct difference in how I sounded when singing in the car. (Yes, sadly Mum drives short distances and I end up going with her, for journeys such as going to Morereasons to buy overpackaged food that won't get eaten.) She's happy for me, and wishes I'd been open in the first place; I now intend to. I'm still a tad nervous of letting her know most things in my life (the only things she doesn't want to know, it seems, are specific details of things she doesn't know or care much about, such as the game show fandom), not least because I know she is manipulative. Remember, she shoved information on distance learning into my face right after Brenda's game, which she knew was a cracker because I told her to watch Act III...

On vocal pigeonholing: my cousin Dan produced a great statement that I expect to use more often. 'It [the voice] is an analogue device. Trying to quantise it is silly.' By definition, vocal pigeonholing quantises the voice in some form.

Gizensha of the Commentariat has suggested I consider living in Southampton throughout the year, renting private accommodation in the local area. It may be worth considering.

Nine days to go...

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daweaver
2007-09-23 10:13 am UTC (link)

On vocal pigeonholing: my cousin Dan produced a great statement that I expect to use more often. 'It [the voice] is an analogue device. Trying to quantise it is silly.' By definition, vocal pigeonholing quantises the voice in some form.

There is method in using a broad approximation to give a rough idea of whether a gentleman is bass, tenor, or something between. Setting that as the limit is not so good.

I consider living in Southampton throughout the year, renting private accommodation in the local area. It may be worth considering.

Given that the portion of this summer you've spent in Weymouth hasn't been the best, this feels like A Good Idea.

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sir_quirky_k
2007-09-23 11:39 am UTC (link)

Speaking on the phone to Florence yesterday, I used the analogy of a filing system, whereby pieces are effectively organised (at least primarily) by range (subdivision by timbre also exists, but is generally confined to more experienced classical singers), and the singer then knows where to look for something that suits him/her should s/he know what to look for. It makes sense on that level, but it is a simplification, one that works for some more than others. Most singers spend most or all of their time singing already-written pieces, and some means of simplifying the search for those that suit is useful. I, however, am a composer first and a performer second, and seek to expand the subset of things-my-voice-can-do so as to reduce the constraints on my composition. (This does, of course, account for rather more than range, but that is the most immediately obvious element.) The limit also does not account for changes in the voice; I refer you to the comment made by EM about how increases in range from training tends to be asymmetrical in nature.

Of course, what one is really doing in this case is cross-referencing the range of the singer with the range of the song, and checking if the latter is a subset of the former. It would be quite conceivable for a singing teacher to computerise this in some form - indeed, I have already created a spreadsheet doing precisely this, with one sheet within the file allocated to listing the range of the singers, one listing the range of the songs, and a third displaying (with conditional formatting for ease of use) which song can be performed by which singer. Of course, the teacher would then still have to use a certain degree of discretion, but it would serve as a useful filter not bound by traditional classification.

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