# Change in tessitura



## A1B2C3 (Feb 15, 2020)

(Before we start, tessitura is one's comfortable voice range. Just so you know.)
In the morning, when I wake up, my voice range reaches as low as C2 flat. (I'm a bass, by the way.) Late in the day, It reaches as far as only D2 flat. Why does this shift occur? This may include Science.


----------



## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

The A1B2C3 of the matter is that muscles activate and tone throughout the day. When we sleep our muscles relax and release the day’s tension. So when we first rise from a good night’s sleep, our muscles, including our laryngeal muscles, are relatively deactivated. The simple effect on our voices is one of being able to sing lower because our vocal folds are able to shorten more easily because they don’t have the acquired toning from a full day’s use.


----------



## A1B2C3 (Feb 15, 2020)

Can this be alleviated to maintain the range?


----------



## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

I am a high baritone, and when I get completely warmed up vocally after singing lots of high notes, I have trouble singing notes below Bb easily. (Especially if I don't "warm back down"; everybody talks about "warming up" which usually entails singing higher and higher notes, but late in my vocal life I finally learned how important it is for a (still relatively) lower voice like mine to be sure to vocalize downward scales. I had an expensive but really good vocal coach who extended my comfortable range on the bottom to Eb, nearly a fifth).

Anyway.

When I am very ill, I have amazing low notes that I simply cannot produce when well, at least not with any musical value. I can sing down to low C or low B flat, sometimes low A if I have a bad case of the flu. It's fun to be able to sing "O Isis und Osiris" or "Ach! Wie will ich triumphieren," or Хило двенадсать расбойников complete with Ivan Rebroff-like low Eb or D. 

Of course the downside of this, besides feeling like crap and risking pneumonia, is that I cannot sing above D just above middle C. Usually I can sing high As or sometimes B-flats.

Science behind all this, I dunno. But thanks for the warning.

Kind regards, :tiphat:

George


----------



## VitellioScarpia (Aug 27, 2017)

I found that my voice went higher as I continued my vocal training. I thought I was a light _baritenor_ when I started and after several years I discovered that I was actually a high tenor up to an F5 (not for public consumption) as I started to lose the bottom coming up from F#2 up to a B2. My vocal coaches were not surprised by the change so I assumed it to be normal. Have you experienced the same?


----------

