# Tenor who likes singing bass



## Philmwri (Apr 8, 2011)

I'm a tenor who likes singing bass(I like my fach but I like singing in others).I don't force the low notes.I let them come naturally, as long as I'm not forcing out throaty low notes I don't see it as unhealthy for me.I think I should ask a voice therapist if it's going to give me nodules which would cause some damage.Any thoughts?


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

I'm no expert but from what I've read in books, opera magazines, comments, reviews, etc., what you're doing is quite dangerous to your voice, in case you're planning to use your voice professionally (or are already doing it). I believe the consensus is that people who want to have long singing careers should stick to their fach and should carefully pick their repertory (although going higher is probably more damaging than going lower, but my understanding is that both are damaging, maybe someone who does have the expertise will correct me if I'm wrong). If you're just an amateur who likes to sing though, I'd think that eventual singing out of your fach will do no damage, since you won't be doing it as often as a professional singer involved with rehearsals and performances.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

'baby lock them doors and turn the lights down low'...you gotta ask Scotty McCreery, kid!


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## Philmwri (Apr 8, 2011)

I was just curious.Sorry for asking a question like that.I'm going to ask a voice teacher but was curious as to what some of you here may think.I am a light lyric so I stick to light stuff.I don't want to do any permanent damage.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Philmwri said:


> I'm a tenor who likes singing bass(I like my fach but I like singing in others).I don't force the low notes.I let them come naturally...


Once I heard a tenor who's trying to sing in Baritone range, it was Rossini's aria Largo al factotum, quite awfully ! 
Well, I'm not a singer but think your decision might be unsafe for your voice. 
Please let me explain one of my experiences of piano playing for the reason I'll tell: I have small hands. I could play many works from the standard piano repertory but I didn't want to believe that I can't play some of my favorite compositions, for example Rachmaninov's Conecrtos No 2 only because of my small hands. So started to practice hard and hard to stretch my hands. After awhile I felt pain in my hands and there's a bad and hard tense when playing other pieces which I've tried easy before and well done. I've never had such a problem. I went to study several books on piano playing, anatomy of hands , etc ... what I found about how Schumann and Scriabin hurt their hands while practicing to solve the same matter was enough for me. I told myself "Boy, not practice so dangerous anymore ! Why should you put yourself into a lot of troubles just because you want to play Rachmaninov, while you can play others good ? So you'll try since now to play what you can play, but to make them perfectly beautiful and excellent." 
So why do you want "singing in others" if you like your "fach" ? You have put your time to make it good as a tenor. Why trying (I'm not saying wasting of time) to make yourself also a bass ? (probably just to sing bass for sometimes) and don't forget it might be risky for your voice. Why not trying more to be (or become) an excellent tenor ? (Sorry for my poor English but you understand what I mean.)


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Some counter-tenors sing baritone so why not?


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

sospiro said:


> Some counter-tenors sing baritone so why not?


I think that might be different because that's singing naturally falsetto or naturally not-falsetto (yeah, I know, that's not exactly techno-lingo). They are not trying to force their voice to do something it isn't built for.


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## karenpat (Jan 16, 2009)

mcamacho said:


> 'baby lock them doors and turn the lights down low'...you gotta ask Scotty McCreery, kid!


haha, exactly.

On the topic of countertenors; some countertenors actually feel like their baritone voices aren't natural to them - like Bejun Mehta who says he felt traumatized when his voice broke. Then there are others who can sing in "both" voices, like Andreas Scholl.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

karenpat said:


> On the topic of countertenors; some countertenors actually feel like their baritone voices aren't natural to them - like Bejun Mehta who says he felt traumatized when his voice broke. Then there are others who can sing in "both" voices, like Andreas Scholl.


Yes, but he did spend several years trying to make it as a baritone, so it must have been natural in one sense. He just didn't sound that good.


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## karenpat (Jan 16, 2009)

mamascarlatti said:


> Yes, but he did spend several years trying to make it as a baritone, so it must have been natural in one sense. He just didn't sound that good.


In a lengthy radio interview he likened it to being gay and having to pass as straight to please everyone else. I suppose he thought at the time that the logical step would be to try and make it as a baritone but then realised that something was wrong. He used the analogy further by saying that he thought his generation of countertenors were probably the last to have to "come out" as countertenors and that more and more countertenors now start singing high right after their voices change.


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## Philmwri (Apr 8, 2011)

I have another question for everyone here.Would a coloratura mezzo have the same passagio as a lyric soprano?I was wondering because dramatic sopranos have passagio as a mezzo.


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## negronmusic (Feb 7, 2012)

I have a similar question. Upon studying with a new voice teacher, it was determined that I am a tenor. Prior to this discovery I was singing as a Baritone and sing bass 2 in choir.
Is it ethical/healthy to study privately as a tenor, yet sing a lower part in choir?
I know that voice part does not automatically translate to fach.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Didn't Melchior start out studying to be a Bass Baritone? I seem to remember a story about a teacher who heard his high notes and said, "There are a million Baritones. Sing tenor if you can."


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## andi (Feb 11, 2012)

I have another question for everyone here.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Hmmm.... I'm similar to you in that I like to sing bass but the tone of my voice has always been a little bright for it. Maybe you're a baritone and you just don't know it?


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