# How rare is the whistle register among males?



## Barytonmartin

And are the vast majority of those who have access to it tenors and countertenors? Would a lyric bass-baritone who can sing in the whistle register be something very unique?


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## Barytonmartin

Anyone?????????


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## PetrB

Barytonmartin said:


> Anyone?????????


"The Whistle Register." ??? C'mon, guy....


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## Barytonmartin

PetrB said:


> "The Whistle Register." ??? C'mon, guy....


I don't understand what you're trying to imply.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

As far as I know, the whistle register is particular to women. I haven't ever heard of men having one, their equivalent is falsetto really.

Just did a quick search, whistle registers _are_ possible for tenors (baritones too, but I don't think as much) to develop.


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## PetrB

Sigh -- since _Whistle Register_ has not registered with perhaps even those currently studying voice, and since it is you who are asking the question... well, that is generally the politic.


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## Barytonmartin

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> As far as I know, the whistle register is particular to women. I haven't ever heard of men having one, their equivalent is falsetto really.
> 
> Just did a quick search, whistle registers _are_ possible for tenors (baritones too, but I don't think as much) to develop.


Adam Lopez has it. You can hear it in this video at 3:44 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxZTaRAscs0#t=228


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## Barytonmartin

I honestly don't understand what you're trying to say.


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## Barytonmartin

PetrB said:


> Sigh -- since _Whistle Register_ has not registered with perhaps even those currently studying voice, and since it is you who are asking the question... well, that is generally the politic.


I honestly don't understand what you're trying to say.


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## PetrB

Okeedoh, "whistle register" is a term for the extreme upper range past high falsetto, which is completely, more conventional terminology, a 'head tone.'

Falsetto is not rare, the head tone, rarer, but not extremely rare. The higher up the register in the head tone, there is an acoustic parallel to how a whistle works -- i.e. the vocal chords are very little involved, and a kind of overblowing, like a flute or whistle, with diligent control of the air column, is producing what is actually a vocal overtone, the mouth and head as resonator, the chest also not in the tone production picture -- but I've never heard it called nothing but _falsetto_ or ultra high pitched _head tone_.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistle_register

Everyone has a falsetto, it is basically a 'head tone,' and the timbre change is less noticeable in women's voices. Too, classical training would have a singer transition seamlessly from the combo of chest / head to head tone without a dramatic shift in color -- the classical technical 'secret' to a smooth sound over a range of three or more octaves.

Males tend to lose their falsetto because they simply stop using it, often not long after their voice changes, and too, it is lost due to social notions of what 'manly' is. (David Daniels was an undergraduate where I attended school, and I recall his teacher speaking about him with another faculty member, rolling her eyebrows and saying, "He has this falsetto he wants to use." LOL. She must have capitulated, and Daniels later got great training and is now a world-renowned much in demand counter-tenor.)
Handel ~ Rinaldo; Cara sposa, amante cara; David Daniels





Training in classical singing usually does not at all focus on developing the falsetto in males, where the females, mainly the high-register coloratura sopranos, do routinely learn to use this extreme high head tone.

For one reason or another, the call for falsetto male singers died a quick death after the Castrati countertenors were replaced by women in the opera, and since then, a bit of it here and there in a male role, usually for dramatic or eerie effect, is called for and written. That flagolet / overtone / whistle effect is very rarely called for, I would wager not until the 20th century, and if so, specifically written for a singer with such a capacity.

Coloratura Sopranos use it quite routinely, the music written for them planning upon that capacity, again usually without such an abrupt change in tone color:





Falsetto and that 'whistle register' _could be readily learned and achieved by many a competent singer,_ but that sound, so far, is not called for with any frequency from classical composers. I think you'll find those eccentric uses more in pop music, the singer either jamming or writing their own music to show of, and use, that part of their range.

Pop song writer or classical composer, neither want to write something to be possibly performed by any number of performers, and throw in a trick, or set it in a range, where only a handful of performers could pull it off... that severely limits the possibility of both performances and sales of the sheet music.

Coloratura Sopranos, "The German nightingale" Erna Sack, and the French "stratospheric colaratura" Mado Robin.


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## norman bates

Barytonmartin said:


> And are the vast majority of those who have access to it tenors and countertenors? Would a lyric bass-baritone who can sing in the whistle register be something very unique?


I doubt it, because the only reason to use it is to get the highest pitches, but I think it's very difficult to articulate notes like that, forget about dynamics and expressivity. 
I mean, this is Georgia Brown:





Very high notes but certainly is not what I would call great singing.
So probably a bass-baritone could do that but with notes much lower than a tenor, so frankly I don't see the need for that.


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## PetrB

Backing up Norman: No, a lower register voiced singer with that flagolet tone would not be unique. Producing the sound is a little bit of a freak show compared to "more normal" western vocal production, but coloratura sopranos the likes of which I gave a link to were in the world of opera over one century ago.

Singers today are singing harmonics





Techniques from ethnic musics are sometimes part of what is now expected, the relaxing of one vocal chord so one person can sing in octaves (Tibetan), or a singing on the intake of a breath as well as singing while the air is going out, etc.

Odd whistles, buzzes, hums with overtones, etc. are no longer so odd, nor rare.


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## silonic

*bass, baritone, tenor, through first soprano,*



Barytonmartin said:


> And are the vast majority of those who have access to it tenors and countertenors? Would a lyric bass-baritone who can sing in the whistle register be something very unique?


wow. I didn't realize that there was a name for it. (Whistle register) I then was raised and self taught all the good old skool gospel where you had to hit the right note because you're live and we didn't have devices to change the pitch of your voice in real-time like today. I am a bass, baritone, tenor, through first soprano (she was only a 1st Soprano) like my mother. i have worked for years to step blend with out a break in sound all the way up to my whistle register. But it really gets kinda boring when there isn't a song in the world that you can't do. There's not a challenge. 
I never smoked. Has a lot to do with your ear's range of frequency hearing capabilities.. I've been tested as unbelievable so i'm probably hearing a lot of the subtle sounds from the throat that give me an idea on what vocal stretching i need to do to widen my ranges. I've also resulted in getting Lower ranges at the same time. In my mind I see it like a needle on the record and i can just push it up or down.


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## Jeffrey Smith

I can do it: officially I am a baritone.
But in the days when I sang in any organized form (mainly in my college's chorus) it was only for special, usually comic effort. The sopranos once complained my high notes were better than their more normally produced ones.


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## Topher Neves

I'm a baritone and my falsetto can't really reach higher notes but I found my whistle register when I was trying to hit those high notes in my falsetto, it was very hard to control it but the whistle register takes time, and I personally think it's very rare for males with a lower voice.


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## fluteman

In the barbershop quartet world, tenors routinely reach up into the whistle tone stratosphere. Here is an amusing example from tenor Tim Waurick of the well-known quartet Vocal Spectrum, which has performed all over the world.


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## BalalaikaBoy

The rarer the better. Personally I find falsetto God awful enough...


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## Merl

fluteman said:


> In the barbershop quartet world, tenors routinely reach up into the whistle tone stratosphere. Here is an amusing example from tenor Tim Waurick of the well-known quartet Vocal Spectrum, which has performed all over the world.


That's 4 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Awful!


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## fluteman

Merl said:


> That's 4 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Awful!


A sense of humor is required for something like that. It's a joke, and specifically a joke about high falsetto singing


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## Luchesi

for this one you must be over 18

Barbara Hannigan


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## torrewaffer

fluteman said:


> In the barbershop quartet world, tenors routinely reach up into the whistle tone stratosphere. Here is an amusing example from tenor Tim Waurick of the well-known quartet Vocal Spectrum, which has performed all over the world.


He never used his whistle register in this video though.

Here's a video with an actual whistle note, he hits it towards the end:


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## VitellioScarpia

Topher Neves said:


> I'm a baritone and my falsetto can't really reach higher notes but I found my whistle register when I was trying to hit those high notes in my falsetto, it was very hard to control it but the whistle register takes time, and I personally think it's very rare for males with a lower voice.


I trained as a tenor and once I resolved my difficulties with the passaggio and blending, I discovered my whistle register. I could reach an F# and even a G when practicing. It was unreal. My voice teacher and I use to have a hoot with my imitations of Lily Pons!


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## papakwame2710

I am a guy and can sing bird whistle note


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## MAS

The BeeGees and The Righteous Brothers used it extensively.


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## Rogerx

papakwame2710 said:


> I am a guy and can sing bird whistle note


Now that we like to hear, welcome by the way .


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## Shaughnessy

MAS said:


> The BeeGees and The Righteous Brothers used it extensively.


Along with Roy Orbison, Frankie Valli, and Tony Williams of the Platters.

There's a form of "folk singing" called "Norwegian Nose Whistling" which takes place on days when it's really cold outside which is pretty much every day in Norway.


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## fluteman

torrewaffer said:


> He never used his whistle register in this video though.


True, that's really just very high falsetto. Here's another similar example, a bit more musically under control:
(1) Lemon Squeezy - Things Are Looking Up - YouTube


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