What Register do Operatic Singers like Pavarotti Use

edzpambid

I've watched Pavarotti teaching lesson on youtube and he talks about covering the sound .. Is it the same thing as the belting register or call register? .. When Pavarotti and other Operatic Tenors hit those High C's are they using a belt register? Mixed Voice? Chesty Mixed? Heady Mixed? .. Please Answer Thank You

HuduVudu

@Gaston_Jauregui

IraR

I'm no expert, but I think Ken answered this question in his recent Oct. 27, 2018 Mix Voice LiveStream recently, and he said that the opera tenors are using what he calls a "chest voice;" they have stretched (or perhaps it comes naturally) their chest-voice to those High C's, and Ken claimed that that "chest" voice is used basically without exception. But then after watching the whole video, I myself wrote a comment/question (in the comment/questions listed below the YouTube video, and Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy wrote back a reply:

My (I'm listed as Ira Rohde) question: Don't you think that even the "dramatic" opera tenors use some mixed voice when they get much softer and occasionally need to get a little "lyrical," like when they are doing their famous "messa di voce"? Isn't seamless mixing of the voice part of their skills, too? I mean, obviously, their "pianissimo" is actually loud enough to reverberate around an opera hall unamplified (as is the pianissimo of many Broadway belters)! And I'd agree, you can get soft to some extent in a chest-voice. But wouldn't you call many changes in timbre/volume a kind of "mixing" the voice? Maybe you should cover "volume" as a topic, and how it relates to our practice and "chest-voice," "head-voice," "mixed-voice," and "ping-resonance.

Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy's reply (I assume it came from Ken himself):
It should be kind of obvious by the term "Mix" that a mixer has "faders" and part of getting an audio "mix" is done by manipulating and balancing elements. Certainly "volume" is a major element. And Yes, there are volume parameters in chest, mid, head, falsetto, and mix. The opera singers tend to shy away from calling it "mix" lest there be a pop invasion into classical singing, but certainly they do manipulate volume to attain some of the tonal shades, including in messa di voce.

IraR

That actually answers only the second question. With regard to the first part which you seem to be asking, if I my paraphrase, "Is covering the sound the same as the belting register," I the answer is simply "no." Covering darkness (Italian "oscuro,") or its opposite, brightness (Italian "chiaro"), and registers, and even belting and head-or-mixed-voice are two completely different things. I mean, within the "belting" or "call" register is the range in which "covering" is most often used by opera singers, but in principle a singer could use a more "covered," darker sound within most ranges, and in principle a singer could use a "brighter" sound in most ranges. In general, every style (and culture and language are part of this, to) has its preferences for brightness and coveredness/darkness. From a vocal perspective, there are a lot of reasons to emphasize one over the other. Ken's method emphasizes brightness, the opposite of Pavarotti's coveredness, There are very good reasons for this. What I know of my own native culture's (I'm Jewish) vocal tradition emphasizes this brightness also, at least at first, and my brief experience has been that even operatic teaching styles have much emphasis on both "open throat technique" and expanding the pharynx as well as on "mask,"which effectively means that brightness is a major part of their teaching tradition also. That's why even Italians call it by both terms mixed together: "chiaroscuro." Brightness does tend to need to be curbed in to some extent in some high registers, and one can use vowel modifications which have similar effects, but one can have perfectly good vocal technique without "covering." Middle Eastern vocal styles, for example, have been using brighter, as well as more "mask" sounds, I think, for centuries. And on Broadway, two blocks from where I live, I can assure you those "belters" are not "covering" the sound, although two blocks further at the opera house I'm sure the singers are "covering."

Gaston_Jauregui

@edzpambid hi, to add to what @iraR mentioned here not all opera singers do covered sound, even thought it is the most common , you can look for Alfredo Kraus and youll see he was REALLY bright not covered, and he was considered one of the greates opera singers of all time


so no covered sound doesnt mean belting register
the belting register and the call register to my understanding are interchangable

and the falseto register when belted is called reinforced falseto which is what we train in KTVA called also head voice, ken has very good info in youtube about this look for his webinars

Gaston_Jauregui

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ciBrTvR1fw

this is Alredo Kraus singing nessun dorma check him up

edzpambid

Thank you so much @IraR Now I get it .. So covering sound is basically lowering the larynx and bright sound tends to raise the larynx? Please Correct me if I'm wrong .. Do you know the particular reason why Ken teaches more of a bright sound rather than a covered sound? What I know is that covered sound gives more open throat ..

edzpambid

I'm not really into Ken's way of expanding range which tends to mix chest with head voice .. I just want to sacrifice my head voice and put a whole lot of work to my chest voice and stretch it cause I just want the sound of Chest Voice .. Mix voice for me just doesn't sound good ..So I'm into an Operatic Way of Expanding Range but I'm really confused why Ken teaches Bright Sound and backing off from a Low Larynx kind of sound .. What I've been doing these days to increase my range is training with Low Larynx Opera training kind of style and it improved my range and voice quality way better than before ..I really trust the way I train my voice because after I do scales with a covered sound I can sing songs like Calum Scott you are the reason, dancing on my own and all the bright high belty songs which makes me believe that I don't really need to work on my bright sound.. Do you think the way I'm training my voice is the right way If I just want to expand my chest voice.. Or do I need to train both bright and covered sound? I'm a bit scared of making my voice unbalanced if I do just covered sound ..

edzpambid

@Gaston_Jauregui Thank you for adding those information for me

[Deleted User]

@edzpambid I don't know enough to answer your question, but one of the times I have seen Ken address the covered sound is in this reaction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pHsMnDacns

Gaston_Jauregui

@edzpambid btw Ken doesn't teach bridging early to falsetto (head voice), actually volume 1 of the KTVA program IS grow your chest voice to a C# above the high C, and you HAVE to be bright, and open throat singing goes along with keeping the larynx stable and pretty low in volume one, so I think you got my explaining wrong when I said that the brightness of the chest must match the falsetto vocal timbre, while this is true, this is something you have to understand IF you want to fuse your chest with your head, which is part of the program, but highly advanced, also, the point of the brightness is because when brightening you will have way better pitch, and ease to reach the high notes, and your voice will learn be more homogeneous, in your whole range, and not changing and having different voices, you can see the reaction posted of the sound of silence and Chris Cornell's and Ken talks a bit on coverred sound he always says "he is gonna have to open up the sound in order to reach the notes, if you watch videos of Alfredo Kraus live you'll see he is open (bright) the whole time, and he insists as part of his technique to do this and has master classes talking about it, and has videos correcting students for doing so, there are many master classes in Italian and Spanish but surely you can find something subtitled and Ken has tons of explanations on youtube where he expands on this subjects, I would highly recommend you to at some point get KTVA, because it is a system, which you'll probably won't find that easy in other programs and will be stumbling along unless you find a good personal teacher

hope this helps

edzpambid

Thanks @Gaston_Jauregui you guys helped me so much