Voice changing...up?

[typecastme22]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 9:50pm

Hey
So I just wanted to know if anyone knew more about why this would happen....I am 19 and since my voice changed I was a baritone.

Then I came back to school this fall and had 2 of the professors I work with tell me that I need to completely redo my book because my voice has changed and gotten higher and I am a tenor now....weird right?!

It's great because tenor definitely suites my type/energy/whatever much better but now I have to basically start from scratch on my book.

Is it normal for guys voices to change up after their voice has already changed? Just curious...

[BNN]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 10:30pm

Men's voices typically are not fully mature until mid-20s I believe so I would say its completely normal for your voice to still be finding its way and settling in. My choral teacher is 24 and he's sure his voice is getting lower each day.

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 11:17pm

I was going to say that men's voices don't really "settle in" until about age 30. Certainly at your age you could be going "back up." Later on, you may find that your range is extending at one end or the other, or both, but that the midrange stays about the same. This is all very individual and mysterious.

Get a good grounding in technique, and learn how to pick repertoire. Because you will have to use your technique and your song-picking skills your entire life. Look on it as a way to stay fresh--an adventure!

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 10/16/08 at 3:08pm

Also, most boys' ranges expand as their voices settle in-- for example, one of my best friends' voices changed late (about age sixteen), and he instantly went from soprano to the deepest bass you've ever heard. For about a year, his range was really limited-- he could only sing a few very, very low notes-- and now his voice is getting lighter and higher, and his range is wider. He's gone from James Earl Jones to Terrence Mann in about a year.

I don't know about your high school, but at my high school, we only have a small handful of tenors and a whole lot of basses. But the numbers are a lot more even in the real performance world (honestly, skewed toward tenor, if only because they're preferred as leading men).

Updated On: 10/16/08 at 03:08 PM