Friendly Reminders About Voice Parts

[baritonewithtenortendencies]

Posted: 12/5/23 at 8:25am

All little kids are trebles, period, none of them are tenors, sopranos, mezzo sopranos, any of that 

Their voices aren't developed and those voices are all adult voice parts 

There are higher or lower trebles, of course, but they are all still trebles

Teenagers who don't have fully developed voices just are not yet a voice part

There are no female tenors because a tenor voice is reliant on the male physiology of the vocal chords being actually physically separated 

A female head voice is not the same as a male falsetto, so males and females don't share voice parts

A man who sings in a soprano or mezzo soprano head voice register is called a countertenor 

A woman who sings in a lower range is generally a mezzo soprano and sometimes a contralto 

I mean, my voice coach is a mezzo soprano, and she has lower notes than me, a tenor with a false username

It's like 

Whoever keeps telling little girls they're tenors really needs to stop

[Seb28]

Posted: 12/5/23 at 8:45am

baritonewithtenortendencies said: "A female head voice is not the same as a male falsetto, so males and females don't share voice parts "

What voice part can a transman have after taking testosterone and therefore getting a male voice, who was a soprano before?

 

 

 

 

 

[baritonewithtenortendencies]

Posted: 12/5/23 at 8:49am

Well his vocal chords aren't physically alterred beyond getting thicker. It's actually similar to how older women get much lower notes but just at a highly excelerated rate-- So I guess they'd probably be contraltos? I mean, I dunno. I'm a boy who dabbles in being female sometimes and I have a high falsetto that sounds a little like a soprano, but it's not a soprano sound specifically. A trans man's low voice sounds similar to a baritone or tenor's voice, but it's not a baritone or tenor sound specifically. 

[Seb28]

Posted: 12/5/23 at 8:55am

Thanks for your reply! Yes, I feel that many people are somewhere in the middle, also knowing women with male voices and vice versa. You might sound better in soprano notes than some actual soprano's. I wouldn't care too much about the boxes. I agree that kids are in none of those boxes yet either.

[baritonewithtenortendencies]

Posted: 12/5/23 at 9:10am

It's interesting because voice parts are totally different in opera

In musical theatre, it's like

Bass, Baritone/Tenor, Tenor/Mezzo, and Soprano 

But in opera every voice part is very separate 

Like there's a few baritone arias that tenors can do and a handful of mezzo sopranos with high soprano notes

But the overlap is neglibible compared to musical theatre

I mean look at people like Laura Bell Bundy and Raul Esparza who play roles of all different voice parts

But they still have specific parts

Laura Bell Bundy is a soprano and Raul Esparza is a baritone 

There's a difference between singing a part and being a part

But in musical theatre it is literally completely arbitrary

(But what bugs me so much is when people say "I'm every voice part")

[Seb28]

Posted: 12/5/23 at 9:22am

baritonewithtenortendencies said: "There's a difference between singing a part and being a part "

Definitely! I have always felt that Claire Moore and Judy Kuhn (both amazing singers) were never really a Christine or Cosette. They might be called a (mezzo) soprano because they reach the notes, but they never became the part or sounded like the right voice type to me. Their head voice just does not sound like a (mezzo) soprano. A Christine (mezzo soprano) sounds like a Sarah Brightman or Joke de Kruijf to me. There is also a 3rd category, which I call the belt-soprano, Celinde Schoenmaker and Sierra Boggess, trying to belt every note in between where they can because they are not really soprano's, even though their head notes do sound like it sometimes.

I would call Lea Salonga and Olivia Newton John mezzo soprano's but I believe Lea calls herself an alto?

Also, I think voices are unique. For example, Sam Harris and Anthony Warlow are both considered tenors. I think Sam Harris is a great singer, but it does sound like female vocal chords that went through testosterone/puberty, the opposite of Warlow. They should not both be in the same box "tenor".

Updated On: 12/5/23 at 09:22 AM

[baritonewithtenortendencies]

Posted: 12/5/23 at 9:32am

Well Brightman isn't really a great singer but she is definitely a soprano 

But like Christine is one of the only high soprano roles that most mezzos definitely can't play. 

But I wonder why you think of Anthony Warlow as a tenor 

He's actually an opeartically trained lyric baritone 

You are right about Sam Harris, though

I think he's still tenor adjacent but I have yet to decide if his voice is a fully adult male voice

And generally mezzo sopranos are your belters, although there's mroe sopranos than mezzo sopranos so a lot of sopranos belt in order to sound like mezzos since they're more desirable in theatre

Sorta like how lots of braitones like Ben Platt and Josh Groban brighten their tone and use a lot of falsetto in order to sound like tenors

[BeingAlive44Ever]

Posted: 12/5/23 at 8:53pm

What voice part is Lena Hall?