So good to hear this from a professional opera tenor! This is game-changing. I’m sure all your die hard fans like me would LOVE to see you demonstrate some vocal exercises that helped you build your tenor range. There are systems like CVT and Singing Success which allow people to develop higher notes but not in a powerful and operatic style. You’re a wizard!
We want the particulars! The actual exercises, but his journey is inspiring. And ignites a new hope in those of us who are stuck between tenor and baritone. I sound like a tenor but dont have the range. And not enough low notes or depth to sing baritone. Severly limiting. I would almost sell my soul for a reliable B natural.
Mr. Spyres, I just listened to the Beethoven 9th you sang with Muti and Vienna Philharmonic on Symphony Cast on public radio. You NAILED IT in the best way possible: you __sang__ the notes without shouting as so many of your tenor colleagues do. Best wishes.
Dear Mr. Spyres, You are so much talking from my heart, it's unbelievable. I do sing baritone and bass-baritone and bass and have an easy extension up into the tenor range. I simply love to do tenor stuff, but honestly I am still finding my way. My voice cracks a lot and it's like hell. But I sooo much like it and I simply can't help continuing to try. You certainly know Lauritz Melchior, don't you? For me, he was the greatest Heldentenor of all times. He started as a baritone at the opera house of Kopenhagen, got "discovered" as a tenor, studied also under the supervision of Cosima Wagner as Wagner-tenor, and while having transitioned to tenor already, occasionally sang baritone roles! Or you certainly know Ben Heppner, don't you? Started as a baritone and had some hellish two to three years transitioning to a tenor. Well, let's continue being on our ways. Thank you so much for your dedication. A. from Switzerland
That's very kind of you to say Micheal. I am also a tenor and I used to have the same struggle as you because I spoke like a baritone, and for many years I struggled with why I couldn't sing as softly as my teacher, and then I realized that our vocal cords are just not the same and I couldn't sing like a tenor who speaks with a high voice. I gradually started to find my own balance, how to put my voice correctly on my chest, instead of imitating my former teacher who sang very high. I'm on my way, and I saw this video of yours today, your speech inspired me, thank you!
He legitimately has one of the largest ranges is opera history I think. C2-F5, those are notes that are usually too low for basses and too high even for tenors. Its ridiculous
Michael doesn't really tell us HOW he transformed his voice into a tenor, just that it was very difficult and took years. I want to know the specifics. What he does in the passaggio .. where to put the tones, where you feel them...etc...
Yes, but the more general point he is making is helpful, even if it is not possible for most people to do what he did, which is that one shouldn’t let preconceived notions limit or determine one’s development. Very easy to say, very hard to do.
Because he didn't. This video is nothing but confusing hogwash, he was always a tenor. Tenors need to train to sing up to C5, that doesn't mean you aren't a tenor if you just suck and can't sing up to that.
Michael, You are the best tenor of the 21st century! 👏I teach "Vocal Teaching Methodology" and "Singing History" at the university and I regularly show Your videos to my students. Thanks! We admire you! We understand You are very busy, but it is a pity that there are no new videos on the channel. Greetings from snowy Moscow ❤❤❤
Want to hear you as a baritone OR a tenor! You have a very unique gift, even among opera singers, of a very broad range. Kudos to you for developing it through study and hard work! Bravo.
You are a hero of voice, and I have great respect of you for it. The voice is so malleable… though it’s interesting that your speaking voice as you testify has largely remained in the same tessitura as you started with, though perhaps a bit lightened. There is so much nonetheless that one can do to make their voice their own, sung or spoken. Thank you for displaying that.
Thanks maestro !!! Te sigo a años … es un placer escucharte y a pesar que soy algo mayor, siempre he sabido que tenias estas notas agudas pero nunca he podido trabajar porque siempre hemos estado bajo el poder del los “ FACH” En fin : gracias por abrir un camino para los baritenores … Aquí un súper fan tuyo , admirador … Gracias gracias
Female tenor here. I used to sing alto, but transitioning to the higher notes presented not only the register break but also a totally different timbre. Years ago I sang in a chorus that had very few tenors. I’m a strong sight-reader (classical pianist also), so I hopped over to the tenor line in a song we were practicing and was so happy to be able to keep the same timbre for the entirety of the piece! That was my watershed moment and I’ve never looked back. I have a range that goes from C3 to F5. My register break is around G4 - that was the problem in singing alto.
There’s a difference between choral tenor and opera tenor. You may be singing in the tenor line for choirs, but you’re still an untrained mezzo. You can’t be a tenor.
@@yuujoupop i think she's a rare contralto! Many of REAL contralto's sound like tenors in their natural chest voice - up to G4, as she mentioned. But a contralto should learn how to form a middle, mix register (but mostly with the chest resonance, of course) and that's quite challenging becuse of that "break". Sad that women with unique low voice don't train properly so we don't have NATURAL contralto's now (like legendary Ewa Podles, may she Rest In Piece)...
Thank you very much for your explanations. I always enjoy your music, especially when you are singing with Lawrence Brownlee. You look to have so much fun, and you transmit it to people hearing you. Thank you for your energy. And your comments in this video are encouraging. I will practice more until I reach the high-D as you do 😅 Thank you for giving such motivation.
I’ve been listening to you for a few years now. You always stood out to me in terms of pure vocal abilities, what a shocker to find out it’s not just raw talent, but mostly sheer tenacity. I’m in conservatory currently, and I am a tenor. During your years of immense study and I’m sure hours of practicing, how did you manage vocally? How did you handle fatigue? I practice only an hour a day, on top of such needed courses like choir, studio class, coaching’s and lessons. and I split it up into 20 minute sections and I still sometimes fatigue. Im wondering how you paced yourself? Also, do you ever plan on teaching?
"not just raw talent..." there may lie some - "a little bit" of irony. So, "for some rogue irony take that" (in fact, there is a second laughable-half, that thus may be of interest to professionals): th-cam.com/video/_nDNy2eP4kE/w-d-xo.html (I consider myself very lyrical and "audacious" ("audacious" brought up by Spyres sounds interesting as there is so much less heroism to it than in "bravery" or just being bold, daring. Same with "tenacity" you mention I'm learning, courtesy of your comment, languagewise. "Tenacity" corresponds to that. In my theory, with any trail and error we learn, and the learning may show, this is what Spyres stands for (audaciously joking, seriously: ...and my tyres and my conto), whereas opposed on the "tragedy" (everyone makes fun of everyone, sometimes) side lies "Aspiration" and envy, lie the dead who failed to "fullfill" what they had years to practice for. Now, seriously in my opinion hours of singing is what it's all about. Nutrition and bodily exercise is much underrated. Third, there does exist "something" the Russian search their children for whom they love, too.
Ramón Vinay (August 31, 1911 - January 4, 1996), famous Chilean tenor was also stared his career as a baritone in Mexico in 1938, later he is became dramatic/heldentenor.
@@williammountfield8508 He did, however, only sing 1 bass role after temporarily coming out of retirement and it wasn't a role that was fit for his voice.
I always thought a true dramatic tenor was a pushed up baritone and would think baritenor is another word for it. Melchior was the perhaps the greatest example. You Michael are probably the same. I love your voice and its abilities.
Escalaïs, Affre, Tamagno, Scaramberg, Braschi, and Merli strongly disagree that dramatic tenors are pushed-up baritones. Heck, I bet Granal, Orliac, Oppezzo, and O'Sullivan do, too!
Merci pour ces explications sur les catégories de chanteurs, de revendiquer votre personnalité et l'évolution de votre tessiture sans être limité par une étiquette ! "un seul oiseau en cage et la liberté est en deuil" J. Prévert.
I joined a choir a few years ago, thinking I would be put with the basses, as my spoken voice sits roughly at the same height as yours, and to my surprise, the director, seeing that I could vocalize, without much of a break, well into tenor semi-highs/highs (up to F/G), put me with the tenors. Since then I have been singing tenor, and training as a tenor with my voice teacher, but another thing that has been a constant reminder, is that I have, similarly to you, strong lows, and that has been a source of frustration, because I happen to love singing in my lower register. The zona di passagio has been a challenge in terms of endurance, I had no problem getting there, it was just exhausting, but now with training it has become much better. So I've sat in the tenor 2 section, and it's become easier with time and training, but it seems like my lows have been chronically under-exploited, still, my lower tessitura is essentially a baritone one. My teacher took his time to finally describe/label my voice, and he said "you've got the voice of a taille". I had read things about it, but didn't really register what that was other than "somewhat low". So I read up about it and I've seen it described as baritenor, which, I knew immediately what that was, but still read up a little bit more on it. Then I looked up common pieces for baritenor, and stumbled upon all the pieces that my teacher made me sing. Having that confirmation was reassuring. Lately I heard your rendition of Largo Al Factotum, and it has inspired me to start learning it on my own, I intend to surprise my teacher with it at some point, and hopefully work on it together once I'm done with what I've been deciphering lately.
I largely agree except really the idea of types of voices is about their sound, weight and facility in repertoire not range. Fachs are really recognised stereotypes for classifying singers rather than actual physical categories . Of course they are way too narrow if understood prescriptively. The thing that makes you quite unique is not that you can sing baritone and tenor rep, but that you can so lightly and purely in high Rossini and Mozart works while while having the low extension . Even Jadlowker didn't have anything like that lightness and height to the voice you get when you sing that rep. Other baritenors have gravitated to heavier rep, even if they sing it in a non spinto (understood as pushed) fashion .
He is what was called a "contraltino" , vocal folds long but thin, so they're able to sing low notes more easily than a barytone, but have also extremely high notes, above high C. They make passaggio at F sharp instead of F, but often they don't have an easy middle
I feel like I may be similar to this, not extremely high but I’ve always suspected I must have very thin but long vocal chords, I have a decently visible Adam’s apple meaning I’ve got longer vocal folds, and have a low extension that starts at Ab2 and goes down to around F#/F2 but my upper range sounds only slightly darker/heavier then a lyric tenor, I have friends that have virtually the same chest range as me but just cannot get any higher then the G no matter how hard they try and I can easily carry up to C depending on the vowel
@@Viper-dz2kw That's interesting, your voice is very rare and you should really try to develop it, many teachers will classify you in the barytone fach, but you must definitely be a contraltino
the fact is, and that is always forgotten in the "fach"-thinking, we all have different vocal folds... as different as our lips, heads or hands... so every voice is unique.
But historically "baritenor" was an intermediate _fach_ between a bariton and a _contraltino_ or _tenore di grazia_ (what today we call a _leggero_ tenor). García and Nozzari where quite famous baritenors in Rossini's time. They had a strong low octave and still an agile enough high octave: in fact, the Count Almaviva, one of the epitome roles of coloratura singing for a tenor voice, was debuted by García. The especial thing with Spyres is that he is, at the same time, a bariton (I dare say a _basso cantante,_ in fact) and a _leggero_ tenor (and, of course, all the intermediate fachs between these two).
I think Michael is just a tenore di grazia, tbh. It is pretty well-accepted that a leggiero tenors are commonly miscategorized as baritones due to seemingly low ranges with a lot of chest resonance. I, too, started out in baritone repertoire because 1.) my larynx position was out of whack and 2.) my teacher genuinely thought I may have just been a lyric baritone because of my decent lows and mellow tone-of-voice below middle c.
Granted, there definitely IS something to be said for the fact that he not only has facility down to a bass low c, but can also match the general quality of a baritone voice and sing in a sustainable manner. At the end of the day, the fach system is just there to help guide people in a direction that MIGHT fit their voice (at least, that was its original purpose). If someone can sing multiple types of repertoire, then they can, in theory, serve as multiple difference voice types.
I totally agree with you. And Garcia sang at the same time Almaviva and Don Giovanni. He certainly had a good baryton voice and a very developed falsetto with a perfect "ponticello" to unify the different registers. In the opera "Zampa", by HEROLD, the "tenor" role covers 2 octaves and a fifth (from low G up to high D), which is in fact a typical barytenor part. What's different, in M. Spyres art, is that he uses the modern singing technique (high notes in full voice).
Hi Michael. Your performance of Largo al Factotum is the best I've ever seen. I am a tenor and can delve into the higher baritone range e.g. I can sing C.P.E. Bach's Fecit Potentiam. What is your advice for developing ability to sing in the low baritone range?
Thank Michael for this video but :) it's seem that you're answer is more about " why " you're develloping ( a challenge) and not "how " to devellop it ...i sing in a professional opera chorus like a basse /baryton (12 years) and now tenor 2 (since 8 years) i have always some probleme around A FLAT/A/ Cflat (the color is "piu leggera" and not every time stable ) ..after curiosly it 's easier ... Do you have a kind idea about this "problem" ? thank you very much for your work ! Sorry i'm french , i could write in italian may be ?
Michael, if you read this, please contact me. I‘m one of these (not so rare) examples of a Bari-something and seek your advice. Everything you said is so true, and I‘m where you were some years ago, I think. Professional (mainly concert) Baritone / ancient music bass, and I know I need to go higher. Would appreciate it sooo much! Best wishes from Berlin, Germany! P. S. Your „Si può“ is absolutely amazing 😁
As a teenager, ive always been able to sing about up to a high A, but also a low G with a good warmup. My speaking voice is naturally lower, but once this guy said that most tenors bottom out at my comfortable low note, it helped me confirm that i am most likely a tenor, if not this bari-tenor range that hes speaking about. Who knows, maybe next week ill be a countertenor lol.
What a down to earth person. Rare in my years of listening to "performers" of any genre speak of themselves. What follows will sound like a "brag". It is not. It is an astonishment in keeping with Spyres "encouragement". I'm 73. Have never performed. The word "performance" to me suggest a "lie" and though my life has been immeasurably enriched by those who perform, it is anathema to me. My first voice lesson was when I was 28, living in England, and I was supposed to be meeting a woman for a "date". Turns out woman was in her late 70's and had been a bit of a rage in the 20's in London performing commonly with Heddle Nash, then a tenor of account in England. We chatted for about 2 hours when she sprung on me that I was in her company for my first voice lesson. I said, "OH no I'm not". After a bit of a wrangle she pulled out the final clncher, "Can't you make an old lady happy?" so, to the piano we went and she played "Oklahoma" and I tried to sing it and failed miserably which, given my personality, was not acceptable so told her I'd be back the next week. In the interim she'd dedided I was "actually a tenor". That week when much better and was such fun that I continued with her...the only prior singing I'd done was at after game rugby parties. (not at all the same canon ) I continued over the years where ever I lived and if I had the money and could find a teacher. More years without coaching than with, but all coaches knew me as a tenor though the type of tenor and the songs given me to work on were quite different....Only in the last 7 years, more "off" then on do to finances and Covid, have I heard the term "baritenor". I warm up on average day to Eb above high C and "down" to the last note on the piano."A".....I currently work on Baroque pieces as I find I have the coloratura capacity, but practice on my own before I expose my teacher to my efforts the buffo baritone roles that probably are most in keeping with my personality ie lets not take all this too seriously. I've never heard me as I refuse to listen myself recorded. I'm not obsessive as Spyres speaks of himself, but have listened to so many quality recordings of "real" singers that If was a complete disappointment to my own ear, I'd stop singing and I don't wish to as its so much fun. I note that I could quite possibly sound like a cat with its tail caught in a Cuisinart, but teachers have not said so. I counter with "but I'm paying them, why would they". There's a point to all this: take on what pleases your ear and work toward it. Find away to get it done. Your "throat" will tell you "no...never" or "no, not this way" and if you are young and you are judicious about it, you will have learned without doing yourself damage. I should note also that early teachers were instructing about "pushing into the mask". I found my "extra" octaves when discovering "open throat" singing much as a result of MIchael Trimble's video essays on TH-cam.
Lauritz Melchior, possibly the greatest Heldentenor ever: his natural vocal inclination and nature was perhaps more inclined towards that needed to build a Dramatic Baritone or in nowadays standards perhaps even a Dramatic Bass-baritone; he had a vocal range in full voice C2 to C5, had a low F2 strong, easy, round, powerful, pinging like that of a real bass, had a high F#4 that sounded more like that of a basso drammatico than like that of a tenor; he had the dynamics of his voice akin to those of a real baritono drammatico and I'd more easily imagine him singing Scarpia or perhaps even Wotan more than any other role. He also used to show quite the strain when singing higher than G#4 and was completely unable to sustain the tessitura of an italian tenore lirico or lirico-spinto, he used to strain and fail a lot even while attempting some lower italian tenore drammatico arias, yet he sang AS HELDENTENOR and is remembered among the greatest tenors ever. Nowadays would sing as either a bass or perhaps a baritone. Ettore Bastianini, possibly one of the greatest Verdian Baritones ever (a Baritone for Verdi is usually a HIGH Baritono Lirico-spinto voice who has many pages that are written EXTREMELY HIGH in tessitura, sometimes almost tenorish in tessitura and not too different from certain Mozart tenor and Wagnerian Heldentenor pages actually): his natural vocal inclination and nature was perhaps more inclined towards that needed to build some form of operatic basso with a dark timbre (either Dramatic, Profondo or even a higher Cantabile in certain Verdian roles); he had a voice that would bottom around a G1, would talk around C2 to A2, had an immense resonance on lower notes and could EASILY fake way better than a lot of modern basses the timbre of a real basso profondo, yet he wanted to sing baritone and was able to do so, so he became one of the greatest Baritones ever while his early career as a Bass went almost un-noticed. Mattia Battistini: his voice completely bottomed at a low A2 like you'd imagine a tenore contraltino, he didn't have a huge voice nor a very dark one. Yet he sang WONDERFULLY as a baritone (in quite higher baritone roles) and he was deemed by contemporaries either the greatest or among the greatest baritones ever and in absolute one of the greatest singers ever. Perhaps we should stop giving too much power to definitions and tags and we should instead put more effort into studying the correct techniques and excercises to properly develop operistic voices and make them last as many decades as possible in good health.
In Napoli back then we casted away a dramatic baritone because he wanted to sing as tenore lirico and di grazia and we deemed him unable to and ridiculed him and called him a barking dog and a fool to wish to try that, most people told him he should sing as a baritone since he would NEVER become a tenor... He went by the name of Enrico Caruso, someone might have heard of this guy...
OMG! I wish I could come take a lesson or two with you, as my voice issues are IDENTICAL, but I have yet to solve them. I have a bizarrely wide range, and am still lost. I feel like I have the POTENTIAL to get my entire voice open, but don’t know how to do it on my own
Been a fan for a while. You would remind me of a Gregory Kunde when I first heard your voice. The male voice is weird and spectacular. It’s a voice that God says it’s not by might not by power, but by His spirit. Male voices I believe sometimes can change late 20s-30’s. No clue what’s the phenomenon. Not sure if it’s figuring out ones health, voice change, technique marinating and growing, body change, wisdom, understanding the individual voice versus categorize….I would say I had a slight similarity but figuring it out.😅 I don’t know if this would ever come up, but you would probably like talking to Seokjung Baek. Phenomenal singer that also had a voice change late 20s to 30s. He was a very impressive baritone but his tenor change moved my singer soul. And super nice and humble.
I feel U are are equivalent of a lyric dramatic or spinto colorstura soprano .many many big coloratura sops has a very wide range(with wide chest register
I enjoyed your video very much--it was inspiring and encouraging. As engaging as it was however, I didn't come away knowing HOW you developed your tenor range, or any ways for me to work on expanding my vocal range. As you had initially, I have less than two octaves in the baritenor range. I sing 2nd tenor in a choir and strain to reach the high notes in the Halleluia Chorus. Unlike you I don't have a falsetto but sure wish I did, and I would so love to add a few more tones to my upper range so I could sing the Nadir part in Bizet's Au Fond du Temple Saint duet. From viewing your videos I deduce that I'm a natural tenor. What training did you actually do that increased your tenor range? What can I do to increase mine? How can I recover my falsetto, lost in my twenties? I believe I can do it, but how?
My voice is low set but I'm actually a lyric tenor. I don't consider my low extension as part of my register as it doesn't carry as well as anything after c3, but miked I do Sinatra.
What about Tenorbariton as a term? I have seen some Wagnarian scores calling Siegmund that. Was that more ubiquitous? Are you using Baritenor more because it is already a term in musical theater, or was that the term you actual found historically? It is definitely a drag not to be able to bounce back and forth like mezzos are allowed to do. I would love to still sing Figaro and Giovanni even after the "official switch" to tenor. Good on you. Cheers, man.
Leggero tenors actually have low notes with baritonal color, and at the same time more bright high notes beside other tenor's. It's normally. Exactly for which reason very difficult achieve a smooth voice registers for this voice type.
Ho visto il video e ho pianto...combatto ogni giorno e spero di vedere i miei sforzi ripagati un giorno. Ho lo stesso identico problema. Questo video un ispirazione, come te come cantante, complimenti
What if you can't sing lower than an A and can't sing higher than a G above middle C? I think you and I have extremely similar voices. I don't have the lower octave though.
Impressive. As a baritenor too, it's fun to be able to sing in both choir sections, but due to lacking technique I find the tenor lines steadily more taxing.
From a mechanical standpoint, I don't think that everyone can really gain an entire octave in the lower/higher register by just plain training. The different parts of the register are eliciting different muscles in varying percentages, and some of the structural muscle properties have their own limits. You can stretch your vocal chords and gain half an octave by training, but it's very difficult to modify your vocal tract in order to make the same gain in the lowest part of your voice (intuitively it's easier to reach high pitched screams but it is basically impossible to go lower than fry register). I suppose that the higher part of his register was just underdeveloped because he was focusing on his most natural octave, which is really close to his "parlato" (daily speaking voice). And I think that the same principle may apply to a low % of baritones which can be considered as hidden tenors. The worst part is: you need to study for both roles, while some of the mechanical concepts can't work for both type of voices. This is a time consuming process and there's a very high chance that you won't able to shine in one of the roles, thus killing your career.
Trying to do this also, on my own, tired of that choral high baritone, which is neither for solo or real thick bass notes, very interesting. I sing now with the tenors in the choir. There are problems with singing Bach and also with contemporary classical extremely quiet works.(Plainscapes) For the latter, the situation is problematic because the "real tenors" sing so quiet that I go into falsetto and even then it's too loud and bright. So I push to make it right and then my vocal folds get irritated. I don't know why but in many choirs, the tenors sing so modest and timid , one hardly hears them. I think such choirs are not good for a developing baritenor.
He is one of the biggest operatic stars nowadays. Maybe he gives a masterclass every now and then (I don't know) but, in any case, he has no time for teaching.
6:12 The R&B singer "Gallant" is also like you in the pop-sphere. Listen to his speaking voice: th-cam.com/video/pXkstK_KwJE/w-d-xo.html Singing: th-cam.com/video/Pfm_OjfOv4o/w-d-xo.html
My teacher, Edward Dwyer (one of the great vocal researchers and pedagogues and a tenor), used to laughingly say that NO ONE is really a tenor. If you can develop those high notes, YOU'RE A TENOR! : )
7:17 "we all live" em in no yellow submarine 🙂If we did - some Kursk - the spectrum would be 4, not three, according to my experience. Today, my guess is that the question "why are there no black keys there and there" may be answered: to remind your teacher not to hit the "wrong note" if that's beyond your means, and this separates "the men from the women". Emoticon: Exit from main street (thank you for letting me blunder, swear I'm no butcher, just bakn.
Preach brother. I suffered with this fach system for years and in college no one could put me in a box. I was a baritone, no I was a tenor. You had to choose! Finally, once in Europe I became a tenor with serious low notes. I'm only sorry I missed about 10 years of my professional life because no one believed I knew what I could do. But I had a good run anyway. From Almaviva to Manrico! Love listening to you.
Didn't begin to answer the question of "how." What methods , technique and training were used? And way too much opining about how he doesn't like the fach categorizations.
I m so happy I feel so much the same. Would you mind doing a more technical video on how to find tenor range? I've heard you in salle Gaveau and this is impressive how you perfectly understand baritone and tenor voice production.
I got nothing. I'm a baritone attempting to be a tenor and Micheal just suggests that is fine, other than the fact I am 70 and there is no getting past the 4 octaves. I was pretty much born with
Michael has the best of both worlds in that he’s excellent as a tenor but has the stronger baritone speaking voice. I have a good tenor singing voice but my speaking voice is, to put it mildly, not very impressive. If you are old like me think of the tv show “Get Smart “
I think you know this saying that the male voice has three registers. You have the Bass register, the Baritone register.... then there is the CASH REGISTER (Tenor)!!! James King also started out as a Baritone.
@@Celatra did i say something about me?I am a composer...! just to let you know:(Wikipedia) The low extreme for basses is generally C2 (two Cs below middle C). Some extreme bass singers, referred to as basso profondos and oktavists, are able to reach much lower than this.
That makes sense to me now. Waking up in the morning especially, I’ll get from a C2 to E2, usually. It’s taken me years to be able to sing high but I can sing a C5 now in chest, F5 in Head dominant and C6 I’m whistle. It took me years to be able to do even this. Though, my natural speaking voice is slightly higher than yours. Operatically I also only have an octave and a half at best as well. Holding up all that weight for me up there is quite difficult for long periods of time.
Lol I struggle with an F2. And I could always do whistles in the 7th octave since I was a kid. At the moment I’m struggling on the A4 chest. I think I’m just an undeveloped tenor(based on the colour of my voice too) as I have a light voice akin to leggiero tenors
This is my experience but with 1 note higher in every register. I sometimes wonder if the assumptions around fach have more to do with how we habitually use our voice. I snapped out of the classical delusion when I met a pair of female twins who sang together. One sang in a very high Soprano and the other (who was more of a tomboy) sang in a very earthy Alto. My teacher wanted to blame the stark difference on training but I knew that if the classical assumptions were correct, there'd be no way genetic twins could sound so different. I personally believe that range is probably 30% genetic and 70% habitual. I think a fully developed voice will span 3-4 octaves and renders the fach system only relevant to how you train your voice. Yes there is a genetic component and naturally high or low voices will have a slight advantage, but like I said it will impact training more than anything.
@@Sloppyjoey1 I’d have to disagree I would say that you’re pretty born with your voice. Twins won’t have identical voices. I’d say 95 percent genetic. And most people won’t get 3-4 octaves. Especially guys because classically they can only use modal voice(unless countertenor).
@@karlschuler This is a drawn out topic that I could better demonstrate by singing rather than explaining, but I will try. What we're getting at is, the classical model essentially forbids specific uses of the voice under unscientific assumptions that technique should be identical for people who "sound the same". I say "unscientific" because, a lot of speech and vocal pattern is habitual & relative. Furthermore, tone can be massively adjusted. This means that if you aren't married to the Fach system, you'll realize that there's world of tones and formants you sing with that are arguable as effective. I think telling singers you're "born that way" isn't just defeatist, but actually unscientific. The classical model is oversimplified and rigid, it does not account for anatomy, habit, stature, speech etc.
I love how the comments are full of people talking about exactly what “fach” you are. It certainly is interesting to try to categorize and understand things. Also, I’ve never related to such a successful singer as much as I did watching this video. My teachers did always seem to know I was a tenor, but always had a super strong, comfy low extension and would top out around a G or Ab before either switching or breaking to falsetto/full head tone. After a period of 4 or 5 of the hardest years of my life, being obsessed with figuring it out, my voice has finally started making sense over the last couple years. Now I’m working on some lyric-full lyric repertoire; my voice can have lots of sound and power and “weight” of a more dramatic variety, but at the same time I can have that flexibility - my voice quite likes to move and can be able to let go of some of that “weight” to sing some of that baritenor rep that’s full and robust and low but also light and agile enough to survive in the passaggio and even WELL above a C5. There’s the possibility of staying the full-lyric route, but this baritonal quality of my voice has also been noted to have the potential to sing either some of the great bel canto bari-tenor rep OR notes of Lohengrin.. Long story short, my voice has been a mess for so much of my life because it could do pieces of things from many “voice types,” but really struggled to just do all the pieces to one “voice type.” It’s one of the most fulfilling things to continue working now and see how far I’ve come and see just how many different paths lie before me; we’ll see what my voice decides it likes best and then we’ll continue to see what it likes best the next day and the next month and the next year, etc. Thanks again so much for sharing a little bit of your journey. I had no idea that it shared so many similarities with my own, and it clearly means a ton to me! Much love and respect!
Can you give a bit more info on how you were able to figure out your voice? I'm exactly in the same place as you. What made sense and how did you get there?
A cordial greeting to you my friend!!...No one better than you, to analyze this incredible singer who is leaving all the experts, literally with their jaws on the floor (Do you remember Jim Carrey's movie "The Mask"? well, just like that)....In 2017, a 22-year-old singer from Kazakhstan, named Dimash Kudaibergen, was invited to participate in the famous Chinese program for professional singers called "The Singer".... In his first appearance, Dimash covered one of the most difficult songs in the world, a famous French composition called "S.O.S. D'un Terrien En Détresse"....Since then all this madness began on the internet, TH-cam and social networks worldwide and he is already considered the best singer on the entire planet... It is almost impossible to see a human being, being able to reach vocal ranges of 8 octaves, that is, the 88 keys of a digital piano, which allows him to reach all registers, both masculine and feminine, that is, he can sing as Bass, Baritone, Tenor, Contratenor, Contralto, Mezzosoprano and Soprano.....You can see in TH-cam to all kinds of experts (Vocal coaches, analysts, singing teachers, singers, youtubers, reactors, etc.), who have dedicated themselves to watching his videos and verifying for themselves that what is said about him is completely true...In addition to all this, Dimash is capable of singing in more than 12 languages...In all his concerts worldwide, tickets are sold in just seconds, via the internet, due to the immense popularity he has worldwide.... Anyway, I think you haven't met this impressive singer yet, so here is the link to the first song that Dimash performed in China in that year 2017, the song S.O.S., and if it doesn't bother you, I would like you to mention me as the person who recommended it to you....Warning: You have to be prepared for thousands of views, comments and new subscribers...The video It is more recent, so it does not have the millions of views that the first ones, but it is more complete, including an intro, subtitles in several languages and better audio and sound quality.....th-cam.com/video/bDX3FhmyNac/w-d-xo.html
He is a super Singer but here he is very very irritating and there is zero use. I had to go a similar way with hundreds of ups. Human singing apparature is lying deepest in man’s throat. Corelli said “behind” and added sometimes more behind sometimes les behind but always behind. I recommend to Beginn exercising with an I as in deep. This I very deep sitting in the throat and after try it with a, e, o, o and so an. All These Vocals 12:37 on the same place as I , Try, don’t press but the I deep deep in your throat. Good luck!!!!
I am a bit confused... I always thought that tenors singing the wrong repertoire ruined their voices far too soon and this is why different tenors sing different roles suited for their voice type. A Verdi tenor requires more power than for example a Rossini tenor with needs more coloratura...? . So not everyone can sing anything... I find this confusing.
So inspiring. Such a sympathetic and intelligent guy. Michael would be everyone's dream teacher.
So good to hear this from a professional opera tenor! This is game-changing. I’m sure all your die hard fans like me would LOVE to see you demonstrate some vocal exercises that helped you build your tenor range. There are systems like CVT and Singing Success which allow people to develop higher notes but not in a powerful and operatic style. You’re a wizard!
We want the particulars! The actual exercises, but his journey is inspiring. And ignites a new hope in those of us who are stuck between tenor and baritone. I sound like a tenor but dont have the range. And not enough low notes or depth to sing baritone. Severly limiting. I would almost sell my soul for a reliable B natural.
Love the way he de-compartmentalises the labels given to artists...Love his voice so very much.
This video deserves about 1 million more views.
Mr. Spyres, I just listened to the Beethoven 9th you sang with Muti and Vienna Philharmonic on Symphony Cast on public radio. You NAILED IT in the best way possible: you __sang__ the notes without shouting as so many of your tenor colleagues do. Best wishes.
Dear Mr. Spyres,
You are so much talking from my heart, it's unbelievable. I do sing baritone and bass-baritone and bass and have an easy extension up into the tenor range. I simply love to do tenor stuff, but honestly I am still finding my way. My voice cracks a lot and it's like hell. But I sooo much like it and I simply can't help continuing to try.
You certainly know Lauritz Melchior, don't you? For me, he was the greatest Heldentenor of all times. He started as a baritone at the opera house of Kopenhagen, got "discovered" as a tenor, studied also under the supervision of Cosima Wagner as Wagner-tenor, and while having transitioned to tenor already, occasionally sang baritone roles!
Or you certainly know Ben Heppner, don't you? Started as a baritone and had some hellish two to three years transitioning to a tenor.
Well, let's continue being on our ways.
Thank you so much for your dedication.
A. from Switzerland
That's very kind of you to say Micheal.
I am also a tenor and I used to have the same struggle as you because I spoke like a baritone, and for many years I struggled with why I couldn't sing as softly as my teacher, and then I realized that our vocal cords are just not the same and I couldn't sing like a tenor who speaks with a high voice. I gradually started to find my own balance, how to put my voice correctly on my chest, instead of imitating my former teacher who sang very high. I'm on my way, and I saw this video of yours today, your speech inspired me, thank you!
0:22 Tenor with a low C.... 😱😱😱
Yup! Cuz he’s a natural baritone lightened into a wide-ranging tenor.
He hits a B1 seconds later as well!
He legitimately has one of the largest ranges is opera history I think. C2-F5, those are notes that are usually too low for basses and too high even for tenors. Its ridiculous
Yep that's correct! Did you think it was possible? Asking out of curiosity.
@@andrewbloom7694B1-G5
You're saying exactly what I've been trying to say for 20 years...I'm exactly where you are and where your voice lands.
Michael doesn't really tell us HOW he transformed his voice into a tenor, just that it was very difficult and took years. I want to know the specifics. What he does in the passaggio .. where to put the tones, where you feel them...etc...
Agreed
Honestly, this is usually the issue with self taught, naturally gifted individuals
Yes, but the more general point he is making is helpful, even if it is not possible for most people to do what he did, which is that one shouldn’t let preconceived notions limit or determine one’s development. Very easy to say, very hard to do.
Because he didn't. This video is nothing but confusing hogwash, he was always a tenor. Tenors need to train to sing up to C5, that doesn't mean you aren't a tenor if you just suck and can't sing up to that.
He doesn't know.
Thanks for being such a good maestro and being so frank, candid.
Every young singer needs to listen to this guy.
Michael, You are the best tenor of the 21st century! 👏I teach "Vocal Teaching Methodology" and "Singing History" at the university and I regularly show Your videos to my students. Thanks! We admire you! We understand You are very busy, but it is a pity that there are no new videos on the channel. Greetings from snowy Moscow ❤❤❤
Want to hear you as a baritone OR a tenor! You have a very unique gift, even among opera singers, of a very broad range. Kudos to you for developing it through study and hard work! Bravo.
“Anyone can do it. You just gotta be a little crazy.” 😂
Absolutely!
Where have you BEEN all my frustrated singer's life??? SO HAPPY to have found you!!!
great singer! an inspiration to many on how persistence and belief in self (many times) will win the day.
You are a hero of voice, and I have great respect of you for it. The voice is so malleable… though it’s interesting that your speaking voice as you testify has largely remained in the same tessitura as you started with, though perhaps a bit lightened. There is so much nonetheless that one can do to make their voice their own, sung or spoken. Thank you for displaying that.
Que maravilla!!!
Cuantas octavas tiene este fenómeno?????
Thanks maestro !!!
Te sigo a años … es un placer escucharte y a pesar que soy algo mayor, siempre he sabido que tenias estas notas agudas pero nunca he podido trabajar porque siempre hemos estado bajo el poder del los “ FACH”
En fin : gracias por abrir un camino para los baritenores …
Aquí un súper fan tuyo , admirador …
Gracias gracias
Female tenor here. I used to sing alto, but transitioning to the higher notes presented not only the register break but also a totally different timbre. Years ago I sang in a chorus that had very few tenors. I’m a strong sight-reader (classical pianist also), so I hopped over to the tenor line in a song we were practicing and was so happy to be able to keep the same timbre for the entirety of the piece! That was my watershed moment and I’ve never looked back. I have a range that goes from C3 to F5. My register break is around G4 - that was the problem in singing alto.
There’s a difference between choral tenor and opera tenor. You may be singing in the tenor line for choirs, but you’re still an untrained mezzo. You can’t be a tenor.
Ruby Helder did a good job.@@yuujoupop
@@yuujoupop i think she's a rare contralto! Many of REAL contralto's sound like tenors in their natural chest voice - up to G4, as she mentioned. But a contralto should learn how to form a middle, mix register (but mostly with the chest resonance, of course) and that's quite challenging becuse of that "break". Sad that women with unique low voice don't train properly so we don't have NATURAL contralto's now (like legendary Ewa Podles, may she Rest In Piece)...
I feel so grateful. It means a world to me to hear these facts from that kind of professional. Thank you so much, it's like a big support for me
Thank you very much for your explanations. I always enjoy your music, especially when you are singing with Lawrence Brownlee. You look to have so much fun, and you transmit it to people hearing you. Thank you for your energy. And your comments in this video are encouraging. I will practice more until I reach the high-D as you do 😅 Thank you for giving such motivation.
I’ve been listening to you for a few years now. You always stood out to me in terms of pure vocal abilities, what a shocker to find out it’s not just raw talent, but mostly sheer tenacity. I’m in conservatory currently, and I am a tenor. During your years of immense study and I’m sure hours of practicing, how did you manage vocally? How did you handle fatigue? I practice only an hour a day, on top of such needed courses like choir, studio class, coaching’s and lessons. and I split it up into 20 minute sections and I still sometimes fatigue. Im wondering how you paced yourself? Also, do you ever plan on teaching?
"not just raw talent..." there may lie some - "a little bit" of irony.
So, "for some rogue irony take that" (in fact, there is a second laughable-half, that thus may be of interest to professionals):
th-cam.com/video/_nDNy2eP4kE/w-d-xo.html
(I consider myself very lyrical and "audacious" ("audacious" brought up by Spyres sounds interesting as there is so much less heroism to it than in "bravery" or just being bold, daring. Same with "tenacity" you mention I'm learning, courtesy of your comment, languagewise. "Tenacity" corresponds to that. In my theory, with any trail and error we learn, and the learning may show, this is what Spyres stands for (audaciously joking, seriously: ...and my tyres and my conto), whereas opposed on the "tragedy" (everyone makes fun of everyone, sometimes) side lies "Aspiration" and envy, lie the dead who failed to "fullfill" what they had years to practice for. Now, seriously
in my opinion hours of singing is what it's all about. Nutrition and bodily exercise is much underrated. Third, there does exist "something" the Russian search their children for whom they love, too.
Ramón Vinay (August 31, 1911 - January 4, 1996), famous Chilean tenor was also stared his career as a baritone in Mexico in 1938, later he is became dramatic/heldentenor.
And then reverted to a baritone before becoming a bass…
@@williammountfield8508 Those are the times that singers did live slower without moving one continent to the other in few days for performances.
@@williammountfield8508 He did, however, only sing 1 bass role after temporarily coming out of retirement and it wasn't a role that was fit for his voice.
The Vinay became a baritone again, and finally a basso.
I really admire Michael Spyres and am thrilled by his vocal range.
I always thought a true dramatic tenor was a pushed up baritone and would think baritenor is another word for it. Melchior was the perhaps the greatest example. You Michael are probably the same. I love your voice and its abilities.
Escalaïs, Affre, Tamagno, Scaramberg, Braschi, and Merli strongly disagree that dramatic tenors are pushed-up baritones. Heck, I bet Granal, Orliac, Oppezzo, and O'Sullivan do, too!
Merci pour ces explications sur les catégories de chanteurs, de revendiquer votre personnalité et l'évolution de votre tessiture sans être limité par une étiquette !
"un seul oiseau en cage et la liberté est en deuil" J. Prévert.
Interesting.
BTW: There is the tenor „fach“ baritone-tenor (like Otello). Thank you for your video. Chris
I joined a choir a few years ago, thinking I would be put with the basses, as my spoken voice sits roughly at the same height as yours, and to my surprise, the director, seeing that I could vocalize, without much of a break, well into tenor semi-highs/highs (up to F/G), put me with the tenors. Since then I have been singing tenor, and training as a tenor with my voice teacher, but another thing that has been a constant reminder, is that I have, similarly to you, strong lows, and that has been a source of frustration, because I happen to love singing in my lower register. The zona di passagio has been a challenge in terms of endurance, I had no problem getting there, it was just exhausting, but now with training it has become much better.
So I've sat in the tenor 2 section, and it's become easier with time and training, but it seems like my lows have been chronically under-exploited, still, my lower tessitura is essentially a baritone one. My teacher took his time to finally describe/label my voice, and he said "you've got the voice of a taille". I had read things about it, but didn't really register what that was other than "somewhat low". So I read up about it and I've seen it described as baritenor, which, I knew immediately what that was, but still read up a little bit more on it. Then I looked up common pieces for baritenor, and stumbled upon all the pieces that my teacher made me sing.
Having that confirmation was reassuring. Lately I heard your rendition of Largo Al Factotum, and it has inspired me to start learning it on my own, I intend to surprise my teacher with it at some point, and hopefully work on it together once I'm done with what I've been deciphering lately.
I largely agree except really the idea of types of voices is about their sound, weight and facility in repertoire not range. Fachs are really recognised stereotypes for classifying singers rather than actual physical categories . Of course they are way too narrow if understood prescriptively.
The thing that makes you quite unique is not that you can sing baritone and tenor rep, but that you can so lightly and purely in high Rossini and Mozart works while while having the low extension . Even Jadlowker didn't have anything like that lightness and height to the voice you get when you sing that rep.
Other baritenors have gravitated to heavier rep, even if they sing it in a non spinto (understood as pushed) fashion .
Jadlowker didn't have that lightness because he was a legitimate singer. It's not a positive to artificially lighten your voice.
He is what was called a "contraltino" , vocal folds long but thin, so they're able to sing low notes more easily than a barytone, but have also extremely high notes, above high C. They make passaggio at F sharp instead of F, but often they don't have an easy middle
I feel like I may be similar to this, not extremely high but I’ve always suspected I must have very thin but long vocal chords, I have a decently visible Adam’s apple meaning I’ve got longer vocal folds, and have a low extension that starts at Ab2 and goes down to around F#/F2 but my upper range sounds only slightly darker/heavier then a lyric tenor, I have friends that have virtually the same chest range as me but just cannot get any higher then the G no matter how hard they try and I can easily carry up to C depending on the vowel
@@Viper-dz2kw That's interesting, your voice is very rare and you should really try to develop it, many teachers will classify you in the barytone fach, but you must definitely be a contraltino
the fact is, and that is always forgotten in the "fach"-thinking, we all have different vocal folds... as different as our lips, heads or hands... so every voice is unique.
Largo al Factotum! Amazing, i recently joined my church choir, and i am very inspired by your performance!
But historically "baritenor" was an intermediate _fach_ between a bariton and a _contraltino_ or _tenore di grazia_ (what today we call a _leggero_ tenor). García and Nozzari where quite famous baritenors in Rossini's time. They had a strong low octave and still an agile enough high octave: in fact, the Count Almaviva, one of the epitome roles of coloratura singing for a tenor voice, was debuted by García.
The especial thing with Spyres is that he is, at the same time, a bariton (I dare say a _basso cantante,_ in fact) and a _leggero_ tenor (and, of course, all the intermediate fachs between these two).
I'd say Spyres' voice has more to do with the idea of _sfogato._
I think Michael is just a tenore di grazia, tbh. It is pretty well-accepted that a leggiero tenors are commonly miscategorized as baritones due to seemingly low ranges with a lot of chest resonance.
I, too, started out in baritone repertoire because 1.) my larynx position was out of whack and 2.) my teacher genuinely thought I may have just been a lyric baritone because of my decent lows and mellow tone-of-voice below middle c.
Granted, there definitely IS something to be said for the fact that he not only has facility down to a bass low c, but can also match the general quality of a baritone voice and sing in a sustainable manner.
At the end of the day, the fach system is just there to help guide people in a direction that MIGHT fit their voice (at least, that was its original purpose). If someone can sing multiple types of repertoire, then they can, in theory, serve as multiple difference voice types.
I totally agree with you. And Garcia sang at the same time Almaviva and Don Giovanni. He certainly had a good baryton voice and a very developed falsetto with a perfect "ponticello" to unify the different registers. In the opera "Zampa", by HEROLD, the "tenor" role covers 2 octaves and a fifth (from low G up to high D), which is in fact a typical barytenor part. What's different, in M. Spyres art, is that he uses the modern singing technique (high notes in full voice).
@@bharp4390 i think u missed the part where he worked HARD and PUSHED himself to sing tenor so if he is a tenor he must be a borderline low tenor.
Hi Michael. Your performance of Largo al Factotum is the best I've ever seen. I am a tenor and can delve into the higher baritone range e.g. I can sing C.P.E. Bach's Fecit Potentiam. What is your advice for developing ability to sing in the low baritone range?
Thank Michael for this video but :) it's seem that you're answer is more about " why " you're develloping ( a challenge) and not "how " to devellop it ...i sing in a professional opera chorus like a basse /baryton (12 years) and now tenor 2 (since 8 years) i have always some probleme around A FLAT/A/ Cflat (the color is "piu leggera" and not every time stable ) ..after curiosly it 's easier ... Do you have a kind idea about this "problem" ? thank you very much for your work ! Sorry i'm french , i could write in italian may be ?
Michael, if you read this, please contact me. I‘m one of these (not so rare) examples of a Bari-something and seek your advice. Everything you said is so true, and I‘m where you were some years ago, I think. Professional (mainly concert) Baritone / ancient music bass, and I know I need to go higher. Would appreciate it sooo much! Best wishes from Berlin, Germany! P. S. Your „Si può“ is absolutely amazing 😁
Please do more videos like these
I heard you doing a recital in Cologne in 2019 and it was MIND BLOWING! Bravo!
As a teenager, ive always been able to sing about up to a high A, but also a low G with a good warmup. My speaking voice is naturally lower, but once this guy said that most tenors bottom out at my comfortable low note, it helped me confirm that i am most likely a tenor, if not this bari-tenor range that hes speaking about. Who knows, maybe next week ill be a countertenor lol.
When you mentioned "a high A" you meant A4?..
@@greenwoods798 i dont know many make singers that can sing an A5, so yes
Michael, greetings from an old passionate opera-lover......love to listen to Your voice.❤
What a down to earth person. Rare in my years of listening to "performers" of any genre speak of themselves. What follows will sound like a "brag". It is not. It is an astonishment in keeping with Spyres "encouragement". I'm 73. Have never performed. The word "performance" to me suggest a "lie" and though my life has been immeasurably enriched by those who perform, it is anathema to me. My first voice lesson was when I was 28, living in England, and I was supposed to be meeting a woman for a "date". Turns out woman was in her late 70's and had been a bit of a rage in the 20's in London performing commonly with Heddle Nash, then a tenor of account in England. We chatted for about 2 hours when she sprung on me that I was in her company for my first voice lesson. I said, "OH no I'm not". After a bit of a wrangle she pulled out the final clncher, "Can't you make an old lady happy?" so, to the piano we went and she played "Oklahoma" and I tried to sing it and failed miserably which, given my personality, was not acceptable so told her I'd be back the next week. In the interim she'd dedided I was "actually a tenor". That week when much better and was such fun that I continued with her...the only prior singing I'd done was at after game rugby parties. (not at all the same canon ) I continued over the years where ever I lived and if I had the money and could find a teacher. More years without coaching than with, but all coaches knew me as a tenor though the type of tenor and the songs given me to work on were quite different....Only in the last 7 years, more "off" then on do to finances and Covid, have I heard the term "baritenor". I warm up on average day to Eb above high C and "down" to the last note on the piano."A".....I currently work on Baroque pieces as I find I have the coloratura capacity, but practice on my own before I expose my teacher to my efforts the buffo baritone roles that probably are most in keeping with my personality ie lets not take all this too seriously. I've never heard me as I refuse to listen myself recorded. I'm not obsessive as Spyres speaks of himself, but have listened to so many quality recordings of "real" singers that If was a complete disappointment to my own ear, I'd stop singing and I don't wish to as its so much fun. I note that I could quite possibly sound like a cat with its tail caught in a Cuisinart, but teachers have not said so. I counter with "but I'm paying them, why would they". There's a point to all this: take on what pleases your ear and work toward it. Find away to get it done. Your "throat" will tell you "no...never" or "no, not this way" and if you are young and you are judicious about it, you will have learned without doing yourself damage. I should note also that early teachers were instructing about "pushing into the mask". I found my "extra" octaves when discovering "open throat" singing much as a result of MIchael Trimble's video essays on TH-cam.
Lauritz Melchior,
possibly the greatest Heldentenor ever: his natural vocal inclination and nature was perhaps more inclined towards that needed to build a Dramatic Baritone or in nowadays standards perhaps even a Dramatic Bass-baritone; he had a vocal range in full voice C2 to C5, had a low F2 strong, easy, round, powerful, pinging like that of a real bass, had a high F#4 that sounded more like that of a basso drammatico than like that of a tenor; he had the dynamics of his voice akin to those of a real baritono drammatico and I'd more easily imagine him singing Scarpia or perhaps even Wotan more than any other role. He also used to show quite the strain when singing higher than G#4 and was completely unable to sustain the tessitura of an italian tenore lirico or lirico-spinto, he used to strain and fail a lot even while attempting some lower italian tenore drammatico arias, yet he sang AS HELDENTENOR and is remembered among the greatest tenors ever. Nowadays would sing as either a bass or perhaps a baritone.
Ettore Bastianini,
possibly one of the greatest Verdian Baritones ever (a Baritone for Verdi is usually a HIGH Baritono Lirico-spinto voice who has many pages that are written EXTREMELY HIGH in tessitura, sometimes almost tenorish in tessitura and not too different from certain Mozart tenor and Wagnerian Heldentenor pages actually): his natural vocal inclination and nature was perhaps more inclined towards that needed to build some form of operatic basso with a dark timbre (either Dramatic, Profondo or even a higher Cantabile in certain Verdian roles); he had a voice that would bottom around a G1, would talk around C2 to A2, had an immense resonance on lower notes and could EASILY fake way better than a lot of modern basses the timbre of a real basso profondo, yet he wanted to sing baritone and was able to do so, so he became one of the greatest Baritones ever while his early career as a Bass went almost un-noticed.
Mattia Battistini:
his voice completely bottomed at a low A2 like you'd imagine a tenore contraltino, he didn't have a huge voice nor a very dark one. Yet he sang WONDERFULLY as a baritone (in quite higher baritone roles) and he was deemed by contemporaries either the greatest or among the greatest baritones ever and in absolute one of the greatest singers ever.
Perhaps we should stop giving too much power to definitions and tags and we should instead put more effort into studying the correct techniques and excercises to properly develop operistic voices and make them last as many decades as possible in good health.
In Napoli back then we casted away a dramatic baritone because he wanted to sing as tenore lirico and di grazia and we deemed him unable to and ridiculed him and called him a barking dog and a fool to wish to try that, most people told him he should sing as a baritone since he would NEVER become a tenor...
He went by the name of Enrico Caruso, someone might have heard of this guy...
Where is that Melchior F2?
@@edraith Bastianini is not a bass though.
OMG! I wish I could come take a lesson or two with you, as my voice issues are IDENTICAL, but I have yet to solve them. I have a bizarrely wide range, and am still lost. I feel like I have the POTENTIAL to get my entire voice open, but don’t know how to do it on my own
Been a fan for a while. You would remind me of a Gregory Kunde when I first heard your voice.
The male voice is weird and spectacular. It’s a voice that God says it’s not by might not by power, but by His spirit.
Male voices I believe sometimes can change late 20s-30’s. No clue what’s the phenomenon. Not sure if it’s figuring out ones health, voice change, technique marinating and growing, body change, wisdom, understanding the individual voice versus categorize….I would say I had a slight similarity but figuring it out.😅
I don’t know if this would ever come up, but you would probably like talking to Seokjung Baek. Phenomenal singer that also had a voice change late 20s to 30s. He was a very impressive baritone but his tenor change moved my singer soul. And super nice and humble.
I feel U are are equivalent of a lyric dramatic or spinto colorstura soprano .many many big coloratura sops has a very wide range(with wide chest register
i can relate to you , i am a baritone but can sing in the tenor range, but it me years to develop it
I enjoyed your video very much--it was inspiring and encouraging. As engaging as it was however, I didn't come away knowing HOW you developed your tenor range, or any ways for me to work on expanding my vocal range.
As you had initially, I have less than two octaves in the baritenor range. I sing 2nd tenor in a choir and strain to reach the high notes in the Halleluia Chorus. Unlike you I don't have a falsetto but sure wish I did, and I would so love to add a few more tones to my upper range so I could sing the Nadir part in Bizet's Au Fond du Temple Saint duet. From viewing your videos I deduce that I'm a natural tenor.
What training did you actually do that increased your tenor range? What can I do to increase mine? How can I recover my falsetto, lost in my twenties? I believe I can do it, but how?
My voice is low set but I'm actually a lyric tenor. I don't consider my low extension as part of my register as it doesn't carry as well as anything after c3, but miked I do Sinatra.
Really enjoyed this
lol, so true I thought I was a baritone but couldnt go far A2 with volume... then started training high notes and easily started hitting C5
Very very encouraging video. It deserves a million views at least.
Great content. Thank you!
What about Tenorbariton as a term? I have seen some Wagnarian scores calling Siegmund that. Was that more ubiquitous? Are you using Baritenor more because it is already a term in musical theater, or was that the term you actual found historically?
It is definitely a drag not to be able to bounce back and forth like mezzos are allowed to do. I would love to still sing Figaro and Giovanni even after the "official switch" to tenor.
Good on you. Cheers, man.
who was the dramatic soprano? Liza canal?
Gracias ver a Sherill Milness y a otros más baritonos mierda me cambio contigo! Gran maestro para mí!
Leggero tenors actually have low notes with baritonal color, and at the same time more bright high notes beside other tenor's. It's normally. Exactly for which reason very difficult achieve a smooth voice registers for this voice type.
Thank you Michael! Very nice video.
Ho visto il video e ho pianto...combatto ogni giorno e spero di vedere i miei sforzi ripagati un giorno. Ho lo stesso identico problema. Questo video un ispirazione, come te come cantante, complimenti
What if you can't sing lower than an A and can't sing higher than a G above middle C? I think you and I have extremely similar voices. I don't have the lower octave though.
Impressive. As a baritenor too, it's fun to be able to sing in both choir sections, but due to lacking technique I find the tenor lines steadily more taxing.
Thank you!!
From a mechanical standpoint, I don't think that everyone can really gain an entire octave in the lower/higher register by just plain training. The different parts of the register are eliciting different muscles in varying percentages, and some of the structural muscle properties have their own limits. You can stretch your vocal chords and gain half an octave by training, but it's very difficult to modify your vocal tract in order to make the same gain in the lowest part of your voice (intuitively it's easier to reach high pitched screams but it is basically impossible to go lower than fry register).
I suppose that the higher part of his register was just underdeveloped because he was focusing on his most natural octave, which is really close to his "parlato" (daily speaking voice). And I think that the same principle may apply to a low % of baritones which can be considered as hidden tenors. The worst part is: you need to study for both roles, while some of the mechanical concepts can't work for both type of voices. This is a time consuming process and there's a very high chance that you won't able to shine in one of the roles, thus killing your career.
What kind of singing work did you do while still developing your tenor voice?
Now i feel better after being typified as a baritone, and i have been working as a tenor
Trying to do this also, on my own, tired of that choral high baritone, which is neither for solo or real thick bass notes, very interesting. I sing now with the tenors in the choir. There are problems with singing Bach and also with contemporary classical extremely quiet works.(Plainscapes) For the latter, the situation is problematic because the "real tenors" sing so quiet that I go into falsetto and even then it's too loud and bright. So I push to make it right and then my vocal folds get irritated. I don't know why but in many choirs, the tenors sing so modest and timid , one hardly hears them. I think such choirs are not good for a developing baritenor.
Hi, Michael. Do you teach?. How do I contact you about that?
Same!
He is one of the biggest operatic stars nowadays. Maybe he gives a masterclass every now and then (I don't know) but, in any case, he has no time for teaching.
Hi, Micheal. I’m interested about that. How do I contact you?
Even if i fail id be willing to give it a try i know id still learn a lot
Hi Michael, I listened to your Opera singing; it was wonderful. Do you teach singing online?
6:12 The R&B singer "Gallant" is also like you in the pop-sphere.
Listen to his speaking voice: th-cam.com/video/pXkstK_KwJE/w-d-xo.html
Singing: th-cam.com/video/Pfm_OjfOv4o/w-d-xo.html
My teacher, Edward Dwyer (one of the great vocal researchers and pedagogues and a tenor), used to laughingly say that NO ONE is really a tenor. If you can develop those high notes, YOU'RE A TENOR! : )
What does Fox System mean?
It's "fach system". Should make it easier to Google!
@@batmonkey Thank you!
A tenor going down to B1, that's really impressive! 😁
7:17 "we all live" em in no yellow submarine 🙂If we did - some Kursk - the spectrum would be 4, not three, according to my experience. Today, my guess is that the question "why are there no black keys there and there" may be answered: to remind your teacher not to hit the "wrong note" if that's beyond your means, and this separates "the men from the women". Emoticon: Exit from main street (thank you for letting me blunder, swear I'm no butcher, just bakn.
I’m no opera singer but I can say with great confidence I will be nothing other than a high tenor
Going through this after years of being categorized as a bass because of an undiagnosed injury, now treated.
Can you developp ? Thank you !
Preach brother. I suffered with this fach system for years and in college no one could put me in a box. I was a baritone, no I was a tenor. You had to choose! Finally, once in Europe I became a tenor with serious low notes. I'm only sorry I missed about 10 years of my professional life because no one believed I knew what I could do. But I had a good run anyway. From Almaviva to Manrico! Love listening to you.
Where are the exercises?
Didn't begin to answer the question of "how." What methods , technique and training were used? And way too much opining about how he doesn't like the fach categorizations.
I m so happy I feel so much the same. Would you mind doing a more technical video on how to find tenor range? I've heard you in salle Gaveau and this is impressive how you perfectly understand baritone and tenor voice production.
When I heavily drink, the next day I am baritone, bass...
When exploring tenor range, go slowly, so as not to explode the voice. An instrument can be practiced for hours and hours, but the voice cannot.
hi, how are you?
💜
No actual information here. Why?
So how does one do this?
Going through the same thing from a mezzo to soprano:-(
Very physically strong 💪
I got nothing. I'm a baritone attempting to be a tenor and Micheal just suggests that is fine, other than the fact I am 70 and there is no getting past the 4 octaves. I was pretty much born with
Michael has the best of both worlds in that he’s excellent as a tenor but has the stronger baritone speaking voice. I have a good tenor singing voice but my speaking voice is, to put it mildly, not very impressive. If you are old like me think of the tv show “Get Smart “
I think you know this saying that the male voice has three registers. You have the Bass register, the Baritone register.... then there is the CASH REGISTER (Tenor)!!! James King also started out as a Baritone.
there are bass singers struggling for C2 tho. Why spent all those years trying to sing tenor? when you could easily sing baritone or even some bass?
if you struggle with C2 you aint a bass, you barely qualify for baritone
@@Celatra did i say something about me?I am a composer...! just to let you know:(Wikipedia) The low extreme for basses is generally C2 (two Cs below middle C). Some extreme bass singers, referred to as basso profondos and oktavists, are able to reach much lower than this.
@@alexandrosmusic C2 is more of a baritone note. A1 is more bass territory. F1 and lower is profundo ( if the timbre and volume is there)
@Celatra read my comment again and some music theory books and hopefully you will understand better
@@alexandrosmusic i'm plenty enough well versed in music theory as i have been a music college student for 3 years.
That makes sense to me now. Waking up in the morning especially, I’ll get from a C2 to E2, usually. It’s taken me years to be able to sing high but I can sing a C5 now in chest, F5 in Head dominant and C6 I’m whistle. It took me years to be able to do even this.
Though, my natural speaking voice is slightly higher than yours.
Operatically I also only have an octave and a half at best as well.
Holding up all that weight for me up there is quite difficult for long periods of time.
Lol I struggle with an F2. And I could always do whistles in the 7th octave since I was a kid. At the moment I’m struggling on the A4 chest. I think I’m just an undeveloped tenor(based on the colour of my voice too) as I have a light voice akin to leggiero tenors
This is my experience but with 1 note higher in every register. I sometimes wonder if the assumptions around fach have more to do with how we habitually use our voice. I snapped out of the classical delusion when I met a pair of female twins who sang together. One sang in a very high Soprano and the other (who was more of a tomboy) sang in a very earthy Alto. My teacher wanted to blame the stark difference on training but I knew that if the classical assumptions were correct, there'd be no way genetic twins could sound so different.
I personally believe that range is probably 30% genetic and 70% habitual. I think a fully developed voice will span 3-4 octaves and renders the fach system only relevant to how you train your voice. Yes there is a genetic component and naturally high or low voices will have a slight advantage, but like I said it will impact training more than anything.
@@Sloppyjoey1 I’d have to disagree I would say that you’re pretty born with your voice. Twins won’t have identical voices. I’d say 95 percent genetic. And most people won’t get 3-4 octaves. Especially guys because classically they can only use modal voice(unless countertenor).
@@karlschuler This is a drawn out topic that I could better demonstrate by singing rather than explaining, but I will try.
What we're getting at is, the classical model essentially forbids specific uses of the voice under unscientific assumptions that technique should be identical for people who "sound the same".
I say "unscientific" because, a lot of speech and vocal pattern is habitual & relative. Furthermore, tone can be massively adjusted. This means that if you aren't married to the Fach system, you'll realize that there's world of tones and formants you sing with that are arguable as effective.
I think telling singers you're "born that way" isn't just defeatist, but actually unscientific. The classical model is oversimplified and rigid, it does not account for anatomy, habit, stature, speech etc.
@@Sloppyjoey1 I get what you’re saying. I’m just saying what you’re saying is a stretch. At most people can get a couple extra few notes in most cases
That C2 was with vocal fry, that doesn’t count.
I love how the comments are full of people talking about exactly what “fach” you are. It certainly is interesting to try to categorize and understand things.
Also, I’ve never related to such a successful singer as much as I did watching this video. My teachers did always seem to know I was a tenor, but always had a super strong, comfy low extension and would top out around a G or Ab before either switching or breaking to falsetto/full head tone. After a period of 4 or 5 of the hardest years of my life, being obsessed with figuring it out, my voice has finally started making sense over the last couple years. Now I’m working on some lyric-full lyric repertoire; my voice can have lots of sound and power and “weight” of a more dramatic variety, but at the same time I can have that flexibility - my voice quite likes to move and can be able to let go of some of that “weight” to sing some of that baritenor rep that’s full and robust and low but also light and agile enough to survive in the passaggio and even WELL above a C5.
There’s the possibility of staying the full-lyric route, but this baritonal quality of my voice has also been noted to have the potential to sing either some of the great bel canto bari-tenor rep OR notes of Lohengrin..
Long story short, my voice has been a mess for so much of my life because it could do pieces of things from many “voice types,” but really struggled to just do all the pieces to one “voice type.” It’s one of the most fulfilling things to continue working now and see how far I’ve come and see just how many different paths lie before me; we’ll see what my voice decides it likes best and then we’ll continue to see what it likes best the next day and the next month and the next year, etc.
Thanks again so much for sharing a little bit of your journey. I had no idea that it shared so many similarities with my own, and it clearly means a ton to me! Much love and respect!
Can you give a bit more info on how you were able to figure out your voice? I'm exactly in the same place as you. What made sense and how did you get there?
The question was how did you develop your tenor range. You spoke 12 and a half minutes, and basically said you tried hard? That explains nothing.
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Ohhh
He is a super Singer but here he is very very irritating and there is zero use. I had to go a similar way with hundreds of ups. Human singing apparature is lying deepest in man’s throat. Corelli said “behind” and added sometimes more behind sometimes les behind but always behind. I recommend to Beginn exercising with an I as in deep. This I very deep sitting in the throat and after try it with a, e, o, o and so an. All These Vocals 12:37 on the same place as I , Try, don’t press but the I deep deep in your throat. Good luck!!!!
Big Voices can sing a lot of things. That's all there is to it.
Rubbish
I am a bit confused... I always thought that tenors singing the wrong repertoire ruined their voices far too soon and this is why different tenors sing different roles suited for their voice type. A Verdi tenor requires more power than for example a Rossini tenor with needs more coloratura...? . So not everyone can sing anything... I find this confusing.