full circle

Current Mood: debatable
Current Music: "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" by The Soggy Bottom Boys

To start off, I will admit that one of the things on my "list of things to do before I die" (LoTtdBID) is:

to participate in a research study of some kind

A bit of an odd choice, I know, but I kinda wanted to see what it was like. To be numbered, isolated from the other lab mice and get paid to do something that for the most part has nothing to do with me. It's always been humorous or glamorous in movies and cartoons- perhaps evaluating a new product or even giving your opinion of a new food. Plus, it's almost always easy money- I'm a broke college student with free time. It's right! It fits!

Finally, after last week, I can cross that one off my list. Ashleigh, one of the other Hillenbrand OAs is a graduate reasearch student in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences department here at Purdue and asked for some volunteers.

The study is focusing on testing the effects of humidity on human voice. Over a period of two weeks there are four 2 hour sessions. I was paid a handsome sum of $80.00!

The first session was mostly paperwork and tests. After several unsucessful attempts by the students administering the test, I finally overcame the gag reflex and performed an endoscopy on my own throat (quite an odd feeling). Next was a bit of spirometry measuring my total lung capacity, which is something I remember doing a few years ago prior to some surgery. Ever the competitive one, I learned I can voluntarily expell 96% of my internal lung capacity, when the average is only 80%. Lastly, they did some baseline measurement of my rest breathing with bands around my abdomen and ribcage. I was told that I had a much higher incidence of ribcage breathing (atypical), which I atributed to the feeling I sometimes remember of being stuck in my back brace, which always too tight for me to take a full deep breath in. I restorted to breathing more in my ribs to take in more air without meeting the oppressive resistance of the back brace. I still do it to this day.

The other three days are a series of vocal exercises at high, medium, and low humidities. First was a warm up session, in which I was led through some vocal exercises to "train" my voice to the best data gathering range and sound as possible. Following were periods of 5, 15, and 25 minutes of rest breathing, first nasal and then oral. After each period of rest, I was cued to make the "p" sound at my comfortable speaking pitch, my lowest, and then highest comfortable notes. Breathing, pressure, tone, frequency, pitch, and volume were all measured. The hardest part was making the best "p" for the sensors to record- faster, slower, higher, lower, more "PUH", less "pee", things like that.

My favorite part of the study was the vocal range. I was told to match piano notes as high and as low as I could. The conductors of the study seemed notably impressed with my vocal range*. The lead faculty member was surprised to learn that I had not had professional voice training! Again, in a moment of competitive curiosity I asked what my range was. The average human (boy or girl), I was told had a range of 25-30 semitones, or individual notes on a keyboard. Twelve semitones comprise a complete octave. From my lowest clear note to the highest falsetto note was right around 50 semitones. That's four full octaves, from D2 to D6 (73 to 1174 Hz)! I was reaching pitches the women in the room had trouble clearly sounding.

I've long since learned to stop being embarassed at having a higher pitched voice. I was told that this range means I am a tenor. Some famous tenors include:

David Bowie
Phil Collins (Genesis)
Roger Daltrey (The Who)
Ronnie James Dio (Black Sabbath, Dio)
Peter Gabriel (Genesis)
Ian Gillan (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath)
David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)
Sammy Hagar (Van Halen)
Michael Jackson
Brian Johnson
Paul McCartney
Don McLean
Steve Perry (Journey)
Robert Plant (fuckin' Led fuckin' Zeppelin)
Tommy Shaw (Styx)
The Three (Tenors)
Pete Townshend (The Who)
Steven Tyler (Aerosmith)
Weird Al
Neil Young

and of course, my musical idol

Freddie Mercury

Tenors are the highest male singing voice, and in opera and classical pieces typically portray the sympathetic hero, such as Jesus (Jesus Christ Superstar), Fiyero (Wicked), Tony (West Side Story), and Seymour Krelborn (Little Shop of Horrors). Of course, other tenors I'm not so impressed by include Clay Aiken, Antonio Banderas, Bono, Kenny Chesney, lead singer of Coldplay Chris Martin, that no-talent ass clown Michael Bolton.

I'm all about this site, a detailed study of Freddie's voice, including the range and characteristics, such as his overbite. Two of his highest and most famous notes:

E4, in the Flash Gordon theme
and
Eb4, in Somebody to Love

are regular practice for me, and well within my range (and something I show off from time to time, haha). I have no problem with Journey, Styx, all manner of Queen, and other higher pitched classic rock artists.

In short, having the empirical data to quantify it, I am now much more confident in my singing ability. I feel that it has gone from a private hobby to a much more social talent. I practice singing (with my computer/jukebox) for at least an hour every day, usually while doing homework, playing games, or cleaning things. I enjoy singing! It's not girly! This brings me one step closer to my (secondary) dream of being a rock star. Perhaps I should hang out with Eric and Greg more...

And finally, with this discovery (of my range) and crossing an item off my list, I am now adding a new one:

take voice lessons




*A discussion of vocal range is needed to clarify a few points. First, having a large vocal range does not mean one can sing well or sound good. Also, this was not a professional voice measurement, and the last few high notes did not have outstanding vocal quality, though I was able to produce them. Some people do not include falsetto in their vocal range, since it is of limited utility. I consider it crucial in my vocal endeavours, however, imitating my favorite artists, so I will keep it in.