Quote from: kwala on September 03, 2015, 06:44:49 PM
Well, it just so happens that Yale is where I went to grad school and received my Masters in music performance. I just got off the phone with an old friend from my graduating class. She is a professional mezzo. She explained to me that the chart you are referring to is in fact a guide for choral parts and is meant to highlight the "comfort zone" for each voice type in a choral setting, not the upper and lower extremes of each voice type. It is a generic guide for composers and chorus leaders. For a more exhaustive explanation and list, I'd check out https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_type which takes a number of different sources into account.
If the upper limit for a tenor was a G4, that tenor would be unable to perform almost all of the most famous operatic tenor roles by Mozart, Donizetti, Puccini, Wagner, etc.
Almost forgot, I never said you were a baritone, as I've never heard your singing voice, I merely said it was possible depending on the quality of your voice. You most likely are a tenor, especially if a coach has told you so. I have a feeling that with training you would find that your upper most notes without breaking may expand a bit.
I didn't go to music school. So, good for you that you did. I just went to that music school I mentioned, to see if I took up singing classes to sing in rock bands, before even realizing I was trans, and when they told me I was a tenor I got so upset that I left and never went back. All I have is two months of drums rudiments in a music school and the experience of playing in a couple of rock bands as a drummer before HRT. So I'm no music expert by any means and I'm not claiming to be one.
I also made a big mistake calling myself a tenor because I am no longer a male physically and I never was one mentally. So I guess I am a transgender woman with a huge voice disability, that's all. I would never ever sing tenor parts (or any other composition designed for a male tessitura ) anywhere even if I could, I'd rather die. So I will never be a professional opera singer or anything even remotely similar I guess. And I don't even like opera, so it's okay.
Back to the issue, I KNOW my voice naturally breaks on G4 and its upper singing limit in head voice is G5. So if I ever get VFS, I will make sure I will check if these limits NATURALLY expand, without the use of vocal training. Just by the surgery itself. But of course what I'd like to see is doctors performing VFS giving a more clear perspective of what to realistically expect about range increase. G4 and G5 are very specific parameters for a break and top note, regardless of whatever you may call it. For me to expect a surgery to be successful in feminizing my handicapped voice, B4 and B5 would be my minimum expectations if they were to shorten my vocal cords and I would also expect to have a usable whistle register like any woman does, for shrieking emotionally like a scared girl. Any woman no matter if she's even a contralto, can easily shriek notes in the 6th octave when they get really upset, excited or scared. I've seen a couple do that in a tennis match (Azarenka vs. Wozniaki lol) I recorded those loud shrieks and I remember that the first reached something like a C#7 I think and the latter was "much lower" in pitch, I think she "only" reached something around an A6, not too shabby either. That's natural stuff, their throats were designed to easily make utterances as such. None of those two is even remotely a singer AFAIK. Just two girls in their early twenties showing emotion, that's all.
Here you go. I really doubt VFS can help one accomplish something like this. Please check 0:35 and 1:26. Can the highest tenor ever do this NATURALLY? I don't think so!
