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Why Did The Years Take My Voice??
- Thread starter Aberdumbie
- Start date
I’m certainly no expert; but did get to study formal (classical/operatic) voice for about 15 years. I was a tenor ( guess I still am) then and remember my teacher telling me my range would naturally lose a few steps starting around 50. This indeed began to happen a few years ago. Due to my health care profession I study sleep apnea quite a bit and am learning more about the loss of tone the pharyngeal muscles experience during aging (a reason many males all the sudden begin to snore and get apnea). What I used to attribute to sinus issues and lack of proper warm up I now believe is more attributed to this loss of musculature. My professional singing was always aimed at singing ‘above’ my vocal chords—not the ‘throaty’ demands of a rock/pop singer. I can imagine what a frustration it must be to meet those demands! As others have already mentioned proper physical care, rest, hydration and smart vocal care will help the most: when I have to perform now, it takes me about 2 months of prep to get my voice to about 85% of what it once was. Best of luck to you.
I got frustrated at practice the other night trying to sing. Then I thought “It’s A: rock and roll and B: I’m hanging out with my buddies still making music (one guy I’ve been jamming with for 30 years)....so it’s all good.
Find other songs to sing then. Change sucks but is inevitable. I'm coming off of a two year age funk with some health issues to boot. But i recently realized that playing was what i do, so good, bad, use to better, i decided i'll go down swinging. I'm a little morbid sometimes, but i figure, if i could choose death, cart me off the stage, or off my wife. It would make for a fun obituary.
Trying something more melodic a-la Hughes & Coverdale in Deep Purple? It may be a less dramatic approach to Fogerty
Dude - just transpose songs down into your new range. 
My voice has gone from Frank Sinatra to Willie Nelson.... Crazy! Gee ain't it funny how times slips away.
My voice has gone from Frank Sinatra to Willie Nelson.... Crazy! Gee ain't it funny how times slips away.
As others haven mentioned, the human voice gets lower with age.
I used to take classical vocal lessons for a bit more than 2 years and my teacher told me 1.) almost all singers lose some of their upper register when they get older, happens even to the most well trained ones. 2.) if you take a longer break from singing, you'll lose stamina, endurance, power, range, etc.
Listen to "older" singers like Rob Halford, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, David Coverdale, Geoff Tate, Paul Stanley, etc, they all lost parts of their higher register and don't sing the way they used to. Even guys like George Michael and Elton John lowered the keys as they got older.
I used to take classical vocal lessons for a bit more than 2 years and my teacher told me 1.) almost all singers lose some of their upper register when they get older, happens even to the most well trained ones. 2.) if you take a longer break from singing, you'll lose stamina, endurance, power, range, etc.
Listen to "older" singers like Rob Halford, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, David Coverdale, Geoff Tate, Paul Stanley, etc, they all lost parts of their higher register and don't sing the way they used to. Even guys like George Michael and Elton John lowered the keys as they got older.
Modern 440-442hz is a relentless pitch. It is a high pitch for most voices in terms of passaggio placement. The transition is Wonky.
Opera singers have spoken about how singers could maintain their opera careers a lot longer when pitch were down at 435Hz for A4 before the jump to 440Hz in Europe around 1940-1950.
Tuning your A4 to 431Hz (C4=256Hz) is kind of "old man pitch" as no early transition is needed but sounds a bit boring on youthfull pop music. 435Hz has a little lift and is a Good comprise.
Just find a Clip on Youtube where Andrea botelli sings in 432Hz live with guitar duo charizma. Obvious a very relaxed natural pitch. Former Opera
star Carlo bergonzi have talked about this. 432Hz is the "natural" tuning for A4 with our stretched 12-TET.
Thats why Verdi suggested this in italy in 1880s. Those -31.8 cents limit early transition and was demonstrated around 1990 by a Couple of the best opera singers in the business.
Why People never talk about pitch in relation to singing is beyond me. Can't people hear and feel on their voice that 440-442Hz is a high pitch.?
My 42 year leadsingers voice just works with 431Hz (-35 cents). 440Hz is too high for him and 415Hz (100 cents) start sounding a little "boring"..
Opera singers have spoken about how singers could maintain their opera careers a lot longer when pitch were down at 435Hz for A4 before the jump to 440Hz in Europe around 1940-1950.
Tuning your A4 to 431Hz (C4=256Hz) is kind of "old man pitch" as no early transition is needed but sounds a bit boring on youthfull pop music. 435Hz has a little lift and is a Good comprise.
Just find a Clip on Youtube where Andrea botelli sings in 432Hz live with guitar duo charizma. Obvious a very relaxed natural pitch. Former Opera
star Carlo bergonzi have talked about this. 432Hz is the "natural" tuning for A4 with our stretched 12-TET.
Thats why Verdi suggested this in italy in 1880s. Those -31.8 cents limit early transition and was demonstrated around 1990 by a Couple of the best opera singers in the business.
Why People never talk about pitch in relation to singing is beyond me. Can't people hear and feel on their voice that 440-442Hz is a high pitch.?
My 42 year leadsingers voice just works with 431Hz (-35 cents). 440Hz is too high for him and 415Hz (100 cents) start sounding a little "boring"..
I know a few singers that often sing flat. Maybe they're just singing in 435Hz??
Woke my wife laughing at this one..... And FYI, I found out the hard way that my wife reads TB!!!!That's just normal, age is doing it's thing and if you're not used to sing anymore, that's just it. I sometimes choke just looking in the mirror... and I just turn around and it is just my wife...
I wonder the same thing. Now, there is only silence where the high notes used to be. It kinda sucks.
Same story here my friend! I can do BGV just fine, but if I try to do one of the songs I used to do, even in a lower key, my voice just cuts off at some point. Really sucks! I know that my breath control is not what it was. But back then, I was gigging multiple times a week for years (around 15). Now, I only do around 20 in a year. My voice has shifted about an octave lower in full voice. Good and bad.
"The rise in vocal injuries is linked to a change in what we consider good singing. Across all genres, it has become normal to believe that louder is better. (One reason that Adele is such a big star is because her voice is so big.) As a result, singers are pushing their cords like never before, which leads to vocal breakdown."
"Paglin pulled from their sprawling research library a file containing a series of images. The first was a photograph, taken in 1920, of the legendary Italian tenor Enrico Caruso mid-aria. Caruso seems to be enjoying himself, even as the camera flashes; it’s as if he’s talking to a friend, not baying at the audience. 'This is natural singing,' Paglin said.
"As she flipped from image to image, we travelled towards the present, a decade at a time. The photographs of the more contemporary singers – including the tenor Rolando Villazón, who has suffered multiple vocal injuries – looked like horror-movie stills: their mouths were wide open, eyes bulging, neck veins popping, as if they were screaming. There was none of Caruso’s easy calm.
"In 1983, Brilla convinced Maria Carbone, a retired Italian operatic soprano, to work with them. Carbone was nearing 80, but still had a powerful voice. While Carbone sang, Brilla would clasp Carbone’s abdomen to feel what was happening inside her body. Carbone started with an aria from Tosca. As her voice rose, hitting higher and higher notes, Brilla’s eyes widened. “I could feel this tick, tick. Tick, tick,” she recalled. It was the natural up-down release of her diaphragm. “Nothing else was happening.” Carbone’s ribcage wasn’t ballooning out as she sang, and there were no deep gulps of air, as is common with today’s big-voiced singers. More amazing still, the movement of Carbone’s abdomen while singing was just as quiet and rhythmic as when she spoke. “It was a discovery of what the perfect singer’s posture should be,” Paglin said.
Brilla added: “Whereas all the teachers in my life had been telling me to open, open, open” – to exaggerate her breathing and lunge into every high note to produce the biggest sound – Carbone “was demonstrating the opposite”.
Link to the whole story: Why Do Stars Like Adele Keep Losing Their Voice?
"Paglin pulled from their sprawling research library a file containing a series of images. The first was a photograph, taken in 1920, of the legendary Italian tenor Enrico Caruso mid-aria. Caruso seems to be enjoying himself, even as the camera flashes; it’s as if he’s talking to a friend, not baying at the audience. 'This is natural singing,' Paglin said.
"As she flipped from image to image, we travelled towards the present, a decade at a time. The photographs of the more contemporary singers – including the tenor Rolando Villazón, who has suffered multiple vocal injuries – looked like horror-movie stills: their mouths were wide open, eyes bulging, neck veins popping, as if they were screaming. There was none of Caruso’s easy calm.
"In 1983, Brilla convinced Maria Carbone, a retired Italian operatic soprano, to work with them. Carbone was nearing 80, but still had a powerful voice. While Carbone sang, Brilla would clasp Carbone’s abdomen to feel what was happening inside her body. Carbone started with an aria from Tosca. As her voice rose, hitting higher and higher notes, Brilla’s eyes widened. “I could feel this tick, tick. Tick, tick,” she recalled. It was the natural up-down release of her diaphragm. “Nothing else was happening.” Carbone’s ribcage wasn’t ballooning out as she sang, and there were no deep gulps of air, as is common with today’s big-voiced singers. More amazing still, the movement of Carbone’s abdomen while singing was just as quiet and rhythmic as when she spoke. “It was a discovery of what the perfect singer’s posture should be,” Paglin said.
Brilla added: “Whereas all the teachers in my life had been telling me to open, open, open” – to exaggerate her breathing and lunge into every high note to produce the biggest sound – Carbone “was demonstrating the opposite”.
Link to the whole story: Why Do Stars Like Adele Keep Losing Their Voice?
Its like a muscle...you gotta work into it ..slowly...or its gonna hurt...lol
I never considered myself to be a great vocalist, but did a fair amount of lead vocals "back in the day". I never had any vocal stamina, and I have suffered with sinus and allergy problems most of my life. I did sing in the choir in high school and also sang for many years in my church choir, even doing song-leader duty on occasion. My vocal activity has been very limited in the past several years, and age (63 y/o) and time have been unkind to my pipes ! My current vocal duties in my band consist of backing vocals and lead vocals on a Glenn Frey song, which we play rarely. Whatever "gift" I may have had is steadily slipping away, but it is what it is. Vocal ability is subject to age, health, and lifestyle. I neither smoke or drink, so I cannot blame those factors. I think of some of the high harmonies I used to do and remember them fondly, but they are gone forever. Good advice has been given here - ease yourself back into it slowly, and you may find a voice inside that you never knew existed. It may be different from the one that you remember, but usable just the same. Good luck ! Remember - it is better to be a "has-been" than to be a "never-was" !
True dat!
Because there will come a day when you really will lose it. Every moment of every day is a gift. And even though it sounds trite saying it, that doesn’t make it any less true.
I have it on good authority we have to turn everything back in when we leave here anyway. That’s one more reason I try to make good use of whatever I’ve got - while I’ve still got any of it left at all.
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Not singing enough while sitting down, probably hunched a bit in your seat. That eliminates where you get most of your power from , the diaphragm. Singing with only your throat will make anyone cough. Try singing it again with your back straight and shoulders rolled back while using your diaphragm. I think you’ll be a lot more happy with those results.
Start a blues band. Sounds like you'll be great.
Yes indeed. Once you start balding, gain weight, and your high register goes, your rock career is over.
But if you’re a bluesman, all that means is you will now be getting an extra $50 per night.
Gotta go with the flow…
I was born by the river
Oh and just like the river I've been running ev'r since
It's been a long time, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will…
Sam Cooke had it nailed! Oh and just like the river I've been running ev'r since
It's been a long time, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will…
