Re: TRANSLATION: Grandfather and the dragon

On Sat, 17 Jul 1999, Sally Caves wrote:

> Most people,
> when relaxed, speak at about the lowest tone they can hit in singing.
Really? I tried it just now, and my relaxed speaking voice is
somewhere between B-below-middle-C to E or F above, coming to rest on
middle C.

My singing voice extends from F below middle C to high D (or E on a
good day), that is an octave and a bit above middle C. I sing
*comfortably* between A below middle C and G or A above (after which
I hit a bad register break on the B flat).

Reading to the children, my voice is slightly higher with a wider
range of intonation, probably close to my singing voice. I'll listen
to myself GMing a role-playing game next time ;-)

> I'm going to try teaching by keeping my voice low.  No higher than
> low E or F.  And see if this reduces my exhaustion after class.
> And maybe, they'll strain to listen to me!!!  ;-)  I took speech
> long years ago, and have forgotten its best principles.
A low voice *is* easier to understand; it carries better because it
has more long-wave formants (if you speak or sing in too high a pitch
the formants that colour the vowels are lost, because they lie below
the pitch of your voice; that's why it's so difficult to understand a
soprano).

I should think that speaking *as low as possible* would have the
opposite effect; I for one get tired *fast* using the very bottom of
my vocal range, whether speaking or singing.

   Irina

            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)