Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Miscellaneous topics on Carnatic music
arunk
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Post by arunk »

cml - i could be mistaken but that high point is ati-tara madyamam. He is able to reach tara-nishadam (N2) comfortably. I presume ati-tara shadjam should be a piece of cake for him. But going up another fourth - to that madyamam ...

Arun

Sangeet Rasik
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Post by Sangeet Rasik »

cmlover wrote:ramakriya
You read my mind. That is precisely where I have heard BMK peaking. KJY was asked to sing the same in a concert and he found it impossible! The crescendo that BMK reached on'tAraka nAmA..' was unforgettable. And that was over 30 years ago!
KJY has a performance of the ST kriti "sArasamukha" in Madhyamavati wherein he not only crescendos at the atitAra shadja but also performs detailed swaraprastara in the atitAra range. It is truly remarkable, because it is very hard to fake it. One way to catch falsetto is when one descends from the atitAra into the tAra octave in a continuous manner when singing a composition or kalpanaswaras - one can tell the "discontinuity" in voice quality and timbre as well as in overtone production. In the performance in question there is a smooth transition, no hint of falsetto. BMK is also adept at this, no doubt, though he sounds a little more "harsh" than KJY in the upper octaves.

At his peak KJY was by far the finest voice culture we have ever seen among well-known professionals in CM. If one listens to his recording of Gayatri Mantra (one RangasamI Parthasarthi had set it to music in different ragas) one gets an idea of the level of control over voice that he had developed. Too bad it has been squandered in later years.

SR

Sangeet Rasik
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Post by Sangeet Rasik »

cmlover wrote:The ati tara shadjam is a shriek and certainly an artefact. You can produce it if you prick yourself with a needle as I do everyday :) Let us not include non-musical excursions as 'voice range' :)
Entirely agree (assuming you are referring to the TV Gopalakrishnan sample). The atitarashadja is certainly a falsetto tone. You can clearly make out the transition at 4:44 or so when he comes down to tara P and M, compare to the "genuine" tara M and P he produces earlier at 4:19.

SR

ravi2006
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Post by ravi2006 »

There is a commercially available CD of Sri Manakkal Rangarajan (from Srishti's Carnatica) where he reaches atitara sthayi shadja and mandra shadja in an alapana of Kharaharapriya. It does not sound strained at either extreme, nor do the upper excursions sound like falsetto.

cooldudesaksham
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Post by cooldudesaksham »

Entirely agree (assuming you are referring to the TV Gopalakrishnan sample). The atitarashadja is certainly a falsetto tone. You can clearly make out the transition at 4:44 or so when he comes down to tara P and M, compare to the "genuine" tara M and P he produces earlier at 4:19.

Those high notes are certainly a head voice! Actually I havnt heard any carnatic vocalist hitting ati-taar Sa and going beyond in his/her chest voice. All of them use head voice. I have a (unreleased) hindi movie song of Yesudas where he has hit a mandra Sa and an ati-taar Sa, although even taar Pa was in a head voice!
Such range is only to be found up north. Parveen Sultana EASILY hits an ATI-TAAR MA in natural voice, Pt. Jasraj used to go upto ati-taar Re even at 76! BGAK used to do an ati-taar Sa routinely. Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd. Rafi were capable of it. Ajoy Chakraborty does venture into the ati-taar zone quite often, though his lower range is unparalleled. I havn't heard any one else going down to anu-mandra Pa!

srikant1987
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Post by srikant1987 »

I have a slightly different question, but I guess it's relevant here. I notice that when I hum, I find that I can hum lower pitches more easily with mmm kaarams and higher pitches more easily with aaaakaarams. Is it always like this?

SrinathK
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by SrinathK »

An old thread ... this video would answer the differences between all the voices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh2H4wubJIY&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Uc5GmNTUo&t=2s

The thing about HM musicians is that they've mastered the ability to sing in head voice and chest voice and bridge the 2. And if you do it seamlessly, you can make it sound on the tape like it's one continuous register

And if you look closely in this video of T R Mahalingam - you can tell he's using head voice for the highest notes (in western pitch, the highest note in the Simhendramadhyamam is a C#5 !) and chest voice for the gowla and hindolam part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2klpOa4SlU (He's singing in F#, so this is clearly a CM tenor voice)

@thenpannan, any thoughts? I think this is also SG Kitappa and Musiri's secret.

The thing about Musiri IIRC some recordings I heard on old Worldspace, is that in his old age, his head voice weakened and gave way to a falsetto. His particular tone can also happen to singers whose voices don't break all the way -- in which case to distinguish between chest and head is much more difficult. But as I haven't heard too much of Musiri, I think I should listen more before coming to such conclusions.

My take is that if you can't generate that power with that bell like tone, your voice could start sounding effeminate (which is what some musicians with a wide range sound. In one way even Pavarotti (who went up to an F5), sounded like a lady at that note). The interesting thing is that Pavarotti hitting the upper C5 with a tone suitable for opera sounds totally different from TRM hitting it with a tone suitable for CM.

Similar threads :-viewtopic.php?t=5183&start=25
viewtopic.php?t=29535
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26663
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24966&p=277700&hili ... ge#p277700

The current timbre of CM voices of this generation can be best described as :-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFJqzoWPEGM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMXoRVLpEZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES1BvE0ovBg

This is a kind of modern timbre (a soft baritone) that is found in all the (male) voices of our generation and some singers also use it to bring a certain rockstar fighting feel to the singing. It also results in a rather thin head voice.

thenpaanan
Posts: 635
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 19:45

Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by thenpaanan »

SrinathK wrote: 23 Sep 2017, 12:08 An old thread ... this video would answer the differences between all the voices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh2H4wubJIY&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Uc5GmNTUo&t=2s

The thing about HM musicians is that they've mastered the ability to sing in head voice and chest voice and bridge the 2. And if you do it seamlessly, you can make it sound on the tape like it's one continuous register

And if you look closely in this video of T R Mahalingam - you can tell he's using head voice for the highest notes (in western pitch, the highest note in the Simhendramadhyamam is a C#5 !) and chest voice for the gowla and hindolam part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2klpOa4SlU (He's singing in F#, so this is clearly a CM tenor voice)

@thenpannan, any thoughts? I think this is also SG Kitappa and Musiri's secret.

The thing about Musiri IIRC some recordings I heard on old Worldspace, is that in his old age, his head voice weakened and gave way to a falsetto. His particular tone can also happen to singers whose voices don't break all the way -- in which case to distinguish between chest and head is much more difficult. But as I haven't heard too much of Musiri, I think I should listen more before coming to such conclusions.

My take is that if you can't generate that power with that bell like tone, your voice could start sounding effeminate (which is what some musicians with a wide range sound. In one way even Pavarotti (who went up to an F5), sounded like a lady at that note). The interesting thing is that Pavarotti hitting the upper C5 with a tone suitable for opera sounds totally different from TRM hitting it with a tone suitable for CM.

Similar threads :-viewtopic.php?t=5183&start=25
viewtopic.php?t=29535
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26663
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24966&p=277700&hili ... ge#p277700

The current timbre of CM voices of this generation can be best described as :-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFJqzoWPEGM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMXoRVLpEZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES1BvE0ovBg

This is a kind of modern timbre (a soft baritone) that is found in all the (male) voices of our generation and some singers also use it to bring a certain rockstar fighting feel to the singing. It also results in a rather thin head voice.
A very nice summary with lots of examples. Wonderful.

With respect to TRM, he and others of his generation were head voice specialists and sometimes you got the feeling that they specialized so much that they were even uncomfortable in the chest voice register. To wit, when you listen to old EPs and LPs of their singing you see that they consistently stay up in the high register. I remember an old recording of nagumOmu in AbhEri of an older generation male singer (could have been Musiri himself) where the singer was singing at 4 kattai (F) and yet was hovering nearly forever in the upper register. Even in the beginning of the charaNam, where the song is in the middle register the singer sang it just once and then quickly climbed up the scale, meaning they did not want to take even a brief respite. The neraval at jagamElE again was entirely in the tAra sthAyi. This pattern can be seen in many recordings. I don't know why this was so -- whether it was the prevailing fashion to sing high or they felt they had to sing that way to be heard during those mic-less days I cannot tell. But listening to the voice you can tell that they seemed to prefer the head voice because of its resonance (you can hear a ringing in those notes that is a result of head resonance) that they perhaps did not know to produce in lower notes. But TRM of course was an exceptionally gifted singer and could bridge his register breaks very comfortably. It was a necessity of their trade in those days because it was so much head voice. One example of this is this evergreen hit by Madurai Somu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7D7qcMX3x0. His head voice/chest voice mix was such it still makes my hair stand. But listen at 1:20. You wonder how an otherwise extraordinarily sung song could have this note. What happened? That generation I believe had trouble with the chest voice. Another example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7twnTx0xcis. The best head voice in the business from sIrkAzhI gOvindarAjan -- some think of him as overly nasal but I think his resonance was unparalleled but again he had a huge preference for the high notes. Notice the contrast between 0:35 when he is at the high sa and his voice is ringing out and then immediately after 0:42 he struggles to go below lower sa. Then again at 2:40 or so he struggles again. In modern times the person who seems in that mold is shankar mahAdevan (the playback singer/composer). But being in a different domain he does not need a huge range or can mask it.

Of the three singers of the contemporary generation that you have posted here, I am afraid that they are abusing their voices to such an extent that it is alarming. My guess is that Kunnakudi BMK is about to lose some part of his voice. If you listen to his singing from two years ago to now you can hear a distinct rasp in the lower register, which is a tell-tale sign. rAmakrishNan mUrty sounds very strained in his taruNi and I wonder how long this can last. Ironically the one who seems to pound his voice the most, AR, seems to be in the best shape of the three. In spite of his acrobatics he does not sound as strained as the other two. Only time will tell.

As to what kind of singing they are doing (head/chest, etc) they are all none of the above. They sound like chest voices but they are not really full chest voices either. These are very throat-centric voices that take a lot out of the vocal cords. In the video of rAmakrishnan mUrty listen to him at 7:30. There is no resonance even though it should be in his sweet spot (AdhAra sa) -- if this was true chest voice this would sound sweet, full, and strong (compare, for example, with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2yG2hYyOfA at 0:40). Instead it sounds forced. It could be a bad recording or my bad speakers but I suspect that his voice is losing it. At this rate he will lose his lower register entirely in a few years. Then again, listening to 8:04 is cringe-inducing. He needs a head voice that is entirely missing. At 8:54 you see the veins in his neck popping out even though he is singing very softly. This is the epitome of abuse. It is one thing if your veins pop when you belt. But this is not that. He has built-up a lot of tension in his vocal cords but that tension cannot be released because he is not singing at normal volume. At this volume (or any volume) he should look relaxed. No wonder that he loses sruthi immediately after around 9:03. When your vocal cords are under that much pressure it becomes impossible for the cords to sustain notes and pretty soon you are down the TNS path. Of course, these are musicians who are at the height of their powers and fame, so they are not going to pay attention to these "minor" details.

-T

rajeshnat
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by rajeshnat »

Thenpaanan and SrinathK
keep them coming - lovely post. YOu both are educating me a lot about Head voices and all of that - I was expressing that without the right terminology. Over to both of you. By any chance is there a snippet that you heard say within few minutes (may be 5), you get all voices like Head, Chest , Stomach etc with pointers . That would firm up well with my nebulous thoughts . Any thoughts on voice range of SPB (My primary god) and KJY (my backpup god) in few cinema songs would be welcome.

rajeshnat
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by rajeshnat »

rajeshnat wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 08:37 Any thoughts on voice range of SPB (My primary god) and KJY (my backpup god) in few cinema songs would be welcome.
Also if you can add S Janaki (My Primary Goddess) and Chitra (My backup goddess)

melam72
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by melam72 »

rajeshnat wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 08:41 Also if you can add S Janaki (My Primary Goddess) and Chitra (My backup goddess)
S Janaki screeeeches. She and Vani Jayaraman seemingly are incapable of singing full throatedly - so much false voice.

And S Janaki has a nice voice without having to screech, so it beats me why this need to screech arises.

She, Lata Mangeshkar, and Radha Vishwanathan to some extent, just make me turn off because of the sheer nature of their voices

melam72
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by melam72 »

thenpaanan wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 07:16 Ironically the one who seems to pound his voice the most, AR, seems to be in the best shape of the three. In spite of his acrobatics he does not sound as strained as the other two. Only time will tell.
Abhishek Raghuram is this generation's GNB.

He will have a nice voice now, and sing wonderfully and perfectly.

Wait for another 40-50 years. When his voice starts to age (and it will start to age, believe me), he will lose his voice immediately and will sound pained and strained.

He will then be, like GNB, prone to shruti lapses, and, like GNB, we hope that he has another disciple with the same dynamism as him to cover for his faults.

rajeshnat
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by rajeshnat »

melam72 wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 08:55
S Janaki screeeeches. She and Vani Jayaraman seemingly are incapable of singing full throatedly - so much false voice.

And S Janaki has a nice voice without having to screech, so it beats me why this need to screech arises.
Screech and melody is not always there with S Janaki . But Vani jayaram and that lovely Uma Ramanan has lovely voice , but they had very short subset of songs . Actually there are lot of mahanuvbhavulus we can move on

melam72
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by melam72 »

rajeshnat wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 09:49 Vani jayaram
Very knowledgable, but too high pitched. The first time I listened to 'Kelviyin Nayakane' in Apoorva Raagangal, I thought I heard a couple of windows shattering.

rajeshnat
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by rajeshnat »

melam72 wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 08:59 Abhishek Raghuram is this generation's GNB.

He will have a nice voice now, and sing wonderfully and perfectly.

Wait for another 40-50 years. When his voice starts to age (and it will start to age, believe me), he will lose his voice immediately and will sound pained and strained.

He will then be, like GNB, prone to shruti lapses, and, like GNB, we hope that he has another disciple with the same dynamism as him to cover for his faults.
50 years from now abhishek will be 82 and 40 years from now he would have had enough time to cover all the melam72 melakarthas. For sure you have blessed him a lot . Thank you after a long time you made one great post without an iota of slander . Keep up the great job melam72.

SrinathK
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by SrinathK »

Maybe by then we won't have the varahas taking their dumps out in the open to deal with either. :lol:

thenpaanan
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by thenpaanan »

SrinathK wrote: 23 Sep 2017, 12:08
The thing about HM musicians is that they've mastered the ability to sing in head voice and chest voice and bridge the 2. And if you do it seamlessly, you can make it sound on the tape like it's one continuous register
Here is another example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiV4GQFAtKY . We Carnatic musicians focus only on some voices like Bhimsen Joshi who had extremely sonorous voices that cannot be replicated and we simply give up. This voice is closer to how our singers sound and yet the approach to singing seems very different.

1. He sings without his mouth being open very wide (even some western teachers tell their wards to open their mouths as wide as possible) and yet his sound is open.

2. He is singing at D# and thus a good distance from the regular C that male Carnatic singers prefer and yet you don't get the feeling that he is singing at some high pitch.

3. Note at 1:11 how his AdhAra shadjam sounds. His voice is not the richest and yet it sounds fuller than rAmakrishan mUrty's sA -- why is that? Similarly when he gets to the high sA at 2:07 he does not sound strained. Even though there is tension in his voice he does not sound like he is holding his voice back.

-T

melam72
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by melam72 »

SrinathK wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 14:13 Maybe by then we won't have the varahas taking their dumps out in the open to deal with either. :lol:
Carnatic music as we know it today may pass on, but rationalism, the desire to teach, and the love for Carnatic music will remain.

So Long as Carnatic music exists
So Long as people terrorise Carnatic Music
Melam72 will live on.

shankar vaidyanathan
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by shankar vaidyanathan »

Great insights, @Thenpanan and @SrinathK.

My Hindustani Guru told me to open the “back” of the palete and close the front mouth slightly to “produce” the rich resonance and be on the bridge between Chest and Head voices. He would get me to alternate between full throated “A”karam and closed humming “Mg”karam to simulate the opening of the “back” of the mouth and imagine drawing from the well of the diaphragm. He would tell me to consciously think that the back end needs to be intentionally kept open. Having a well endowed middle ground and larger diaphragm also helps. What seems to happen to RKM in that clip is he seems to close the back end so he doesn’t get the rounded rich resonance of Adhara “Sa.” Whereas, look and listen closely to the Pt. Venkatesh Kumar, the HM classical singer and you can literally see/hear what I am trying to describe. Among the younger Vidwans, Sreyas Narayanun seems to be having the resonant voice.

I don’t think I expressed it clearly in words. I am no expert and just a fellow journeyman!

thenpaanan
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by thenpaanan »

shankar vaidyanathan wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 22:35
My Hindustani Guru told me to open the “back” of the palete and close the front mouth slightly to “produce” the rich resonance and be on the bridge between Chest and Head voices. He would get me to alternate between full throated “A”karam and closed humming “Ng”karam to simulate the opening of the “back” of the mouth. He would tell me to consciously think that the back end needs to be intentionally kept open. What seems to happen to RKM in that clip is he seem to close the back end so he doesn’t get the rounded rich resonance of Adhara “Sa.” Whereas, look and listen closely to the HM classical singer and you can literally see/hear what I am trying to describe. I don’t think I expressed it clearly in words. I am no expert and just a fellow journeyman!
Indeed. This is what western voice teachers call "raising the soft palette". In practice I find it easier said than done perhaps because of the bad habits that I have accumulated over decades of singing in other ways. I find it relatively easy to do it now that I have been trying to do it for a couple of years but I have keep it in mind at all times. Whenever my attention wanders (for example, to the content of what I am singing) I find my mouth has internally moved back to its old sub-optimal position. How I wish I knew this when I was learning as a youngster! I can tell from my experience so far that not only does raising the soft palette make for a better sound but takes less effort to sing and induces less strain on the vocal cords (if done correctly).

-T

thenpaanan
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by thenpaanan »

shankar vaidyanathan wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 22:35
My Hindustani Guru told me to open the “back” of the palete and close the front mouth slightly to “produce” the rich resonance and be on the bridge between Chest and Head voices. He would get me to alternate between full throated “A”karam and closed humming “Mg”karam to simulate the opening of the “back” of the mouth and imagine drawing from the well of the diaphragm. He would tell me to consciously think that the back end needs to be intentionally kept open. Having a well endowed middle ground and larger diaphragm also helps. What seems to happen to RKM in that clip is he seems to close the back end so he doesn’t get the rounded rich resonance of Adhara “Sa.” Whereas, look and listen closely to the Pt. Venkatesh Kumar, the HM classical singer and you can literally see/hear what I am trying to describe. Among the younger Vidwans, Sreyas Narayanun seems to be having the resonant voice.

I don’t think I expressed it clearly in words. I am no expert and just a fellow journeyman!
Can you share more wisdom that you have gained from your HM guru in this regard? We in the Carnatic world are, frankly, starved for such wisdom, so we have to try and get the most out of every bit of knowledge that is available to us. :)

-T

Sreeni Rajarao
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by Sreeni Rajarao »

thenpaanan and SrinathK,

Please write about the voice aspects of

Dr S Ramanathan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrq5pnV9R7M&t=1247s

and Sri. Vidyabhushana

In case you are not familiar with Sri. Vidyabhushana - Two of my favorite recordings here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klG7LzmubTM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG7I5o3TBH0

Thanks!

shankar vaidyanathan
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by shankar vaidyanathan »

@Thenpanan: Other inpus from my HM Guru:

(1) While trying to tune the vocal chords to the right tension, don’t bring that to face and mouth: i.e., no muscular tension in the face itself; the muscles around the mouth (sound box) need to be soft and not hard. He would severely warn against contorting face, curling lips, moving lips crossways, etc.

(2) Practice in the mornings as the wetness is there in the vocal chords from overnight sleep. Start with mandhra sthayi and slowly progress to higher registers and sthayis as the day go by.

(3) Adding lots of pauses and gaps in normal everyday speaking. He used to ask if I could bring the Layam from singing in to my speaking.

(4) If vocal chords aren’t cooperating for range and reach on a day and raspiness is there, he used to suggest practicing a movie song in Hindustani Todi Thaat...which I think is similar to Carnatic Panthuvarali. I have also read Vid. Suryaprakash suggesting this hack.

(5) Extremely slow the song to understand and learn. He used to say the Taal was what you make of it and use the Laya to calibrate the Taal.

(6) If going from chest register to head register, use an “e”karam point as the springboard point. He was meticulous about a, e, u karams and how these need to be viewed as stepping stones.

(7) Sing one note at a time...ignore everything that happened before and everything that will be coming next. Laser like focus on that one note and do full justice to that note as if no other sounds exist in the world.

(8) Listen to instrumentalists for how they interpret meend (slide), anuswsram (micro adjacent grace notes), murchana (create the impression in the listener that he heard it while you may not have sung it), etc. Though he was a HM Pandit, he knew I was steeped in CM listening, so for me to learn, he used to recommend listening to Veena (meend) (very close to human voice according to him), Violin, and Nagaswaram (Brighas and head voice). He didn’t mind me being a CM fan and still tolerated me!

(9) He forced me to listen a lot, didn’t matter what type of music. His thumb rule was 4-5x for listening over singing self time.

(10) As Ariyakudi was known to have said to practice 100 times, HM professionals never attempt an item in public stage if they have not exhaustively practiced it in private. He called it “staged spontaneity!”

SrinathK
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by SrinathK »

One tip I do (and this might be useful to amateurs) is this - sing REALLY slowly and try to get the gamakas right. Put one hand on your throat and feel what's happening as you get to your range limits without shouting. Do it wrong, and your voice will go into a falsetto. Do it right and on the recording it will sound like one continuous register.

There are many musicians who have eliminated that register break, but the most important thing is to do it without a drastic change in tone. It is much harder also to do it with those gamakas and brighas -- the way they work or sound in one register is totally different from the way they do in another register and if this aspect is not perfectly looked into - it could ruin your voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh2H4wubJIY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Uc5GmNTUo&t=5s

One reason why old school musicians sang at a higher pitch was because it's easier to transition between the registers at a lower point in your range than at the very limit like the tara madhyama or panchama (at which the break can be jarring if not done properly) apart from the power and tonal advantages. In that video of TRM, he probably does it somewhere around the upper R2-G1 point. By the time he hits the upper P it's definitely head voice.

Pandit Jasraj had a seamless range when he was younger, but as amazing as he sounds even today despite being nearly 90, now I can definitely tell the registers apart.

thenpaanan
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by thenpaanan »

shankar vaidyanathan wrote: 30 Sep 2017, 19:09 @Thenpanan: Other inpus from my HM Guru:

[...]

(10) As Ariyakudi was known to have said to practice 100 times, HM professionals never attempt an item in public stage if they have not exhaustively practiced it in private. He called it “staged spontaneity!”
Awesome. Great guidance from your guru and thanks for sharing them here. One thing I did not see here is any guidance on volume. Did your guru recommend any particular method to increasing/decreasing volume and energy? I see just too many students of CM singing very very softly. Just this past navarAtri festival I came across many students singing so softly that I could barely tell they were singing. Then the sruthi gets lowered in volume so that we can hear the singing to such a level that when the voice veers off it is not possible to tell.

I like this term "staged spontaneity". It is the best description of what actually happens.

-T

thenpaanan
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by thenpaanan »

melam72 wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 08:59 Wait for another 40-50 years. When his voice starts to age (and it will start to age, believe me), he will lose his voice immediately and will sound pained and strained.

He will then be, like GNB, prone to shruti lapses, and, like GNB, we hope that he has another disciple with the same dynamism as him to cover for his faults.
40-50 years of singing life is acceptable in my opinion. Many western singers postpone performing some particular pieces to the end of their careers because they know their voice will be ruined after that. But some of them do perform those pieces at that later stage. After all you want to sing for musical fulfillment as well and sometimes ruining your voice may be the price you have to pay to perform some pieces. At least they seem to doing with the knowledge of the consequences. The question is whether our singers are paying a much steeper price. If your voice "goes" after 10-15 years that should not be acceptable to anyone, least of all the singers themselves.

-T

shankarank
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by shankarank »

Jeez - the voice ( and implicitly the sound) has been the topic for a decade in this forum - what with old threads revived and others cross referenced - still this man claims the reverse : https://youtu.be/y4e2llnNmds?t=663 . And that is the crisis preventing many to listen to the music since from my center of the world days! :lol: If only they'd understand what viSranti is they would not have fretted about this so much :( ! :lol:

All of them worried about everything but music :!: :o ;) :lol: :roll: :roll: ( no high brow emoticon - ::sigh::) :lol: :lol:

SrinathK
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by SrinathK »

Listen to GNB at the 30 min mark in this RTP :- https://soundcloud.com/mahesh-bhuvanesw ... ottai-1964

Now that I'm listening it on a better recording - there's definitely a register change to mixed voice to hit those higher notes - it's seamless, but I can tell. This concert is also one of his best on tape. In the andolika alapana, he sings a brigha going up to N2.

And this gave me an insight into just why GNB sometimes had a few difficulties in his later years around the G3-M1 point in the upper octave. His voice at times sounded like it slightly struggled with stability and manuverability, but then he would go higher to the P, D1 and even the N1 -- that is impossible if he was just belting it out with chest voice. In your normal voice, if you can't reach M1, there's no way you can go higher without shouting or your voice breaking into a falsetto. It is possible to momentarily go higher by using the momentum from a fast run up the scale, but you can't stay there, and your voice will break.

Yesterday when I tried getting a smooth passage from chest to mixed voice, I had the exact same problem, and then I realized it. It was a register change that hampered him at that point. This might not have bothered him when he was younger and he had more upper range.

And this -- the 1964 concert (listen to 2:07:40 for the upper octave brighas) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVE8SyhNCQA -- that's not belting, that's mixed voice.

If you listen carefully to some high pitched singers, you will notice that as they come down from hitting a high notes, there may be a note where their voice slightly gets a bit hoarse or soft -- that's not strain. That's a register break. I have found it's always harder on the way down than up.

Now let's look at NC Vasanthakokilam - listen to mAyE tvam yAhi at 17:50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1CkdJ9w9KY and with how much power she hits the upper N2 (M1 in madhyama shruti) in guruguhOdayE (it's almost like her voice explodes like TR Mahalingam's). If you pause and listen closely, there seems to be just a bit of strain on sudhA -- that's not strain, that's a register bridge. This is as good as it can ever get.

Now among other musicians, MMI in his post 1940s recordings (when he was singing in C-C#) never used a head or mixed voice. His highest note was what he could reach in his normal chest voice. TVS does not use it either - he just has the power and range in his chest voice to sing without strain (and to me he's among the very best in this department) - that's why his voice is still strong. Ariyakudi also sounded like he used only chest voice.

SrinathK
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by SrinathK »

The most interesting case would be Brinda and Mukta. Brinda never really used a head voice. Her chest voice had a deep range, so above the upper Sa, she just softened her voice to a near falsetto (yes, you can taper your chest voice to just softly touch a higher note and you can go higher to transition into a falsetto, but this will come at the expense of power and manueverability) -- this is a chest voice - falsetto transition and not a mixed / head voice. Mukta however sounded like her head voice WAS in fact her natural "gear", which explains many things.

Now MS amma, if you listen to her sarOja dala nEtri at the UN concert, that final fortissmo to the upper P -- that's purely chest voice. MS amma was familiar with all these techniques, but discouraged changing registers. However, she could also soften her voice if needed to hit high notes without forcing it as well.

MLV, listen from 2:04:00 here :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdDefl9E7AU&t=7820s (she hits the upper P at 2:06:45 and goes higher), but there's no belting or shouting - I think right from the beginning MLV knew how to use the mixed voice well, and her lower pitch meant that she also had plenty of upper range in chest voice in her peak days.

Among modern musicians, TMK has spoken to us music club junta about how overcoming register breaks allows the voice to open up to almost 4 octaves. I think he also uses vocal fry for reaching that anumandara panchamam. Abhishek Raghuram also uses a mixed voice for his upper notes (his actual chest voice is a soft baritone). I do not think any of the female CM musicians today use anything other than their chest voices, although the older ladies do use the tapering-falsetto voice. TVG was one person whom I've heard live using multiple registers.

If I had labels to describe how it feels like in your throat - the chest voice would be a ||, the falsetto a () , the head voice a Y, the whistle register a V, and the vocal fry (those low growls) as an IOI.

The actual act of whistling does not involve vocal cords however (that's just blowing air), so it should not be confused with the "whistle register", which actually uses the back of the vocal folds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdp4NHWr7G8 -- I will call it "paal cooker" register. :lol:

Perhaps next time we should discuss about Thanjavur Kalyanaraman, he was an expert on this.

thenpaanan
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by thenpaanan »

I stumbled on to this video of P Unnikrishnan discussing voice culture. It is (surprisingly) reasonable but stops short of giving actionable advice. I don't know if someone has posted this previously, if not here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMIYljhsm2A .

-T

SrinathK
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by SrinathK »

Here's Yesudas singing a Thodi alapana (this used to be my hit piece as a kid, till I wore out both the cassette and the player!).

When it comes to using all the registers (chest, a bit of mixed voice, full head voice and even vocal fry to hit that lower Sa) with remarkably precise brighas (and KJY's brighas are laser like in their precision and swarasthanam), this is as good as it ever gets. It's a good example of how the voice can transition across the registers. @thenpaanan, For you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqZbt2xud0s

shankarank
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by shankarank »

Yup the tarangini series. One with ksheera sAgara, Eta vunnara , another one with dikshitar kritis Bhajare rE citta, this one - all staple diet for the ears continuously - when all Grundig spool tapes were making their way to the U.S.

MadhavRayaprolu
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by MadhavRayaprolu »

This is very informative. Thanks @srinathk and others for the detailed explanations.

One clarifying question: I understand mixed voice and the examples given in this thread. I’m not sure if I understand what head voice in CM sounds like. I assume we are not using this term synonymous with falsetto. If so, are there examples in CM of a pure head voice?

SrinathK
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by SrinathK »

Actually Yesudas used head voice in this Thodi alapana I posted above to reach the uppermost Sa. He used just a bit of mixed voice around the upper M1 to D1, above that it smoothly turned to head voice. Abhishek Raghuram on the other hand, I heard him at Kapaleeshwarar temple and he was clearly using a mixed voice above the upper G3, but had he gone higher than that like Yesudas, then it would have transitioned into head voice. In general, if you want to explore the ati tara sthayi, by that point it's all head voice.

Using a male voice as an example, the thing about mixed voice is that it still sounds similar to your masculine voice, but the head voice by comparison is totally effeminate. Actually in mixed voice there is both an element of head voice and chest voice involved. Even the old singers singing in high pitches used mostly mixed voice before transitioning into head voices for the highest notes.

Falsetto by comparison is really soft and flute like - it may be considered as an incomplete transition to head voice. I think if you listen to MLV in her last days, you would get a good example of it.

I am not sure if anyone totally used their head voice for CM - the chest voice is what is most suitable for the CM gamakas in a person's normal pitch.

SrinathK
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by SrinathK »

rajeshnat wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 08:37 Thenpaanan and SrinathK
keep them coming - lovely post. YOu both are educating me a lot about Head voices and all of that - I was expressing that without the right terminology. Over to both of you. By any chance is there a snippet that you heard say within few minutes (may be 5), you get all voices like Head, Chest , Stomach etc with pointers . That would firm up well with my nebulous thoughts . Any thoughts on voice range of SPB (My primary god) and KJY (my backpup god) in few cinema songs would be welcome.
I shared a KJY up there.

MadhavRayaprolu
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by MadhavRayaprolu »

SrinathK wrote: 11 Apr 2018, 12:39 Using a male voice as an example, the thing about mixed voice is that it still sounds similar to your masculine voice, but the head voice by comparison is totally effeminate. Actually in mixed voice there is both an element of head voice and chest voice involved. Even the old singers singing in high pitches used mostly mixed voice before transitioning into head voices for the highest notes.
Very clear description.

Any practical tips on improving range and seamlessly navigating the registers on high notes? I have been singing for decades but never managed to push even a single note higher than my normal range.

RSR
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by RSR »

@78->
SrinathK
"Now let's look at NC Vasanthakokilam - listen to mAyE tvam yAhi at 17:50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1CkdJ9w9KY and with how much power she hits the upper N2 (M1 in madhyama shruti) in guruguhOdayE (it's almost like her voice explodes like TR Mahalingam's). If you pause and listen closely, there seems to be just a bit of strain on sudhA -- that's not strain, that's a register bridge. This is as good as it can ever get.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@79->
SrinathK
Now MS amma, if you listen to her sarOja dala nEtri at the UN concert, that final fortissmo to the upper P -- that's purely chest voice. MS amma was familiar with all these techniques, but discouraged changing registers. However, she could also soften her voice if needed to hit high notes without forcing it as well.
=====================================================
Thank you.
Is there any illustration with DKP , Mani Iyer and Alathoor brothers' song? Just for information.

SrinathK
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Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by SrinathK »

None of them used anything other than chest voice. Neither did Ariyakudi. Nor Semmangudi.

Even Sanjay Subrahmanyam himself seems to have figured out the whole mid voice thing only recently. In his concert at Kapaleeshwarar's his voice was the best I've ever heard it yet. He now has no difficulty hitting high notes. The fitness aspect also definitely has had an impact, but I digress.

gandharvan
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by gandharvan »

KJY has hit mandra sa in A#. His voice seems most resonant at lower pitches. Going by the clarity and the loudness of that particular note, I speculate he could easily push it even lower by a couple of notes.

In the birthday concert with Chembai, during the kalpana swaras of Shiva Shiva, he easily hits mandra sa in C without any vocal fry.

ganesh_mourthy
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by ganesh_mourthy »

hello gandharvan.

It woudl be nice to see a link along the comments. Are there any youtube links?
Thank you

musi
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by musi »

Amrutha Venkatesh did that in her Saramathi Alapana for Madrasana . she touched the mel Sadja and keezh Rishabha (almost 3 octaves)

shankarank
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Re: Voice Range of Carnatic Vocalists

Post by shankarank »

As Raju Asokan keeps coming with his Somu deluge into youtube here is one where Somu is reaching very high:

https://youtu.be/zg5EIZOqFac?t=3990

As he drops with a SankarabharaNamish landing https://youtu.be/zg5EIZOqFac?t=4005 , MSG is careful with only 2 notes in return! And then he ascends high to show kAmbOdhi!

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