Ben-McCoy-Ch1

I thought it was interesting to read about the paired descriptors (bright/dark). That being said, I feel that there is a potential danger in my reading this without access to the audio examples: it could be easy to come to believe that my own voice falls under certain descriptors which may not be accurate. For example, my tendency to think of my voice as relatively “dark” may influence the way I sing without particular regard to the natural sound and behavior of my voice.

I did find youtube recordings of many of the singers cited in this chapter, and I thought it was interesting to practice “critical listening,” trying to pick out the appropriate descriptors in the different voices. I think I can agree with the notion that Placido Domingo’s voice is darker, while Luciano Pavarotti’s voice is brighter.

I had forgotten about the “nasal” test of pinching one’s nose while singing: I think I will try that as I continue to practice.

I will say that the tables of expert ratings are sometimes misleading. It seems that the color green is used to indicate the majority rule, yellow a notable second, and grey a trailing second. However, table 1.6 attributes a green color to a rating of 4 for “non-nasal” at 29%, coloring the rating of 3 at 33% as yellow. Also in the same table, we find a green color of 91% for “Stylistic,” and a yellow color of 6%; however, in table 1.9 we find grey boxes for second-place ratings which are more notable than the difference between 91% and 6%. Other such inconsistencies exist, which I find to be visually misleading. Obviously, this is not the main take-away from this chapter, but I felt I needed to speak to this.

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