I got a short email from him today and part of it said this:

My new world record:
- I'm going to break my current record one last time... the new
vocal note will be B8 above my current C sharp 8.
- That's 10 semitones higher and for you tech heads that B8 makes my
vocal folds vibrate at 7902.08 vibrations per second.
- Also, am going for the widest vocal range of 8 octaves and 1
semitone. The first Bb on the piano right through to the new B8.


Thats freaking insane over 8 octaves?

Wait a second, I thought that it was very difficult to extend your lower range. How the heck do you categorize someone with an 8 octave range? Is Adam not a natural tenor?

a b8 is out of the natural human audio spectrum... they would have to have a machine measure that.

I that is so, they ARE going to us a special sensor, as they did with Georgia Brown's highest note .... As to Adam's low range, I understand that his ability to sing comfortably in the tenor range is what makes kim a tenor rather than him having a common tenor range. That being said, his lowest note is an A1, below the range of most baritones and some basses.

THAT'S WHAT I KNOW hahaha hope i'm right

Jake: Modern voice classification isn't really based on range- it depends on the color of your voice and where your break points are. Even if Adam Lopez is a tenor, it's still entirely possible for him to sing notes in the bass range, although it's questionable whether he can actually sing a Bb0...

But you're right, it IS quite difficult to expand your lower range. Basically, when your "real voice" stops, you need to enter a voice called "vocal fry voice". Vocal fry occurs when you make a sort of "grinding" sound with your voice. This is because you actually hear the individual adduction/abduction sounds of the vocal folds. Once you can comfortably vocalise in vocal fry, you need to add a LOT of resonance and "feel" the sound in the hard palate. A good exercise is to start on a resonant note in your chest register (i.e. A2), and then slowly slide an octave down (to A1) into vocal fry register, without breaking, AND maintaining as much volume and resonance as possible.

Well I didn't make this email up myself. He sent it to me. So as far as him not being able to hit the lowest B on the piano. If he says he can he prolly can. Everything he's told me over the time I've known him as shown to be true no matter how much I was in disbelief.

mmm what I said about his lowest was what I read hahaha but somewhere else, hope he accomplishes his goal :) ... IMHO I don't think he really has a normal tenor color to his voice, that is what I like so much about him, ie. pavarotti is an awesome singer, but his timbre is ver identifiable as a tenor... which is cool but does not fit my taste as much as Adam's voice...

Because of that I think that he is considered a natural tenor for his ability to sing in that range rather than having a regular tenor color in his voice IMO (I'm saying this so that if I am very wrong, and his voice really sounds like most tenors, someone can correct me and show the right way to identify this)

Well, in my mind I always thought Adam sounded more like a baritone singing with a mix instead giving him that more light feels, instead of full out. Although some people have told me I'm wrong and said he was a light tenor, however I honestly dont know.

I believe he classifies himself as a tenor, however I think most people who are able to accomplish a wide head range consider themselves tenors, no matter what their natural color.

mmm yeah I think I agree with you, his voice is much beefier than a tenor's ... what I can say is I AM SURE he ain't a light tenor... I mean have you heard him speak ?(of course you have haha) that ain't no tenor haha si voice is darker and lower than mine and I am a baritone ...

I just don't understand what you guys are hearing in Adam's voice that sounds baritonal. He sounds like a pure tenor to me, like Pavarotti. However, the difference between he and Pavarotti is that Adam generally does lower notes more often than Pavarotti. You don't hear Pavarotti going below a G3 or A3 that often, whereas Adam will. HOWEVER, if any of you have ever heard Pavarotti's C3, it sounds pretty similar to what Adam sounds like in that range. (If you have never heard it, I can post it for everyone.) When I listen to Adam, he doesn't have that punch/thrust or sound color that I would come to expect from a baritone. When he sings an F4, it's almost as if he's not singing out, even though he is. When you compare that to a baritone singing the same note full out, it's like they're in your face the whole time. As for Adam's speaking voice, it's not that low from my perspective. It's medium high the way I see it. I could not comfortably speak as high as he does -- if I did, I would be yelling. And if I tried to match his speaking volume at that same pitch, I would be straining.

I'd appreciate if you'd post the clip you were talking about. Also I don't really understand where you heard him really talking that high? If you have an example of that too please post thx cuno!

Cuno, bro I am not trying to bash or anything, but I think that maybe you have not compared pavarotti and adam's speaking voice, I don't blame you because it is uncommon to see interviews of any of them these days.

there is pavarotti talking here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ5hlz2TwAY

And here Adams speaks a bit..
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=1873919646

There used to be a radio interview in putfile but i cannot seem to find it... There he speaked in a more relaxed manner

This is maybe bit off the thread but isn't Prince baritone too. I know that some don't like vocal classification but isn't he? Sometimes I feel that my voice is so similar to his: bit nasal, quiet meaty, naturaly feels better in falsetto(I know, know must practice full voice ). And we both when talking doesn't sound like typical baritones. But people insists that he is a baritone, just because he has a high notes and because he likes to mix them and thin out. I'm pretty sure that Lopez should be tenor but if he isn't well...
I'm PROUD to be baritone!!!!!!!!

Jlk7jester, I'm not saying Adam has a high speaking voice. I'm saying compared to MY OWN speaking voice, his is high. That's why I had all the comparisons to my voice. I've seen all his videos on Myspace and have listened to all of his songs on his web site, and I don't hear anything particularly deep in any of them. I just hear normal low notes. Maybe I'm just listening to the wrong things by him. Here is the Pavarotti clip. http://files.myopera.com/CunoDante/files/Pavaroti%2C%20Lucio%20Dalla%20-%20Caruso%20%281%29%20%286%29.mp3 Listen to the C3 he does at 2:00. He sounds like he has more down there, but we never get to hear him use it since the rep he sings doesn't call for it.

Xavier, your speaking voice isn't always a good indicator as to what your singing voice will sound like. There are some singers whose speaking voice lies higher than their singing voice. Clay Aiken and Mario Del Monaco (opera singer) readily come to mind. I myself sometimes fall into that category. Depending on my mood (and the amount of chest I speak with), my voice can be as high as Pavarotti's or lower than Adam's.

Cuno, yeah , but I am talking about sound color here, when adam speaks you can clearly set it aside from how any tenor speaks. You are right if you say that the speaking voice does not tell much about your range anyway ;)

And how do tenors speak, Xavier? Everyone speaks differently, so I don't think you can make many generalizations. And tenors will tell you that they don't always speak correctly, which further complicates the issue. IMO, your speaking voice is influenced more by your environment and less by your vocal category. Basically, you grow up speaking more like how everyone else around you speaks, whatever that may be like. Your personality will also affect what your speaking voice will be like.

And I wasn't making a correlation between your speaking voice and range. I was talking about your speaking voice and sound color. I was saying you can't always tell a person's sound color when they sing by their speaking voice because everyone speaks differently. From a speech perspective, Adam Lopez speaks optimally -- he speaks at a good pitch for his voice, at a good volume, and with a good amount of chest. Not everyone speaks that way, which goes back to what I said in my other previous post.

hmm if you see it that way then there's no sense in discussing his sound color hahaha, so sorry if I was taking you in the wrong direction.

the way I had known that it is (coz even though I still believe I am right, I could be wrong as I am no authority in all of this) indicates that you can always Identify a person's sound color whenever he vocalizes (well if he is doing something weird it can be more difficult)... so you can identify it when he speaks, sings, or whatever coz it's something intrinsic to one's voice...

and geez ... of course everyone's got their own distinctive voice.... but for practical reasons you can group them into tenors or baritones or whatever (just color-wise, grouping according to range is kinda non-sensical) ... I mean it's something you can identify always... for example you can put eddie vedder, david gilmour, and scott stapp in a group... James Labrie and cedric bixler Zavala in other... and in between them there is people like Adam Lopez and Freddie mercury..... and they all have their own voice way of speaking

and hey, I know all this stuff kinda gets in subjective territory but that is the way that I have known that they are grouped

I don't want to think you were being sarcastical when you asked "how do tenors speak", cuz I've been nice all the way :(

I was being very serious when I asked how do tenors speak. You see, since I've been studying the voice and speech over the past few years, my views of things have become very different than those of the majority. So, when I have conversations with others about the voice, I ask questions that may seem very redundant to you, but to me are the basis of the conversation, because I really don't understand where people are coming from sometimes. You see, first of all, we'd have to agree on what a tenor sound color is. I've noticed that most people will say someone has a tenor sound color just because they sing in a high range. I view sound color as being something separate from range. (I think you alluded to that in your last post.)

Anyway, I would put Eddie Vedder, James LaBrie, Cedric Bixler Zavala, Adam Lopez and Freddie Mercury into the same category. They all have lighter voices; more of what I would consider a "tenor" timbre. Scott Stapp belongs in an entirely different category. His voice is much heavier and darker than the others. Actually,I would put Brent Smith into the same category as Scott. I can't say anything about David Gilmour because I don't really listen to Pink Floyd, and the things I have heard by them, I haven't heard David actually sing out.

I agree that you can normally tell a person's sound color when they vocalize, however, I will go to clarify that even further to say only when they're vocalizing in full voice. I disagree that you can always tell a person's sound color by their speaking voice. Depending on how a person uses their voice, the sound color can become ambiguous. The only time it's not ambiguous is when they're singing out in full voice. When someone is singing in falsetto, whispering, or doing something not full out, their sound color becomes very ambiguous. This goes into what I was saying in my other post about people's different speaking habits. So, yes, a person's sound color is intrinsic to their body -- it's determined by genetics -- but at the same time, you can do things to alter or change it, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. Take comedians for example. Or impersonators. Or even when a person is sick. Or when a person has vocal damage. In any of these cases, can you always tell what the person's "true" sound color is, especially if you only heard them for a couple of minutes?

Ah cool, know I kinda get your point in all of this. Sorry if i got in too deep into this classification stuff.

I see your point in the way you say they can be grouped, but I can't agree because all of them are voices which I have analyzed thoroughly and thus cannot group them as freely as you do.

Oh and BTW Freddie was clearly a light baritone ! hhahaa and it's not something that I made up, he really is considered one, unlike Labrie who is clearly a tenor, that's why I can't put them together.

I Still do believe that Adam has a much more rounded and deep voice than any other tenor (if you still consider him one, and hey it's ok if you do, we don't have to see it the same way :D)

It is great to see other points of view :)

According to whom is Freddie Mercury a lyric baritone? And what criteria are you using to define a lyric baritone?

As I said before, I don't hear Adam Lopez's voice as being particularly deep or rounded. If you could provide specific audio examples, I would greatly appreciate it.

Oh about freddie -> http://f-mercury.com.ar/eng_characteristics.htm (when the author says f2, he means f3 ... so on and so forth) there are more places where I've read he's been classified as a baritone (though no one denies how naturally he sing in the tenor range)


what is terrible is that the interview for ABC radio, where Adam speaks very naturally, has been deleted, here he speaks from g2 to d3 (or something like that) I do not know where to find it now. When adam speaks in the record guinness stuff he's very pumped hahaha... not as relaxed as in the interview hmmm but it is something I actually can detect on anything that he sings, his voice is warmer than any other tenor I've heard....

I've seen that web site already. What credibility does the author of that web site have? Is he a singer? A voice teacher? Or just some random person that likes Freddie Mercury? Is he very familiar with many different types of singers? You see, I don't agree with the author's conclusion. Being able to sing down to an F2 (second F below middle C) is not all that uncommon for tenors. Just about all of the tenors out of my teacher's studio can vocalize down to an F2. It's no big thing. I know several other tenors that can get down that low. They have the notes down there, they just don't use them often when singing. I don't think having a low range a qualifying factor for being a baritone.

As for the vocal classifications on the web site, when they list C3 as the lowest note for a tenor, they're giving you entirely the wrong impression. First of all, it's written from the perspective of opera. In opera, the lowest a tenor would normally have to go in his or her rep is a C3, and even then, they don't have to do that note too often. That doesn't mean they don't have any range below that. Same thing applies for the upper range. Your vocal classification is determined by the timbre (sound color) of your voice and how heavy it is. As a side note, classifications can often overlap, so it's not always so clear cut. That's why I describe classifications in a more general way rather than a definitive way.

Anyway, here's a quote from Richard Miller's "The Structure of Singing", p. 162 - 163:
"Equally unreliable, in general, are the charts included in some works on singing, showing the "normal" range-extent of a particular vocal category; professional voices often do not correspond to such indications, frequently exceeding them on both ends. It is not unusual, for example, to encounter tenor voices of lyric as well as of dramatic proportions (but seldom leggieri or tenorini, of course) who have many pitches below C3. Tenor voices appropriate to the opera house often negotiate a low G2, with good quality and with comparative ease. Knowing this to be the case, more than one tenor has been amused at the continuing awe expressed down through the years by some critics and vocal aficionados for Caruso's much publicized feat of singing the bass aria "Vechia zimarra, senti," from the last act of La Boheme, during an onstage performance. Although it is clear that no other tenor would manage the unique Caruso timbre in that or any other vocal range, almost ANY current professional Rodolfo could sing Colline's aria very successfully, inasmuch as it extends only from C3 to Eb4, a quite manageable range for the tenor voice. The incident is remarkable not because Caruso "had such a strong low voice that he could sing bass arias," but because his native timbre permitted him to do so with such good results that some members of the audience assumed his bass colleague was actually singing.

Much of the material regarding the range and character of the tenor voice has little to do with the professional operatic tenor. Studies of the high-voiced male, on which generalities about the singing voice are often based, frequently deal with pathologically high speaking voices, or with amateur ensemble singers. Measurements of the vocal folds, pyknic physical characteristics, gonadal contributions to vocal development, and psychological attitudes help determine vocal category, no doubt. The problem with much published information about the high-voiced male is that many of the subjects encountered by speech therapists or medical examiners do no correspond to the professional tenor, yet in some studies these voices are termed "TRUE tenor voices." The laryngologist, when initially seeing the larynx of the professional tenor, may assume him to be a baritone because much of the "scientific" literature describes the tenor larynx as being remarkably small."

Miller, a respected vocal pedagogue, has been around for decades and I'm sure has seen hundreds of different types of voices. So, coming from him, this is a big statement. And not just him, but many vocal pedagogy books make similar claims. Since I'm going into the field of speech pathology, I too will be dealing with many different types of voices, and consequently, have had to change many of my views about the voice to include all the different variables with which I am presented. Everything isn't as black and white as some may have you think it is. That's why I brought up the question of how does a tenor speak. See, in my field, we have to work to help people find their optimal speaking pitch, volume, etc. There are so many variables, both physiological and psychological, involved with how people speak that you can't even begin to say what a tenor, baritone or bass speaks like. That's why I say it doesn't really matter if Adam Lopez speaks somewhat low -- it doesn't actually tell you much about his singing voice.

Also, a lot of the research you find about the voice is not conducted very well. They use less that optimal subjects, don't use a big enough variety of subjects, and are often observing the wrong things. For these reasons, while I am in this field, I will be doing a ton of research that will be more beneficial to us as singers. So in the near future, be expecting to see some articles from me in voice publications.

I think this is the Adam Lopez interview you're referring to. http://home.hetnet.nl/~joop.lindeijer/sound/adam_lopez.html Anyway way I look at it, from my perspective, he just has a normal speaking voice that's not particularly deep or heavy.

The problem is that I agree on much of what of you say, but since we do not have at hand instruments to analyze each part of the sound spectrum of each tone, it has become a matter of perception... so if you do not perceive what I do, or if I do not perceive what you do, it doesn't matter how much backup we give to each other... I have never said that I was absolutely right, and it would be arrogant of you to state that you are absolutely right (which you haven't, so there's no problem there). It just seems to me you are in a battle with all of this, and I would advise to chill out coz if you know you are right from you point of view, what do you care if I perceive things differently? All these vocal classifications were not born from scientific studies... so it is not something strange that they collide with research and stuff. I KNOW things ain't so black and white, and I NEVER said any of the vocal classifications were arbitrary, so if you felt I stated it that way then I am sorry, coz I did not mean to... I just referred to most common cases which match these classifications and names easier than the scientific point of view.... I you were to see it that way, they are useless and if that's your point, well you are right.... I just pointed out something that I heard and I felt it was interesting that J also could sense it.

If you want my own opinion I absolutely disagree with classical or standard vocal classifications, because for it to be actually usable they should be more accurate and allow variations to be identified... I hope that in the future we will come up with a solution to it... You are not realizing that we agree on a lot of stuff, just that I consider less deepness (as far as timbre and pitch goes) to be pu into what are nowadays considered as baritones, because it seems more practical to ME (YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEE IT THAT WAY BRO HAHAHA)


meanwhile.... dude... no sense in making such a fuss out of just an observation!! XD you seem to be a pretty smart indiviudal, but I notice you kinda wanna debate over bs spontaneously (I'm saying that in a good way, don't get wrong plz) hahaha.... I have friends that are like you man, so I get you :D... just try not to sound despective, you make waaay to much rhetorical questions (just like mye friends hahaha) and it takes away the seriousness of what you say.... this is gonna be the last reply i put in this post as I do not wish to allow it to become a vicious cycle, but I am glad to say I enjoyed reading your views on all of this... if you DO wish to continue this conversation I will gladly give you my e-mai.

Cuno is a bit anal at times ;). And I say that with great affection, because I am exactly the same way about things related to the voice.

I may be presuming too much to say this, but I think the reason he makes so much out of it is that things tend to blossom. Misinformation, especially in the music world, is absolutely rampant.

I've met teachers who will tell you that a baritone can't sing over an A. Well, I know a Bass who can sing an A, and I know a baritone who can sing the B. My voice teacher, a baritone, can sing Nessun Dorma up to a D5. He is -definitely- no tenor, though.

I've met other teachers who say that whistle register is something only sopranos can use. I've seen plenty of guys using whistle register, and one alto.

I've met teachers who told me that, "After about 21, the voice is set, and adults wont progress with the voice." Which is -ridiculous-. I've been training my mother, and she's gone from a 1.5 octave strained range to 3 octaves, at 45 years old. I've also helped my dad a little, and his voice is becoming slowly clearer, and brighter.





So I think the reason Cuno jumps on little statements like that is, in some cases, they may well be completely untrue. And then what if someone else sees that comment, and goes and spreads it around?

The more true information we can spread, the further we'll be towards an environment in which vocalists can truly set their voices free and get the answers they need.

I apologize if my post came off the wrong way. But you're right -- I do like to debate, especially about the voice. When I have a debate, it forces me to learn and see things in new ways that I didn't previously imagine. However, I like strong competition in a debate, which is why my questions often go out in the form of a challenge. When there's strong evidence and examples on your behalf, that's when I really learn a lot.

Anyway, I definitely have a lot more to say about what you wrote. Email me at my screen name on here @ mindspring . com

Thanks, Anthony. You're right. I'm this way because I'm aware of all the misinformation out there that singers are constantly bombarded with, and I find it a sad situation. I don't want to have to see any more singers fed bad or half-true information. Any chance I see to further clarify or improve something for singers, I jump on it. That's why I have these discussions -- to get to the heart of the matter and come to common ground. BTW, I'm a perfectionist, so that's probably why I seem a bit anal at times. :-P

I just watched the video of this Adam Lopez breaking his own record by hitting the C8. Piercing. If it wasn't verified by Guiness I would almost be tempted to call bullshit.

Seriously, how do you learn to do that? I mean, I have a pretty good grasp of how to sing, but whatever it is he's doing (whistle voice I guess) is beyond me. Despite many teachers explaining it, I have yet to grasp whistle voice whatsoever.

Its alot of work and practice of knowing how to get into that voice mode. Also the C8 he hit he will be hitting an octave over that I believe.