Meet Jeroen Manuhutu from The Netherlands as he discusses the Passagio
Are we on the right track with the ideas about the passagio?
The way most singers think about the Passagio is not making it easier for them. It feels like singing with some kind of a restriction. It feels like we singers are not in control of something that happens with the voice if we want to sing higher. The goods new is: but we are! Imagine singing an A (440Hz). You can sing this note in many ways: very soft, medium volume, very loud (belted). You can even make a break happen from shifting to another sound on this same note. As a trained singer in Complete Vocal Technique (CVT) we talk about vocal modes: Neutral, Curbing, Overdrive and Belting. So there are 4 different ways of singing the A. And another thing: it is also possible to make the passagio happen on any note YOU want... This makes it all very confusing.
Let's start from this new point of view (CVT). So there are 4 vocal modes with each of them a unique position of the vocal instrument. If you sing in Neutral (a soft non-metallic mode) and keep this position, you can sing from very low to very high without any passagio. This also goes for Curbing (a restrained sounding half-metallic mode) and Belting (a full-metallic loud mode). Only Overdrive (full metallic, sounds like shouting) has a restriction around C for men and D for women.
Knowing all this, what is the new explanation of the passagio then? Well, don't see it as a break of the voice, but rather as a change of the vocal mode. So if you know the rules of each mode and respect them, there is no reason to have a passagio. And of course if you are in Belting and you are above the high C, the voice (and the body) sometimes wants to go to Neutral, because that costs (in some cases) much less energy. But if you put the energy in it, you can stay in Belting all the way and there is no need for the voice to shift into Neutral.
The conclusion is: let go of the thought that the voice "needs" to break at a certain point. It all has to do with the change of the acoustic position of the voice - the vocal modes. If you respect the rules of the vocal mode you're in, you are in charge and you can decide yourself when and if you want to change to vocal mode. And in at least 3 modes you can sing throughout the whole range without having any break at all! On the other hand if you want to have the break intentionally for artistic reasons, you can of course use it at all times.
Let's start from this new point of view (CVT). So there are 4 vocal modes with each of them a unique position of the vocal instrument. If you sing in Neutral (a soft non-metallic mode) and keep this position, you can sing from very low to very high without any passagio. This also goes for Curbing (a restrained sounding half-metallic mode) and Belting (a full-metallic loud mode). Only Overdrive (full metallic, sounds like shouting) has a restriction around C for men and D for women.
Knowing all this, what is the new explanation of the passagio then? Well, don't see it as a break of the voice, but rather as a change of the vocal mode. So if you know the rules of each mode and respect them, there is no reason to have a passagio. And of course if you are in Belting and you are above the high C, the voice (and the body) sometimes wants to go to Neutral, because that costs (in some cases) much less energy. But if you put the energy in it, you can stay in Belting all the way and there is no need for the voice to shift into Neutral.
The conclusion is: let go of the thought that the voice "needs" to break at a certain point. It all has to do with the change of the acoustic position of the voice - the vocal modes. If you respect the rules of the vocal mode you're in, you are in charge and you can decide yourself when and if you want to change to vocal mode. And in at least 3 modes you can sing throughout the whole range without having any break at all! On the other hand if you want to have the break intentionally for artistic reasons, you can of course use it at all times.
See: www.jeroenmanuhutu.nl