A woman’s instrument - but a man’s body.

A Brief look at 80’s rock singers

For some years now I’ve tried to aspire to certain songs sung by certain singers, such as ‘I wanna know what love is’ by Foreigner’s Lou Gramm and ‘Playing to Win’ by the Aussie rock legend John Farnham.

I have to confess that I’ve come close, but, have come up short time and time again.

So my immediate questions would ask something like this -

‘Why can these guys seemingly hit these high notes so easily?

‘ Will I ever be able to hit these high notes with such power?’

‘ If I never hit these notes, will that make me less of a singer?’

What I’ve found over time after gaining more insight into how the voice works, and also how each voice is different is that for me - 

I will never sing like Lou Gramm or John Farnham

and

Lou Gramm or John Farnham will never sing like Simon Robinson

Why is it this way?

When you look at 80’s rock singers, they’re never the size of basketball players or wrestlers. Quite often they’re very short with a small frame, and consequently,  their small-body-frame has an impact on their laryngeal structure 

ie. Their voice box and vocal cords resemble more of a mezzo-soprano’s than a tenor or baritone.

In other words - they physically resemble and sound more like a woman.

How does this impact the voice?

Like a man’s body tends to be heavier set and stronger, therefore having certain physical capabilities, a woman’s body tends to be less muscular.

So, a man’s vocal cords tend to be thicker and have more mass, which makes it easier to sing with a robust ‘chest voice’ but this makes it slightly more challenging to locate and sing in the ‘head voice.’

In saying that, every man is different and sits somewhere between the heaviest-set baritone voice and the lighter-set Liggero/Counter Tenor voice (aka 80’s rock singer, Bruno Mars)

Is this also true of Women?

Yes this can also be true for women, but with a role reversal.

Adele is a great example of woman’s voice with a more solid frame and a deeper sounding voice. If you were to study every song of hers in depth, you would find that she does not sing as high as Mariah Carey or Ariana Grande. 

Does this make her less of a singer?

Absolutely not.

Disclaimer - Adele could certainly improve her range with training and quite possibly sing songs in a higher key. Im merely highlighting vocal characteristic ie. the weight of a voice.

A small challenge for the week :

List 5 x singers (or actors) and listen to them either singing, or talking in an interview.

Try and diagnose your own voice, and ascertain as to what your voice-type is.

If you feel you need help with this, please don’t hesitate to ask.