Speaking of my dad: he’s the strongest reason I’m so into music. His side of the family has been highly musical since long before he was born even, and so from a young age I was surrounded by song. A common activity at family events is for someone to start up on a song (usually classic or southern gospel songs) and everyone else come in with various parts of the harmonies, which is where I got my ear for them.
While I’ve long-since given up on singing (my brother’s the one who got that talent), I would be inspired by my dad’s stories as a child of people whose ranges were near-superhuman. And then I’d try to prove that mine was shaping up to be as well. I’d sing a single note, not even really holding it out, starting as low as I could manage and going so high my throat wouldn’t even produce a sound, and ask him where that set my range. He’d just laugh and say that was impressive, but one’s true range shouldn’t be measured by the absolute highest and lowest notes one can hit, no matter how uncomfortable or unlikely, but rather where one’s voice can shine most consistently. “You can push yourself in both directions, I think,” he’d tell me, “but you can’t really call it a solid range unless it’s something you can achieve comfortably and repeatedly.”
And I still think about that every time I see an Utau whose creator markets their range as C1-B6. Just because it’s capable of producing noise at those notes doesn’t mean you should actually use them there, much less recommend users do just that.
While I’ve long-since given up on singing (my brother’s the one who got that talent), I would be inspired by my dad’s stories as a child of people whose ranges were near-superhuman. And then I’d try to prove that mine was shaping up to be as well. I’d sing a single note, not even really holding it out, starting as low as I could manage and going so high my throat wouldn’t even produce a sound, and ask him where that set my range. He’d just laugh and say that was impressive, but one’s true range shouldn’t be measured by the absolute highest and lowest notes one can hit, no matter how uncomfortable or unlikely, but rather where one’s voice can shine most consistently. “You can push yourself in both directions, I think,” he’d tell me, “but you can’t really call it a solid range unless it’s something you can achieve comfortably and repeatedly.”
And I still think about that every time I see an Utau whose creator markets their range as C1-B6. Just because it’s capable of producing noise at those notes doesn’t mean you should actually use them there, much less recommend users do just that.
