To what extent is a singer's voice controlled by genetics?

[Guido]

String players are always talking about finding their own voice - how they choose to play the instrument such that it speaks with the most personal voice that they can muster - their voice. I was just wondering how much choice singers have in the sound they produce - are the same sorts of choices available, or are you much more stuck with what your genetics have granted you? (in terms of your sound quality, vibrato, volume? etc.)

[Superhorn]

  Interesting question. There's no question about it, great singers seem to be born with the the innate ability to sing, which is a result of the way their throats and other physical features they happened to have been born with.
  It's also true about instrumentalists. Some pianists were born with big hands and long fingers which enable them to develop a formidable keyboard technique,and brass players are often born with the kind of jaw structure which enable them to become highly accomplished players.
And some wind players have exceptional lung capacity,too.
  Paganini's long thin hands and fingers supposedly enabled him to do his amazing feats of virtuosity. Interestingly,like Abraham Lincoln,he seems to have had a genetic condition called Marfan's syndrome, in which a person has very long hands and fingers and is tall,gaunt and emaciated,if I remember the symptoms correctly. You can google this.

[Anne]

I hope I live long enough to find out if Pavarotti's daughter would be a good singer.

[Guido]

Some of each for sure. Certainly you don't have all that much control over "your instrument," the size and shape of the cavities in your head that contribute so much to the color of your voice, how your vowels sound (formants). (That brain:sinus ratio is the source of a lot of singer jokes.) Also one would expect that genetics would increase your odds of having some of the components of what we call native talent: coordination, muscle control, hearing, intellectual abilities, all part of an inheritance that one can capitalize on with practice, training, thinking, feeling, intuition, exposure to llife and music, etc, and that may affect the range of what one might be able to accomplish (as is apparently the case with stuff like sports, chess, etc).

Finding your own voice is a complicated topic, but to me it seems like it has to include developing a clear assessment of what you were born with and integrating all of that practice, listening, experience and not just finding a unique voice/niche/gimmick that is what accounts of for so many 2-D cartoon characters and commercially successful singers of all sorts.'

Great post! Thanks for the info - I didn't know that the shape of your head cavities affected the sound of your voice.

[Valentino]

There is a bit of Flagstad in my sons. The younger one is loud enough for sure...

[Guido]

Like plastic surgery for the voice.'

haha!

[zamyrabyrd]

Speaking voices like fingerprints and snowflakes are supposed to be individual, one-of-a-kind. So extend this analogy to singing voices. Now, expressivity in singing can be developed. And sometimes it is innate as in the case of Susan Boyle.

ZB

[jochanaan]

Speaking voices like fingerprints and snowflakes are supposed to be individual, one-of-a-kind. So extend this analogy to singing voices. Now, expressivity in singing can be developed. And sometimes it is innate as in the case of Susan Boyle.

ZB

Range, tone, power, diction, and language skills can be developed too, as well as listening ability.  But I don't suppose the essential qualities of a voice can be changed...

[zamyrabyrd]

Range, tone, power, diction, and language skills can be developed too, as well as listening ability.  But I don't suppose the essential qualities of a voice can be changed...

That's why I fairly cringe when hearing that a "tenor turned into a baritone" or vice versa, or much more common but mistaken (in my opinion) when a dramatic soprano morphs into a mezzo.

I had a Korean student several years ago with a lovely mezzo voice whose teacher in Korea for 8 years was trying to turn her into a copy of Sumi Jo. When her repertoire was transposed a third lower, it fit like a glove. She didn't believe me or her own sensations, however, and continued to attempt to sing high Mozart arias on the sly. I thought something was not quite right until I caught her on one of my off days. Oh well...

Nice hearing from ya!
ZB

PS As a case in point, I thought Susan Boyle was quite extraordinary. She was pretty good at the age of 22 (clip on youtube). Too bad she didn't take lessons from a good coach back then.

[Undutchable]

It seems most/many of the best Wagner singers especially the sopranos like Flagstad, Nilson et al are Scandanavian. Nordic genes or Wagnerian singing schools?

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Now playing: Bruckner, Anton - II: Adagio (Sehr Feierlich)
via FoxyTunes

[jochanaan]

That's why I fairly cringe when hearing that a "tenor turned into a baritone" or vice versa, or much more common but mistaken (in my opinion) when a dramatic soprano morphs into a mezzo.

I suspect what happens is that either such a singer discovers his/her real voice, or someone convinces him/her that some other type is his/her real voice. The first case is very good, but I suspect the second is responsible for a lot of vocal damage or burnout.

[Xenophanes]

I suspect what happens is that either such a singer discovers his/her real voice, or someone convinces him/her that some other type is his/her real voice. The first case is very good, but I suspect the second is responsible for a lot of vocal damage or burnout.

I can think of a couple who started out as baritones but had successful careers later as tenors: Placido Domingo and Lauritz Melchior.

Ramon Vinay started out as a baritone, then took on a number of tenor roles, and later went back to baritone roles.  He sang for quite a long time so it is more difficult to believe that he was hurting his voice, but still, his seems a curious case.

Aksel Schiotz was a tenor, but after an illness, sang baritone.

[jochanaan]

I can think of a couple who started out as baritones but had successful careers later as tenors: Placido Domingo and Lauritz Melchior...

Definitely the exceptions that prove the rule, or at least challenge it.

[zamyrabyrd]

Definitely the exceptions that prove the rule, or at least challenge it.

It can be confusing at times with young men who seem to straddle the middle between baritone or tenor. But it usually becomes clearer as time goes on when and if they can bring the chest voice up past an F. If they can do it easily, at least until an A or Bb, that's tenorland.

ZB

[jochanaan]

It can be confusing at times with young men who seem to straddle the middle between baritone or tenor. But it usually becomes clearer as time goes on when and if they can bring the chest voice up past an F. If they can do it easily, at least until an A or Bb, that's tenorland.

ZB

Ah!  That makes sense.  And if they can't do it easily, then what they're attempting is not a legitimate range expansion but forcing, which will probably destroy their voice if they keep at it.  Melchior and Domingo, though, are prime examples of "finding one's voice."

[Ciel_Rouge]

PS As a case in point, I thought Susan Boyle was quite extraordinary. She was pretty good at the age of 22 (clip on youtube). Too bad she didn't take lessons from a good coach back then.

Speaking of Susan Boyle, her first album "I Dreamed a Dream" was released in November. It features the "Cry Me a River" jazz standard.



http://www.amazon.com/I-Dreamed-Dream-Susan-Boyle/dp/B0026P3G12/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1264324629&sr=1-1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_boyle

[Scarpia]

I hope I live long enough to find out if Pavarotti's daughter would be a good singer.

Perhaps she could inherit his vocal equipment without inheriting the tiny, walnut-sized brain which caused him to become a buffoon rather than a true artist.

[knight66]

Caballe hawks round the talens of her daughter. They have joint concerts. The daughter seems to have a completely unexceptional voice and I cannot imagine anyone buying a ticket to hear her.

The singer Brigitte Fassbaender's father was the famous singer, Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender. so perhaps genes had an influence there.

Mike

[Trouble]

One can only speculate of course, but my guess would be that genetics play a considerable role.

If for no other reason than the physical aspects of a person, for example, when a female starts her menopause, which can influence the voice negatively.

For another:  Did the parent have a natural trill, which is something very hard to come by through training, even though it can be done (Marilyn Horne)?

And what about wobble?  It wouldn't have surprised me one bit if Magda Olivero's daughter, had she had one, would also have been minus a wobble into her 90's.

Yes, to me, genetics plays a major role (but I can't prove it!)

[zamyrabyrd]

One can only speculate of course, but my guess would be that genetics play a considerable role.

If for no other reason than the physical aspects of a person, for example, when a female starts her menopause, which can influence the voice negatively.

For another:  Did the parent have a natural trill, which is something very hard to come by through training, even though it can be done (Marilyn Horne)?

And what about wobble?  It wouldn't have surprised me one bit if Magda Olivero's daughter, had she had one, would also have been minus a wobble into her 90's.

Yes, to me, genetics plays a major role (but I can't prove it!)

The birds outside my window have natural trills. Guess that comes from heredity.

ZB