voice changes

[zuzu]

The past few gigs have left me surprised with my voice. I will be 66 soon and lately I am nailing the vocal high notes like I did when I was 30, with no strain or applying the "head voice" or "mouth shape" techniques I have needed to adopt often in the past 10 - 15 years.

I asked my opera singer daughter about it and she said it is well known that opera singers can hit a "mid-life slump" with their voice and her union actually has clauses in every contract that singers over age 50 can use to limit their rehearsal times and frequency of performance. Then, sometimes, they have a "late-life bloom", usually in their sixties, and their voice comes back even richer than before. I seem to remember hearing similar things about some singers in the popular music realm as well.

I haven't smoked a cigarette since 1991 and am in pretty good shape, so I don't think it's any of that. Not sure what it is but I am certainly enjoying it!

Anyone else with a like experience?

[Gordon Currie]

Yes, the past 5 years after hitting 60 I've been taking voice lessons again (after decades of not singing) and I feel like I've got more control than ever.

Not like I was great before, but I was certainly competent - and now I'm finding the journey is not over.

[ghostnote]

I’m 71, and I think - in fact I’m certain - that I sing better than I ever did. I don’t think it’s because my voice got stronger, either. I’ve always had a decent voice. I think it’s just from doing it for decades, I’ve learned how to do it. I guess you’d call it technique, even though I don’t know any formal technique.

[kkrell]

Since there are so many factors that can affect voice, including stress, breathing and other physical factors, I recommend exploring this book (may be available through your library system, or purchase through Amazon):

Singing With Your Whole Self (A Singer's Guide to Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement), Second Edition, by Samuel H. Nelson and Elizabeth L. Blades. ISBN 978-1-5381-0769-0

Discussion and exercises, with chapters on Kinesthetic Imagination, Control and Letting Go, Neuroplasticity, Intentionality and Effort, and then focuses on Pelvic Power, Breathing, Upper Trunk Flexibility, Shoulder Girdle and Arms, Head and Neck, Hands and Mouth, etc.

[mawmow]

When I used to collect new musics to listen to,
I stumbled on a cassette of Leonard Cohen « Best of » :
I was amazed how his voicing got lower as he aged !

[martingitdave]

I’m pushing 50. I was trained in high school and college to sing. Life, cancer, allergies, and sinusitis have all taken their best shot at my voice. And I’d say they got their punches in. I still fight back and may even go back for vocal therapy for some added help. I changed some of my song selection to emphasize where my range is now. Some folks I know think I’ve gained. I think they w very nice, but I don’t buy it. [emoji854]

[Steve DeRosa]

If these guys can still sing like this in their 80's there may yet be hope for me

[zuzu]

Johnny Mathis is on tour now, at 86. Word is his voice is as nimble and clear as ever.