By Michael Hoag
Starting to learn to play the guitar can be a difficult experience both mentally and physically. You don’t know what a chord is, how to get there, how to get to the next chord, and on top of all that it hurts your fingers after seemingly two seconds. Considering many sacrifice their blood, sweat and tears trying to adapt to this odd expression of art, the least we can do is make our first days a little easier. Now, I won’t say there is a 100% right guitar for every beginner on this planet. But I will give you options. But what are the options?
Acoustic guitars vs. Electric guitars: What should I choose?
There’s sort of an age-old debate to the answer of this question. Okay that’s a bit dramatic, but my point still stands. But which is best? Let me give a quick rundown.
Acoustic:
Electric guitar:
Those are the facts most relevant to beginners. Personally, when I started learning how to play guitar, I chose acoustic because I knew the finger strength building naturally involved with the acoustic guitar would be beneficial for me in the long run (a notion I still stand by). However, that’s what worked for ME. It also helped a lot that I was forced to play guitar because I took guitar as a school course. I can certainly see why anyone would choose the electric guitar, especially if you are only half committed to playing in the first place, and some recommend it to kids who are first starting out. It’s easier to play overall, can carry pretty far, and it sounds however you want it to (if you have an amp that changes settings). There’s also a natural messiness that works with the electric guitar, hiding errors and all. Either way, no matter what guitar you choose, perseverance is what matters. Good luck!
By Michael Hoag
It’s a question that everyone wants to know the answer to…what voice type am I? Great question! I can’t answer that because I don’t know who you are, but I can give you information that will help find out the answer. Tread carefully now though, the concept of voice types and how to ‘diagnose’ or recognize them is one of the most hotly debated topics in music. Don’t believe me? Look up any video on the subject, maybe even on what voice type a pop singer possesses, and you will find a mixed bag of answers. It’s a rocky path, but it’s one I enjoy taking, so without further ado let’s begin.
Actually before we begin, let’s answer some questions and give some disclaimers.
What really is a voice type?: A voice type is a classification of a singer’s voice based on its strengths within the range, and comfortable tessitura.
What is a tessitura?: Tessitura is the range where most singing is done, which in this case includes the ‘comfortable’ higher and lower extremities of one’s voice and focuses on the middle voice. Someone’s tessitura is not their full range, but it is a range of notes that singers are often expected to hit consistently as part of their voice type/development as well as ‘money’ notes. Tessitura can actually get slightly higher or lower depending on what genre that is being sung and how developed a singer is. For example, an operatic soprano has a higher tessitura than a pop soprano because opera singers need to project their voice farther than a pop singer does, so in order to avoid confusion, I’ll talk about both.
Are the subdivisions within the voice types?: Yes, but only really in opera, and we don’t really need to know them today. In general the main two sub divisions are dramatic (dark sound, booming voice) and lyric (light sound, medium volume voice, more common).
Am I an alto?: That is something I can certainly say no to, as altos are actually not a voice type, but rather a choir part, singers that sing this are often simply just not sopranos.
Will I be able to tell with no training?: Maybe, but it’s best for one to go to a professional voice coach to help determine such as well as get the training to reveal their range. Even the slightest bit of technique can activate whole new layers of the voice.
Can a voice type change?: Yep, aging/ training can cause the voice’s strengths to change over time. Also, some of the voice types mentioned for most don’t come in until later in life. There are exceptions, but we’re talking about the masses.
Okay, now we can finally start. Here are the voice types we’ll be looking at today: (Female) Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Contralto, (Male) Tenor, Baritone, and Bass. There are others (Countertenor, Male Soprano, Female Baritone, Castrati.) But they are either too rare to find consistently recognizable characteristics/examples, or they don’t exist at all anymore.
Soprano: The very highest voice of all. These voice types are extremely common ( if not the most common) in the female singing world, and is the voice type that many females start out as. In opera, there are many subcategories in this voice type, being so common. Yet, they all have one thing in common: high notes. Sopranos, especially when well developed, demonstrated an ease up into the highest extremities of the voice, with great projection even compared to the rest of their voice.
Mezzo-Soprano:The middle voice of the female voice triad is also very common, especially in pop music. Being the middle of the pack, it’s no surprise that mezzo sopranos often do their best singing in the middle sections of their voice, where their tone quality and projection often shine the most.
Contralto: The lowest and rarest of female voices is the contraltos. Known often for their androgynous sound in opera, many of them don’t even blossom until their late 30s, often seen as mezzo-sopranos beforehand.
Those are all of the female types, and now onto males!
Tenor: The highest of the male voicetypes, it’s a force to be reckoned with. Tenors are actually probably the most unnatural voice type out of this list. What do I mean? Well, most tenors, opera or pop, have to train to sing in a higher placement than what is natural for most singers. Oftentimes, they start out as higher baritones and work their way up technically.
Baritone: Sitting in the middle of male voices. There are many examples of these guys in the music world. There are many variations of this voice type however, from baritenors to bass-baritones. Still, one thing for certain, their strength lies in the middle of their voice.
Bass: Operatic basses, like contraltos, have a tendency to sound pretty terrifying as they go down the scale. Obviously their greatest strength is the lows, but their repertoire can get quite rangey in general whether it be pop or opera.They can sometimes sing tenor notes actually, but they can sound….weird.
WHEW! We finished all of the voice types. Now that we’re done though, what does this mean for those who want to find out what they are? First, you MUST go to a vocal coach, they will demonstrate how to access and increase your tessitura, so that your true voice type and range are revealed. This guide in many ways only scratches the surface of the voice types characteristics, which includes weaknesses, as well as many technical hiccups, something a voice coach should be well versed in. An important thing to note is that, while these voice types may aid your musical identity, they do not completely define who you are as a singer, especially in skill level.