A lady who admired low voices and had studied as a mezzo soprano came for a voice trial one day. She was very discouraged, since whenever she sang, her glottis pained her. It seemed that she had no idea of head tone or tone focus, and as soon as she began to sing in a lighter fashion, she was able to reach high notes that had been beyond her range before. Forcing and straining to keep her voice deep and full caused her pain and detracted from the true beauty of her voice.

As a matter of fact, one of the highest voices I have ever taught belonged to a young lady who was taught to sing as a mezzo soprano before she came to study with me. Her former teacher’s complete ignorance of correct tone focus meant that the young lady was forced to sing within a very limited range, where absence of head tone would not be so noticeable. In fact, many students have come to me as mezzo sopranos and baritones because their former teachers did not know how to develop the high notes which would have made them the sopranos or tenors they should have been.

Mistakes in range and voice types of students on the part of incompetent or too opinionated teachers have mined more talented singers than almost all the other errors of singing combined. Every teacher would be well advised to reserve passing judgment upon the range and type of a singer’s voice immediately upon hearing one song sung. The type of voice can be accurately judged only after the voice is correctly placed with proper breath support and focus, and when the student is singing naturally, free from strain or nervousness.