onsdag 26 Jun 2013, 8:21

…and a few others.

Timbre (said like tam-ber, like amber with a t) is a way to describe the sound of a… sound. Yeah, I'm not good at describing stuff. Well, an example is if a violin and a viola were playing the exact same note and the very exact same frequency. You could still distinguish which instrument was which. The violin, due to its physical characteristics, would sound brighter and more clear than a violia.

The same goes for the human voice. You can tell two singers apart by their timbre. Timbre is something you have to have some experience with before you can start naming brightness and darkness. This is because it is really hard to explain (at least for ineloquent people like me) what exactly brightness and darkness is. That's why I made a chart to sort of help people visualize it.

Also, clarity and depth aren't the technical terms for what I'm using them for (okay, tha sentence makes no sense.) Well, clarity is, but I'm not sure what the word for depth is in music academia and such. I'll try a visual example that you can apply to aural sensations (oh baby) as well. Clarity is like blue or green eyes and depth is like brown eyes. And then there are hazel eyes who get the best of both. (can you guess what eye color I have? :D)

Another thing I'd like to point out is that no component of a voice is "better" than another. It's just like every other thing in art: subjective. You may prefer to listen to a bright, clear voice, while another person may prefer a darker voice. Some voice teachers will push their students to the voice timbre they (the teacher) likes. If you find this happening, tell your voice teacher that you prefer a darker/brighter voice for yourself. If they don't listen, just find a new voice teacher. It isn't worth the stress of having your voice a way you don't like.

Anyway, on to the chart. This is subjective, of course, because different people's ears experience different things. Also, I was doing a lot of these out of memory. If you disagree or hear something different, good! Leave a comment and we can have some nice discussion. :) Also, I can always change the chart later.

http://i.imgur.com/qHuRVHl.png

Yes, some of these aren't symphonic metal singers, but I just thought of bands and singers I like to listen to.

and inb4 someone points out a really obvious singer I forgot to include.

The first thing I thought of when making this chart was "Okay, which two symphonic metal singers have polar opposite voices?" The most obvious example I could thing of were Tarja and Liv Kristine. They are quintessential examples of both of their vocal qualities. In fact, if you can understand why Tarja has a dark, depth-y (I don't want to say 'deep,' because that's usually a descriptor of pitch) and why Liv Kristine has a bright, clear voice, it will probably be very easy for you to identify similar qualities in other voices.

In the middle, it's a lot more difficult to identify the qualities of voices. At least for me. I'm sure a voice teacher or someone with A LOT of experiences hearing different voices would find it easier.

Again, this isn't something like "These are the exact qualities of these voices." This is a very subjective matter, everyone hears different things. I just put the singers on the chart to the best of my ability.

If you have any questions, are confused, have input, or disagree on anything, leave a comment! This could make for some very fun discussion.

yeah.