Comment by hn_acc1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hn_acc1 | Hacker News Reader

In a former life I was part of a church choir (smallish church, ~140 members, everyone knew everyone). Same guy was running the orchestral band I had been a part of for a long time (trumpet, also had piano background), and they needed members.. A quick tryout and he told me to join the bass section - without taking into account I had a cold that day. I struggled to hit a lot of the notes, but then moved to tenor and easily hit most of the notes, almost being lead tenor for a while. Sure, it was a falsetto, but I could hit high A or C pretty reliably, IIRC.

Moved to the west coast (this was great lakes area) and something about the air is different, and while I stayed in choir for a few years, eventually lost the top octave entirely and am now a horrible singer (I used to be ok and could, for example, easily sing Livin' on a Prayer - I can't come close to it now). If I go back to the great lakes area, after a week, my singing voice has improved tremendously, only to lose it when I return. I do miss being able to sing better, but not enough to move back..

Every rocker with a hit song with high notes has to change the song in order to still sing it in concert. Layla, Take on Me, Dream On, Don’t Stop Believin’, etc.

If you watch reaction videos from vocal coaches hearing singers for the first time, you will find that they get nervous about the ways singers are tackling parts of their songs, because there are ways to sing that you can do for twenty years, and ways that you can do it that are good for six. Less if you start doing full concerts instead of bar sets or opening act work.

I don't think Steve Perry ever pitched down his vocals. IMO there are two types of singer, ones with good technique (due to practice or genetics) who can sing easily, and those who have to really force notes out in the studio (relying on perfect conditions) then pitch down live.

I agree he always seemed to me comfortable in that range, on talk shows, etc. The guy from Aerosmith on the other hand I would be surprised if he could match the radio version regularly in concert. As for Layla, I guess I only know the live/mtv unplugged and the original had higher notes?

Oddly enough, Geddy Lee was having trouble with the high notes in the 90s but by the 2000s had improved again and was hitting them reliably.

That's not odd, it's a known common trajectory of a male voice range during the lifetime. If the vocal cords aren't ruined, if course.

What is the mechanism behind that? All that springs to mind as a theory would be lagging effects of testosterone surges.

In his case, quitting smoking, I think.

I believe it's a joint effect of muscle atrophy (vocal folds lose mass and become thinner), lower testosterone levels, stiffening of the larynx and the general loss of elasticity (stiffer things vibrate with a higher frequency). I'm no expert, though.

To be clear, we're talking about 60+. Before that, the pitch usually is on a decline.

In 1982 the Secretary of the Interior, James Watts, announced that Wayne Newton would perform at the National Mall on Independence Day, at least implying that the Beach Boys, who had been there the year before, really didn't reflect good American values. He was mocked for his, and the next year the Beach Boys came back. I did not go to the Mall, but heard some of their performance on the radio. They were terrible, and a musician I knew said that this was because men's voices deepen with age but the Beach Boys were still trying to sing in the original keys.

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