Has someone through aging/vocal damage become a tenor? (4,598 views)

[man1f35t]

I've heard of vocalists like Elton John lose their natural timbre from vocal overuse, drugs, aging and through different types of wear and tear. A lot of tenors start to darken in their natural tone through many types of misuse. But it always ends with them losing their light sound or their higher register. I was just thinking if there were any examples where the opposite happened. The only type of example I can think of at the top of my head is that some males and females start getting higher in their tone placement when they age. Like Serj Tankian has a higher timber (struggles alot live) and he has a crow type sound. I dunno just thought it would be interesting to see other examples. 

[NeidaraK]

well, when your folds age, they tend to lose their elasticity like every other muscle. klaus meine has a "brighter" timbre after his throat surgery tho. but naturally is not going to happen. serj quit distorting his voice because he can´t sustain that amount of distortion anymore and his throat is already damaged. is possible whatsoever, that your throat doesn´t age as much, giving you a longer singing lifespan with more or less your full "young" range. (fabio lione, nils k rue or tim ripper owens are examples). there is also a case when you sustain damage to your throat but through proper rest and taking care you can recover most if not all of the range and "bright" tone of your voice (hansi kursch for example)

[Seb]

Literally me when I sing too many high notes in my chest voice (I'm not classically trained but I think I'm a baritone). I think it's a matter of balances and pressure in the vocal cords, but I doubt this has ever caused much permanent damage, since the voice naturally lowers over time.

The closest example I can think of is Glenn Danzig. His lower range sounds rather crushed, which I think comes from so many visceral high chest notes. His upper range has also taken some damage and he's still considered a baritone, though.

[vienna]

That's an interesting topic and I've never heard about sth like that, and to me personally, it seems extremely unlikely. It's rather the other way round.

1) By overusing your higher range, especially with a not so sustainable technique (and some genres are simply more prone to doing that, even when using an appropriate technique within the specific genre (e.g. metal vocalists are much more likely to use a non-sustainable technique than opera singers, that's not their "fault", it's simply in the nature of the used (more "extreme") techniques/style)) you can "lose" your higher extension. Popular example: Geoff Tate whose higher range was phenomenal back then

2) The voice gets lower by maturing, both in men and women. In men it's usually more evident, because the cartilage in the larynx stiffens more over time due to testosterone. This happens to most singers as a natural process. Most males "lose" their higher extension over time.

So maayyybe it can also be the other way round but it seems not probable.

Concerning Elton John: Didn't he have vocal fold surgery to fix his nodules? He definitely had lost a lot of his high range when he "came back", not sure, if this was rather due to the vocal fold damage in itself or rather due to the surgery. And I'm not sure, but I think also his timbre and weight rather adapted to a lower vocal fach subtype. I never listened to a lot of Elton John hmm

[kaji]

Jan 8, 2020 10:56:34 GMT vienna said:

That's an interesting topic and I've never heard about sth like that, and to me personally, it seems extremely unlikely. It's rather the other way round.

1) By overusing your higher range, especially with a not so sustainable technique (and some genres are simply more prone to doing that, even when using an appropriate technique within the specific genre (e.g. metal vocalists are much more likely to use a non-sustainable technique than opera singers, that's not their "fault", it's simply in the nature of the used (more "extreme") techniques/style)) you can "lose" your higher extension. Popular example: Geoff Tate whose higher range was phenomenal back then

2) The voice gets lower by maturing, both in men and women. In men it's usually more evident, because the cartilage in the larynx stiffens more over time due to testosterone. This happens to most singers as a natural process. Most males "lose" their higher extension over time.

So maayyybe it can also be the other way round but it seems not probable.

Concerning Elton John: Didn't he have vocal fold surgery to fix his nodules? He definitely had lost a lot of his high range when he "came back", not sure, if this was rather due to the vocal fold damage in itself or rather due to the surgery. And I'm not sure, but I think also his timbre and weight rather adapted to a lower vocal fach subtype. I never listened to a lot of Elton John hmm

As far as I know, Elton had a botched vocal fold surgery which is why his voice changed a bit.