Low/Baritone Voices of Pianists

[jhon]

Most pianists I knew have very low voices - if not, simply unpleasant (for instance, without timbre).  And this is even true for female pianists.

My piano teacher tells me when she was in college, she is a voice minor but shifted to cello after her teacher warned her that she would anyway fail and get a red mark.  And I myself observed my teacher's voice whenever she hum while I play and indeed, her voice isn't really that pleasant.

They say this is because most pianists virtually don't talk at all due to extremely long hours of practice - in a sense, their vocal chords are not being exercised.  For instance, anyone here who have heard Cecile Licad speak?  I heard it once in a TV interview and I was so shocked it almost sounds as a male voice!  (Well, I shouldn't be surprised...she practices 10AM~6PM everyday...and she narrates that when she was around 7, she already practices 4 hours a day!)

So, in your own judgment, is your voice that bad to at sing?  Even I'm male, I still see my pitch as too low relatively to other men and that I think is also due to me not talking a lot since child whenever I'm in the piano. 

[ako]

Haha...I am both an accomplished amateur pianist and a coloratura soprano. So I don't think it's true that pianists have unpleasant voices. Actually, my voice teacher is also an amateur accompanist and my piano teacher was once a voice major.

Cheers!

[hazypurple21]

Well my piano teacher was never a voice major, and I don't even know if she ever studied voice, but she can sing pretty well. She has good intonation and nice tone.
I don't understand one thing though. Why only pianists? Do we all practice more than other instrumentalists?

[quantum]

I don't sing very well, I guess in my years as a teenager I never really took to singing and was content to just practice piano and clarinet.  Now that i've been through university with some amount of required singing, my vocal range suggests that I'm a tenor.  I could probably be a counter tenor if I wanted to as really high notes don't bother me. 

Most male non-singers in the university I attented usually prefered singing bass rather than tenor. 

[prometheus]

My voice is quite ok because I like to sing.

I have a bad range and sound, but I can hit the notes in my range no problem. Intonation is acceptable.

I have a low voice, because I am big and male.

I don't see how being a pianist has anything to do with your voice.

I also don't understand how a weak and unused vocal chord results in a low voice.

Its just coincidence. Humans are so funny. The brain demands they see patterns everywhere, it needs patterns.

[janne p.]

I don't believe there to be any connection. I sing in many choirs and get often hired for tours and gigs with other ones, and most of my friends and classmates (both pianists and other instrumentalists) are great singers.
Concerning the pleasantness and pitch of voices: most people find low voices more pleasant than high-pitch ones. (Yes, I'm a low bass :-P)

[tinkertanker]

I don't believe there to be any connection. I sing in many choirs and get often hired for tours and gigs with other ones, and most of my friends and classmates (both pianists and other instrumentalists) are great singers.
Concerning the pleasantness and pitch of voices: most people find low voices more pleasant than high-pitch ones. (Yes, I'm a low bass :-P)

There may be some truth in that people who have spent many hours practising the piano have not honed their singing abilities but I don't think this in anyway 'damages' their voice and I'm sure that if they wanted to improve their singing they could.

Janne, I'm not really (well, not at all) a singer but think I would be a bass. I can hit D-2 (I mean the D that is just above the C two octaves below middle C - not sure I know how to number the notes properly yet!). Would that make me a bass or the next step above or below? The upper notes that I can hit or a bit more difficult to define as by altreing my voice here or there I can hit different notes. I can probably hit C-5 (ie octave above middle C).

Cheers

TT

[ako]

Janne, I'm not really (well, not at all) a singer but think I would be a bass. I can hit D-2 (I mean the D that is just above the C two octaves below middle C - not sure I know how to number the notes properly yet!). Would that make me a bass or the next step above or below? The upper notes that I can hit or a bit more difficult to define as by altreing my voice here or there I can hit different notes. I can probably hit C-5 (ie octave above middle C).

Cheers

TT

You're probably a bass or a baritone. The classification depends on not only how low or high a note you can hit but also the range that your voice is strongest in. Also, it depends on the quality of your voice. To me, baritones have a warm rich tone while true basses sound really deep and has a thick rich tone. It's hard to explain. Just like professional female singers can all hit the C that is 2 octaves above middle C (at least) but it's the tone quality and their agility that differentiates the classifications.

[c18cont]

I also WAS..

(as opposed to "is"), an accomplished pianist and a baritone of good skill, and a long term choral director...

John Cont

[stevie]

this is certainly true of me, and marc-andre hamelin, one of the many things me and him have in common.

[BoliverAllmon]

Well my piano teacher was never a voice major, and I don't even know if she ever studied voice, but she can sing pretty well. She has good intonation and nice tone.
I don't understand one thing though. Why only pianists? Do we all practice more than other instrumentalists?

yes we do. The head of the music dept. told the music students once of what he expected of each of us to become great at the instrument. All brass and woodwinds were expected 2 hrs. a day minimum. string players 4-6 hrs. and when he got to the pianists he told us he would provide the pillows and blankets for us upstairs in the practice rooms.

boliver

[ako]

yes we do. The head of the music dept. told the music students once of what he expected of each of us to become great at the instrument. All brass and woodwinds were expected 2 hrs. a day minimum. string players 4-6 hrs. and when he got to the pianists he told us he would provide the pillows and blankets for us upstairs in the practice rooms.

boliver

It'll kill me to practice singing for longer than 2 hours a day. I would have no breathe or voice left and might feel faint. Do we have any wind/brass players here? I'm interested in knowing if you would find it physically tiring to practice for that long for the same reasons.

[janne p.]

Sometimes we sing 5-8 hours a day with one of my choir's on rehearsal or concert days. Wears one's voice down rather hard...