Stevie's Vocal Range

[SisterNightroad]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Yes of course ALL of that can be true. What I am talking about is her voice change in the late 90's where of course she did not hit the highest notes in her career from the 1970's but was mostly flat with all of her singing i.e. meaning not only are the high notes gone but her range is also gone. Her voice has went through many changes over the decades. In the late 90's not only was her range gone but lost some of her trademark rasp.

This thread reminds me of a dog chasing it's own tail
I believe I am being clear but for some reason being seen in only black and white. Can we agree she lost her highest range and notes around 1980 and then lost even more about 15 years later? Does that make sense? The first change is hardly noticed except for these types of scientific studies. I think 1997 was much more profound than 1980. The Palm Beach Post had a harsh review of the sold out Dance tour that year in West Palm Beach. It said Stevie was fat and flat. While the body shaming was way out of bounds it was fair to say that about her voice. I would also say that during the Dance and after the Dance Stevie took her voice seriously and did much more vocal coaching. Her voice got better for Say You Will. Although some of her songs on TISRL are pretty flat IMHO.

I think I am the one who isn't clear enough. I obviously am not an expert, but I know a little of this lexicon because I have some family friends that are knowledgeable about technical singing and I think some terms are being misused creating misunderstanding. What I said is that since Stevie shifted to a Contralto, which I remind is the singing female voice that has the lowest range, around Say You Will then it's correct to say that she somewhat lost the ability to reach high notes around then. When she couldn't reach them before it was due to her being using a bad singing technique that strained her vocal cords. You are right in saying that she sounded flat, but it's improper to say that her range was gone, because the vocal range is the range of sounds that goes from the lowest to the highest that a person can produce, and everyone has a vocal range. The reason was simply again a bad singing technique. Then as you said Stevie took more vocal coaching and finally learned to use her voice well.

[BlueLantern]

Curious about her past high notes -- I listened to Rhiannon (studio version) on quality headphones a while ago and noticed more detail in the vocal backing harmony on "all your life you've never seen..." It sounded to me like that's Stevie doing her own higher backing vocals; the voice has a Stevie quality, not Christine. Anyone know?

If that's true, then the high note Stevie sings there (as her own backing vocalist) is an E.

I always thought her voice was at its best during the Wild Heart recording sessions. The high notes weren't quite as high as the 70s, but there was so much power and precision and such a range of emotion and expression.

[petep9000]

I don't hear any difference between BN era to today. To me she sounds exactly the same and can hit every single note.

[TheWildHeart67]

[QUOTE]I don't hear any difference between BN era to today. To me she sounds exactly the same and can hit every single note./QUOTE]

Is that sarcasm? Her voice has definitely changed dramatically since "RAL." She has a lower range. Beautiful , but she doesn't hit high notes often anymore.

[bombaysaffires]

and more nasally. She acknowledges this is a fairly recent (last few years) Australian interview talking about the coke damage... she even says "it changed my voice. I don't usually like to say that but it did