I am a bass; started singing at church and school choirs in 1968. As you age, you end up sounding like McCartney on SNL last night…whispery, airish and somewhat unstable.
After decades away, I started singing barbershop competitively (it’s a thing). At first, my voice was not very strong nor could I hold a post more than 8-10 seconds. AND, my lowest register was bacon-y…fried garbage.
Understand that in barbershop, vibrato is non-existent, oversinging is usually wrong, and pitch is judged in centi-tones. So fry is typically bad. If I am unsure I can nail a low note, I lean into the mic…compressing the instrument cavity…and produce at a lower volume. 99% of the time, a clean note that will match the other 3 voices and lock the chord.
What I have since learned…5 years or so now…is that breathing work is required. I do daily workouts with deep breathing exercises then SOVT training (Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract) with my vocal warmups; scales, arpeggios, etc.
These days, I sing quite well and have enormous presence and reserve. I can hold a note 35-40 seconds. For 70, I will take it.
At some point, I will fry sooner and start to lose presence. After that, the airy stuff and then I quit.
