Questions about counter tenor...

I've scoured the internet but only found minimal information about being a counter tenor. My teacher refuses to even entertain the idea when I ask to show them what I am talking about. Any help would be appreciated new friends

What defines a counter tenor?

I'm under the impression counter tenors have falsettos that sound like a modal voice, very rarely it being a modal voice.

Can you be a counter tenor while also being something else? (Tenor/baritone?)

Is a counter tenor merely defined by the ability to make a good sound in a female register?

If asking questions of me helps any, please do and thanks again! I want to know because it's always been my dream to be a counter tenor, it's why I started singing but I had no idea I could ever possibly be one and now that I've learned to actually sing (never sang until I heard greg pritchard on britains got talent) I'm slowly realizing that my best vocal ability and tone lies in my head/falsetto voice naturally with it taking 10x the work to match the pitch with my chest voice and another 10x to sound good (except vibrato which comes easily to me).

LONG WINDED POST OVER! Thanks again

Well it might help if you post something of you singing?

All I know is they can sing into female ranges well.

I hope you are using actual head voice and not falsetto because yes, falsetto is much easier to use but lacks versatility.

I started doing some research, have you read this?

http://www.voiceteacher.com/counter_Tenor.html

If I'm not mistaken, Steve Perry (sorry Jersey) was a counter-tenor, but his range extended down to an F#2. Basically, it gets back into the discussion of falsetto/headvoice, which are two different things. The link Mephistoe posted described it as strong falsetto that has "similar power and resonance of a full-voiced sound". This is head voice, not falsetto!! Post some clips up though, wanna hear ya in action.

I agree completely they are separate.

So you are saying that the link (while filled with good information) is probably referring to head voice in the old term of "falsetto"? This would make a countertenor someone with a strong head voice?

Clips please! (from the op)

That would be my guess. The link did have a lot of nice info, but I think it's referring to head voice as falsetto. I had an old vocal teacher who would also do this...I was singing in head voice, but she insisted it was falsetto because "men don't have head voice", which is ridiculous, lol. I guess it depends on who you learned from and if you were taught in the old school classical sense? It's one of those arguments that'll never be won. My guess would be countertenor is somebody with an extremely well developed head voice. I'm bringing up Steve Perry again, but some of his highest notes sound like there coming from his chest, but in fact are in his head voice, same as (this one's for Duke) CHRIS CORNELL, haha

and yes, clips!

Concepts and the opinion of the concepts vary throughout various teachers.

The link posted (voiceteacher.com) is the website of the vocal teacher and pedagogue, David Jones.

His vocal concepts are as legit as they come. I've read all his articles and study them on a regular basis. He actually encourages male singers to find head voice and blend it throughout the entire range.

My old voice teacher was actually a student of his.

BTW, this is an interesting video to watch. It's about countertenors. I've watched this a couple of months ago.

[video=youtube;yqSe8eZyEMk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqSe8eZyEMk

So basically from the video, these guys are singing in more of a stronger falsetto? Still has that "hooty" sound, so it really doesn't sound like headvoice(to me)...but it does sound connected...thanks for adding to my confusion, haha

LOl, I think counter tenors would probably sing in actual disconnected falsetto because if it were headvoice, they'd be Sopranist's. Being a counter tenor would be great and all but a Sopranist would likely have a good high falsetto also so if anything aim to be a Sopranist and gain the skills of a counter tenor along the way.

lol. Static, check out this link. I found it a quite back. It explains the registers and what precisely defines them. The source is quite legit as well.

http://www.ncvs.org/ncvs/tutorials/voiceprod/tutorial/voluntary.html

And basically I think a countertenor is a male singer who has trained to have well-developed falsetto register. I think they sometimes have a register blend and may border as being head voice as well.

So basically, conventional singers work on blending the chest and head registers together.

Whereas countertenors mainly work on strengthening their head/falsetto register.

That site seems to be mixing and grouping whistle and falsetto together.

Makes sense. Good link too!

There's a tube video of David who sings counter tenor in the King's Singers where he explains his role as a singer.

Go check it out.