# Is it harder for a tall person to sing well? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 28, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106 "2011-10-28T18:30:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/21 "2011-10-30T15:23:49Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > And I am (somewhat facetiously) suggesting that those singers would have been better if they’d been skinny. > > Lately there have been a lot of hunky tenors with rippling abs out of places like Poland. But I can’t really vouch for their singing skill. > > Where’s Le Ministre d’etc. when you need him? So that’s why I can’t find my abs. They’re in Poland! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/22 "2011-10-30T15:44:50Z")
> [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](#): > > So that’s why I can’t find my abs. They’re in Poland! Why they’re in my pajamas I’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![anon11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@anon11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anon11)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/23 "2011-11-04T20:04:07Z")
There are muscles in the laryngeal vocal structure and singing requires good abdominal muscles. Is singing not exhaling air, so you need to pause to breathe?. Slower rates of breathing would mean it is harder to recover. ---
**Author:** ![anon11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@anon11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anon11)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/24 "2011-11-06T21:44:25Z")
> [@anon11](#): > > There are muscles in the laryngeal vocal structure and singing requires good abdominal muscles. > > Is singing not exhaling air, so you need to pause at some point to breathe?. Slower rates of breathing for tall people would mean it’s harder to recover. Are the muscles mentioned not in use when singing, thus the less oxygen to the muscles is of importance? Please correct my ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![biglazerfish1675](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@biglazerfish1675](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biglazerfish1675)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/25 "2011-11-07T05:58:46Z")
It does not matter how tall you are. It wont affect your singing ability. Maybe it would be hard to sing if you are fat because you would tire easier ---
**Author:** ![anon11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@anon11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anon11)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/26 "2011-11-07T16:31:19Z")
Thanks. I am looking for someone who can disrepute the statements I have made. I don’t have qualifications in science, so I need enlightening. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/27 "2011-11-07T19:52:57Z")
> [@anon11](#): > > Thanks. I am looking for someone who can disrepute the statements I have made. I don’t have qualifications in science, so I need enlightening. Just about every poster in this thread has explained to you, from various perspectives, why your little theory is wrong, but you ignore all their arguments and evidence, and keep repeating it. I do not think you will be satisfied until someone tells you that you right, and that tall people, indeed, cannot sing very well. ---
**Author:** ![Backcountry\_Medic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Backcountry\_Medic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backcountry_Medic)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/28 "2011-11-07T19:55:00Z")
After just looking through a few pages of your source, my ‘woo’ meter is going off a little. Some of the observations are blindingly obvious but also somehow strikingly wrong: – “Taller people have longer reach(pg 37)” also connotes a distinct survival advantage to our ancestors that could reach a little bit higher. But then one sentence later they say that nowadays short people can just climb up on something, so it’s no big deal? –“Tall people have more Work Capacity”: Since all things being equal they can lift heavier objects higher… except when there’s an interesting paradox and they don’t etc… It reeks of a group assignment by 5th graders, where every section was written following a guideline. Each paragraph reads almost identically, although some students obviously tried to brown nose and throw in a bunch of equations (plus a graphic showing changes in surface area versus volume equating people to cubes probably because the only one they could find on google was cubes) , most people just half-assed their answer like a history essay on a topic they knew nothing about-_“Alexander the Great was a military genius, he won every battle he ever participated in, except for all the battles he lost”_; I’ll leave it to you to do the due diligence on the authors themselves. Suffice to say that if you have to say "However… " and acknowledge a contradiction to nearly every one the points you are attempting to make, you probably aren’t saying anything very meaningful. I also note a touch of **Bombard with Citations!!** , another famous 5th grade trick to cite whatever bullshit you just wrote extensively with papers and journals that _could_ be related to whatever you wrote about, but which you couldn’t be bother to do more with than look up their author’s names from EBSCOhost. They did score some points when they sourced their arguments to such prestigious and worldview-altering research such as: “Hanson/Holly-_Is there a better size?_-Technology Review '67”- **[Study of Bridges]**; \*Earth Island Journal \*2001; _Electric Perspectives_ 1978, and of course the monumental **RM Alexander** tour de science “_Dynamics of Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Animals_” 1989. \*\*Because if you can’t make a case that dinosaurs=people=bridges, how can you expect anyone to take your science textbook seriously? \*\* I can tell you as a student of respiratory medicine that taller people will _on average_ have larger lungs than shorter people. My basic assumption would be that might make them **better** singers than shorter people, although in reality it has no actual bearing when compared to hundreds of other factors people can actually work on and improve. I’m sure it would be simple enough compiling a list of ‘great’ singers and compare there heights, except for the fact that ‘great singers’ are pretty much based on opinion. My guess would be that you wouldn’t find anything substantial. This has absolutely nothing to do with delivering oxygen to the tissues, though. Tall people can literally blow short people out of the water when it comes to Maximum Minute Ventilation, although there isn’t any reason to think singing is an activity where your quality is based on how well you can balance your blood gasses either. ---
**Author:** ![anon11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@anon11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anon11)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/29 "2011-11-08T10:05:36Z")
So, is it true that tall people have less endurance? The source mentions that the left ventricle pumps slower. It also mentions that rate of breathing is lower. Should I believe all this? As I mentioned, I believe correctly, singing requires quick inhalation, as you are exhaling air when you sing. ---
**Author:** ![Backcountry\_Medic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Backcountry\_Medic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backcountry_Medic)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/30 "2011-11-08T13:47:35Z")
> [@anon11](#): > > So, is it true that tall people have less endurance? The source mentions that the left ventricle pumps slower. It also mentions that rate of breathing is lower. Should I believe all this? > > As I mentioned, I believe correctly, singing requires quick inhalation, as you are exhaling air when you sing. Go back and read every post thus far. I think quoting anything from that book is crap, for all the reasons said above. One page of this section is blocked from preview, but I’m almost certain it says something along the lines of “Short people always have more endurance than tall people, however sometimes tall people have more endurance for reasons x, y, and z.” Read whatever original study they claim to have pulled this from if you want the facts. Maximum heart rate is determined more by age than anything, so it would seem like that would be a better factor of endurance. I’ll leave your homework up to you, but I suggest finding a different reference material. ---
**Author:** ![anon11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@anon11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anon11)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/31 "2011-11-08T15:13:32Z")
I have looked at the source for his claim it is from an article, that I can’t access or afford, called “Dimensions and the respiration of lower vertebrates. In Scale Effects in Animal Locomotion”. So I don’t even know if the study was based on the human species. I have spent an hour and a half looking for medical studies proving that rate of breathing is lower. I couldn’t find anything. I have failed my homework 🙂 Do you think this statement is wrong? I am looking at my statement now and I’m confused by it. You do need good, quick inhalation of air to sing, but I wonder if taller people could get away with lower rates of breathing, as they have better lung capacity. Is this correct? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/32 "2011-11-08T15:54:38Z")
> [@anon11](#): > > I have looked at the source for his claim it is from an article, that I can’t access or afford, called “Dimensions and the respiration of lower vertebrates. In Scale Effects in > Animal Locomotion”. So I don’t even know if the study was based on the human species. As the term “lower vertebrates” ususally refers to creatures such as fish and amphibians, it does suggest that the article isn’t referring to humans at all. ---
**Author:** ![anon11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@anon11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anon11)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/33 "2011-11-08T16:08:04Z")
In that case I feel I can dismiss his claims. I still need help with the questions I asked in my last post, though. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/34 "2011-11-08T16:48:09Z")
As far as I can tell, “breathing rate” refers to how often a person breathes when not consciously controlling their breath. It has nothing to do with how a person breathes when deliberately taking a breath to sing. In my experience, size a singing ability are largely uncorrelated. There is an argument to be made that larger people tend to have larger voices, but I know short people with large voices and large people with small voices. I’m a small person (5’6") with a big-ish voice. I once did a Carmen with a woman who couldn’t have been more than 5’ and probably didn’t crack 110lbs. She regularly sings Schwertleite at the Met. **njtt** , citing Deborah Voigt as an example of the stereotypical fat opera singer is a bit problematic, given that she looks like [this](http://metoperafamily.org/_post/images/107ononline/Voigthdl11107.jpg) now. There are fat opera singers, thin opera singers, tall and short. There’s a hell of a lot more to it than body type. ---
**Author:** ![anon11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@anon11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anon11)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106/35 "2011-11-09T16:58:27Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > As far as I can tell, “breathing rate” refers to how often a person breathes when not consciously controlling their breath. It has nothing to do with how a person breathes when deliberately taking a breath to sing. I didn’t think of this. You are right I think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-harder-for-a-tall-person-to-sing-well/601106.md?page=1)