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Freddie Mercury's Great Voice

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  Although Mercury's voice was in the baritone register, he usually sang in the tenor register. One critic described his voice as "[en] the scale of some bars goes from a guttural rock growl to tender and vibrant tenor, and then to a high coloratura tone,  perfect, pure, and crystalline in the acute part". In 2015 a group of scientists of multiple nationalities from the Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology published a study concluding that Freddie had a distinctive and very exceptional voice. He was able to employ subharmonics, a technique that few people can employ even when speaking. The study also suggests that Mercury reduced the range of his voice when he sang opera for fear that his fans would not recognize him. The Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, whom he met at the Ritz Hotel in Barcelona and with whom Mercury recorded an album, expressed his opinion by saying that "the difference between Freddie and most rock stars is that he sold his voice". As Queen...
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Freddie Mercury's instrument knowledge

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  As a child in India, he took piano lessons until he was nine years old. Later, when he moved to London, he learned to play the guitar. Most of the music he liked was largely based on guitar accompaniment: his favorite artists of that era were The Who, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin. He was very self-critical about his ability to play both instruments and from the early 1980s began using guest keyboardists for Queen and for his solo career. Most notable was the hiring of Fred Mandel (an American musician who had worked for Pink Floyd, Elton John, and Supertramp) for his first solo work, and who from 1985 worked with pianist Mike Moran in the studio and with Spike Edney in concert. Mercury played piano on many Queen songs, including "Killer Queen," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy," "We Are the Champions," "Somebody to Love," and "Don't Stop Me Now." He used grand pianos for conc...
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