How did Pat Metheny's vocalists hit those ridiculously high notes?

[rm5]

I absolutely love Pat Metheny, and I especially love his records with the Pat Metheny Group from the 80s/90s. What I fail to understand though, is how those singers (who I presume are male) hit those insanely high notes. I can't even begin to do that--but then again, I'm not a professional singer. Anyway, do you think it was an immense amount of practice, or did they have naturally high voices?

 

[happyrat1]

It's all about the arrangement of the vocal chords.

Falsetto is easy enough for children but as they age the shape and tightness of the vocal chords tend to loosen up.

Going back about a hundred years and earlier church choirs would castrate the boys before puberty so their vocal chords would stop maturing and produce the angelic notes they craved.

They were called castratos.

Castrato - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[happyrat1]

What was a castrato? And what did they sound like? Inside their sinister history...

For a solid portion of musical history, castrati had a prominent role in operas, churches and courts across Europe. But why were young boys forced to undergo the gruesome operation? And how did it affect their voices?

www.classicfm.com

 

[CTripi]

I absolutely love Pat Metheny, and I especially love his records with the Pat Metheny Group from the 80s/90s. What I fail to understand though, is how those singers (who I presume are male) hit those insanely high notes. I can't even begin to do that--but then again, I'm not a professional singer. Anyway, do you think it was an immense amount of practice, or did they have naturally high voices?

Practice and natural ability. I personally knew Mark Ledford and I can tell you he worked very hard at his craft. I loved that era of PMG. All the albums with Lyle Mays were special.