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New, confused and a few questions.

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Jjf88

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Hey guys, I didn't want to annoy everyone by posting a lot of questions but I'm really curious and trying to wrap my head round some things.

I'm a Baritone (or so I've been told) and as of two weeks ago my range was A-D (Passagio break there) then F/G in head and then I went falsetto.

What's the difference between the chest and head voice? And now I'm hearing there's High and Low Baritones? What does this mean? Is one more comfortable in the lower Baritone notes whilst the other is the opposite? It's all very confusing and I'm going to ask my teacher as soon as I can but I figured I'd post here and ask aswell.

Also, if you are a Baritone, you can extend your range but would the notes you could always do sound better than the higher notes because your voice is suited to the lower kind of singing? Sorry for the really daft questions but I'm curious and want to learn :P!

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Hey guys, I didn't want to annoy everyone by posting a lot of questions but I'm really curious and trying to wrap my head round some things.

I'm a Baritone (or so I've been told) and as of two weeks ago my range was A-D (Passagio break there) then F/G in head and then I went falsetto.

What's the difference between the chest and head voice? And now I'm hearing there's High and Low Baritones? What does this mean? Is one more comfortable in the lower Baritone notes whilst the other is the opposite? It's all very confusing and I'm going to ask my teacher as soon as I can but I figured I'd post here and ask aswell.

Also, if you are a Baritone, you can extend your range but would the notes you could always do sound better than the higher notes because your voice is suited to the lower kind of singing? Sorry for the really daft questions but I'm curious and want to learn :P!

In short, high baritones are basically baritones that can sing in the tenor range. Voice classification, is something I hate. It involves more than just what notes you can sing; vocal weight, timbre, break points, etc. You easily extend your range if you're willing to put in lots of time and practice. I had a teacher once tell me I was a baritone, but I am able to sing up to a E5 at the moment....well past a baritone's range.

A short explanation of chest and head is, chest voice is basically your singing range before you hit your break point. All those notes resonate within the chest. Head voice is a disconnect from your chest, not to be confused with falsetto, it is a pure tone. Your head notes you should feel buzzing (resonating) in your head and not your chest. Hopes this helps

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Totally agree with you on the voice classification thing, staticsound. I'm a high baritone by classical standards, but can easily take it up to Ab5, and as low as A2.

Voice classification is useless for anything but classical, in my opinion. In a classical role, I can see it used to find the right timbre for a particular role, but it seems to me that they generally only count the chest voice as usable range, and that's ridiculous, because anyone who frequents here knows head voice can be just as powerful and usable as chest.

Do yourself a favor Jjf88 - train your head voice. It'll open you up to pretty much anything you want to sing.

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Totally agree with you on the voice classification thing, staticsound. I'm a high baritone by classical standards, but can easily take it up to Ab5, and as low as A2.

Voice classification is useless for anything but classical, in my opinion. In a classical role, I can see it used to find the right timbre for a particular role, but it seems to me that they generally only count the chest voice as usable range, and that's ridiculous, because anyone who frequents here knows head voice can be just as powerful and usable as chest.

Do yourself a favor Jjf88 - train your head voice. It'll open you up to pretty much anything you want to sing.

I'm just learning to sing at the moment so I'm not too good at matching songs or singing on my own lol :( To improve my head voice would I sing scales? Getting into my head voice is also a problem right now and I don't know how to correct it. Any tips or is it just something you have to get yourself?

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You said you have a teacher, what method do they use? When you reach your register break, you flip into falsetto I'm assuming? Your teacher would probably be the best bet in helping you find your head voice. Just think of it as a pure tone, not airy like falsetto. This is the only thing I can think of to maybe give you the sensation of head voice. Remember when you were a kid and playing on a swing or something, and we would let out a "Weeeeeee", if you can get that sensation in your head then maybe change the word to "Gooooo"...as in "ooh", not "oh". The "g' consonant should initiate proper cord closure for head voice. You just need to make sure your breath support is there. High notes take less air than lower ones. Anyways, hope this is of some help..

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What do you mean by method? To get into it he says that to hit notes when we were doing scales it's easier to make a "do" sound rather than a "la" sound. He also said you have to try and find your soft palate when singing but I'm having no luck yet. When we were singing he said I was trying to push my chest voice to hit the higher notes rather than flipping into Head voice. I don't know how to reach that without going falsetto and I think that's the problem. I feel my higher notes are not as developed as my lower notes either which is why I'm not too sure of my head voice either.

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If he says you have to flip into head voice then ask him "what is head voice" if you don't know what head voice is :) It's your right to ask him tons of questions. staticsound gave a good explanation of the basics to you. Your teacher should be able to expand on that or tell you his version of these terms.

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If he says you have to flip into head voice then ask him "what is head voice" if you don't know what head voice is :) It's your right to ask him tons of questions. staticsound gave a good explanation of the basics to you. Your teacher should be able to expand on that or tell you his version of these terms.

Exactly, if the guy is taking your money, it's his job to explain these terms and how to access them. What I meant by method was classical, speech level, CVT, or some other form of "guidelines" as far as teaching?

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I'll find out. My fault that I never thought to ask. Although he has been given a good review by an employed vocal coach, if that's anything to go by.

if you are just starting out as in square one, may i make a few suggestions?

start consuming water..at least a half gallon or more per day

now this one is extremely important!

begin to learn how to breathe for singing, and to develop breath support.

this is unquestionably the foundation for rich, resonant (meaning powerful) singing.

develop your breath capacity, and your ability to sustain and meter your breath....

jaime vendera has a great breathing book...i highly recommend it.

also, learn how to relax the throat, the shoulders, and the face.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I ordered that jamie vendera book, should be here in a few days.

I was going to ask about using the soft palate as I'm having trouble doing that but I think that may be covered in the book.

Just wanted to thank everyone for their helpful responses again!

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I ordered that jamie vendera book, should be here in a few days.

I was going to ask about using the soft palate as I'm having trouble doing that but I think that may be covered in the book.

Just wanted to thank everyone for their helpful responses again!

boy, i wish i could help you with the soft palatte but for me it was a "discovery" an awareness that develops...

learn to lift it by the action of yawning and try to visualize the sound (particulary higher notes) going into it

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Yeah I'm trying to as my higher notes aren't very strong, they need alot of work, can't use them without a piano to tell me the notes at all unfortunately. It's trying to find it without a piano that's annoying because I don't have access to one to figure out whether I'm hitting the notes correctly so I've been singing along with music instead :P

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Yeah I'm trying to as my higher notes aren't very strong, they need alot of work, can't use them without a piano to tell me the notes at all unfortunately. It's trying to find it without a piano that's annoying because I don't have access to one to figure out whether I'm hitting the notes correctly so I've been singing along with music instead :P

here's a piano for you!!

http://www.thevirtualpiano.com/

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