Vibrations in your chest bones - Are you then engaging the chest quality?

[hummingbird25]

Hi there,

I have one little question to all of you.

 

When I now try to engage a more chestier sound into my singing (singing around C4-C5) I am still feeling this light mechanism in my voice, however, the sound is more powerful and when I put a hand on my chest bones, there are actual vibrations. If I then add twang (correctly) it's even louder, but not belt qualityish.

So the question is, does feeling these vibrations in my chest bones actually means I am empowering the chest quality to my voice, even when singing higher pitches?

 

hope you can help me out! 

[ronws]

Vibrations in the chest are sympathetic vibrations. "Chesty" quality is due to volume and ring, not location.

[Rosa]

7 hours ago, hummingbird25 said:

So the question is, does feeling these vibrations in my chest bones actually means I am empowering the chest quality to my voice, even when singing higher pitches?

I'd say Yes.

I am the opposite of you, have to train head voice mostly. After reading you here, I sang a bit in the kitchen in head voice and thought "this had a bit of chest". But it was some type of chest I would not feel if I put my hand on my chest, but even so, I noticed a difference with other more airy head notes. I am telling you this to share my view that in the end we will get our own idea of things, sometimes at least, since it is difficult to accurately measure things.

[Felipe Carvalho]

Its unlikely... the vibrations are a possible reference but not reliable alone.

Think like this, a given quality will be produced by a certain mechanical coordination which will produce a certain sensation (and this varies from person to person). And this usually is in order of importance, if you don't know the quality you want to achieve as a sound, hardly the mechanical coordination will be able to happen and in its turn sensations also won't lead anywhere.

Trying to go the other way around usually leads to tension instead of solving it.

 

Chest voice, although is indeed centered around an overall lower placement, does not produce much sensations on the chest (these are more related to pitch than anything else). To know if the quality is what you need, you need to hear it first of all.

[hummingbird25]

Hi there,

thank you all for the answers given here! I think I better drop the idea of focusing on chest bone vibrations then!

do you lot have any advice on how to achieve a more fuller or "chesty" sound mechanism in the mid and upper range or pitches?

im referring to something similar like this girl singing from 1.20 and onwards the whole verse. I don't really have a chesty sound in all my ranges, fairly soft sound, and my voice tend to "blow apart" or get "airy or weak" at times. SOMETIMES I get this sound like hers, it feels effortless. Or is it also down to how my breath management and support is working?

 

Thanks for such help from you guys!

 

 

[Rosa]

hummingbird, I thought this girl was you, so one thing you can do is agree with me and think you are her and sing it.

Make sure this is a good voice for you to compare yourself with. Is that part from minute 1:20 too high or too low for you? 

 

Things that will make high notes sound chesty (I hope others correct me since I've just recently started to reflect on these questions  ):

- Volume. Just pure falsetto won't sound chesty.

- Resonance (I don't know how to explain it, but seems to also have volume in it.

- The easiest for chest seems to be lower notes?

 

Maybe I can think of more later.

 

And I feel your pain when you say that SOMETIMES you sing it...the same is happening to me. It takes me so long to warm up and be able to sing what I was able to some days ago.  Ok, but that means we can do it! So probably that part from minute 1:20 is already a good challenge for you if you were able to do it sometimes.

[Rosa]

More: In particular, the Tina Turner song you posted is one I can sing. My voice is very low, so I could sing it quite in Head Voice, but if then I give it ENERGY, which seems to be like belting, it is much more chest.

[ronws]

You don't have to totally ignore sympathetic vibrations. Just realize that they are a marker or indicator of something, rather than the creator of something. If a feeling in your chest is concurrent with a well-sung note, let that be a guide post, as it were.

[hummingbird25]

Hi rosa,

Unfortunately it's not me!  and to answer your question; it's not too high or too low! It's in a quiet comfortable range for me. I only want to be able to boost up the volume without constricting, or feel the notes are forced. Maybe after all the problem is just down to me forcing things instead of allowing, as of like I mentioned, that SOMETIMES I make it sound really good.

 

because I learned in one of my previous singing lessons about speech, cry/sob and twang.. I kind of wonder what qualities she is really using. I bet it's cry/sob and twang., as speech is used more in lower ranges or pitches..

 

i I hope somebody here will tell me; cause then I know what to tell my teacher next time I see her  what I really need to practice!

[Felipe Carvalho]

@hummingbird25 my honest advice is to just continue with the lessons and practice what you are being instructed as perfectly and often as you can.

Support will play a role on it, but so will everything else, she is using a lot of dynamics in there and this is something really important to understand, what you want is to get to a point where by simply using your voice more softly or louder the produced quality will change. There are times where, for a specific interpretation effect, you may want to focus on one or another thing, but it doesnt seem to be the case, she is just singing...

If you want you can send a sample, its the only way to talk about a quality you want us to understand.

[hummingbird25]

Thank you all for more response.

Felipe Carvalho,

I will stick to what I been told, although, however, just for me to understand a little bit better.. Does she use different qualities where different qualities will have an impact on different dynamics?

What I been told is that I use more effort than I should. Could this have an impact on creating constriction to my voice and limit to use other voice qualities?

 

[Rosa]

I hope Felipe replies, but I think that girl is not making any effort. I got an idea I want to tell you. Maybe you are trying to sing like her while listening to her? I think doing that is extremely difficult. Better to just be away and do something similar but in whatever manner you want.

[hummingbird25]

You got a point actually, Rosa! I might have to try to sing this song acapella next time I sing and sort of make it my own version. I maybe unconsciously try to achieve her type of sound, but I know that can interfere with ones singing tehnique. But at my lessons I sing together with the song and the singer singing it, then I wonder why many teachers do this?

[MDEW]

   I find that when I sing a song when just "singing", away from the music or radio and because I am bored or whatever, I may not sing in the same KEY or Pitch area as the original singer, but it is free and easy and matches my own style better. Later when I do sing to the music or along with the video I am able to get a stronger, more connected and free tone.

   It does get you to stop trying to match "Tone" with the original artist. Trying to match someone elses tone CAN create tensions that are unnecessary. It does not have to, but it can.

[Rosa]

Yes, everything can create tensions when we are trying to sing something new that we don't have under control. I know a lot about this because in theory I am supposed to sing notes that are very high for me just from a score that I can't totally understand, and it is simply impossible.  I have to work hard on the scores by myself, and then practice those high notes to be able to sing them (if I am lucky!)  If you change keys while away, that will tell you hers is not your natural range to sound in this style.