Chest Voice

[Guest]

This may be confusing...it is for me

I can't find it now, but recently someone wrote in a thread that they had success after altering there thought process, thus the technique. Basically they said they started to think of the sound/voice coming from the top and working down. In other words (I interpreted) the sound started in head or at least up above the throat and then worked down rather than starting in the chest and working up.

Whether that is right or wrong, I don't know. I'm not sure if I even have his idea correct. What I do know is that working on it has helped me and I'm able to play with my sound and where it is resonating from etc. But now it also has led to a question. Before, if I sang or started to sing in chest, let's say on something like a Frank Sinatra song or something, I felt as if the sound was being produced from the throat down. In other words, I would open my throat and let the sound come from the chest and out. Now at this point if I wanted to go a bit higher note wise, I would start pulling chest up. After learning more about singing I began transitioning up to head. This was good until reading what I have stated above. After focusing on head tones and playing with them I find I can sing high pitched or lower, which I guess would be mixed all from above the throat. But now if I go to pure chest I feel it is from the throat down and that involves the throat. It isn't strained but I thought involving the throat was a bad thing. I use it like a pipe connecting lower to upper or lower to "out." But at times that has a tendency to be a little airy. This is actually something I use at times (the airyness) for effect/texture) be it right or wrong. It softens the edges

If I was to just speak an AA sound or even an AH it comes from chest but involves the throat to a degree. Well, it isn't head, or above the throat lets put it that way. Is singing in pure chest the same as this? I feel I can get this sound above the throat now. Like a low head? It resonates up in my head/ nose etc. It involves no throat at all. If I sing in chest, while my throat isn't strained, it is open and the sound is coming up and through it.

Confused yet? See what happens when you get a little information? Now I'm all twisted! Then I'll read something else and get more screwed up

So do you, anyone, understand what I'm saying? What should chest feel like?

Tommy

[VideoHere]

tommy, it very well might have been moi.

a lower note might resonate in the pharyngeal section of the throat. that's much different than squeezing the throat. the pharynx is a terrific, very cavernous resonating area. you can get some awesome sounds from this area.

i subscribe to the one voice technique, where instead of talking chest and head voices, i look at it as one connected voice employing various degrees or percentages of head and chest voice musculature. meaning you as a singer can (if done properly) can sing both high notes and low notes using varying (key word here) varying degrees of chest voice musculature, and you can sing high or low notes using varying degrees of head voice musculature.

when you view the voice in this manner (and this is not for everyone, it's a choice i have made) you move away from viewing the voice (both physically and psychologically) as having breaks and transitions. you simply have low notes and high notes.

in the beginning, a lot of singers (i was one of them) sing higher by digging up from the bottom, rather than generating the tones by thinking down, sort of like descending on the high note, rather than reaching up for it.

if you dig up to sing higher notes, you can get into a bad habit of employing too much chest voice musculature and too little head voice musculature as you move up in pitch which can cause all kinds of problems.

am i helping at all?

[Guest]

Yes, that's helpful. Like anything else, (as I always say) sometimes "techniques" get in the way You can focus too much on the technique and then end up losing your way. As they say " If you focus your eye too intently on your goal, you only have one eye left with which to see where you're going."

For me, in these last months, more so the last 2, have opened new pathways. So what you say makes sense to me because this is pretty much how I do things. So from what I have learned, and the techniques; lately I have been blending things and just creating sounds however I can based on my new knowledge. experimenting. But also keeping in mind "good technique" and not straining or tensing and all that...support etc. I have been getting a lot of good stuff from my head. But I also seem to have this lower chest thing going on also that doesn't feel or sound too bad either. So I'm working on different blendings.

Tommy

[VideoHere]

tommy, it's a like a journey...for the rest of your life.

[Validar]

tommy, it's a like a journey...for the rest of your life.

That sums it up perfectly. I've never looked at the whole experience with there being a "destination" or a "point B" in mind. The day I feel like there's nothing left to achieve is the day I need to hang it up.

[ronws]

Chest is a misnomer we'll never get rid of, because of where we feel sympathetic vibrations that are not actually true resonance. A low note is not actually resonating in the lungs, which are a wet, spongy bag that is deflating while you sing the note. An A5 that I can sing is not actually going through my brain and tickling the top of my skull, which is where I can feel it. But those vibrations are a guide.

I like Frisell's definition. "chest" is essentially a matter of resonance, and therefore volume. The reason for top down work is that you want the higher part of your end controlling what you do, for range reasons. Otherwise, the lower end will control.

So, now it's time to fish or cut bait. And that's what Frisell says in his book. Yes, there are some people that naturally have large ranges, though they are mainly basses and baritones that have a desire or need to sing high. Some, like me, are a tenor. And I won't be a baritenor (baritone with countertenor). I won't be a baritone, certainly never a bass. And so, tenors should start in the head voice range of control. And then, stay there.

If one is going to sing tenor, then train as a tenor, not as a baritone struggling for tenor. And for some tenors, during the initial phase of training, it means losing some of the lowest notes, which may or may not come back. And one has to decide. Are you a tenor lyrico or leggiero, where the B5 will be more important to you than a B2?

And I am not saying that each person can't stretch as far as they can, do whatever they can. But I also feel that there is an efficient use of voice.

And I digress, sorry, chest voice is best used as a description of well resonated note with volume. Then, it sounds like you have carried chest high when you did no so such thing. You created a high note with the volume and that "ring" one associates with notes in the lower end.

[Felipe Carvalho]

Yes, chest is also placed up and forward. Nothing on the throat.

[VideoHere]

Yes, chest is also placed up and forward. Nothing on the throat.

well said!

[Guest]

I was practicing yesterday and suddenly it hit me....I think:D

I was practicing going from chest to head, running scales and vowel sounds up and down etc. I was focusing on the feeling of chest and then of head and anything in between. That's when I felt it. It dawned on me that where the difference was, was in the muscles used. All of a sudden I felt something I guess I wasn't paying attention to before. Namely, CT vs TA. So I was practicing yesterday with no throat involved and everything pretty much from up above the throat (I'll call it variations of head) only involving more or less of both sets of musculature to work between the two points; chest or head. So the difference became how I used the muscles involved.

Tommy

Tommy

[VideoHere]

tommy, i'm just a singer, but i would say it's likely your chest voice musculature and head voice musculature are getting stronger and more conditioned and moving towards more balance and integration.

that's progress...reward yourself.

[Guest]

...reward yourself.

You don't have to tell me twice! Any excuse for a brew.