Closing the gap

[Enander]

Hi!

My name is Fredrik, and, as you can see, I'm new here. Seems nice!

First off, I'd like to excuse myself if I'm beating a dead horse, but I couldn't find any previous posts regarding this matter... mostly because I don't know what to search for. Haha!

And secondly, I'm autodidact so I'm not very familiar with technical terms and such. I'd very much appreciate an awareness of my level regarding the jargon, if any of you should be kind enough to give me some advice.

Ok, I've been singing actively for years now, and I'm taking it seriously; it's my passion in life.

I've gotten pretty good at it over the years. My style belongs to what I like to call an all-round metal singer; from growl all the way up to high-pitched screams á la eighties metal.

A few times a week, I'm zealously training my voice until I'm literally soaked in sweat.

Now, I really don't mean to sound like a showoff, but I just want to clarify that I'm not some kid that's just starting to take some notes.

Now to the problem at hand:

I just can't close the gap between my chest voice and head voice... well, I CAN, but it's not sounding as good as I want it to.

It sounds nasal and forced with chest voice, but weak and "empty" with my head voice.

I've tried to get some resonance when using my head voice "down there" (where my chest voice is cracking), but it just won't "grip" because it feels so uncomfortably low.

I don't think I can go higher with my chest voice, so I'd like to get some advice on how to empower my lower head voice. I'm all out of ideas, and it's frustrating.

Or, is it just that my voice ain't capable of doing such a thing?

Sorry for the wall of text, possible obscurities and/or misspelling!

Anyway, take care, guys! :)

[ronws]

More than likely, you will receive advice on mixing. And this is the site for bridging and connecting head voice to chest voice, or the other way around. Part of it is overcoming the erroneous notion that you are not really singing unless it's in the chest. To believe that is to ignore the science of acoustics, to ignore how a guitar or piano or oboe works. One might as well say that those instruments are not really producing the notes that they do. Where is your passagio or bridging section? Well, that depends how you are resonating at a certain pitch. Might you try going into a head resonance at a lower pitch and elevate from there? Or descend from a high pitch to a low pitch and find where you are changing your resonance and then try it in reverse from there?

[Enander]

Thanks for the reply, ronws!

As the pitch goes down, my resonance is literally going down along the throat as well, until I'm unable to sustain any remarkable resonance.

I can't help feeling it's like painting the second floor facade when you've shortened your ladder so much it barely reaches the first floor window.

[Steven Fraser]

Now to the problem at hand:

I just can't close the gap between my chest voice and head voice... well, I CAN, but it's not sounding as good as I want it to.

It sounds nasal and forced with chest voice, but weak and "empty" with my head voice.

I've tried to get some resonance when using my head voice "down there" (where my chest voice is cracking), but it just won't "grip" because it feels so uncomfortably low.

I don't think I can go higher with my chest voice, so I'd like to get some advice on how to empower my lower head voice. I'm all out of ideas, and it's frustrating.

Or, is it just that my voice ain't capable of doing such a thing?

Enander: This is a very common problem in larger male voices. To make a continuous, quality tone throughout the range requires the gradual trade-off of muscle action within the larynx, while also balancing with the breath energy. The habit with energetic male voices is to register too heavily, and then to overpressure the breath energy. To get from where you are, to where you want to be, you will need to dial-back the breath pressure as you pass the Bb below middle C.

There is a whole category of vocal exercises which are useful to help you learn what this should feel like: vocal slides using the semi-occluded (half-closed) consonants. Singing with them changes the balance of breath pressure at the larynx, which allows the laryngeal muscles to re-adjust pretty much automatically. Of them, the ones which provide the strongest effect are the the voiced TH (as begins the English word 'the'), the V and the Z.

Do the slides at a mf dynamic, and slide beginning on the Bb an octave below middle C, on up to the one next to middle C. Slide slowly, with a goal to keep the volume steady and with little or no sense of doing any work. Be lazy.... don't care. Repeat this particular octave for about 15 minutes, and then take a 5 minute break. Repeat using B natural octave slides for 15 mins, take a break, then do the C to C slides.

Repeat the 3 slides for each of the next 2 days, then add 1/2 higher step each day. As you approach the Eb, slide more slowly, and slightly decrescendo as you approach it. Keep it firm, but do not push it. Just let it be connected to what came before.

Keep adding 1 new half step each couple days.