Head Voice transition from Chest Voice

[bom1990]

Hello, I am a new user of this website. I would like to ask a question concerning the physical feeling that one undergoes when changing from Chest Voice to Head Voice because I am currently having trouble with this difficult idea! It seems that for me personally, when I observe my the interior of my mouth and from my own feeling, there is a tightening of a small lateral vice grip in the palate region. The palate takes the shape of a triangle from its usual curved shape.

I've heard that there is suppose to be a narrowing of feeling when someone enters the passagio or head voice. Can anyone please confirm that the only physical feeling that one experiences when ascending in range is the slight tightening of the palate?

Thank you, I appreciate all your help in advance

[Steven Fraser]

I would like to ask a question concerning the physical feeling that one undergoes when changing from Chest Voice to Head Voice because I am currently having trouble with this difficult idea! It seems that for me personally, when I observe my the interior of my mouth and from my own feeling, there is a tightening of a small lateral vice grip in the palate region. The palate takes the shape of a triangle from its usual curved shape.

I've heard that there is suppose to be a narrowing of feeling when someone enters the passagio or head voice. Can anyone please confirm that the only physical feeling that one experiences when ascending in range is the slight tightening of the palate?

Welcome, born1990! Since they are subjective, discussing of sensations of singing is alwasy a bit problematic. However, at least from my perspective as a singer and teacher, a sense of tightening the palate is not required, nor shoulid it necessarily be expected during that transition.

In rising pitch patterns for any part of the voice, including going from chest voice to head voice, a progressive lightening of the registration should happen. Many enthusiastic male singers, due to the cushioning effects of resonance available in the middle and upper middle voices, can get away with oversinging, that is, not lightening, in those regions. As the transition area is entered from below, this cushioning lessens rapidly, and the singer is often caught with a too-heavy production. At least, too heavy to make the transition smoothly. Oversinging often results in unnecessary (and undesirable) constricting tension in the throat, palate, jaw, neck, etc.

The 'narrowing' of feeling often discussed in this region is partly automatic, and partly a technique. As a technique, very many singers modify the vowel pronunciations in the passaggio (transition) to more closed forms. This is helpful in maintaining resonance in this area. The automatic part is due to the reationship of harmoinics and resonance. At the to of the upper middle male voice, the strong 2nd harmonic rises above the first vowel resonance. Before this point, the notes would feel very 'wide' or 'fat'. As that harmonic rises above the resonance, that 'fatness' is rapidly lost.

I hope this is helpful.

[gno]

bom1990 - The passagio - from E4 to Ab4 is always the difficult area - even for experienced singers. As Steven said a lot of us will use vowel modifications through this area to bridge between chest and head.

Try this experiment: Sing an A major scale on "Ah" (as in tall). Start on A3 (A below middle C) and starting ascending maybe one second per note. When you get to E4, change the the "Ah" to and "Oh" (as in low), and keep going up. This should feel much more comfortable than singing "Ah" up the whole scale. Now you can modify the "Oh" to sound like "Ah" when you reach E4. That way you'll feel the comfort of the "Oh" in the passagio.