Chest Voice Last time we talked about the difference between head voice and falsetto. Now lets look at the chest voice which is the lower part of your vocal range. How to find your Chest Voice Chest voice is very close to our speaking voice, we usually experience it as a strong and rich sound as we feel the resonance vibrating in our chest (therefor the name chest voice). To find your chest voice start with your speaking voice. Put your hand on your chest and say something like ‘hello to my chest voice’. Do you feel your hand vibrating from your chest? In chest voice the full length of our vocal folds is vibrating in comparison to head voice where only a part of the folds is vibrating. Our vocal folds come together with a good firm seal and vibrate along their entire length as the air flows between them to create a rich and full sound. Range of the Chest Voice For female singers the chest voice range is anything below the Eb 4 just above middle C and for male singers chest voice is in the range below the Bb3 (the Bb below middle C). Exercises for Chest Voice How to build your chest voice to stabilize it?

sum a ‘mmh’ on a five tone scale 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 and take it as low as you can (look for the vibration in your chest and the buzzing feeling)
We want to add weight without adding heaviness or tension: try the same exercise on ‘gee’

Taking Chest Voice higher What happens when you go higher than that? Remember that our goal is to have an even tone and smooth transition through the different registers. As the singer climbs into higher notes, the cords begin to tighten (like a guitar string when you turn the tuner peg). At some point, the cords reach a crisis, they can only stretch so tight before they risk damage. If the singer tries to keep this chest voice going even higher, the vocal folds will preserve themselves by suddenly breaking apart, dumping the extreme tension, and producing the next higher note via ‘falsetto.' Head Voice and Falsetto In this case, in addition to breaking apart to relieve the pressure from the lungs, they actually change their thickness (they thin themselves out - the equivalent to changing to a thinner guitar string in middle of a song to reach a higher note!) The problem is that the tone goes from firm and rich (chest voice) to something thin and airy and light (falsetto) in the space of only one note. This is fine as a sound effect, but it is the cause of much frustration for singers everywhere. We all wish we could just reach one or two notes higher with that rich, firm chesty tone! But there is great news! There are simple exercises that can help the singer to release the tension and NOT go into falsetto in these higher notes. As you get higher the resonance starts to move up, the sound is still produced in our larynx where the vocal folds are but we feel the resonance moving up, kind of like an elevator moving up. A singer can eventually 'FADE' from chest voice into a firm upper range through their mix voice into their head voice. Do you have any questions in regards to singing? Is there’s something you always wanted to know? Just ask us: contact@vocals-on-stage.com Like us on Facebook