Chest voice and head voice are terms for describing where the sound resonates in your body when you sing. In other words, the sound timbre or “color” of a voice quality at a certain pitch. Singing teachers have argued for centuries over these concepts, and continue to do so. Most singers have experienced these sensations, … Read more
There are many variations in sound quality you can make simply by altering the shape of your vocal “tube” or tract. Your tube is the length and area where your breath passes as it blows through your vocal cords. Moving the “house” or “voice box” gives you many options. Knowing how to move it up … Read more
I stumbled on this video and it prompted me to write this post. Take a moment and watch this first. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5eKV3AgxJY Expert Village should be ashamed of themselves for posting this. It certainly has tarnished my impression of anything they post as being “expert”. First, let me state….I’m no expert! However, I do try to … Read more
Learning to sing better isn’t rocket science. However, difficulty can arise when a singer wants to sound like someone else. You know what I mean. Singers may want to sound like Josh Groban, Charlotte Church, Christine Aguilera, Steven Perry, Barbra Streisand….the list goes on. We all have our favourite voices that we try to emulate. All … Read more
There is much debate over what is “belting” in pop music and Broadway, let alone how to actually do it. I am a self-taught belter, and in fact never had any singing lessons until I was in my late 20’s, at which time I had already been singing with a band professionally for a number … Read more
My last post was a look at belt singing. Today I want to express the problems facing female trained voices in theatre. Traditional training typically approaches the high voice in a female singer, and works downward. It can produce some beautiful head voice sounds, but leaves the “speech-level” chest tones alone. Female singers are typically … Read more
You probably heard the gossip surrounding Christine Aguilera’s mix-up of the words of Star-Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl. You can revisit that performance here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpCFpYLPw74 I would like to talk about that performance, but not about the words she messed up, but rather her voice. First, let me say I am a big fan. … Read more
Everyone’s voice has a low section and high section. The low end is your chest voice and the high end is your head voice. The essence of good singing is utilizing both the chest voice and the head voice at the same time. This is called your “mixed voice”. Make sense? Your chest voice … Read more
Do you ever notice that when you sing along with the radio you usually have this very talky kind of singing that can be fairly loud but you have trouble reaching the high notes. Then when you sing at church on Sunday, you have this other voice that is, let’s just say, different, kind of whimpy … Read more
When we talk, we are using our chest voice. If you put your hand on your chest and talk, you can feel the sound vibrations. The higher in pitch you go (try talking like a whiny baby), you should feel the vibrations leave your chest and resonate in your nose, eye and top of your head … Read more