- You have a chest voice and a head voice, right?
Well, actually, it's not that simple.
If you've been confused by the concept
of chest voice and head voice, you're not alone.
But after you watch this video
I promise you won't be confused any more.
Don't believe me?
Okay then, jeep watching, and I guarantee
that you'll have a better understanding
of the phenomena known as voice registration.
Sound check.
Check one, check two.
(mic squealing)
Gooday there, welcome back to voice essentials
where everybody sings.
My name is Dr. Dan,
and I'm a contemporary singing voice specialist,
and it's my job to help you get the absolute most
out of your singing voice.
In this video we are going to tackle
the sometimes tricky to understand subject
of voice registration.
What is voice registration, I hear you ask.
Well whenever you hear someone describe their voice
as being either a chest voice sound
or using a head voice sound,
essentially they are describing their voice registration.
Typically speaking, a chest voice sound
would be low and full bodied,
something like this. (singing scales)
And a head voice would sound something
like this, (singing scales)
If you only ever sing using a big full voice
for your low notes, and a lighter thinner sound
for your high notes, the labels chest and head will suffice.
But problems immediately arise the moment
you wanna mix things up a little.
For example, what happens if you wanna sing high
but you also want the sound to be full and thick like this?
♪How am I supposed to live without you ♪
Those notes are sitting at the top of my vocal range
in the same place as my previous head voice notes
but they are anything but light and thin.
So am I now singing chest notes in my head?
The either, or language of chest and head
simply doesn't, in my humble opinion,
fully explain what is going on with the voice
mechanically or acoustically.
But here's the problem.
If you want to learn to sing well,
you need to know how to use your voice
in an efficient manner, and the best way to do that
is to understand how your voice works,
specifically you need to know
how voice registration works,
and you need a more comprehensive set of terms
than chest and head.
So today I'm going to give you a broad understanding
of voice registration.
First we are going to learn a little more
about the mechanics of the voice.
You'll learn a new model for describing what your voice
is doing at any point along the vocal range spectrum,
and we'll then map your vocal range,
making a note of your register transitions,
what some people call their break or passaggio.
And finally I'll give you a super effective exercise
designed to help you manage your vocal registers
and smooth those points
between the registers where your voice feels clunky
and disjointed.
To help you work your way through today's video
I've designed a worksheet for you to jot down things
like your vocal range and transition points.
It's free to download using the link
in the description section below,
it's going to be super handy later on
so I highly recommend pausing the video
and grabbing your free worksheet as we continue.
Firstly it is essential for me to state
that while I don't personally like using
the terms chest and head to describe vocal registers,
I want to acknowledge that there are many excellent
singing teachers who still use the terms chest and head
because they're widely used in the singing community.
In fact, sometimes I'll use the terms
for ease of communication,
but where possible I do try to educate singers
about the new models being used
to describe voice registers.
There have been many pedagogues over the years
who have sought to update our understanding
about vocal registers,
and the terms we use to describe them.
Take a look at this table of terms
collated by Dr. Scott McCoy
in his book, Your Voice, an Inside View.
No wonder it gets confusing.
There are just so many terms here,
and none of them is wrong, per se,
but for us to gain some clarity around this subject
we do need to narrow it down a bit.
Firstly, let's define voice registration.
Dr. McCoy quotes Manuel Garcia's definition,
writing, "by the word register we mean a series
"of consecutive and homogenous tones
"going from low to high, produced by the development
"of the same mechanical principle,
"and whose nature differs essentially
"from another series of tones,
"equally consecutive and homogenous,
"produced by another mechanical principle."
Allow me to paraphrase,
a register is comprised of adjoining notes
that are formed in the same mechanical manner
and have similar acoustic qualities.
So with this definition in mind,
allow me to introduce you
to the Thurman and Welch model of registration,
which identifies five distinct registers,
pulse register, lower register, upper register,
falsetto register for men, flute register for women,
and whistle register.
Very quickly, because this video
could easily become way too long,
the pulse register is produced
when the vocal folds are literally pulsing
in their oscillation.
The pulse register sounds like this,
(singing in pulse register)
and some people refer to this as vocal fry.
The lower and upper registers, in one sense,
are the terms we use to replace chest and head voice.
So lower register notes might sound like this,
(singing in lower register)
and upper register notes would sound like this,
(singing in upper register)
Now interestingly, Thurman and Welch,
in their book, Body, Mind, and Voice,
differentiate the next register level
using separate terms for men and women.
For men they use the term falsetto,
and for women they use the term flute.
Now typically I combine the two
calling them both falsetto,
and Thurman and Welch seem to allow for this, writing,
"Although there is great variability
"among individual singers,
"there is evidence that the basic biomechanics
"of falsetto, flute register are essentially the same
"in both males and females."
Rightly or wrongly, going forward we're just going to label
the fourth register falsetto,
which leaves us with the fifth and highest register,
whistle register.
The interesting thing about whistle register
is only some of the population
can produce the unique focal fold posture
required to produce the whistle-like tones
of whistle register.
And unfortunately for me, I'm not one of those people
who can produce whistle register,
but I can show you falsetto notes, which sound like this.
(singing in falsetto register)
You might be thinking to yourself,
well all we've done so far is play semantics
and add a few registers to the old chest voice,
head voice model, but stay with me,
because this is where it gets interesting.
Have a look at this graphic
which I've styled off a similar illustration
found in Body, Mind, and Voice.
Here we see the four registers
illustrated as four sections,
with each section overlapping the one next to it.
These points of intersection
are known as register transitions.
And we'll talk about these in a moment.
But first I want to discuss
the terms shortener and lengthener.
These two words refer to the two sets of muscles
that help to shorten and lengthen your vocal folds.
The correct anatomical label
for the shortener muscle is thyroarytenoid,
and the lengtheners are the cricothyroid muscles.
For ease of understanding,
let's just stick with shortener and lengthener.
The shortener and lengthener muscles work with each other
and against each other in a similar manner
to your bicep and tricep muscle.
When one muscle activates and contracts,
it pulls the opposing muscle out of its contraction.
This biological tug of war between the shorteners
and the lengtheners determines whether the sound is thick
and full bodied or thin and light, respectively.
For example, if I sing this note, let's say an E3,
(playing piano)
(singing E3 note)
I would label this sound as a lower register
shortener dominant note,
because it sits in my lower register,
the lower portion of my voice,
and the sound is thick and full bodied,
and if I sing this note,
for example an E4,
(playing piano)
(singing in E4)
Might even go a little bit lighter on it,
(singing in E4)
I would label it as an upper register
lengthener dominant note, because the note
is in my upper register
towards the top of my vocal range,
and it is thinner and lighter in tone.
If I sing the same E4 as a full bodied sound,
it would sound something like this.
(playing piano)
(singing in E4)
We now call this an upper register shortener dominant note
because it's still the same note,
towards the top of my range,
but it now has the full bodied qualities
of the thicker vocal fold
which is being activated by the shortener muscle,
the thyroarytenoid.
Interestingly, if I want to access the pulse register,
(singing in pulse register)
the lengthener muscles need to completely disengage
releasing the shortener muscles to fully activate.
Likewise, if I want to access my falsetto range,
my falsetto register I should say,
(singing in falsetto register)
Then my shortener muscles must completely disengage
allowing the lengtheners to fully activate.
In a nutshell, pulse register is 100% shortener,
and falsetto is 100% lengthener.
Which brings us to the term mix.
You'll often hear people refer to mix register
here on YouTube, as if it's a standalone register,
and this can get really confusing,
because there is no such thing as a mix register.
Now personally, I'm not a big fan of the label mix
when discussing registers, but just to avoid confusion,
if ever I use the term mix, I'm referring to a sound
that balances the muscle engagement
between the shortener and the lengtheners.
So again, a shortener dominant sound
where the thyroarytenoids dominate the tug of war sound,
sounds like this on an E4.
(singing)
A lengthener dominant sound singing the same E4
where the cricothyroid muscles
are permitted to elongate and thin the vocal folds
sounds like this, (singing)
and the balance point between the two
where the shorteners and the lengtheners
are equally activated and involved
in the mechanistic balance, often called mix,
sounds like this. (singing)
We're about to get practical and map your vocal range
as well as your register transitions,
but one final technical note about our use of terminology.
Recently the terms Mode 1 and Mode 2,
or M1 and M2, have been introduced
into the voice pedagogy vernacular.
Mode 1 represents voicing that is shortener dominant,
and Mode 2 is used to label those notes
that are lengthener dominant.
To the uninitiated, these new terms
appear to revert back to the good old days
of chest and head voice,
but rest assured, they do add value
to the semantics when discussing voice registration.
And while we don't have time to unpack
the full implications of these new terms
in today's video,
I wanted to mention them just in case
you hear me use them in any of my other videos.
Now that you hopefully have a better understanding
of shorteners and lengtheners
as well as how they coordinate
across your vocal range, it's time to map your vocal range
and identify the points at which your voice transitions
between registers.
Again, remember to download the free worksheet
I've designed for you,
it'll come in super handy for you to jot down things
as we continue.
With your worksheet in front of you,
we are going to map your vocal range,
singing low to high,
and I'm going to play single notes
starting on C2, and I'm gonna play
all the way up to F6.
Some guys'll be able to sing lower than C2,
and a few of you girls'll be able to sing beyond F6,
but the range we are going to cover in this video
should suffice when it comes
to mapping your transition points.
Sing each note with a ya, (sings)
base as your start first, and as we move upwards
I'll nominate general points
where the other voice types might join in
but feel free to commence singing
when your individual voice is ready.
Also as you sing up you're going to reach points
at which your voice needs to transition
between registers.
Now you might experience these points as a flip,
a break, or even missing notes.
When this happens, allow your voice to make the change
and continue as high as you possibly can.
So let's start and we'll see what your voice does.
Starting on C2 with the basses.
(playing piano)
Baritones come in now.
(playing piano)
Tenors.
(playing piano)
Altos, you might like to start about now.
(playing piano)
followed by the mezzos.
(playing piano)
Sopranos, you can start about now.
As we continue up.
(playing piano)
Okay, how did you go?
Now let's treat that as your practice run.
Rewind the video to sing the notes again
but this time I want you to mark your starting note,
any transition points,
and your final top note
on the worksheet you downloaded earlier.
Now what did you notice about your transitions?
Were they smooth and balanced
or were they clunky and disjointed?
Now don't worry if they were more of the latter
and less of the former.
It takes time to smooth out our register transitions,
because for most singers,
the coordination between the shorteners
and the lengtheners requires a lot of practice.
Now if you've been paying attention
your next question is likely to be,
but Dr. Dan, how should I practice my register transitions?
I'm glad you asked.
Well we're going to employ
a semi occluded shaping of the vocal tract.
This narrowing of the vocal pathway
in semi occluded activities changes the acoustic values,
that is the resonance of your voice.
Quite simply, we're going to sing
across a nine note scale
using a lip bubble, sometimes also called a lip trill.
Let me show you a few phrases
when I sing the scale using exercise 15
from my exercise collection, Voice Essentials 1.
(lip trilling)
Starting to go over
(lip trilling)
There it is.
(lip trilling)
One more.
(lip trilling)
Could you hear how my voice seemed to glide
through the register points along my vocal range?
Physically, it feels smooth and more balanced
and the semi occluded nature of the activity helps me
to mix the resonance in such a way
as to reduce the opportunity for clunky gearshifts.
I encourage you to download the track for yourself
and give it a go.
You might also like to check out exercise 19
from Voice Essentials 2,
which employs lip bubbles as a siren like this.
(lip trilling)
After you've practiced these a few items,
try going back to the point in this video
where we mapped your vocal range and transition points.
Firstly, sing through the activity on the lip bubble
and take note of any changes to your transition points.
Then do it again on the original ya sound,
(singing)
paying attention to the differences
between your records.
To start with, the changes might be minimal
or even non existent.
Remember, learning to coordinate your vocal registers
for smoother more balanced transitions takes time.
And when I say time, I mean weeks and months,
not hours and days.
Of course, how your voice behaves
is in part driven by your voice type,
otherwise known as your voice classification.
If you'd like to learn more about voice classification,
and identify your own voice type,
then click on this video
and I'll take you through it step by step.
I'll see you in a moment, I'm Dr. Dan, sing well.