♫
Hi everybody!
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of
New York Vocal Coaching here in NewYork City.
Welcome to episode 86 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you as singers
by answering your questions from all over.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later.
But our question for this week comes from
Justin L. in Davao City, Philippines.
Justin, that is a nice name.
Justin writes, "Dear Justin, how do I develop
my chest voice register?"
Now Justin, I love the question.
Love!
Because we get questions all the time on vocal registers.
And this question is gonna inspire a new
five part series on vocal registration.
So, pack your suit cases, pack your sunglasses,
pack your sunscreen, pack your cat.
Because for the next five episodes
we're going on a Vocal Register World Tour.
♫
That's right, the first stop on our world tour is chest voice.
We're gonna talk about what it is,
how it applies to songs, how to develop it,
and give you an exercise to practice it.
But what is chest voice?
First of all, it's your speaking voice!
Most of us speak in our chest voice.
There's some people that speak in head voice.
There's some people who speak in Falsetto.
There's even some people that speak in vocal fry.
But most people speak in chest voice.
And this is very good news.
Because truly, if you can speak it you can sing it.
We'll see!
But chest voice isn't just our speaking voice.
It's also the most thyroarytenoid dominant production.
[Hits piano]
The thyroarytenoid muscle doesn't have to be
an intimidating word.
It's really just the muscle inside your vocal folds,
that shortens them and thickens them.
Lowering the pitch, and making things stronger.
Chest voice is the most thyroarytenoid dominant vocal register.
This is also what gives it the greatest potential for vocal strength.
All this shortening and thickening
increases what we call CQ, that's closed quotient.
It just means how long the vocal cords stay shut in their vibration.
Higher CQ equals greater vocal strength.
Like when we're engaging in a shout
or the call function of our voice.
The stage speaking voice function of our sound,
and perhaps even in some kind of belting
that we do when we sing.
But let's make sure that we know where
chest voice is in our vocal range.
Because it's so TA dominant chest voice really likes
to live in the lower part of the voice.
It's really for your low notes and maybe your middle notes.
Some males might be able to go up to E4, perhaps G4.
Some ladies might go to A4, maybe all the way up to C5.
But at a certain point it starts to
feel and sound "shouty" and "yelly".
And that doesn't feel so great for the voice.
It's not so good to push chest voice
up high all the time when it really wants to live a bit lower.
Now let's talk about chest voice and style.
Because chest voice is such a strong production
it works well in certain styles but not in others.
For example, an operatic or traditional male
is almost always in chest voice.
Whereas an operatic female is almost never in chest voice.
In contemporary music though, pop, rock, R&B, country, gospel,
a female singer will be quite often in chest voice.
Whereas a male also will be in chest voice
but not as much as he would have been in traditional music.
Speaking of that, let's see how chest voice applies to a song.
This is "Ol' Man River" by Jerome Kern.
For our chest voice song I wanted to think of
the chestiest thing I could possibly imagine.
And "Ol' Man River" came right to mind.
Now I'm no bass, but this is gonna be
as much TA as my voice can handle.
♪
♪ I get wear and sick o' tryin' ♪
♪ I'm tired o' livin' and scared o' dyin' ♪
♪ But ol' man river he just keeps rollin' along ♪
Now that's a lot of that call function, that shout function.
We certainly wouldn't want something lighter for a song like this...
♪ But ol' man river he just keeps rollin' along ♪
It just wouldn't be right.
But I don't want to give you the impression
that chest voice is only for an operatic sound.
You can still bring chest voice into a more poppy production.
♪ But ol' man river he just keeps rollin' along ♪
It can still have chest even if it's not operatic for a male
and like I said, for a female as well.
So now, next let's look at some tips
for helping you to sing in chest voice.
Tip number one is that neutral and low larynxes
accommodate chest voice the best.
When the larynx is neutral or low
the cords have more slack to them.
It gives them a greater mechanical advantage
for the stronger sounds.
It's actually not so good for them to have
a higher larynx and a lot of chest voice.
It gets really tight.
Hey!
It's not so good for you.
But the...
Hey, hey
kind of feeling, of dropping and opening in chest voice
accommodates the sound and is a lot healthier too.
Tip two, it's called chest voice for a reason.
Now I didn't come up with these terms.
Chest voice, head voice, mix.
It can be very confusing.
I prefer more specific things like
thyroarytenoid dominant production.
[Hits piano]
But it's what we got cause it's
what they named it back in the day.
Why did they do it?
Because when we're in chest voice
we feel conductive vibrations of the chest.
Try this out...
Hey, hey! [head voice]
Great.
Now...
Hey, hey. [chest voice]
Nice!
You feel more of those vibrations
when you're in chest voice.
So it can be a good indication to you of when you're in chest.
Tip number three, the audacity of the breath.
From day one on this show we've
talked about great breathing technique, good breath support.
So you know that singing relies on a
slow, small, steady stream of breath.
But chest voice is a little bit different.
We still want our breath into the ribcage and low abdominals.
But with chest voice we can be a little bit more bold,
a little more intense, a little more audacious with our breath.
We can use just a little bit more,
and that will actually encourage chest voice
more than the other vocal registers.
Tip number four, have no fear chest voice is here.
One of the biggest reasons that singers
can't sing in chest voice is actually a mental block.
They judge the sound and say it sounds bad,
it sounds wrong, it sounds ugly, sounds like too much,
sounds like a sound I don't want other people to hear me make.
But I promise you chest voice is not a register that
you can be shy and tentative with.
We're gonna do an exercise in a minute
and you have to make not just a joyful noise
but actually a bold noise.
You have to let it out and have no fear
or else chest voice ain't gonna happen.
Tip number five, take it easy.
The reason some people are afraid of chest voice
is they've been told it's bad for them.
It's very much not bad for you.
Not for males, not for females.
But what is bad is doing chest voice all the time,
and doing it too loud and too high,
and just too much.
But as long as you take it easy
and you're sensitive to your voice,
and you develop the other registers of your voice
alongside chest voice, then everything's
going to work better than ever.
With that in mind, let's do our vocal exercise now.
This is gonna be YOH on a 5-1.
It sounds like this...
♪ YOH ♪
And so you're going to speak a "YOH" on pitch.
We're gonna start with guys and then
bring in the ladies as we go.
Guys down here...
♪ YOH ♪
Here we go...
♪
Nice.
♪ YOH ♪
That's it!
♪
Correct.
♪
Mhm!
♪
Let's bring in some ladies...
♪ YOH ♪
Right!
♪
That's right.
♪ YOH ♪
Let's lose the guys!
♪
Correct, ladies!
♪
Awesome.
♪
Let's bring back the guys.
♪ YOH ♪
Yes.
♪
Good for you.
♪
Right on.
♪
♪ YOH ♪
Nice and bold!
♪
Awesome.
♪
A few left...
♪ YOH ♪
♪
Last...
♪
Wonderful job with that!
And so, this is just the first part of our
Vocal Register World Tour.
First stop, chest voice.
I hope that's been helpful to you guys today as singers.
If you have questions that you'd like to
see us answer on the show you can send an email to
Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
And you know I encourage you to not lose the joy,
don't lose the passion, don't let people tell you
that you can't sing, you and I both know that's not true.
Get with a great voice teacher near you.
Or if you're in New York
or you'd like to Skype with one of our staff,
check out NewYorkVocalCoaching.com.
If you'd like a vocal course that you can do [♪]
in the comfort of your own home the [♪]
Voice Lessons To The World Vocal Course [♪]
is a 12-part course that takes you on a journey [♪]
from beginner to master level vocal exercises. [♪]
You can check that out at VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
And if you'd like free daily vocal tips [♪]
sent to you every day sign up at [♪]
DailyVocalTips.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
Until next time, make a joyful noise. [♪]
♬
♪ Old Manny river, that old Manny river ♪