Ep.58: Singing Tips: Light Chest-No Chest Vocal Type - What’s Out of Balance?
This video will provide singing tips that explain what’s happening with your vocal
cords, vowels and air blow when your vocal type is Light Chest - No Chest and how to
fix it!
As a singing teacher, this vocal type challenges me more than any other. Watch and find out
why!
Hi I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing.
Great singing occurs when the physical function of the vocal cords, vowels and air blow are
balanced. Add to that emotionally connecting with your audience and you can inspire and
change lives with your singing!
When your vocal type is Light Chest - No Chest, what’s out of balance? What’s the physical
cause? What’s the effect on the sound of your voice? How do you fix it?
Singing Tips for Light Chest - No Chest Vocal Type: What’s Out of Balance? What Does it
Sound Like?
First, let’s talk about “Light Chest”.
Vocal Cords Out of Balance: The vocal cords are not firmly coming together. They’re
connected, but the connection is so gentle that too much air is escaping.
It sounds light, airy or breathy. [Demo]
Vowels Out of Balance: Vowels may be too narrow or too wide. It hardly matters because the
words can’t be heard or understood anyway.
Air Blow is Out of Balance: Air blow might be too strong or forceful. The result is it
overpowers the vocal cords. It sounds breathy. [Demo]
Or air blow may be too weak. This results in underpowering the vocal cords. They don’t
have enough air to function or produce volume to be heard. It sounds weak and soft. [Demo]
If one or more of these are out of balance, it’s possible the external muscles squeeze
in order to help create a bigger sound and the larynx is pulled up. Or the larynx is
already high. This makes bringing the vocal cords together difficult. This is especially
noticeable in chest voice. [Demo]
Here’s a singer singing with a Light Chest coordination:
Let’s talk about “No Chest” voice.
Vocal Cords Out of Balance: Same as Light Chest. However, the cords relax even more
with the lower pitches. There’s virtually no sound when the singer’s in the lower
chest voice.
Vowels Out of Balance: The vowels may be distorted because of the imbalance in the vocal cords
and air blow. Often you can’t understand what they’re saying.
Air Blow is Out of Balance: There’s either an overabundance of air or not enough air
flow.
Here’s an example of singing with “No Chest” voice: [Demo]
Singing Tips: How to Fix the Light Chest - No Chest Vocal Type
Vocal Cords In Balance: Here’s a vocal exercise to help balance the vocal cords. Using Staccato,
you say “ae ae ae”. This will help bring the vocal cords together more firmly. Use
them in a 5-Tone scale. Then do it legato. [Demo]
Vowels in Balance: The balance for vowels is greatly assisted by balanced cords and
air blow, and by pronouncing the words like you speak them. Do not over narrow or widen
the vowels.
Air Blow in Balance: A great exercise to balance air blow is the word “Guh”. The “g”
helps regulate the amount of air being sent to the vocal cords. The amount of airflow
may need to increase. This can be done by gradually increasing the volume to find the
right balance with the vocal cords. Use this with the 5-Tone Scale. [Demo]
The Resulting Sound May Be: Strong, consistent tone whether in head, middle or chest voice.
There’s a full compliment of vocal overtones throughout your range. Words are understandable.
Compare these two singers. One sings with a light chest voice. The other with balanced
cords, vowels and air flow.
With Light Chest - No Chest there’s some cord connection. With falsetto, there’s
no cord connection. As a result it will not blend into chest voice. On the other hand,
with light or no chest voice, there’s little to no sound to blend.
The reason this vocal type challenges me so much is the psychology of the singer. In my
experience, often this vocal type is younger age children who are just afraid to make a
sound. Sometimes it’s a personality who self identifies as quiet, soft spoken or even
shy. There needs to be a complete change in how they see themselves. This is hard for
all of us to do.
Fundamentally, singing is aggressive. If you can’t get your cords together because you’re
too shy, or you’re afraid of success, not much is going to change with your singing.
Light Chest - No Chest is one of four vocal types. Do you know your vocal type? I’m
not referring to whether you’re soprano, alto, tenor or bass. Your vocal type uncovers
the imbalance in your vocal cords, vowels and air blow. It reveals what you tend to
do when you sing.
Visit PowerToSing.com and take the vocal test, which I call the PowerTest. Take the quiz
and discover your vocal type. Then go to the Knowledge Center and watch the videos about
your vocal type.
The exercises to download are designed to help you balance your voice so you can improve
immediately.
I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power to Sing. You can sing higher with beauty, confidence and
power.
I’ll see you inside the next video.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community