Randy,
Perhaps I'm unusual but none of my voice teachers ever avoided mixing chest
into the bottom and middle part of my range and none of the voice faculty
where I teach avoid it. We all seem to be geared to a more Italianate sound
which involves a good dose of chest in the mix and, as necessary, unmixed
chest. I don't think there's any other way to sing an evenly resonant
scale. There's certainly no other way for a soprano to sing the more
dramatic and rangy Mozart arias.
As for breath flow, Most of us on my faculty, and the teachers I've worked
with, teach that we stay in the position of the inspiration. If we do that,
and the abs and ribs move in very little, we don't waste air. They strive to
keep the air in the body and let out only voice. My students sing their best
when they imagine they are almost holding their breath. My grad school
teacher referred to the sensation as "drinking in the tone." This, in my
experience, induces a good mix of chest throughout middle, and lower middle
voice and eases the transition into and out of chest.
I must say that I agree with you that many voice teachers "suck." I'm not
prepared to say "most" but I am coming to that conclusion. I certainly find
that most choral directors in high schools seem to have problems conveying
the basic principles of alignment, balanced onsets and breath management.
Many are unaware of them.
Cindy Donnell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Sadly, most voice teachers suck ... they don't
realize that legit singing involves some chest on the bottom and produce
women with no mixture at all at the bottom, just a weak voice that mirrors
male falsetto, involves a lot of air passing over the folds and produces
unproductive muscular relationships between adductors and abductors.>
Randy Buescher>
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