> It is so good to know that one isn't alone singing odd octaves! Are > there any more chest-voice users lurking out there? Is there any > chance of knowing what area you live in, and where and from whom your > teachers learnt these exercises, or whether they "discovered " them > spontaneously.
Hi there Susi,
It's really exciting to learn other people have been using this exercise! It came to me by accident... I was playing around with the roasted cygnet aria from Carmina Burana, trying to incorporate as much "tenor" into it as possible. I was (attempting to) sing the opening note (A4) in full chest, when my voice cracked! The thing was, it came out in head voice, but with a lot more openness, resonance and volume than the chest voice version of the same note!
What essentially happened was that I had prepared the big space for what would've been a high note in chest, but phonated in head. What I discovered was that I'm in the habit of preparing a smaller space for head tones because I have been brainwashed into thinking that it is an inherently softer mode of vocalization. Anyhow, the way I learned to cash in on this discovery was to sing notes an octave down in an unapologetically open chest sound as possible, and then pop up the octave without any concern for the impending "crack".
As long as I concentrate on maintaining the same space, it works! The resulting tone is what I now consider to be my most natural sound in my upper middle range - head phonation with a lot of chest resonance and support.
Anyway, I live in Oakland, California. I would be very very interested in reading your thesis if that is possible! Let me know if you have any other questions, and good luck!
-Tako
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