Vocalist.org archive


From:  taylor23f@h...
taylor23f@h...
Date:  Thu Mar 1, 2001  5:25 pm
Subject:  Re: Chest-register in voice training



Randy wrote:

>Most classical pedagogies discourage
> chest on the bottom, but a connected sound coming out of chest
makes the
> adduction more efficient and requires less air to complete the
process. I
> teach a chest coordination and the high notes of my female singers
become
> easier because of it.

Randy, you've made my morning with this comment, bravo to your
teaching. Especially with regard to females, chest-voice production
is at times looked down upon. Every great female voice that I've
ever heard live or on recording uses the lower register in a firm
manner. Where some teachers 'miss the boat' with their females is
they have their students take a light-head-voice quality down below
F, into the chest-range. Or they go the other direction and engage
the chest voice below F with a thick-throaty-darkened vowel which
only serves to lock the student's voice up. Yes, this latter
directive may "produce" a chest-like tone, but vowel quality will be
distorted.
The larynx and pharynx of both male and female are structurally
absoultely similiar, except in as much as the male organs are larger,
with the result that the average male voice has a habitual pitch
about one octave lower than the average male. Also, men speak in
their lower-register, while most women use the upper-register. As a
result, in most cases, the upper-reg of a man and the lower-reg of a
women are underdeveloped. The important part of voice training is
the diagnosis of which register is weak- then through guided exercise
to render that register strong. The process is rather simple if the
basic diagnosis is correct and the means to their correction are well
understood.
Case in point: My fiancee Laura is a twenty-one year old mezzo.
She was born with a fabulous chest-register and basically had a huge
low F by the time she was in her teens. She also had an amazing belt
voice when she was in high school. This is her senior year at LSU as
an ED major with a voice concentration. He and I have been working
on her voice for about 7 months or so. When we began, her lower
register was powerful, but the vowels were very dark and labored and
her top did not even go above top line F easily. Well, we've kept at
it, and recently she had a first opera role ever at LSU where she
sang the Principessa in Suor Angelica. She was the show stopper
hands down- and was also the only mezzo in the school capable of
singing a beautiful low G# chest tone. I was sooooo proud of her and
her work. She has now tacked on a fine high Bb and is on a road of
vocal success. Even Steve Austin, my voice teacher, said the
improvements she made were amazing. Her voice combined with her
knockout looks make for a good package in the field. I'm the
luckiest man around- beacuse on May 26th she will become my wife:)
I beieve that any voice is capable of making glorious sounds if
certain principles are adhered to.

Take Care All,

Taylor L. Ferranti
DMA Canddate in Vocal Pedagogy
Louisiana State University



emusic.com