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
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