TIPS ON HOW TO SING WITH YOUR CHEST VOICE!
The greatest singers use this “chest voice” sound in their singing. Most men speak entirely within their chest voice, while most women use both their chest and middle voices to speak; this is referred to as “speech level”. It begins and ends in different places for everyone, depending on your voice type and range. The term chest voice was invented by old school Italian singers; used to describe notes in the lower range of the singing voice. They called it chest voice because singers noticed they would feel vibration in the chest area.
If you place your hand on your chest and say your name out loud with strong volume, you should feel the vibration. The vibration you feel against your hand is generated from your vocal cords. The vocal cords create a richer and fuller vocal tone with stronger vibrations.
Here are a few tips on how to access your chest voice. Let’s start with some very basic vocal exercise to access and feel your chest voice when you sing. It’s called “Gug”. If you do the beginner runs in my Vocal Power With Michelle Ostrove CD (or scales) and use Gug, you will feel the vibration in the chest area in the lower tones. This is an excellent exercise because the “uh” vowel makes a singer use a lot of chest voice while the “G” sound makes the vocal cords vibrate fully. Here is another exercise to help you with the chest voice: begin speaking in your normal voice. As you begin speaking, slowly transition the words into the “ooh” sound. You should feel resonance in your lower neck and chest. Listen to Natalie Rodriguez sing “Somebody’s Problem” hitting those low notes in the beginning of the song. You can hear the vibration of her chest voice in the first few words of the song.
JOKE FOR THE DAY:
What’s the latest crime wave in New York City? Drive-by trombone solos.