Chest Voice
Most of the time, we live in chest voice.
Unless we are very excited, we spend almost all of the day in chest voice, unless of course, we are professional singers.
Some amateur singers don’t have problems with crack (the one in the voice).
Some amateur singers have multiple cracks. I heard that there was a time when Janet Jackson had five cracks, or breaks, in her voice. That’s a lot of speed bumps to drive through when going from South to North or North to South.
If you have but one crack, be grateful. To whom or what is up to you, but be grateful.
What The Heck Is Chest Voice?
It is the range in your voice from your lowest notes up to your crack.
The sound waves are the size that your chest will be vibrating when you sing those notes. This is called sympathetic vibration. Empathetic vibration is another subject altogether. We’ll save that for later.
You might have noticed this vibration in your chest, with your hand on your chest saying “The Pledge Of Allegiance”. You might have felt vibrations in your chest if you were paying attention to your hand at the time.
It is okay if you didn’t feel them.
It’s also okay to wish liberty, and justice for all people. What is so bad about that?
Chest voice isn’t a thing or a timbre or a tone, it is as described above. It is the low range of your voice. Your chest doesn’t vibrate when you are on very high notes, but your head does.
You may feel that chest voice is not connected to the rest of your voice, like a dangling participle flapping in the breeze. It is connected, but the connection may not be smooth and have a speed bump in it.
Speed bumps can be removed and it doesn’t take heavy equipment to scoop them up and haul them away.
Some people think that chest voice is specific sound the voice makes, but it is just the lower notes being sung with adequate vocal fold adduction to produce a good tone and to not sound breathy.
Many teachers have confused many singers and that is sad, but curable.
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