HEAD, CHEST AND MIDDLE VOICE

Head, Chest, And Middle Voice

There are three main contributors where your voice resonates and produces sensations:

> The Chest Voice: This is the sensation for low, warm, and rich notes which you can feel in your chest, throat, and mouth. It’s the voice we commonly use to speak with, unless you talk like Mickey Mouse.

> The Head Voice: This is the sensation for higher, brighter notes, in which the vibrations feel like they have moved from your throat and mouth, up through your soft pallet and traveled even further back and higher up, so that they are coming from the top or back of your head.

> The Middle Voice: As well as chest and head voice, we can alter resonance by placing sounds forwards. This allows for us to brighten tone by resonating notes around our cheekbones and either side of the nose, which is commonly referred to as the mask.

Using these resonating areas is what brings your voice to life. If you force the sound straight out of your mouth, it will sound dead and colorless. By focusing and mentally directing the sound, it will go there.

The goal of any singer should be to develop a voice that is clear and even, from the chest voice, up through the head voice. Many singers fear this transition. No fear, it’s simply a matter of blending and combining the joins, which we know as the middle voice.

It is much more beneficial for the long term health, agility, and appeal of your voice to blend the voices rather than reaching for notes that are too high for your chest voice.

Try singing from low to high, feeling the sound traveling out of your chest, while avoiding the larynx from tightening up. Stay relaxed and visualize the sound moving into the space in the high back of your throat.

From here you should be in a mix between your chest and head voice, your middle voice. As you sing higher, direct the sound with your mind, into your head, and let go of your chest sensation.