It’s easy to connect the chest to the head voice. It’s harder to make it a smooth transition.This video is about blending registers singing. I’m going to give you four exercises to help smooth the transition from chest to head voice and back to chest. Come do it with me!
Hi! I’m Chuck Gilmore, International Vocal Coach and Founder of Power To Sing.
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Connecting chest to head voice, which singers often refer to as connecting registers, is relatively quick and easy. The hard part is blending or smoothing the transition from chest to head and back down again. It’s frustrating to feel our voices tighten and grab. It’s embarrassing if you can still hear the transition almost like it’s still cracking.
Here are 4 exercises to help you smooth out this transition. Each of these will help you do the following:
Smooth out the transition to eliminate the feeling of cracking
Even out the transition to unify your voice so you don’t sound like two different singers
Eliminate the old habit of pulling chest, reaching or grabbing so it feels easier and gets stronger faster.
These exercises work extremely well and will help you blend your registers while singing. It’s worked for 1000’s of singers and will work for you.
Exercise One – Foo – 5 Tone Scale
If we are still reaching or raising the larynx in chest voice it sounds like this when I sing foo. [Demo 5 tone up]
If I do it without reaching or a high larynx, it sounds like this. [demo] Why is this important to fix in chest voice even if you can transition to mix? Because what we do before colors what we do in the mixed voice and into head voice. [demo bring larynx up into mix and head voice, incorrect on highest note]
This exercise will help. [Demo correct]
Men start on the F#3 and go down four half steps. Women start on the middle C and go down four half steps.
Men first then the ladies. Ready men, [Demo] begin.
Now ladies. Ready ladies, [Demo] begin.
Exercise Two – Ney Exaggerated on Octave Repeat
Smoothing out the Transition from chest to head and back is easier if we reduce the amount of chest voice we are using before we get to the bridge.
Ney will help you thin out the chest voice. [Demo right] Done incorrectly if sounds like this. [Demo]
Men start on the C#3 and go down three half steps. Women start on the Ab3 and go down three half steps.
Men first then the ladies. Ready men, [Demo] begin.
Now ladies. Ready ladies, [Demo] begin.
Exercise Three – Foo – 5 Tone with Sustain (with Vibrato)
If we are still pulling chest voice a little, the vowel will start to spread. This exercise helps you maintain the same vowel so it doesn’t spread.
It sounds like this. [Demo Foo with sustain, correctly] If done wrong it’s like this. [Demo Foo with sustain and let top note be chest] .
Men start on the F#3 and go down four half steps. Women start on the middle C and go down four half steps.
Men first then the ladies. Ready men, [Demo Foo with sustain, correctly] begin.
Now ladies. Ready ladies, [Demo Foo with sustain, correctly] begin.
Try doing this exercise wrong. [demo wrong] Now do it right. [Demo] Can you feel the difference? Let me know in the comments section below this video.
Exercise Four – Foo with Vowel Change to Oh
In songs we always face vowel changes. Even before the bridge, it’s easy to spread the vowel. This makes the transition through the bridge and head voice very uneven. This exercise will help us keep the larynx down even though the vowel is changing.
It sounds like this. [Demo] Done wrong it sounds like this. [Demo wrong]
We’ll Use the same notes as our last exercise.
Men first then the ladies. Ready men, [Demo] begin.
Now ladies. Ready ladies, [Demo] begin.
By allowing the “Oh” to follow directly into the same feeling as the “Foo”, the larynx stays down and there’s no reach. If done wrong the larynx comes up and you feel the reaching come in. ]Demo wrong and right].
Can you feel and hear the difference? Let me know in the comments below.
A powerful way to help you when blending registers singing is to do exercises for your vocal type. Your vocal type describes what you tend to do when you sing through the bridge.
Go to PowerToSing.com and take the vocal test, which I call the PowerTest. Take the quiz and discover your vocal type. Click on vocal types in the menu and watch the videos about your vocal type. Download the free exercises and get to work on them.
Here’s a free PDF with links to the vocal test, videos and exercises. The PDF is called, Get Your Vocal Type. Download it here or in the description below this Youtube video.
These exercises will help you keep the larynx down, appropriately adduct your vocal cords and balance them with the air from your lungs, and help you sing in an easy, uncluttered and natural manner and will help you smooth the transitions from chest to head and back down again.
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I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power to Sing. You can sing higher with beauty, confidence and power. I’ll see you inside the next video.
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