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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

Stephen F. Austin, M.M., Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Voice

College of Music

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Treasure ‘Chest’

A Review of the Physiology and Historical Pedagogical concerning Vocal Registers

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Long history of confusion:

No agreement on a definition

No agreement on how many there are

No agreement on what to call them

We do not understand the focus that was applied on the registers in our historical documents

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Plan:

Understand the physiology of the registers

To understand the pedagogy of utilizing the registers as ‘building blocks’ for vocal growth

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Manuel Garcia II A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing:

Part On. The editions of 1841 and 1872 collated, edited, and translated by Donald V. Paschke. New York: Da Capo Press. Pg. xli, 1967.

“By the word register we understand a series of consecutive and homogenous tones going from low to high, produced by the development of the same mechanical principle, and whose nature differs essentially from another series of tones equally consecutive and homogenous produced by another mechanical principle.”

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Manuel Garcia II A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing:

Part One. The editions of 1841 and 1872 collated, edited, and translated by Donald V. Paschke. New York: Da Capo Press. Pg. xli, 1967.

(cont.)

“All the tones belonging to the same register are consequently of the same nature, whatever may be the modification of timbre or of force to which one subjects them.”

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Minoru Hirano “Vocal Mechanisms in Singing: Laryngological

and Phoniatric Aspects”. Journal of Voice, Vol. 2, No. 1, Pp. 51-69. 1988.

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Minoru Hirano “Regulation of Register, Pitch and Intensity of

Voice”. Folia Phoniatrica, Vol. 22, Pp. 1-20, 1970.

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Ingo Titze Principles of Voice Production. Prentice Hall, Englewood

Cliffs, New Jersey, Pg. 262, 1994.

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Minoru Hirano “Vocal Mechanisms in Singing: Laryngological

and Phoniatric Aspects”. Journal of Voice, Vol. 2, No. 1, Pp. 51-69. 1988.

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Ingo Titze Principles of Voice Production. Prentice Hall, Englewood

Cliffs, New Jersey, Pg. 261, 1994.

“As the bottom of the vocal fold bulges out, the glottis becomes more rectangular than wedge-shaped (convergent). During vibration, then, glottal closure can be obtained over a greater portion of the vocal fold, and thereby over a greater portion of the cycle…The result is a voice of richer timbre, which we call chest or modal voice.

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Giambattista Mancini Practical Reflections on

Figured Singing. Editions of 1774 & 1776 compared, translated and edited by Edward V. Foreman, Pro Music Press, Minneapolis. Pg. 20, 1967.

“This chest voice is not equally forceful and strong in everyone; but to the extent that one has a more robust or more feeble organ of the chest, he will have a more or less robust voice.”

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Giambattista Mancini Practical Reflections on

Figured Singing. Editions of 1774 & 1776 compared, translated and edited by Edward V. Foreman, Pro Music Press, Minneapolis. Pg. 34, 1967.

“A sonorous body, or rather robustness of voice is ordinarily a gift from nature, but can also be acquired by study and art.”

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Giambattista Mancini Practical Reflections on

Figured Singing. Editions of 1774 & 1776 compared, translated and edited by Edward V. Foreman, Pro Music Press, Minneapolis. Pg. 35, 1967.

“It remains for me now to speak of those voices which are slender and weak throughout their register . . . One observes that these voices are very weak in the chest notes, and the greater majority deprived of any low notes, but rich in high notes, or head voice . . .”

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Giambattista Mancini Practical Reflections on

Figured Singing. Editions of 1774 & 1776 compared, translated and edited by Edward V. Foreman, Pro Music Press, Minneapolis. Pg. 35, 1967.

“There is not method more sure to obtain this end, I believe, than to have such a little voice sing only in the chest voice for a time. The exercise should be done with a tranquil solfeggio; and as the voice enriches itself with greater body, and range, one may blend it as much as possible with the low notes.”

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Manuel Garcia II A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing:

Part One. The editions of 1841 and 1872 collated, edited, and translated by Donald V. Paschke. New York: Da Capo Press. Pg. 50, 1967.

“As we have said, the chest register is generally denied or rejected by teachers, not that one could not draw from its application an immense advantage, nor that the suppression of the range which it embraces would not deprive the singer of the most beautiful dramatic effects or the most favorable contrasts.”

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William Vennard Developing Voices. Carl Fischer, New

York, New York, 1973.

“During her studies she frequently asked for help with her high tones, which did improve during the work. More freedom and modification of the brighter vowels helped the top voice, but what she needed most was to develop the chest voice and blend it into her singing so that it would be usable.”

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Richard Miller Structure of Singing. Schirmer Books, New York,

New York. Pg. 136-137, 1986.

“Chest mixture will strengthen the soprano’s lower - middle range. Almost every female can make some chest timbre sounds, no matter how insecure, in the lowest part of her range. These notes should be sung in short, intervallic patterns, transposing by half steps upward, as more sound emerges.”

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Ingo Titze Principles of Voice Production. Prentice Hall, Englewood

Cliffs, New Jersey, Pg. 262, 1994.

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Manuel Garcia II A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing:

Part One. The editions of 1841 and 1872 collated, edited, and translated by Donald V. Paschke. New York: Da Capo Press. Pg. 50, 1967.

“…because one can approach the study of this register only with the help of profound knowledge, under the threat of ruining the student’s voice, and because the blending of this register with that of the falsetto can be secured only by a long and ably directed labor. It has therefore been judged simpler and more natural to free oneself from the difficulty of studying it.”

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Register rules:

Low and loud = chest voice

High and soft = head voice

Breathy and hooty = falsetto

We use these natural responses to train the registers to respond appropriately

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‘Sostenuto tones in the chest’ – with or without crescendo

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William Vennard Singing: The Mechanism and the Technique.

Carl Fischer, New York. Pg 214. 1967.

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William Vennard Singing: The Mechanism and the Technique.

Carl Fischer, New York. Pg 155. 1967.

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‘Welcoming in the chest’

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“Imposing the chest’

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‘Imposing the chest – II’

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‘Deference to the head’

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Additional register exercises:

Flute or whistle voice stretches for females

Falsetto stretches for males

Falsetto ‘break outs’ for men – like Garcia’s middle voice exercises for women

‘Dimmer switch’ exercises from falsetto to chest in men