How high should I take up chest voice?

dThomas

Hello, I am a 17 year old tenor. I know that chest voice is the foundation of the voice and has to be very strong. However, how high should I take up chest voice safely? I don't know how far Ken takes you up chest voice since I don't have his course, but there is a YouTube video where he took a Japanese student up to the 5th octave which was pretty amazing. Some coaches on YouTube say that tenors should take up their chest at least to F4, while others day A4. Based on KTVA standards, how far should I safely take up my chest voice? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

NicolasGralewicz

This is a great question! Despite what some people might have you think, each voice type in itself is a diverse spectrum of voices. I for example, am a high tenor who struggles to go down to the second octave at all and my vocal break sits around A4. However, you don't wanna sing all the way up to your vocal break, as a habit I tend to start mixing around F4. So my best advice is to keep singing up to where it's comfortable and sounds good because I don't know what your voice sounds like.

P.S. I'm not a voice teacher or expert, but I'd like to consider myself knowledgeable and qualified to give advice, if I could HEAR you sing I might be able to help a bit

Edit: HEY! I RECOGNIZE YOU FROM THAT OTHER POST ABOUT "EARNING NOTES"

Ima leave that other stuff up there as handy knowledge, but I'd probably say a safe bet for you is to flip around F4, don't fret it too much though, ideally your chest and mix should be indistinguishable!

Wigs

Keep in mind that when you practice and bring your voice to a certain value of note or tonal quality, its not to always be able to use it the same way in a song, more to be comfortable singing in the songs range and not feeling like you are at your limit in the song. Ive been told im a tenor although ive never really been bothered about it since KTVA is all about safely stretching your voice up and down outside of your typical vocal fach. In my scales I can bring my chest up to a C5, But I cant yet do that in a song because of so many other variables and I haven't yet trained myself enough. Around G4 A4 is my chest limit when I sing a song, anything after that is a head dominant mix or pure head.

Taking your chest voice up safely is something you should do regularly to keep the ability. Think more about what your chest limit is now and safely approach stretching it, instead of having a set note value as an end goal.

dThomas

I've been pondering something lately, at what point should I start to work on head and bring that down. Is it based on a note? Should I start at G4 or stretch chest beyond G4 first? If it's not based on a fixed note as alluded by Wigs, when do I start polishing up head voice?

mey_luqman98

dThomas said:

Should I start at G4 or stretch chest beyond G4 first?

You should start with what is comfortable for you..if G4 is comfortable for you then it is a good start..it is not only about stretching the high notes, it is also about how comfortable we feel during the stretch..

dThomas said:

when do I start polishing up head voice?

Ken recommended us to have a strong solid chest voice and try to stretch our chest up to C5..but for me,i start working on head voice cord closure once i reached A4 in chest voice

Klaus_T

i can tell you that much, Ken teaches head voice only in volume 4, at which point you would have trained several years near-daily (5-6 times/week), mostly your chest, with specific drills. i am not sure if the "strong chest voice" question is really answered with a note value, it is more how much have you grown your chest voice, strength-wise (vs. pitch wise). if you want to be extra sure, you might want to think about the course (if you don't already )