Bridging vs stretching chest

nspablo1

Hi guys, so I´ve been doing volume 1 for about 2 and a half months now, and I´ve tried to stretch my chest (right now i can get as high as a F5 in the warmups) The problem is now that I tried to go to volume two ken is talking about blending chest and head and I don´t seem to understand how is it that you blend them (As I go higher I kind of hear the sound going more into the head but I don´t seem to get that fluty sound or any type of disconnection) Can somebody explain me how to connect with head and if I should go to volume 2? Or should I stick with one and now try to figure out what bridging is and how to do it. It would be nice if someone could show me a video demonstrating the difference between bridging in the passagio (As I think ken explains it in volume one) and stretching chest.

streeter

Chances are you are bridging during the the lip rolls and Tongue exercise, so try to find that feeling during the Vowel exercises. As a general rule, your bridge is probably happening somewhere between D4 and E4 but everyone is different. Bridging is done with lower sound pressure and at a lower volume. Stretching Chest is done with more volume and sound pressure.

highmtn

Also, you will continue to stretch chest voice in Volume 2 and also in Volume 3. In Volume 2 you will add blending exercises that will prepare your voice to better handle mixed voice when you are ready for that.

Ken recommends that you delay working to simply bridge into head voice in the early stages, as that will be something that you continue to move higher, and if you spend much time trying to bridge now, you will be redoing it several times.

As streeter said, you most likely are bridging during the lip trills and tongue exercises. When doing these exercises lightly, as you should be, the voice tends to naturally shift into head voice. This head voice that you naturally shift into is NOT the strong head voice you will be eventually developing with KTVA. Think of that voice as a wimpy substitute. It's not a voice that will sound very good as a lead vocal, except on softer vocals. Any time you want to sing a higher note with strength, you will want to use an extended chest voice note.

The most direct route to a fully-developed Chest, Head, and Mixed voice will be to first develop your chest voice to the limits that you want to take it to. Defaulting to the weaker head voice won't give you the results you want, unless you are wanting to go no further with your chest voice.

After working the chest voice, through volumes 1, 2, and 3, THEN you work the Building Head Voice Program. That works your Timbral head voice down into and overlapping about an octave of your chest voice. You have to work at this to prevent your chest voice upper range from atrophying. Then you work this area of overlap, and learn to blend between the chest sound and the head sound. This builds a powerful mix voice.

The early bridging head voice is mostly a crutch that will leave you reliant upon that sound. If you resist now and go ahead and build the extended chest voice and the overlapping head voice, you will retain the option to sing in the softer, early bridge voice. That's the easy part. The hard part is the building of the range in the chest and in the lower timbral head range. If you go ahead and rely upon the early bridge head voice, you will tend to allow the upper mid to high chest voice to atrophy, or to never develop in the first place.

It's your choice, but Ken recommends the path that is the most direct route to powerful, extended range singing in the greatest selection of timbres.

If you prefer the softer sound, more R and B, no extended chest voice, then bridging earlier is fine. You can elect to just skip stretching your chest voice. But if you don't stretch it now, you will probably never stretch your chest voice.

All the Best!


Bob

streeter

Here you go bro, Just a quick demo to emphasise the difference in that nasty little area D4-F4. Follow @highmtn advice though. It's the quickest way to build a monster voice and guaranteed continued growth

highmtn

In @streeter's demo, because he has been stretching his chest voice correctly for so long, even his demo of "head voice" sounds seamless. He still has more strength in his voice at this lower volume level than most singers who have not trained sufficiently at stretching chest. You hear no speed bump at all.

This is what training with stretching chest will do for your voice. It will give you access to more range and more options on tone and timbre at many different volumes.

Bob

streeter

Just for reference, I still haven't moved onto the Building Head Voice portion of the course and I've been at it for about 18 months now. There are a few things I want to achieve first. For me, working The Tongue exercise was key to being able to being to bridge seamlessly pretty much anywhere I want to. Eventually you can even begin to stretch the chest voice with the tongue exercise. I'm following @highmtn's layout exactly as he has written.

A lot of people find the tongue exercise one of the most difficult parts of the workouts but if you get it, man, does it do wonders for Breath Control, Bridging, Stretching, Warming up, reinforcement of keeping the throat open... the list goes on. Then, when you do actually open up to 'Lah', everything feels so easy.

Don't skip steps, don't take short cuts, don't go to the more exciting parts of the course. Do everything exactly as it is laid out in course. There's a reason why Ken has put it in the order he has. Because that is the fastest way to get continued results.

nspablo1

Well thanks for the great advice! I found the audio examples and the explanations very helpful sorry to ask so many questions but some terms get really confusing when singing. @streeter I do feel the shifting specially when working the lip rolls, and I used to get confused in the tongue exercise because sometimes I think I stretched chest without knowing and other times I shifted, this example was really helpful specially to help me understand what I´m supposed to do with the tongue exercise in the warmups... So in summary, the first two exercises of the workout (Tongue and lip rolls) are supposed to be done in a low volume, bridging in the passagio to warmup the voice, and in the next exercises I have to stretch the chest as high as I can?

streeter

yep.