"Stretching The Chest"

Baritone

I am a baritone and my voice breaks at E4 and I make my vowel modication at E4, i.e., "Ah" to "loft".

When Ken speaks about "stretching the chest voice as far as possible before handing it off to head voice", does that entail holding off the vowel modification and staying with pure "Ah" on E4?

Or, just make the usual modification at E4, but try to carry a more "heavy chest quality" on the higher notes E4,F4, and F#4, instead of handing it off early to a "light quality" head voice at E4?

highmtn

Hi, @Baritone!

You would start the vowel modifications a note or two before your break, and use them to delay going into head voice. You do carry a chest quality beyond (in your case) E4, but you don't carry as much weight as you would have at, say C4. The weight has to taper off as the chest notes go up.

Bob

Maxsings

Hey,

I have about the same question. I am doing the Dudes audio workout with AH vowel, the simple scale, but I have the feeling I do the entire scale with just me chest voice, only using loft a bit. Is that strange?

highmtn

You may already be using an extended chest voice, or possibly you are going into mid or head voice and don't know. I would have to hear what you are doing on a straight, standard Lah scale. That would be good if you are able to get up to A4, Bb4, or B4 in chest voice only going to loft.