03 Chest Voice

In this lesson, we’ll talk about:

Chest voice: what it is and how to access it.
The vocal break / bridge: where and why it happens.
The importance of developing chest voice for contemporary styles of singing.
Chest voice exercises to build your lower range.

Audio Workout

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275 Responses

Hey,
I am really enjoying this course, and I am super excited to get up in front of my friends and sing with my new found voice. Just noticed something – as I was going through the exercises, I noticed that at some point, my voice starts to go off-pitch. If I can use an analogy, it’s like when you are lifting sort-of heavy dumbells, and as you pull another rep, your muscles cannot lift any further and when you try to, your arm is all jelly and wobbles everywhere. Same with my voice – kinda.
Is that normal? Is that when my voice starts cracking?

Charmaine Brown says:
August 8, 2020 at 7:33 pm
Hey! Glad you’re enjoying the lessons! Yes, absolutely that’s totally normal. It’s muscles that control the vocal cords, and so the instability is just a sign of weakness in certain areas. My voice used to do that all the time too—but good news, these exercises work to strengthen those muscles big-time!

Hey Charmaine, I have a quick question. You often suggest that we practice the lop roll before we get into the vocal exercises and you go onto to recommend that we practice chest voice and head voice exercises about 3 ish times that week. I was wondering about how much time I should dedicate to each of those things, the lip roll to warm up, the chest voice exercises and the head voice ones?

Thank you,
Alexis

Charmaine Brown says:
August 4, 2020 at 8:56 pm
Hey Alexis! Just once through the lip roll warmup and once through the workout is best—follow along with the weekly workout schedule in the lesson notes!
1. Alexis Rodriguez says:
  August 5, 2020 at 2:23 pm
  Thank you Charmaine. My question may have been a little unclear. I was wondering if the best practice would be to rewatch the “Discover Your Voice” lip rolls video and simply go through the exercise with you there as I did the first time? The same question applies to the practice of chest and head voice exercises as well. (should I rewatch the video and do that amount of time with these exercises daily?)
  1. Charmaine Brown says:
    August 8, 2020 at 1:32 pm
    Hey Alexis, thanks for clarifying! There’s no need to watch the video a second or third time, but of course you are welcome to—I have had people say that it “clicks” much better the second time watching! In general I recommend watching the video once per week, then going through the accompanying workout 3-5 times that same week.

When I just started doing these chest voice exercises, afterwards I felt tired, somewhat strained, and my speech would sound grainy… which I thought was strange because I use my chest voice more than the others (not just singing but in speaking) and so I expected it to be strong. Well I have clearly progressed because now, I can do these exercises without the sore feeling. Gradually I think I learned to make the sound with my mouth and less with my throat, I hope that makes sense but it’s the best way I can think of to describe it.

Charmaine Brown says:
August 4, 2020 at 8:38 pm
That’s awesome! Yes that totally makes sense! Your voice has become stronger so you’re not having to push like you used to—the mouth is now working efficiently as a resonator instead of having to strain from the throat!

Hey there Charmaine: I am loving these warm-ups! Question though…my AHs are a bit of a mess. Even when singing a song, the ah vowel is troublesome for me. I cannot get a decent, clean sounding chesty ah…it feels very pharyngeal or throaty and robotic (not strained) when I try to focus sound in the mouth. It’s super strange and is driving me a little crazy. Any logic behind why this would be happening?!

Charmaine Brown says:
July 12, 2020 at 1:02 pm
Hmm, it’s hard to say without hearing it… is it sounding different in different moments (because “pharyngeal” and “throaty” sound like two different things)? The AH should naturally become a bit of a mix between chest (mouth) resonance and pharyngeal (nasality). It could be that you’re keeping your mouth too small/closed—try dropping your jaw and open up the mouth and see if that helps. If it keeps happening, I would suggest submitting an “Analyze My Voice” to get feedback on it!
1. sraebrowning says:
  July 21, 2020 at 4:27 pm
  Hi Charmaine, I have the same question, it feels like I need to cough once I get through one of the scales! haha
2. good2bewood says:
  July 12, 2020 at 1:33 pm
  Thanks! Yes, sorry for being unclear. I meant it initially sounds pharyngeal and then when I try shifting the sounds throaty. Because it is a chest exercise, I kept trying to pull the sound to mouth more but sounds like you’re saying that the”AH” naturally moves to the mix. I will try your suggestions and go from there. Thanks so much!
  1. Charmaine Brown says:
    July 12, 2020 at 1:48 pm
    Yeah, try it with that in mind and see what happens! The point is, we want it to be grounded in chest resonance, but the AH naturally takes on some nasality and that’s a good thing!

I definitely push my chest voice up too high which makes my throat sore from straining. Then when I switch to head voice, I have even less power due to the fatigue.

Charmaine Brown says:
July 11, 2020 at 10:16 am
Yes, very common for many singers—definitely a habit we’re trying to break in this course! The exercises in the upcoming lessons will help!

03 Chest Voice

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