Free Voice…

Free Your Voice & Your Artistry Will Follow…

REVISED AUG 26, 2016

Blog-Free Your Voice & Artistry Will Follow-Sing Like The Starz Studios. Learn why balance through-out vocal registers facilitates Artistically Free Voice!

Free Your Voice & Your Artistry Will Follow!

Every singer desires vocal strength, power, tone, agility, range, ease, texture, color, control, dynamics, vibrato and beauty. Yet the majority of singers run into one huge problem that prevents them from acquiring the “balanced voice” which would allow them to achieve all of these things…

That problem creates a question, and that question is this:

How do I get from the bottom part of my vocal register “chest voice” through that critical middle part of my vocal register “1st bridge” throughout the top part of my vocal register(s) “head voice – whistle voice” without yelling and screaming my head off-sounding like I’m straining, has no breaks in my voice (smooth transition) and without hitting that lackluster falsetto which is far too often, airy & breathy (little tone or strength) while maintaining ease, dynamic tonal presence, control and beauty? How do I do that? That is the question…

Here is the answer:

The proven vocal technique taught by Sing Like The Starz Studios; the same technical principles learned and taught by the most successfully professional vocal instructors of our time – True Bel Canto, Beautiful Singing. A famous present day voice master once asked himself the very same question most singers have. The solution came about through insight, inspiration, and research, almost through divine guidance this vocal technique was born, or re-born from the 1600 – 1700 centuries. The Italian Bel Canto (beautiful singing) method centers on the Castrati techniques of vocal registrated balance. Brought back from an almost lost era, through Speech Level Singing, (SLS) The Technique of Legends & by extension, an off-shoot of individuals and organizations that have advanced the knowledge and training of this methodology, which has grown by far to be known as the most tremendously proven vocal technique of our time, as there are various iterations of this modernized phenomenon.

This technique can be successfully applied to all pop genres of music and seamlessly blends a singer’s various voices [chest, middle and head] into one voice, without breaks and with far better tone.

Successful singers who have utilized the basis of this technique include Stevie Wonder, Barbara Streisand, Michael Jackson, Natalie Cole, David Archuleta, Jordin Sparks, Justin Beiber, Cee Lo Green, Natasha Bedingfield and a less known singer who had a top 10 hit on the charts, and who has worked with industry gaints such as Tower of Power, Denice Williams, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis – a singer Alexys Paris taught how to “mix” Michael Jeffries. The basis of this technique include many famous others.

TECHNIQUE TO VOCAL FREEDOM!

Chest Voice

Chest voice should naturally occur when we sing low notes. Our chest voice is our speaking voice, and it should have a heavier tone, because the low musical notes feel (to many singers) as though the sound is physically resonating in the chest cavity while singing-hence the name “chest voice”.

A too light chest voice (meaning its disconnected and too breathy in the bottom register) is another habitual imbalance. This does not allow the creation of a dynamic upper register. The chest needs to be strengthened, beefed up to create the balance. One must have chest voice in order to create the mix…

Pulling the chest voice into the upper head voice register creates tones that sound strained. A too heavy tone or yelling on pitch in the upper register is the fastest way to seriously damage the vocal cords and causes hoarseness, nodules, hemorrhaging, and all too often results in surgery. Needless to say, this is a habitually vocal imbalance.

Head Voice

Head voice is lighter than chest voice and should occur in the upper register (above the 1st bridge) of the singer’s range. From the singer’s perspective, “head voice” often feels as though it is physically resonating in the singer’s head-hence the term “head voice” but it is connected to chest voice and creates a crystal clear tone (when done properly) yet it is free of the heavy weight that chest voice has and when performed properly is much safer, surprisingly easier, and has dynamic tonal presence!

NOTE: Scientifically speaking, although the singer may feel sensations in the chest or head cavities, the sound is not physically reasonating there. The singer is feeling sympathetic vibrations in those areas of the body. The sound is actually created by vocal cord closure and air pressure; it is then shaped, augmented, modified, & amplified by the physical spaces above the larynx, consisting of the pharynx, matter in the mouth, hard-palate, soft-palate… etc.

Some singers are prone to dropping the heavier chest voice altogether or at any point, as one is ascending or descending resulting into embracing an airy or breathy tone, causing yet another imbalance. The singer sounds as though there are two separate voices instead of progressing through the registers with dynamic tonal presence, connected voice intact. Disconnection can happen along any given point throughout the registers.This is known as a flip (flipping from “connected voice” into falsetto and back again). Both light chest and flipping are imbalances that lack proper dynamic expression and can also cause vocal damage, but this damage may not be discovered until after a longer period of time.

Both chest voice and head voice are very important to create vocal balance and they cannot co-exist without a strong middle voice that connects both those two primary vocal registers, i.e., that critical 1st bridge, the “mix voice”. Most singers need training to migrate from the chest voice into the head voice and back into chest correctly. There are other bridges in the voice as well, and they too need attention to ensure connected transition is clean and consistently smooth throughout the entire range, but the 1st bridge is most-often the most critical.

1st Bridge

The 1st bridge is the part of the voice that sits in the middle of both chest voice and head voice and as the term implies, serves as the passageway from chest voice to head voice and back again. Most often, this area of the voice needs to be, first of all, introduced to the singer, as very often, the singer has not experienced these sensations. It also must be strengthened in order to blend chest voice and head voice as one connected voice. This is where much work is often needed to develop that critical middle voice.

Free & Beautiful Voice

When a singer masters a balanced mixture of chest voice, head voice, the 1st bridge and, all the bridges in a singer’s range, that person is said to sing in a “mix”. (A mix is a balanced blend of the chest, middle and head voices…) Once this is achieved, the fun begins! The singer is ready to further “Develop Your Beautiful Voice.”

As the singer continues, what was difficult becomes easier, then it becomes effortless, then rapturous, until it becomes vocally free and beautiful. Once the singer gains freedom and beauty of the voice, only then does the opportunity presents itself to achieve mastery over their own artistically free & beautiful voice. Free Your Voice and Your Artistry Will Follow…

Solid Vocal Technique

Hope This Helps!

Alexys Paris
Sing Like The Starz Studios

Written by Alexys Paris