I, too, have never had a teacher avoid chest in my middle and low registers. I have heard the product of teachers that do avoid chest - but I've also heard kids (since most of my students are middle and high schoolers) that avoid it because they think it's ugly or scary or their choir director doesn't like it.
Christine Thomas, Mezzo Soprano
"I love to sing-a, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a!" ----- Original Message ----- From: Cynthia Donnell To: vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2002 9:54 PM Subject: Re: [vocalist] Re: classical isn't the only way (was amplification)
Randy, Perhaps I'm unusual but none of my voice teachers ever avoided mixing chest into the bottom and middle part of my range and none of the voice faculty where I teach avoid it. We all seem to be geared to a more Italianate sound which involves a good dose of chest in the mix and, as necessary, unmixed chest. I don't think there's any other way to sing an evenly resonant scale. There's certainly no other way for a soprano to sing the more dramatic and rangy Mozart arias.
As for breath flow, Most of us on my faculty, and the teachers I've worked with, teach that we stay in the position of the inspiration. If we do that, and the abs and ribs move in very little, we don't waste air. They strive to keep the air in the body and let out only voice. My students sing their best when they imagine they are almost holding their breath. My grad school teacher referred to the sensation as "drinking in the tone." This, in my experience, induces a good mix of chest throughout middle, and lower middle voice and eases the transition into and out of chest.
I must say that I agree with you that many voice teachers "suck." I'm not prepared to say "most" but I am coming to that conclusion. I certainly find that most choral directors in high schools seem to have problems conveying the basic principles of alignment, balanced onsets and breath management. Many are unaware of them. Cindy Donnell ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >Sadly, most voice teachers suck ... they don't realize that legit singing involves some chest on the bottom and produce women with no mixture at all at the bottom, just a weak voice that mirrors male falsetto, involves a lot of air passing over the folds and produces unproductive muscular relationships between adductors and abductors.>
Randy Buescher>
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