Suki, here's my chest exercise. I do it once a week, although my teacher says it can be done every day.
A simple three note scale (1 2 3 2 1), very slowly, on a very forward "ih" vowel. Sometimes I lift my upper lip (kind of a sneer) to show the teeth, to get a more nasty, ringing vowel that feels like it's buzzing right in front of my teeth. Nasal port is closed. I start at the G below middle C and don't take it any higher than C-D-E-D-C.
You'll feel it (in a bad way) if the vowel is too far back (coming from the throat), which is why you are allowed to make faces if you need to pull it more frontal. It's like you're riding on the resonance of the tone from the front teeth and the upper lip. A very bright, buzzing "ih."
When/where to use chest voice: I've always heard that the Italians find it a very sexy female sound, while the Germans consider it vulgar and avoid it. I've never heard anyone sing, for example, Giocanda without liberal use of the chest voice. Most sopranos seem to use chest in "Deh vieni, non tardar." This suggests to me that verismo and very big, dramatic roles want chest to be used as a stylistic enhancement of the character, while the lighter voices need to use chest in order to be heard. The higher an instrument sits, in my experience, the less naturally loud the head voice is down low, so the more the chest must be mixed in to prevent middle C from fading away altogether. I can always tell a true mezzo (like Elena Zaremba, wow) from the way she can plunge into a true head-voice middle C and below, and the notes come rolling & ringing out across the orchestra.
Isabelle B.
===== Isabelle Bracamonte San Francisco, CA ibracamonte@y... ibracamonte@y...
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