Chest Voice is your speaking voice.
Your speaking voice is your singing voice.
Yes, you read that right!
This was such a mind blowing idea for me when I first realized it. All my life, I believed that my singing voice was separate from my speaking/regular voice. I always felt like I had to get “into my singing voice” to sing, where in reality, you don’t.
Your entire vocal range consists of 3 vocal registers, which simply are just different ‘sections’ or parts of your range. Chest voice (low notes), mixed voice (notes in the middle of your range) and head voice (your highest notes).
Speaking voice is chest voice. (Usually your lower chest voice).
The only difference between speaking and singing in your chest voice is the duration you hold out what you say, and your pitch or your inflection.
When we speak, we don’t usually hold words or notes for a long time. It’s usually very staccato, meaning each syllable is very short.
However, there are times we hold notes or syllables out for a longer time in daily life.
For example, think about if someone asked you a question you had to think about, and you go “Uhhhhhhhhhh…” Doing that, you are singing. That’s holding out a note on whatever pitch you chose. You’re singing in chest voice.
If it doesn’t sound very good, then that’s where other singing techniques come in (Aka, learning to breathe correctly, learning singing vowel mouth shapes, better placement, etc.). But the bottom line is that you just sang.
Practice doing that “uhhhhhh…” I’m thinking sound at a different pitch, a little higher or a little lower. You’re singing!
If this is not what it feels like when you sing lower or comfortable singing notes, then you are singing in the wrong places! So often, people get their voices stuck in their throat or too far in the back of their mouth.
So, try this: when you speak, feel where your voice resonates (where you feel it in your mouth, it’s sort of like a vibration). If you speak normally, you should feel it right behind your front teeth. That’s also where it should be when you sing in chest voice!
When I first started to learn this, I practiced by taking a song that was in a comfortable range for me (meaning the notes weren’t hard to reach), and I took a lyric from the song and spoke it as if I was normally speaking. Then, I practiced elongating those words. Almost as if you said these words to someone, and after ten times they still didn’t hear you right. Hold out each syllable, and let it sound robotic even.
This gets you used to what it feels like when you hold out a note in chest voice!
Then, figure out how long each lyric should actually be, and speak it like that, just focusing on the duration of each syllable. (It can still sound monotone).
Once you’re used to that, practice changing pitch.
The easiest way to do this is to just think about it as if you’re adding inflection. Try this:
1. Speak the lyrics normally with normal inflection.
2. Listen to how this lyric is actually sung.
3. Try to parrot the inflection without thinking of it as singing.
4. Add in those syllables that you need to hold, along with the inflection.
And now you have just sung it in chest voice!
At first, this will feel very strange and different. It will also probably not sound like singing to you, and it definitely won’t feel like it. It will feel “too easy” and as if it’s not very musical. But even if you don’t have the tone you want, a lot of that comes from also learning to breathe correctly, and also shaping your mouth into proper singing vowels. It also comes with just getting used to it!
Listen to your favorite singers and notice that in their lower range, it often sounds like they’re talk-singing. Listen to Ed Sheeran’s “Galway Girl” or Maroon 5’s “Wait.” Notice that their lower notes are so close or almost identical to their speaking voices.
It’s really something to get used to, but it changed my whole singing life to learn this. And it can change yours too!
No matter what, practice this slowly, really focus on what you feel, and where you feel it, and embrace the fact that it will feel out of your comfort zone. Because hey; your comfort zone wasn’t getting you the singing voice you’ve always wanted (and deserve)!
You can sing!
You’ve been doing it your whole life; you just didn’t know it!
Leave any questions or comments below, and if you need any more help, I offer online voice lessons over here!
Happy Singing!
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