Exactly so!

Am I correct in observing that the term "head voice" is being used here in two (at least two) different senses? I have heard this same rather perplexing terminology elsewhere—and fairly often—indicating that some clear definitions are needed. I hear and read a lot of things about the human voice that, given my own experience, sounds vaguely mystical. "Chest voice," "middle voice," "head voice." As if there were something like three sets of vocal equipment.

This relates to "registers," which I know from talking with trained singers, voice teachers, and by reading, is a controversial concept. In my own voice, I have two, what might be called, registers:   full voice and falsetto. I don't use falsetto, except when clowning around.

I am a bass, or bass-baritone (when I steal a song from one of Ed McCurdy's or Gordon Bok's records, I usually wind up singing it in the same key that they do), and by some standards, I don't have a very broad range. My lowest fairly reliable note is somewhere around a low E (on the guitar, sixth string open), and to sing above a B (second string open), I have to make sure my throat is relaxed, I have my diaphragm under me, and I "place" the tone, or I'll tend to go flat, get a thin, unpleasant sound, or pop into the yodel-break. If I'm ready for it (practice), it's no problem. But other than a slight change in timbre, I would hardly consider it "head voice" as distinct from "chest voice." It's simply a different location in the spectrum of sound.

But what ties my alleged "chest" and "head" voices together is one of the most important things I got from voice teachers:   the concept, not of "head voice," but of "head resonance." This is the quality that allows you, without benefit of amplification, to bounce your voice off the back wall of a fairly sizable room or auditorium, without particularly having to strain to produce sufficient volume.

Relaxed jaw, open throat. Yawn a time or two before you get ready to sing (but preferably not in front of an audience!), and when you sing, you should feel the tones resonating in your nasal passages. Even the low notes, even though you will also feel them resonating in the chest. If you relax your throat and hum (closed mouth) up and down scales a few times, this should give you the feeling of "head resonance." If done properly (which involves letting it happen rather than making it happen), you should feel the vibration in your "mask" (around your nose and in your forehead—i.e., in your sinuses).

Joke among opera buffs:    Where most people have brains, tenors have resonance! (Tenors don't think it's particularly amusing.)

As far as "breathing from the stomach" is concerned, voice teachers often use terms like this to refer to the feeling the singer should strive for, not something literal. You can't breathe from your stomach, obviously. But when you have a good lungful of air, ready to support your voice, it feels as if you have inhaled right down into your abdomen. Look at the way a baby breathes when it's asleep, or a dog when it's panting. The diaphragm flexes downward from its relaxed, dome-like position, creating a partial vacuum in the lungs, causing air to rush in, filling them. The flexing diaphragm presses the internal organs downward, then releases, pushing the air out of the lungs. The abdomen moves in and out as they breathe. That's the way it works—and feels—if you're using good breath support when you sing. When singing (or speaking), you control the releasing of the diaphragm, metering the air that passes across your vocal folds as you exhale.

"Column of air." The voice is a wind instrument, analogous to a clarinet or oboe. Both of these contain a "column of air," enclosed in the hollow tube of the instrument, that is made to vibrate. In the case of the clarinet or oboe, it's the reed that sets it to vibrating. In the human voice, the column of air comes up through the bronchial tubes and trachea into the mouth and sinuses, and it's set to vibrating by the vocal folds. In both cases, the air passing through the tube(s) is metered. Both singers and clarinet players need to make good use of breath control. "Balancing the tone on a column of air" means maintaining good breath support (metering the flow of air). And feeling the tone mainly in the resonating chambers of you head, as if the tone were sitting on top of the column.

These are visual and/or sensory images that a lot of vocal teachers use in an effort to get these ideas across to their students. Avoiding unnecessary tension is a major concern. The only tension should be your diaphragm metering out the breath you need to sustain the tone, and the vocal chords, which you cannot—and should not—try to control, other that having a clear concept in your "mind's ear" of the note(s) you want to sing. Tension in the mouth and throat (not to mention shoulders, neck, and chest) will only screw things up.

For those who are really turned off by the current fad of "breathy little girl voices" (and men who sing that way, too), here's a consoling thought:    singing that way is hard on the vocal folds, and their singing careers may not last all that long. If you've ever gone to a laryngologist with a case of laryngitis, he or she probably told you—in addition to stopping talking until the condition clears up (usually four to six weeks!)—don't even whisper, because whispering is actually harder on your vocal folds than talking is. You write notes a lot and try to communicate with all kinds of hand signals.

So those whispery, breathy voices have their own built-in self-destruct mechanism.

Don Firth