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How to lighten tone and take chest voice higher?


partlycloudy

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I seem to have an overly dark voice tone. Not just when singing, it happens also when talking. :/ I think it's stopping me from being able to take my chest voice higher.

 

I want to have a more "brilliant"/light timbre (is that the word? lol) like this person. Obviously it would take a very long time to get to that level of skill, but I mean the timbre alone, aside from her awesome high range and power. Her voice just kind of soars on the high parts, as if it's weightless. If I try to sing above say F4 it sounds like I'm pulling weight up. It doesn't feel weighed down, it's actually quite comfortable, but it sounds really weighted. Right now I can only lighten my tone by reducing air flow (bad) and squinching in my throat (bad). If I put my default amount of air through the tone becomes normal (dark) again, that is when I'm not pushing or holding back, just normal.

 

I'm guessing I can fix that with practice. I know people will say "with practice anything is possible"...but that is obvious. I am indeed willing to practice, I even want to, I just don't know what to practice.

 

So if anyone has thoughts as to what I might practice to lighten my tone that would be great. If the answer is, "find a vocal coach" ;), then ok. I am looking into one. I just want to know it is possible to lighten my tone, because from reading around vocal coaches' websites some of them say it's harmful to artificially lighten or darken your tone. Other coaches say that women should be able to sing up to C6 in full voice, right now I flip over at like C5 so I have a lot of work to do lolol. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

edit: I found this thing so maybe this thread is not needed anymore... :facepalm:http://www.voiceteacher.com/high_singing.html

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Lighten tone AND take chest voice higher?! lol.. those are actually opposites :lol:

 

If you want to lighten your tone, then you have to use less chest voice. Using the light 'oo' sound is good for lightening the voice because the 'oo' vowel is mainly head voice (or light mechanism).

 

I think you might have a naturally lower voice. There's limit to how light/heavy a voice can go depending on that person's voice.

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Oh haha, they are opposites, I got confused. I was watching a video earlier where I thought I heard they were the same but I got it backwards. He was talking about how excessive vocal weight (the opposite of lightness :facepalm:) causes people to take the chest voice too high and have registration problems. lol. Oops.

 

Thanks. But won't I have to say other things than 'ooo'? lol... or do I just practice going ooo until it's second nature to have a lighter tone. The other issue is that even in full head voice my tone is still not as light as the person in the link I posted. But it's better than normal.

 

So it's like, if you play the same note on two different guitar strings the timbre is different. Well that sucks. I can't change my vocal cords. I hate my tone...even with passable pitch control I just sound really bad and I think if I had a lighter voice it would sound better. Then again I don't want to make excuses so I guess it's back to practice.

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I think any person's voice can sound good. Just need to get the technique down and sing properly.

 

And I also think its best to find your own natural tone, rather than imitate someone else. I've realized that vocal identity is really important.

 

And yes, practice that 'oo' sound. I practice it constantly. There's a lot of exercises that use the tiny 'oo' sound. They're suppose to help with registration.

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For now I'm just reading articles about technique and practicing what they recommend. I'll also practice the 'oo' thing. I might get a lesson or two later on just to make sure I don't develop bad habits. But for now I figure if it doesn't hurt it can't be that bad.

 

edit...removed info.

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Not good with it, I mean I'm not good with any register. lol. But when I do sing in head voice it just sounds like the same dark tone going higher, it doesn't sound like, "brilliant" or bright. It actually doesn't sound that different from my mid-range it just seems freer.

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Ha, that's ok. I think you are fundamentally right. I have a deep voice, I can't change that. It's going to have this rather dark sound. That doesn't mean I can't sing high, I hopefully get there eventually with practice, but the tone is not going to get super-bright.

 

I'm looking into vocal coaches, but right now I'm kind of like, scared of singing in front of people, I tend to eat the sound. lol. So once I get over that I will look for a coach.

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