I keep reading about Danielle not being able to transition from her chest voice to her head voice. Can anyone explain what this means exactly, and what are the consequences of not being able to do it?

Hmm okay well the head voice is a falsetto where you don't sing with all the power that you normally sing with when you use the chest voice. The chest voice has the power and is used for the low and mid range register. It can also be used for the top range if you can reach the actual high note, but if you can't then it's nicer and safer for your voice to use your head voice. A great singer can do this transition effortlessly. With Danielle she doesn't have the greatest of transitions from her chest voice to her head voice which means that she sometimes forces the high notes which can be harsh on the ear. A clear example is her On My Own performance when she used her chest voice to hit the high note when it would have been better to use her head voice with a bit of vibrato. However I have no qualms in saying she will learn this technique and be brilliant in time for the show! Good luck to her

Thanks.

Thank you for your informed opinion and for explaining things so clearly. I'm a regular theatre-goer but tbh I'm not a big fan of the phenomenon of performers 'belting' - sometimes it seems more 'X-factor / look at me / cue applause or screams rather than being in keeping with the performance.

That being said, I do think Danielle needs to work on her range and her delivery, could definitely do with employing a bit of vibratto and will be absolutely awesome when she accomplishes it.

A very clear example ofthis is in the final OTR when she is getting into the balloon. She sing 'away above the chimney tops' in a lower chest voice and switches to her head voice for 'that's where you'll find me'. Her voice gets a 'sweeter' tone, the volume drops and her american accent also slips. These are all avoidable with practice and vocal training (and it was also an emotional moment!).

Er..................

I wouldn't say the head voice is a falsetto or weaker.

Head and chest refer to the positioning of the voice - the head voice resonates around the head and can be used with extreme power - look at opera singers - very powerful. Resonating your voice from your chest enables you to sing lower notes with power.

I agree that in On my own, Danielle didn't use the right positioning of the voice making her high note very shouty and harsh her transition from one to the other is a bit clunky.

It just takes practice to iron it out

I do think On My Own seemed to be above Danielle's natural range though?? So it was kind of falsetto... though maybe I'm wrong... OMO is above a LOT of people's ranges though, and I think Dan has one of the lowest voices in the competition.

OMO isn't very high at all really - Cosette is the soprano n Les Mis- all the notes should be reachable in her range - it is just that she did shouty to get volume


Talking of chest voice - a prime example of this is "But the tigers come at night" section from I dreamed a dream . then there is the crescendo on "shame" - whilst most of this bit needs the chest voice - "shame" needs to be sung in the head voice as it goes up otherwise it ends up like Danielle's shouty top note

I hope that helps

I think you can sing 'But the tigers come at night' in both head and chest voice, you dont have to drop your voice right down to chest voice, in fact its better if you dont because it is harder to get out of chest voice once you drop right into it. When you go into head voice you have to close your 'thin folds' as oppose to your 'thick folds' which you shut when you are singing chest voice (vocal folds) so if you over-blow in your 'thin folds' i.e. head voice then you can blow into falsetto by mistake and then your voice gets very airy and pitchy.

If you sing high in your chest voice it tends to come out a a belt, which isn't always the desired effect. For example in reflection you are required to have good control over your 'head voice' because if you drop into your chest voice for the 'loud' bits you basically go too deep and end up sounding like a man completely by accident.

Hope that made some sense....

[quote=loveofskins;40483906]I think you can sing 'But the tigers come at night' in both head and chest voice, you dont have to drop your voice right down to chest voice, in fact its better if you dont because it is harder to get out of chest voice once you drop right into it. When you go into head voice you have to close your 'thin folds' as oppose to your 'thick folds' which you shut when you are singing chest voice (vocal folds) so if you over-blow in your 'thin folds' i.e. head voice then you can blow into falsetto by mistake and then your voice gets very airy and pitchy.

I suppose it all depends who trained you as to how you explain it - and what style of singing - I was not only trained for musical theatre but also opera. Different teachers conjour up different visualisations but it is your brain that interprets this to get the tone.

Using your folds description using a chest voice too high is a common thing with less experienced singers and can lead to nodules and damaged vocal chords.

Further to voices resonating ( vibrating ) in chest or head is where you position thr voice in the mouth to the front which makes it crisp and precise and further back which increases tone at the cost of diction and clarity. Catherine Jenkins really annoys me because she seems to almost swallow her vowels to gain a very rich tone

It is all a voyage of discovery - your voice truly is an instrument as Charlotte Church says and experimenting and exploring what a voice can do is wonderful - although we do need coaches to guide us and make sure we do not get into bad habits, teach techniques to produce the sounds we want and to hear the voice externally.

Have you noticed on these reality shows, how often an untrained performer seems to go backwards from their starting points as they correct mistakes and learn technique before they make a breakthrough