Head Voice and Chest Voice in Singing

What is a Register?

Everyone has experienced the difference, in their own voice, between singing high pitches and singing low pitches.  Most people have also experienced the challenge of voice breaks or cracks.

How are registers determined?  What is a register, exactly?

A register in the human voice is a particular series of tones, produced in the same manner (by the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds), and having the same basic quality.

The American College Dictionary
Definitions of Registers by prominent pedagogues:

Registers originate in laryngeal function.  They occur because the vocal folds are capable of producing several different vibratory patterns.  Each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular range of pitches and produces certain characteristic sounds.  From these statements, it can be deduced that each register has three constituted elements:  a certain vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, a certain series of pitches, and a certain type of sound.

James C. McKinney. The Diagnosis & Correction of Vocal Faults.  Waveland Press. Inc., 1994. (pg 93).

There are many opinions about how many registers there are, but the two-register theory is particularly well supported physiologically.  It consists of the heavy mechanism (for lower pitches) and the light mechanism (for higher pitches)…”Mechanism” and “register” are interchangeable. The size, shape, and tension of the vocal folds and the manner in which they vibrate reflect the register being used. When in the heavy register, the folds are shorter and thicker and vibrate slowly through the depth of the folds. When in the light register, the folds are stretched longer and thinner with the thin edge vibrating.

Karen Tillotson Bauer.  The Essentials of Beautiful Singing.  Scarecrow Press, inc., 2013

Thus we have two extremes of vibration, two ‘registers’ if you wish to call them that.  One covers the lower two-thirds of the compass and the other applies to the upper two thirds.  I emphasize the fact that there is at least an octave which can be sung either way. If the singer is given to static adjustments, he will have ‘chest voice’ and ‘head voice’ and the overlapping area will be small.

William Vennard. Singing: The Mechanism and the Technic, revised edition. Carl Fischer, New York, 1967.

Every voice is formed of three distinct portions, or registers, namely, chest (lowest), medium (middle) and head (highest). A register is a series of consecutive homogeneous sounds produced by one mechanism different from another series of sounds equally homogeneous, produced by another mechanism, whatever modifications of timber or strength they may offer.  Each of the three registers has its own extent and sonority which vary according to the sex of the individual and the nature of the organ.

Manuel Garcia. Hints on Singing. Schuberth & Co. 1894.

Some teachers say there are no registers and passaggios.  I wish things were that simple…..Recently, registers have been thought of as being primarily the result of actions of the vocal cords.  Too few have thought of the effect of the acoustical load up on the vocal cords, causing changes in their action. 

Berton Coffin. Coffin’s Sounds of Singing.  Scarecrow Press, 1987.

More recent thinking, as described by Nathalie Henrich (2006), defined register by laryngeal vibratory mechanisms.  She identifies four physiological registers designated as “laryngeal mechanisms”: Mechanism 0, Mechanism 1, Mechanism 2, and Mechanism 3, (M0, M1, M2, and M3), which correspond to vocal fry, modal voice, head voice/falsetto, and whistle.

Janice Chapman. Singing and Teaching Singing, Third Edition.  Plural Publishing, 2017.

There are three elements – pitch, intensity, and vowel, involved in this interaction.  Each has a direct bearing upon the physical conformation of the vocal folds, as well as on the muscle systems that maintain their vibratility.

Cornelius Reid. Essays on the Nature of Singing

The word register is sometimes used to describe three states of this upper-lower variation in adduction.  In the so-called falsetto register, the lower part of the vocal fold is not adducted much because the TA muscle is either poorly developed (as in pre-pubertal children) or not activated.  The female adult registration is often an intermediate (or mixed) setting.  The bottom of the vocal fold is slightly more adduced than in falsetto.  We refer to this intermediate setting as mixed register.  When TA contraction is strong, the bottom of the vocal fold is highly adducted. This registration is often characteristic of male speech.

Ingo R. Titze and Katherine Verdolini Abbott, Vocology: The Science and Practice of Voice Habilitation (Iowa City: National Center for Voice and Speech, 2012).

The term vocal register (or registration) in vocal pedagogy is a metaphor. It refers to variations in sound and physical sensation that change in response to functional adjustments in the vocal mechanism.  There is no defensible, comprehensive scientific definition of register to date. This is largely because registration language began as metaphor, and because registration metaphors attempt to define the entire vocal mechanism based on limited sound and/or sensational variables. To scientifically define the elements on which registration metaphors are based, a vocalist needs to consider at least these four variables:

• Breath pressure and airflow, including plural pressure, muscular interaction with the lungs, airflow, glottal flow, aerodynamics, and velocity.
• Laryngeal configuration, including how much of, and what parts of, the vocal folds are in contact, maximum declination rate (how fast the folds come together), and muscular coordination.
• Acoustic variations created in the vocal tract, including vocal tract anatomy, formants, inertance, spectral slope, harmonics, and articulation.
• Perception, including neurological elements both conscious and subcortical, physical sensory feedback, and auditory feedback.

Laurel Irene and David Harris. voicescienceworks.org

Most adults can relate to the experience of feeling like they have two completely different voices.  The lower voice is used for speaking, shouting, laughing and singing lower pitches. In singing, this part of the voice is known as the lower register, chest voice, modal voice, or heavy mechanism. 

It is a result of greater TA muscle involvement and a vibratory pattern that begins at the bottom of the depth of the vocal folds.

The other, less familiar feeling voice is the upper register or head voice.  Let’s see how the two voices or registers compare:

THE LOWER REGISTER

The vocal folds vibrate in a wave-like pattern, with the bottom of the fold beginning the wave. The degree of TA (thyroarytenoid) muscle activity determines how much the bottom of the fold bulges out toward the center of the glottis and thus begins the vibrational wave.

In the lower register, the vocal folds are thicker and shorter due to thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle activity. As they contract, the TA muscles bulge the fold body outward into the glottis. In the lower register, the TA and CT muscles are both responsible to some degree for pitch raising; the TA muscles are also partially responsible for vocal fold adduction, assisting the LCA and IA muscles.

In the lower register, the vocal folds are thick and squared when viewed as a cross-cut (from the side rather than from above or below). Since the glottal wave occurs from bottom to top, larger portions of the opposing surfaces of the folds are brought into contact and the folds remain closed for longer portions of each vibrational cycle.

This higher closed quotient (amount of time the folds remain together in the cycle of open/closed) produces a vocal quality in the lower register that has a broad harmonic spectrum rich in overtones.

In the lower register, the vocal folds also exhibit greater amplitude (vertical movement) of vibration.

The singer feels a sympathetic vibration in the chest cavity when singing lower pitches because the larger chest cavity responds sympathetically to lower pitches.

THE UPPER REGISTER

The upper register is less familiar to many people and is usually far less developed.  This state of unbalanced registration is what we are correcting with vocal exercises.

Upper register terminology can sometimes be confusing.  For males, anything above the primo passaggio, or first transition (break) was traditionally known in classical singing as falsetto. However, in contemporary singing, the area above the first transition or bridge is simply known as the upper register, for both males and females.

The term falsetto refers to a breathy, anemic, and weak sound due to inadequate vocal fold adduction.

To sing higher pitches, the cricothyroid (CT) muscles lengthen the folds by tilting the thyroid cartilage forward and down. The folds become tauter as they lengthen. Because of the lengthening of the vocal folds, thinning of the edges, and increasing tension as pitch rises, the area of vocal fold surface contact becomes smaller as pitch becomes higher.

There is less amplitude of vibration, and pitches produced in the upper register have fewer high harmonics.

Sympathetic vibration is no longer felt in the chest cavity when singing high notes.

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