An Explanation Of The Italian Chest Voice And Head Voice (Bel Canto)

Brad Chapman
Jan 11, 2016
3 min read

The Italians started the original school of music (Bel Canto) in the 1800’s. At that time, they defined chest voice and head voice as follows:

It was discovered that when they asked the singers, who had no previous training - what they felt when they sang low notes (this is for both men and women); the singer would say, well - when I sing in my lower voice, closer to my speaking tones - I feel a vibration in my chest; I feel like my collar bone is vibrating. When they asked the singers - what the feeling was when achieving higher notes (the man above E-flat 4 and the women above G-sharp 4) - the singer said - now I feel something in my head.

A funny note – as there was no understanding of human anatomy at that time – apparently, they actually thought the vocal box was moving from their chest to their head during a song where there was a wide range of notes.

Falsetto is another term which simply means: light or false voice. So, if you're a man or women singing very, very lightly in your chest voice or your head voice, someone may say that you are singing falsetto. It's a subjective term. It just means that the listener didn't feel that it was the true voice. However, with all the knowledge we have now, we know that we can feel both head voice and falsetto in the head. That is, we can feel head voice in a very soft high voice (some people might hear it as falsetto) and we know we can feel head voice also, when we’re belting very loud (which is not yelling on pitch).

When you’re in head voice, science has also proven that there is no sound coming from the fascial mask or from the sinus area into the air (vibrations float on air). It's just a sensation that the singer feels as a pressure in his/her sinus cavity.

We now know of the chest voice/head voice natural phenomenon discovered so long ago. That’s why there were singers who could do this before there were teachers.

Everything comes out of the mouth unless you are literally closing off the back of your mouth pharynx, which will force the tone through your nose, i.e., a hum. All the vowels when singing, project out of the mouth (the teeth and hard palate are the true resonators of the voice); whether it be chest voice or head voice. The proof that everything is coming out of the mouth is the fact that you don’t have to move the mouth away from the microphone when singing in head voice.

The feeling of low notes in the chest and high notes in the head can help a coach guide a singer through the proper sensations, so that in effect the singer becomes sighted through the kinesthetic nervous system. Thru these sensations, the singer now knows

how to correct their technique when they should be in their head voice versus chest voice by the name of the notes they are singing.

Correcting a singer’s technique is the main value of the terms chest voice and head voice. Some people may say that only women have head voice and only men have chest voice. There's a lot of semantics involved in different schools of thought involving the voice. So, that's why I'm sticking with the original Italian explanations for head voice and chest voice. (Please refer to below Demos on Head Voice and Chest Voice.)

Soft Chest to Soft Head Voice Demos:

1) A Woman's Demo of Soft Chest Voice to Soft Head Voice

2) A Man's Demo of Soft Chest Voice to Soft Head Voice

Belted Chest to Belted Head Voice Demos:

1) A Woman's Example of 'Belted Chest Voice' to 'Belted Head Voice'

2) A Man's Demo of 'Belted Chest Voice' to 'Belted Head Voice'

Some examples of a few celebrities that use ‘Belted Head Voice’ are: Katy Perry, Anita Baker, Kelly Clarkson, REO Speedwagon, Jason Derulo, Pink and Sam Harris.

Yelling On Pitch (Pulled Chest Voice) Demo: (what untrained singers do before learning how to use Chest Voice and Head Voice)

1) A Man Yelling all of His Notes (No Head Voice)