Conference Morsel: Register Transition

(An excerpt from the interest session “What, Why, How: Working with the Male Voices in Your Choir,” presented by Jefferson Johnson during the 2014 ACDA Southern Division Conference)

 

       To avoid undesirable tone quality and flatting, male singers need to be taught ways to negotiate the chest and head registers.  (For some the term falsetto connotes a softer airy sound, whereas head voice refers to a stronger, truer tone.  To eliminate confusion and to encourage a more focused, less breathy tone, this author has found it simpler to use only the term “head voice” and not “falsetto” when addressing the changed-voice male singer.)  Most pedagogues agree that the best strategy for a smooth transition in the male voice is to bring the head voice quality down—slowly descending from head voice to chest voice with vocal exercises on closed vowels like [u], [i], [y] or variations of these vowels; open vowels can also work if we add considerable pucker, i.e. use vowel modification).  The singers are encouraged to “bring the head voice down” or “stay in the head voice as long as possible” or “mix in the head voice.” Exercise: sing a 5-note descending scale beginning as high as possible, descending by half steps with each repetition.  Singers should point index fingers upward as the pitches descend.  An ascending exercise: singers can pretend to shoot free throws on ascending leaps (sol-do, sol-do, sol-do).  Insist on bending the knees and putting a lot of “arch” on each shot.  Emphasize “spin” and “follow-through.”  A tone that lacks the desired vertical space “misses the backboard.”  Repeat the exercise up a half step, moving further from the basket with each ascending key change, eventually moving the “shooter” back to the 3-point line.