Wikipedia is a great place to pick up on the current consensus that’s clanging about in the minds of the intellectual class. In the case of Chest Voice, Wikipedia does a lot of tiptoeing about and word mincing while rewriting history. The article you find on Wikipedia asserts that a stroboscope was used to discover and understand the “Chest Voice”. Really?! I didn’t think Garcia had one of those. If you are new to this blog, please have a look at “Royal Registers”.
Garcia seemed to have a lot of fun playing a shell game with the words “Chest Voice” and “Chest Register”. The shell game divided “Clear Timber” from “Chest Voice”. He divided “Dark Timber” from “Falsetto”. Garcia also divided “Chest Register” into two parts:
(Click the above quote to go to the book)
Notwithstanding the confusion that seemed to always infect discussions of “Chest Voice/Register” there always seemed to be an understanding that it was a necessary component of a singers’ vocal structure. If you read “What’s the Buzz?” you may correctly conclude that I believe that the majority of today’s voice teachers consider “Chest Voice” passé or even dangerous. More recent evidence came to me through a friend who announced that at least one mad hatter teaching voice to a bunch of young people had been reported saying out loud without joking: “I don’t believe in Chest Voice.” I bet this professional pedagogical cracked pot believes in the buzz. I received a note from a young man who read my previous blog. I quote him here:
Let me confirm to you that this buzzing technique is truly rampant in academia, and my voice teacher at university is a huge advocate of it. I have only found progress in my own development through the use of chest voice, and being trained to effectively close the glottis. Alas, I only discovered these things when I sought guidance outside of academia. I hope that many people reading your blog realize what a travesty it is that modern voice teachers are in a real sense taking the masculinity out of singing. Thanks again, and I look forward to your next post!
Let me start my promotion campaign with the announcement of my slogan:
Chest Voice in the Chest Register Forever!
Garcia says that “Chest Voice” is the standard “Voice” for male singers to use in all registers at the beginning of vocal study. The use of other vocal effects is reserved for advanced study. That means that boys starting to study voice need to avoid the buzz. You know…. When a teacher tells you to do the buzz, RUN out the door of the studio and send him/her a “Thank You” note enclosing his/her lesson fee in the envelope with that “nice” note.
A girl’s “Chest Voice” gets Garcia’s attention as a project of discovery. He tells us that “Chest Voice” is often difficult for girls to discover, and he gives us his advice about how to guide the female toward making that discovery. He makes no suggestion that one could just forget about the “Chest Voice”.
Garcia advises his reader that the quest for vocal talent may be difficult, and offers his advice on what we need to take on the safari. He tells us that one should accumulate enough experience that we develop vocal judgment. I like to say that one must acquire discernment.
Garcia tells us to use our “experienced judgment” to look for “germs” in the perspective student’s voice, and I have often found the “Chest Voice” in the “Chest Register” the “germiest” part of the voice of a young person. This infection is exactly what Garcia is telling us to look for: The various color components that make up the individual character of the vocal instrument. When “Chest Voice” functions correctly it speaks the truth about the color of the sound that the voice will have all the way to the top notes that the voice is capable of phonating. It speaks to me of worth. It tells me if the voice is worth the time investment to teach the student or not. Sometimes the “Chest Voice” will just not talk to me, but these occasions are rare. The Master Classes for which I’ve been fortunate to receive invitation have shown me some interesting anomalies in the world of singing, and this is one of them. It is a tragedy to find a singer who cannot produce “Chest Voice” in the “Chest Register”. BE CAREFUL: If you buzz enough you too can discover freedom from the “Chest Voice”.
It can be a comfort to know that we humans are reliable. My “Buzz” blog and my present diatribe are about something that has been with us for a long time. We are clever, but basically unchanged, at least since we started writing things down that we now call history. Garcia starts chapter VI of his big book with the following:
As we have said, the chest register is generally denied or rejected by teachers, not that one could not draw from its application an immense advantage, nor that the suppression of the range which it embraces would not deprive the singer of the most beautiful dramatic effects or the most favorable contrasts, but because one can approach the study of this register only with the help of profound knowledge, under the threat of ruining the student’s voice, and because the blending of this register with that of the falsetto can be secured only by a long and ably directed labor. It has therefore been judged simpler and more natural to free oneself from the difficulty of studying it.
A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing – Part 1Page 50
When I first read the above quote from Garcia many years ago, I was convinced that we modern types were better educated than Garcia’s contemporaries. The singing World that was giving me work, back then, had a whole lot of Chest Voice flowing from the basements (Chest Register) of most of my colleagues’ voices. At least it was true of the singers with whom I liked to work. I know I was right about my singer friends, but maybe I was wrong about the world in which we lived and worked. I am a tenor after all. Ignorance is a given for us boys with high notes. Back in those days of discovery (read: Ignorance alleviation.) I remember that I often made the remark that students become great singers despite voice teachers. It was an idle remark not only because it was so universal, but also because I didn’t have any evidence to support it. Did I remember to tell you that I’m a tenor? These days I think of myself as a crusader in a fight that has been with us a long time. Tenors can be happy people and the saying: “Ignorance is BLISS!” can have some relevancy here. I was not pleased to have my blissful comfort disturbed when, 30 years after denigrating Garcia’s competition, I heard my first “Buzz” dependent teacher attack a student’s Chest Voice.
My education is no more complete today than it was when I first consumed Garcia’s book. At the time, I loved his Treatise as a wonderful bit of history. Since then it has grown in stature in my estimation with every bit of data I pick up along the path of my life. I am truly in awe of this great teacher. The quote above is not just Garcia reporting contemporary attitudes. After my “Buzz” discovery I call it prophetic. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m not the only vocal practitioner that calls Garcia’s book the “Bible of Singing”.