I don’t have “breaks” in my range! Is that bad?
Saturday, October 10th, 2009Today in chorus people sang their all-state songs in front of the class. Their voices would be airy and crack when transitioning into their head voice. The chorus teacher said that it’s their vocal break. I haven’t really heard my voice do that. To me it sounds clear throughout my range even if my middle register can be a little breathy when I don’t support. My voice teacher says I have pretty high vocal breaks and my tone changes somewhere right before the high A but if that’s true it’s so subtle. Is this a bad thing or a good thing? Does it mean most of my voice is my chest voice? Or, is my head voice strong? Do I have more support than most people my age (I’m 16)? All the other sopranos and even the altos have a break kind of high that makes them breathy or flat and my second break I guess is higher than theirs and makes my voice brighter. Is this normal?
ANSWER: Great observation about the “breaks” in other young voices.
While some singers have a manifestly obvious ‘break’ (sometimes also known as “lift” or “passaggio” or “transition point”) that makes sound almost resemble a yodel (depending where in the range it occurs), if those same young singers pursue singing as a career studying voice with a teacher, their aim is going to be learn to “smooth” those areas over so that the range sounds seamless (without breaks of any kind). As you have noted about yourself, not everyone feels these breaks … and that is a great blessing, because it means that you don’t have to worry about the color of your tone suddenly changing, or have to spend months and years learning how to even out the tone between areas of your vocal range. So, REJOICE … you’re miles ahead of folk who experience breaks and you won’t have that hurdle to worry about.
Singing “seamlessly” doesn’t mean that you are singing predominantly in “chest” or “head”, but rather that as you sing from high to low your voice is negotiating all the range in a way that “mixes” those feelings at the appropriate times so that no break exists, or is perceptible.
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