Pillar Three: Registers

The Third Pillar of Vocal Technique is register awareness. Physiologically, the larynx moves and tilts up and down while a singer sings up and down the scale. A relatively stable position of the larynx is a “Register.” More importantly is that a Register is a stabilized area of resonance. The singer feels his voice resonating in a certain area of the body. Awareness of the area of resonance promotes range expansion and freedom.

The Registers

1. First—also known as “Chest”, which resonates in the sternum as well as the upper lip and teeth. This is the speaking voice, and is used to sing our lowest notes.
2. Second—also known as “Lower Middle.” This register resonates from the upper lip, settles at the bridge of the nose, and rises to a spot between the eyes. Women can access this voice by speaking high in a “Little Bo Peep” voice. Men can find it through supported shouting.
3. Third—also known as “Upper Middle.” The Upper Middle is felt primarily in the forehead up to just behind the hairline and front top part of the head. It requires maximum breath support to find it, much less to become comfortable sustaining it. Third Register is higher than speaking or shouting range.
4. Fourth—also known as “Head Voice” and sometimes “Falsetto.” I prefer the “head Voice” term because falsetto implies something false and unusable which is wrong. Head voice is felt as the crown of the head and is used for the highest notes of our range.

As singers, we want to be able to quickly and easily access and use any of our registers to open up the entire range of the voice.

Passages

Like a transmission in a car, a “clutch” is needed to shift from register to register. An important part of study then is the management of the “clutch” to enable a smooth transmission between the registers. The “clutch” must be engaged in areas called “passages” or “passagi” in Italian.

The Track

Once the singer has learned to transition smoothly, they are able to sing smoothly throughout the entire range. They will perceive something we call “The Track.” The Track is an arc, felt either on the front of the body or on the skin or directly in front of the body, of resonance that they aim to sing on. Singing “on the track” promotes vocal stability in every way.

The great singer Lilli Lehmann includes her version of The Track in her landmark book How to Sing first translated in English in 1902.

Passages’ Role in Revealing Voice Types

Though all singers have four registers, exactly where those registers lie, what pitches they produce, and how intensive each register is, has a great deal to say about one’s voice type.

Most women are sopranos and most men are tenors. Most people don’t know this because it takes breath support, which is learned, to sing high. The range of a tenor and baritone can be similar, but the “gear ratios” or passage points between registers are not the same. Here again, thinking about transmissions if helpful. Tractors and race cars have very different gear ratios. Basses and contraltos are like tractors with extensive and strong lower gears. An Italian sports car is made to go fast and is a good model of a high soprano or tenor. Transmissions are notoriously fussy and all cars need periodic “tune ups” to function properly. Balancing the registers is an essential component of great singing for us all. Vocal study provides our “tune ups.”