Increasing Vocal Range (Chest Voice)

Alright here goes lol

1.Because I don't want to be a bass, and all of the songs I want to sing are way out of my range. (Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, Rick Astley, etc.)

2.I can hit it fine no cracking but I can't belt it. I can belt the Db just above it though so anything from the Db2 to G4 I can belt. And that G is only on a good day any other day I stop on the F# below it.

Sounds familiar. You are exactly where I was when I started. I wanted to be a tenor so bad it hurt. It didn't happen. Eventually I learned to love the instrument I was given and started looking for baritones to emulate (Johnny Hartman is my model).

One of my first music teachers told me that my voice would certainly move up with training and he was right. When I first started I could go from D2 to E3. Now I can sing from Gb2 to Bb4 reliably and when warmed up I can just get that C5. That said, I never go above G4 when performing.

I don't know much about falsetto so I can't give you much practical advice about it except to say it is used all the time in the kind of music you like. Listen to Crazy Train, for example, Ozzy uses falsetto extensively on that tune.

Good luck.
 
Sounds familiar. You are exactly where I was when I started. I wanted to be a tenor so bad it hurt. It didn't happen. Eventually I learned to love the instrument I was given and started looking for baritones to emulate (Johnny Hartman is my model).

One of my first music teachers told me that my voice would certainly move up with training and he was right. When I first started I could go from D2 to E3. Now I can sing from Gb2 to Bb4 reliably and when warmed up I can just get that C5. That said, I never go above G4 when performing.

I don't know much about falsetto so I can't give you much practical advice about it except to say it is used all the time in the kind of music you like. Listen to Crazy Train, for example, Ozzy uses falsetto extensively on that tune.

Good luck.

Well I really enjoy listening to people with low voices as well it just frustrates me that I can't sing everything I want to lol. Especially since I've been singing since January!

When I started my range was roughly C3-C4 now it's C2-G4 and I just hit the Ab above it today again so my voice is getting there, I just need to work it more.

I know a lot about falsetto/head voice and was actually debating for a while becoming a counter-tenor/contra-alto, just to have the range of a female voice as well as a male. And the song Crazy Train is in A, I'm pretty sure that Ozzy didn't use falsetto for that song but if he did what a strong head voice. I can sing fairly easily through that song using both Chest and Head, but I was wanting to do all those songs in Chest ya kno?
 
Wow, tell me the next time you guys are putting on a Mozart piece and you are playing! Cuz I would totally come see you guys! (Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Le Nozze Di Figaro, etc.)

That's amazing that your community even has a theatre dedicated to classical productions. Quite neat for somebody like me who has maybe a local bar hahaha. My town has maybe 50k people in it lol


Cosi Fan Tutte. Despina FTW! :D

I wonder after all the damage done from this stupid infection, if I might not be a mezzo now. Similar range, and a darker voice. It happens.

Wait, I must not have worded it right. There is such a thing as community opera, and they usually put on much smaller productions, light operas that were made, even in the 1700s, to be more accessible to a general audience, and a lot of fun to do.

But we don't have that here in Helsinki. I'm part of a local theater group, not opera, just straight theater. We put on a production of Faust (not the opera!), and I had a small singing part simply because I wasn't afraid to open my mouth and belt something out. I wasn't shy about that. :)

If there was a decent pro-am choir looking for new members, I'd brush up on my skillz and audition until I got in, but until then, I'm happy doing theater.

In fact, theater is a challenge for me, because I've never acted without music before this. I have to work on movement and timing, which are things that came easy before. We have all skill levels in our group, from first time on a stage to people with multiple acting coaches for theater and camera work. The common factor is talent. The ones new to this have so much raw talent, and the old pros know how to use their talent, and everyone tries so hard, it's been a great experience.

I know some community theaters back home in US can be very much in their own little world and it can be tough to break into them because they'd rather give parts to people they know, but if you can find one and it's something that interests you, anyone can give it a try. It's one of those things that you could be good at and not even know you're good at it. And it certainly is fun!
 
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Hmmm that's really cool still. I would love to see a revival of the classical era of music someday including "real" opera and symphonic pieces. It would be great.
 
What makes an opera real or fake? To me, it's the atonal pretentious crap that gets under my skin. I remember doing The Telephone - UGH! My entire memory of that was just one giant headache.

But otherwise, I don't think it has to be pre 1750 to be a proper opera. That's just my take.

Check out what some college programs are doing, there's plenty of light opera dug up from the vaults of history. Lots of fun stuff.
 
And the song Crazy Train is in A, I'm pretty sure that Ozzy didn't use falsetto for that song but if he did what a strong head voice. I can sing fairly easily through that song using both Chest and Head, but I was wanting to do all those songs in Chest ya kno?

Well, only his hair dresser knows for sure. To me it sounds like he is using falsetto to get the "I'm going off the rails in a crazy train" part. Listen and you can hear the change of register when he hits it. Then again, he might just really be pushing his head voice hard.

He doesn't scream much in that tune which is usually the giveaway. When a rock singer is screaming it's falsetto. Listen to Ian Gillan and, especially, Robert Plant for that. But falsetto doesn't have to be freakish, the greatest falsetto ever is probably Al Green and he never sounds like Barry Gibb if you know what I mean.

A couple of important points: head voice is not falsetto. Classical tenors sing in head voice a lot, they never sing in falsetto.

The key of a song by itself tells us nothing about how high or low it is. Dream a Little Dream of Me is in Eb and it is too high for me. I was singing Butterfly Nets the other day and it is C and felt low so I kicked it up to Eb and that is just right.

You're right about the high voice being better for rock. There was a band called The Crash Test Dummies a few years ago that had a bass singer but that is the only one I can think of.

It sounds like you are doing alright. There is a famous story about Elvis Presley that when he first started singing, he'd try and sing all the parts of a quartet himself. When you start, you want to sing everything. I used to try and sing all the parts of Papa Was a Rolling Stone by myself. If you keep singing, you'll find the niche that suits you best.
 
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Cosi Fan Tutte. Despina FTW! :D

Love that. Great part. I'd cross dress to do a part like that (it wouldn't be very convincing though).

I wonder after all the damage done from this stupid infection, if I might not be a mezzo now. Similar range, and a darker voice. It happens.

Yikes. Sounds painful. I prefer mezzos myself (I'm married to one, though, so maybe I'm biased).
 
And they think laryngitis is part of it, and they didn't have to try to scare me either. It's also a shame because I can do a kickin' Stevie Nicks right now. The only time when I have a rock girl's voice is precisely when I can't use it.

Sorry I was fuzzy on the male vocalist terminology. You're right, in classical, guys can go into the rafters and not be in falsetto. I just didn't know we used the same terminology. The high notes are so difficult it's all we can concentrate on. :)

This all makes me want to watch Diva on the Virge. :D
 
Nice hair... Did you go to that site that's all the rage over at Somethingawful where you can add hair and makeup to your pic?

No, you can't hear, because laryngitis and singing isn't very good for the vocal chords. ;)
 
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