Vocal Range, Vocal Registers

Registers and Vocal Registration

The term register can be somewhat confusing, as it encompasses several aspects of the human voice, including a certain vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, a particular range of pitches, and a characteristic type of tone or quality of sound. In other words, a register in the human voice is a particular series of tones that possess the same quality and that are produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds within a certain range or series of pitches. Vocal registers originate in the laryngeal function (i.e., the larynx, where the vocal folds are located) and occur when the vibratory pattern of the vocal folds changes as pitch rises or falls.
Singers and singing teachers can aurally identify these changes in voice quality when singing two or more octaves of a musical scale. When transitions from one voice quality to another occur, most singers report some sort of non-specific, kinesthetically sensed, neuromuscular coordination adjusment in the larynx as well as a change in sound or tone. Among experienced or trained singers, the transitions are perceived to be blended and smooth, whereas the transitions among inexperienced singers are more commonly abrupt or awkward (as when a 'register break' occurs).
Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the human voice. Research by speech pathologists and vocal pedagogues has revealed that the vocal folds are capable of producing at least four distinct vibratory patterns, which, in turn, create four different registers within the human voice, although not everyone can produce all four of them. Each of these four registers has its own vibratory pattern, its own pitch area (although there is some overlapping), and its own characteristic sound. Most vocal teachers today divide the human voice into three registers; chest (also referred to as natural or modal), middle and head (includes falsetto in males), although many do acknowledge the vocal fry register in their lower voiced male students and the flageolet or whistle register in higher voiced females, as well. However, both of these potential highest and lowest registers are sometimes considered to be extensions of the chest and head registers, rather than unique registers.
In many contemporary singing methods, a two-register model is advocated. (I explain why this is both inaccurate and counterproductive to vocal training in the Vocal Registration and Contemporary Teaching Methods section of my article entitled 'Belting' Technique.) Since the chest voice and the head voice can be made to overlap considerably, many vocal teachers don't acknowledge the existence of a middle register, but might instead treat the middle section of the voice as a zona di passaggio in which the chest and head tones will become blended or mixed. There may also be some disagreement on what constitutes head voice or how it is defined, and this confusion may explain why some teachers call the lighter tone of the voice that begins at the first passaggio in female students (or any tone that is produced at pitches above the chest register) 'head voice' whereas classical teachers would refer to this register as 'middle' and the register beginning around E5-F#5 (at the secondo passaggio) as the true head register.
Vocal teachers and singers will often talk about 'bridging the registers' or 'blending the registers', which simply refers to a technique or method of making the transition from one vocal register to the next smooth and seamless, and thus removing all noticeable signs of a register break, which requires an adjustment of breath control and vowel modification (aggiustamento), as well as gradual laryngeal (e.g., muscular) adjustments throughout the scale. More information about blending the registers can be found in my article entitled Good Tone Production For Singing, as well as in A Practical Vocal Development Guide .
There is also a great deal of disagreement about the terminology assigned to the vocal registers, primarily because the terms themselves tend to describe where the most resonance is felt in the body as opposed to where the action of the voice is truly originating from (i.e., the larynx). For example, 'head voice' is called such because much of the resonance of the voice is experienced as sympathetic vibrations in the bones of the face and resonating cavities of the head. (The bony structures of the head can be set into sympathetic vibration, but not into actual resonance. Bone is a very good conductor of sympathetic vibration.) Also, most "chest resonance" actually originates in the throat (i.e., the larynx, or 'voice box'), where the vocal folds are located. Since the chest is filled with so many soft organs which do not aid in creating resonance, and because the vocal tract lies above the chest, producing sound after air has already left the chest, many argue that there can be little true resonance created within the chest itself. For this reason, most vocal teachers prefer to use the term 'voice' rather than 'register'. However, some singers do experience a distinct sensation of (sympathetic) vibration in the chest, especially in the sternum or breastbone area, or in the head when singing. These sensations are realistic to the singer and can serve as reliable indicators of resonance balance.

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