middle voice

May I first start by saying how ridiculously busy I've been this week? I really am a serial hobbyist; sometimes I think I just need to chill out.

Anyway, to completely change the subject, I had a revelation today as I was reading "Set Your Voice Free" by Roger L-O-V-E (hah...). This purchase was my attempt to try to alleviate my anxiousness about the alto singing in PME; skimming through it at the store, I was intrigued by the so-called "middle voice" that he mentions and focuses on. Lo and behold, he was talking about the transition area between the chest and head voice, which is supposed to have some qualities of both. This is exactly what I've been looking for my whole singing life! I've always had a horrible break in my chest/head transition, and the lower part of my head range has always been too weak for my liking, but I can't just sing all this classical stuff in chest.

I actually kind of intuitively came across my middle voice when trying to experiment with how to make my head voice sound more "chesty" and less weak, but it never occurred to me to try and build up this middle voice--that it was something definable and improveable. I haven't read through his exercises for building up the middle voice yet, but I'm really excited to try it! I'll let you know if it works.

I guess that's what I get for never actually taking voice lessons.