Talk:Modal voice

message: Is this supposed to be mixing together the head/cgest voice pages together? Ihave never heard of a Modal Voice Register unless it is those two things I mentioned earlier (and middle voice).  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.191.92.129 (talk) 16:25, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The article explains it pretty clearly. What exactly do you not understand? First let me say that this is a topic with a lot of diverging opinions and with several different professions overlapng: speech pathologists, vocal pedagogists, and linguists to name just a few. The modal register is the register used during normal speech. The registers named on the vocal registration page are the ones used in speech pathology, phonetics, and linguistics (none of them use chest or head register). These registers can also be found in many books teaching the art of singing as well (although not all). The term modal register was first used by speech pathologists in the 1930s and is still used today in speech pathology to describe phonation during normal speech. The term has been adopted by many vocal pedagogists as well. Also, the terms chest and head register can mean several different things depending on which school of vocal pedagogy you ascribe to. Some teachers teach that there is chest, head, and falsetto register (in that order). Others teach chest, middle, and head. (in that order) Still others bring in terms like passagio (as a register). And there are about a thousand other variations when you bring in the concept of vocal transition points. There is no one understanding of those terms so it really is hard for me to address your first question because I don't know which school you come from. Regardless, the terms chest register and head register are not used in speech pathology because the physiology of vocal registers involves laryngeal function that is not influenced by the chest or the head. With new technology (when I say new really back as early as the late late 1930s up to today), the physiological understanding of speech (and singing) has improved to the  extent that it is apparent that the sense of sound coming from the chest and head is really a vibratory or resonance sensation that has nothing to do with the larynx and is therefore not really a part of registration. For this reason, many teachers have started to use the terms head voice and chest voice instead of head register and chest register, thereby moving these terms from a topic of vocal registration to vocal resonation. This further confuses the issue. In speech pathology and linguistics and phonetics, however, the terms chest register and head register have never been used. The terms chest register and head register came from before the bel canto school of thought and have developed and changed in meaning over time. This is why there are so many opinions. Read the articles on chest voice and head voice. Not all views are there but a couple of them are. The important thing to know is that these terms can have a plethora of meanings within vocal pedagogy and there is not really a consensus of thought concerning there use and definition. I hope that helped.Nrswanson (talk) 17:57, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: What is this?