Chest register

The chest register is the normal vocal range of a singer, for example, in baritones, notes below the E above middle C (C4, C1 in European notation). It is the major bulk of most male voices, however, in female voices, falsetto voices are also utilized in most cases for screaming (especially in female children who often hit whistle register when they scream). It is called the chest register because the pitch resonates throughout the chest cavity.

In commercial pop music, most Rock, Indie rock and Metal and a lot of general pop music, Belting is used to sing higher notes than are present in the average vocal range. These higher than average notes are hit using the chest register, albeit with careful studying on how to use minimum muscle effort to avoid damaging the vocal cords. Belting is often used to create large intervals and money notes. This type of singing is largely shunned in women in Bel canto and Speech Level Singing, however it is taught, although to a lesser extent then fully possible in men in both methods due to the difference of male voices. To learn the full belting method, other schools of singing methodology generally must be sought out.

The chest register is one of three registers in the Bel canto italian Opera singing method, and the largely commercial (usually used with RnB singers) Speech Level Singing method, where it is used along with head register, and the passagio area (a zone of the range in which the singer is taught how to mix chest and head register seemlessly through delineation tricks and more complex muscle coordinations).

Another range used alongside the Chest voice that anyone without training can also access and which is used heavily in commercial singing is falsetto. Together these voices distinguish the timbre or sound of the average human voice. Chest register is created when a person contracts the cricothyroid (CT) and thyroarytenoid (TA) muscles. This tends to shorten the folds of the vocal cords, thereby producing a pitch that has a loud sound with a large fundamental. Human voice is mostly in chest voice. When producing chest register sounds, the folds of the vocal cords are closed for approximately half of each cycle.