Can I have a little cheat sheet for all these different kinds of voices? Which is which? If you google it you may be able to find more coherent explanation than you would from me. Or maybe there are singers here who are also teachers and can explain better.

Roughly though:
*Chest Register: is a deeper full sound. Same voice you use in speech, and it's what you use to get to the lower notes of your range. You feel the resonance in your chest when you're singing this.
* Middle Register: blend of chest and head register. It's when you're moving from your chest voice to your head voice. Once you can do the transition smoothly, it can be called middle register.
* Head voice: You use this to sing the higher notes. My teacher always says that for this you should feel the resonance in the cheekbones.
* Falsetto: really high notes

usually really light in tone, and usually only done by men.
edited to add: insomniak -- also, if a note is in a transition range between one register and the next, the blending can be tricky to do. So if Adam cracks is not because the note too high for him; he just couldn't quite negotiate that transition between head/chest. And the vowel sound is difficult ("will") and he's trying to be angry and growly. =)
Updated On: 8/30/04 at 11:25 PM