I have been coaching a few women recently on legit singing. They are trained musical theatre singers but their focus has been on roles that involve belting or singing with their chest register. They don't have much experience of classical singing and have not done a lot of work on bringing the sound from their head voice down.
I have started to research this area so that I can better demonstrate and explain what is needed to switch between these two styles, as I do believe that both are required for a well rounded voice. Today I read Jamie Read's paper which detailed some of the research he has been doing in enabling students to sing in both these styles:
I was interested to read about the exercises that he used for singers switching to a legit style. I have been getting students to begin on the highest notes of an arpeggio so that can try to maintain the feeling of the head register as they move down through the arpeggio, but I think I also need to try getting them to do this starting on lower notes, that is notes that are around the middle of the voice, as I have been focusing on arpeggios that start at E5.
