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I've seen a singing teacher being able to sing the same note either as a chest note or as a head note.
I tried to do it myself and it seems to me this can be done with the middle range notes by moving up or down the larynx. But not sure this is the exact mechanism.
Is someone enlightened enough to explain this phenomenon. How is physically possible to do that?
You can sing any particular pitch in a multitude of ways, from a soft hum to full-out operatic production! Some ways fit certain ranges - you aren't going to manage 'Old Man River' (at pitch) in falsetto! But there are overlaps, and 'mixes'.
The ranges of chest and head overlap, it's called the passaggio. Now chest and head sound quite different. Within this passaggio range you can sing notes in chest (deep, resonant, bassy) or head (thinner, lighter) or a mix in-between. In fact it's possible to smoothly change the production of the note from chesty to heady and back. Skilled singers who can use mixed voice know how to gradually reduce the chest part and increase the head part as they travel up this range (and vice versa), to smoothly join the two types of voice together and make them seem to be 'one voice'.
At your stage, you should concentrate on lowering your head voice range and increasing your chest voice range until they overlap, then you'll understand how the same note can feel and sound different in each range. Your teacher can help you do this.
