Stairway to heaven : high notes

[forest_gimp]

Helllo there,

I have been lurking on this forum for a while and I know some of you are bad-ass vocalists.

I have been training seriously for about a year, practising scales and sirens, liprolls... I have listened to two covers of Stairway to Heaven on this forum (Ronws and Keith), which are quite awesome.

With a little workout, I have no problem hitting those high notes but I find my voice still to much falsetto-like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd-iR9ZvmSs&feature=youtu.be

What needs my head tones to sound with more depth? Is it a support issue, not enough twang, tongue-swallowing, or wrong wovels?

Any imput would be really appreciated, and I know there are many rock tenor singers here who have probably sung this song dozens of time.

[ronws]

Your note placement is good and you did something I don't do, mainly because it is difficult for me. You get Plant's 1/4 tone flat pitch on the last word. Tough, indeed. Try it with a slight smile, which will change how you resonate.

Also, change your vowels, which might be tough for you if English is not your native language. In fact, americans, specifically, are great at murdering vowels with our endless dipthongs. For example, in "wind on down the road," in English speach, it is pronounced wh-eye-n-d. In singing it at high pitch, you might try wand on down the road. To maintain falsetto for that long, you've already got plenty of breath. What you want to do to create a little more depth, as you say, is slightly creak the note. That is, approach something of a witch's cackle or a duck quack. Not overdone, just slight and easy.

[forest_gimp]

Thanks for the imput. I will try this "witch" sound and record anothetr track.

When it comes to wovels, English is not my main tongue (I am French), so I guess it is a very common issue to use the wrong, non singer-friendly wovels.

You also mentionned that I got plenty of air to hold notes in falsetto. But I don't think I am in falsetto, since my vocal folds are abducted (I can siren up to those high notes without a crack). But indeed, I believe it sounds like falsetto, which is what I try to avoid.

[ronws]

Well, that's okay. When I did the covers of songs by the Darkness, some may have thought my highest notes were falsetto but they were actually full voice.It was actually some of the lower parts that had some falsetto.

Falsetto is windy, lacking some resonation, and the folds are not adducting very much, though, really, whatever one is doing, it is only the outer layer tissue that is vibrating.