Finding my lowest head voice note

[jco5055]

Let me begin by saying I'm not sure if this goes here or in the vocal technique section, so mods please move it if it should be in the other subforum.

So I've been using the Four Pillars of Singing for around a month, and I'm trying to find my lowest head voice note, so I can start to learn to bridge through the passagio. Like I stated in my other thread, I can easily find my head voice when I sing SLS style, but in the Vocalist Studio style I have trouble hearing what is head voice and what is falsetto, especially now as if I'm singing too low (if my lowest head voice note is a D#4 or E4) then I'm singing in falsetto.

So here is the clip, and although I say in the clip when I'm singing "regular" (or belting) or when I'm singing in head, on E4 I say regular but it's all just head. Also, I start out at like a C#4 by accident, but I'm still working on my singing and high belts/low head notes are the hardest notes to sing.

Thanks to whoever listens.

EDIT: I also wanted to state how in the Four Pillars ebook it is stated that most people will want to bridge between E4 and A4, so originally I just started at E4 and once I believed I could use my head voice there, I stuck with it for the past two weeks without seeing if I could go lower. As I have been having trouble connecting on sirens and such I wanted to see if going lower is one of the reasons I'm having trouble besides just being a beginner in the program.

[Jason Dupree]

when you say 'regular', i think you are actually trying to belt too high. a properly shaped and resonated head voice can sound like a powerful belt. you definitely want to be in head voice for all these notes. but even in your examples of head voice, you seem to be pushing/ straining/ pulling chest. the E#4 was the closest, at 1:02. finding the lowest head voice is difficult, and it would take a whole lot of explaining to explain it, so ill give an example. listen to the song 'God only wants you'

(and appreciate that Screaming D5, one of my favorites)

Jimmy Gnecco sings this almost completely in head voice, NOT falsetto (it does sneak in, but if you dont hear any breath its not falsetto). try to sing along and sound like this, and sing to other songs and sing it like this, very very light. you should get to a point where you can take this light sound all the way down to a soft chest, and get a seamless transition. notice how the resonance feels when you sing this. the stuff you will have trouble with, the resonance will be about level with the top of your jaw, the higher stuff where the resonance is behind your nose-ish is easier. but overall it should seem soft and ringy. singing with that big belty sound in your head voice feels just this easy. what you want to do is focus on the resonance and keep it there, while employing the shaping of the mouth, leveraging of the tongue, and all that intrinsic anchoring. ill go out on a limb and say you will know when youve done it right.

the most important thing is connecting this soft sound seamlessly with a soft chest voice. then you can feel the resonance and see when it changes from chest to head. (since its slightly different for everyone). the lowest head voice notes, when you are finding them, will be very very soft, almost falsetto. you cant be trying for a more powerful head voice like in your clip. the power comes from the shaping and anchoring.

hope that wasnt too confusing!

[jco5055]

Hey thanks to the response!

I must admit though, I think it's strange that you say I was straining in chest for most of them, unless you meant for the notes where I say "regular" before, which are chest notes. Because the notes I say "head" before (except for the E/E# notes I hit, because I said "regular" but that's too high to belt for me so I switched to head naturally) there's absolutely no tension at all, I think imagined that I heard some air from those notes so I couldn't tell if they were head or falsetto. Also, I actually attempted to find my lowest head notes and it was somewhere between a B3 to a C#4, so you are right in saying that the chest notes were too high for me.

[Jason Dupree]

it can get confusing because there is a small range where you could sing in either head or chest voice. i didnt mean you were straining in chest; for your head voice samples, you were using head voice, but it was forced and constricting muscles were tensing.

would i be right in guessing that in your head voice samples, you are finding that heady resonance, but trying to make it loud, or pushing a lot of air, trying to make it sound more like what robert does in his head voice?