Is this "supported" falsetto?

[srs7593]

Some guy on youtube told me it is. I say it's modal albeit thin.

Awful video, not my best siren but it was kinda thrown together.

[gno]

People define falsetto differently around the world. What you did I would not call falsetto in any way, although some people might call it "re-inforced falsetto". It sounds fully adducted, and you've got good connection between lower and upper range. Most people here would call that "head voice". Sounds like fairly deep fold vibrations which is what a lot of us are aiming for. You are acheiving that with a good TA / CT coordination up high. Falsetto would normally be NO TA activity at all, and leaving everything to the CT muscle which keeps the folds very thin and partially open, with only the outer folds vibrating. With the TA muscle staying active up in the high range, you get a deeper fold vibration, and a thicker sound.

[srs7593]

Thetarantinomaniac and Danerage on youtube seem to think that other singers use strictly (what I guess) you call TA for their E5s. Namely Billy Gibbons, and David Lee Roth...

What do TA and CT stand for? I see you in particular use those letters a lot.

And what do you think they mean by rei-inforced falsetto?

[gno]

Yeah - I use those terms alot!

Here's a great article on TA and CT. It explains what they stand for:

http://www.ncvs.org/ncvs/tutorials/voiceprod/tutorial/cover.html

TA and CT are like the two main muscles controlling the folds (vocal cords), and they are responsible for pitch and how deeply the folds vibrate (chest verses head). These two muscles act in opposite directions - pulling against each other, kind of like your bicep and tricep. When they are both working strongly, you get thicker folds and a chest voice sound. Falsetto is when you let go of the TA muscle and let CT stretch the folds for higher pitch. The folds are very thin and so is the sound.

What people call "head voice" is when you don't let go of the TA muscle as you go higher, so that TA and CT are still working against each other in the upper range - where CT is dominant. I guess some people call a light head voice re-inforced falsetto. I'm not really sure. A smooth connection between chest and head requires maintaining control over these muscles throughout the range. This comes natural to some people, and others have to learn to control these when singing high.