Head voice again

[Mirador]

Hi everybody!

My first post, not sure if this is the place to be but here it goes.

I've seen tons of clips were people trying to explain the difference between head and falsetto. I still don't get and I think it's because most of the clips doesn't really contain any words, it's just sounds. The goal often seems to be to hit as high notes as possible. I want to learn head voice in order to expand my range.

People often say that falsetto is weak and when they show it they apply no compression. Well, all notes sound more or less weak without compression. People also tend to increase the volume when hitting higher notes which makes it harder to hear what they are doing. At least for me.

So I am wondering, does anyone have some good examples where the singing is just about the bridge were you easily can hear the difference between high chest notes and low head voice notes? Preferable at about the same volume in both registers.

[VideoHere]

the more i read and study, the more i'm inclined to believe there really is no such thing as a "high chest note."

please explain what you mean when you say "high chest notes." what note or range of notes? because if it's higher than e4, it's really not "chest." just my current way of thinking about it.

[jonpall]

Bob, if you sing a fairly loud and resonant, almost shouty, but non breathy Eh vowel with strong support, you should be able to get that sensation higher than E4. In fact, it's possible to "pull chest" like this up to C5, but only if you stick to Eh or Oh. To experiment, just make fun of someone pulling chest higher than the male passagio, but do an Eh vowel. You'll find that it's possible. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, though, because it takes effort and personally I usually find the sound too "shouty" for my taste. But as an occasional "heroic" sound effect, it can be cool to do an A4 or so with that sound. If you know what you're doing, it shouldn't hurt your throat. Cheers.

[Mirador]

I'm sorry that my terminology is incorrect. What I mean is that with my normal singing I can go up to d4. After that I can use overdrive, screaming etc. to hit higher notes. But from what I learned (from browsing the Internet) you can/should access the head voice to hit higher notes in a more controlled manner. For me, that's above d4.

I suppose that d4 is not the note to switch at, perhaps b4 is. So what I'm looking for is really the difference in sound between singing the same notes in the different registers. Some people will claim that it should sound the same but I'm pretty sure that there's a distinct difference in sound between the registers in the overlapping interval and that good singers adds things on top of it to disguise the difference.

[VideoHere]

Bob, if you sing a fairly loud and resonant, almost shouty, but non breathy Eh vowel with strong support, you should be able to get that sensation higher than E4. In fact, it's possible to "pull chest" like this up to C5, but only if you stick to Eh or Oh. To experiment, just make fun of someone pulling chest higher than the male passagio, but do an Eh vowel. You'll find that it's possible. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, though, because it takes effort and personally I usually find the sound too "shouty" for my taste. But as an occasional "heroic" sound effect, it can be cool to do an A4 or so with that sound. If you know what you're doing, it shouldn't hurt your throat. Cheers.

i agree with you and i can do what you're saying especially when i shade the "eh" with a smidgen of "oh."

it's very "grammish."

but i'm really starting to look at it like i'm in head voice and i invited chest in with it.

in fact, i'm on this new kick where when i go to sing anything, any note, any word, the air has to go way back and up behind the soft palate and circulate like the letter "c" before any tone comes out. i'm trying to get away from any forward, in the mouth singing. i want to get to where the entire voice production comes from above and dosen't drop down into the throat.

i'm hoping to build that head voice ramp frisell talks about in time. who the hell knows, i just keep trying....lol!!!!

[srs7593]

I'm sorry that my terminology is incorrect. What I mean is that with my normal singing I can go up to d4. After that I can use overdrive, screaming etc. to hit higher notes. But from what I learned (from browsing the Internet) you can/should access the head voice to hit higher notes in a more controlled manner. For me, that's above d4.

I suppose that d4 is not the note to switch at, perhaps b4 is. So what I'm looking for is really the difference in sound between singing the same notes in the different registers. Some people will claim that it should sound the same but I'm pretty sure that there's a distinct difference in sound between the registers in the overlapping interval and that good singers adds things on top of it to disguise the difference.

There's not really any correct or incorrect terminology. People can say head voice and mean many different things.

Where I make the switch really depends on what i'm doing. The absolute highest I can go without switching is Bb4 and that would be if I were really screaming. I rarely switch higher than Ab4. The lowest I can bring head voice is either D4 or E4.

Just think about the context of the song and where It makes the most sense to cross (if at all). If you learn to listen closely you can hear where the singer who recorded the song switches. Usually that's helpful if you take into consideration what their voice type is.

[ronws]

Frisell, I believe, nominally defines the bridge point as B4. However, with his system, you learn to strengthen head voice and "bring it down" to where it controls the chesty volume and resonance. But Bob's description is the best way to get there is nearly a verbatim quote from the book "The Tenor Voice."

[ronws]

Correction - I goofed up.

Frisell's definition of the break is between E4 and F4. Sorry for my previous inaccurate statement.