Breaking into Head Voice

[jzhang172]

Am I breaking into head voices properly here while doing the Lip Trills? When I am doing the lip trills, I try to imagine as I get higher that the notes are getting closer to my lips as well as reaching down for the notes instead of reaching up for the notes. Not sure if it's helping though

http://soundcloud.com/jzhang172/img-0914

[Felipe Carvalho]

Yes, you broke into falsetto.

Instead of worrying about it. Slow the scale down a lot, and try to relax more those lips, its a bit stiff. Use more time to inhale and start the tone comfortably. Its all somewhat rushed, will not work like this.

Use a mirror and eliminate all tensions you see on your face, chin and jaw when you do it. Try doing the lip roll unvoiced first, as relaxed as possible. Notice the posture and understand that there is no reason for other muscles to be engaged when you are producing a tone at the same time. On the lower notes it was airy.

Also understand that this exercise is a way for you to practice on the scale while protecting your voice from possible abuses. Simply doing it without some clear and beneficial goal in mind to actually change how you are doing it will produce no result in your voice besides consolidating the way you are using it right now. If you cant listen to what you are doing, and use the visual information you have to effectively determine what the problem is and how to correct it, you are just doing things blindly and will need to be really lucky to improve.

[Keith]

And to add to Felipe's post, it does sound kinda strained. Do not force anything during this (or any) exercise. You should be using just enough air to make your lips vibrate. So, this should be a very quiet exercise. There are a kazillion posts in here about lip bubbles, tongue trills, humming, and the like. I suggest going through them.

~Keith

[VideoHere]

and to add to felipe's great post, it's a terrific exercise to use to judge how well you are in control of your breath and exhalation.

strive to flutter the lips using a yawn configuration, as opposed to a high larynx/low soft palate, to keep the airway open.

this is something you may not think of doing which will help you ascend without having to break into falsetto.