Head Voice Compression

[guitarist99]

Howdy Everyone -

New to the forum, excited to be here.

I've been training with TVS for a couple weeks or so now, and even though I feel I have a good concept of falsetto (mode) vs. head voice (place), what confuses me (and I'll describe this to the best of my abilities) is that I feel I can produce falsetto in two ways; especially around notes E4 - G#4, there's one way I can produce falsetto that's a bit harder to produce but connects easily to head. On the other hand, I can "slip" into another falsetto (which feels necessary to produce higher head tones) that's easier to produce, but is somewhat weaker, more airy than the first, and harder to connect to chest voice when pulled down.

Sorry if that made little sense... I realize there're not actually "two" falsettos, I think this may have something more to do with compression, but any thoughts?

[Owen Korzec]

Howdy Everyone -

New to the forum, excited to be here.

I've been training with TVS for a couple weeks or so now, and even though I feel I have a good concept of falsetto (mode) vs. head voice (place), what confuses me (and I'll describe this to the best of my abilities) is that I feel I can produce falsetto in two ways; especially around notes E4 - G#4, there's one way I can produce falsetto that's a bit harder to produce but connects easily to head. On the other hand, I can "slip" into another falsetto (which feels necessary to produce higher head tones) that's easier to produce, but is somewhat weaker, more airy than the first, and harder to connect to chest voice when pulled down.

Sorry if that made little sense... I realize there're not actually "two" falsettos, I think this may have something more to do with compression, but any thoughts?

Can you post an audio file of what you are talking about?

It's pretty much impossible to communicate what you're trying to communicate via text.

I've been through what you're going through, lots of beginners go through this. You may find two or several different head voice or falsetto-like setups, some are good, some are bad, and you can usually tell by the sound and their ability to bridge into chest voice.

Whichever one is easier to bridge with chest voice (test this by using the lift up pull back maneuver on a siren) is probably the better training foundation.

[Steven Fraser]

Howdy Everyone -

New to the forum, excited to be here.

I've been training with TVS for a couple weeks or so now, and even though I feel I have a good concept of falsetto (mode) vs. head voice (place), what confuses me (and I'll describe this to the best of my abilities) is that I feel I can produce falsetto in two ways; especially around notes E4 - G#4, there's one way I can produce falsetto that's a bit harder to produce but connects easily to head. On the other hand, I can "slip" into another falsetto (which feels necessary to produce higher head tones) that's easier to produce, but is somewhat weaker, more airy than the first, and harder to connect to chest voice when pulled down.

Sorry if that made little sense... I realize there're not actually "two" falsettos, I think this may have something more to do with compression, but any thoughts?

guitarist99: I agree with Owen Korzec...post a clip. Its not so much about terminology... it all starts with SOUND... tone quality.

[guitarist99]

Hey, sorry for the delay, internet issues.

Be warned neither of these tones (G4) are particularly strong/stable as I'm basically still a beginner.

First falsetto sensation, very easy to produce, but as you can hear I have a hard time connecting it to chest:

Second sensation, harder to produce, definitely more unstable, breaks apart, yet connects to chest:

I find that I often have to use the "first" falsetto sensation to sing higher notes with relative ease (i.e. A4 and above)... any ideas? Thanks a ton.

[Owen Korzec]

I think the second one would be better to train.

While you're at it, work on keeping your breath pressure/air flow steady. It's wavering now because you aren't consciously metering it out. Pick a confortable note and try to sustain it for about 10 seconds with very little fluctuation in tone pitch of volume, then try the same in head voice. That should help get you over the instability issues. Just simple onsets while paying attention to breath control.

[guitarist99]

Interesting observation... and yea I agree with the breath control issue thang, I thought it should just be intuitive but I'm probably wrong. Thanks for the advice!

[Owen Korzec]

Interesting observation... and yea I agree with the breath control issue thang, I thought it should just be intuitive but I'm probably wrong. Thanks for the advice!

It's more intuitive than many people think, but what it does require is mental attention and monitoring of physical sensation....

An analogy I could make is controlling your breath throughout a song or vocalize is a lot like driving a car and trying to maintain a consistent speed on the speedometer as you drive over various hills. The amount of breath pressure being how hard you are pressing on the accelerator, the hills being the volume, vowel, and pitch changing around, and the speedometer being the relative balance of air pressures above and below the vocal folds.