Help! Discovered head voice 4 days ago, Is this falsetto or Head Voice

[PobertBlant]

Greetings,

I listen to a lot of Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Led Zeppelin etc. Basically heavy metal. I've been practicing singing for 4 months now and I could never understand how to access my head voice, I would always strain on the high notes and would be belting them out in chest, I could never go past E4.

I discovered my full voice/head voice 4 days ago while trying to sing man in the box by alice in chains, randomly.

I then started to work on it and started to notice the amount of diaphragmatic support needed for the high notes as well how much fuller it sounded in comparison to falsetto. I know my head voice is undeveloped, and that can sometimes make it sound like it's falsetto, when it actually isn't, but I just want to be sure. Please listen to the clip below and tell me what's going on. Anxiously waiting for an answer, thank you.

I can go all the way to B4 in this, without strain.

(The first portion is in Head, second is in falsetto, then it repeats again.)

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1VYeqMoamuV

[Owen Korzec]

you have the terms pretty much correct. the first one is kind of more of a distorted mixed voice but that's kind of the sound you'll want for those styles anyways. i would try to work on producing it cleanly though.

the second one, the falsetto, isn't very useful for the genres you're after so you don't worry about that one. work on what you are calling head voice.

now that you kind of have the sound you're after it's just about backing off a bit and finding more control over it so that you can control whether it's louder or softer, cleaner or grittier, etc. and also applying it to singing as you'll find that's much harder than a siren on an open vowel.

[PobertBlant]

Great! Thanks for the quick reply Owen. Yes, you are correct, it takes a lot more to sing in this voice than to just go for an open vowel, but it is definitely a start. Once again, Thanks!

[ChumelsVanCogle]

that's an interesting sound. is there adduction in there or is it strained?

[VideoHere]

from what i can hear you are blowing too much air across the folds and not supporting which causes you to empty out of air.

try that same kind of siren on the word "meow" stretching out the meow to feel the vowel sounds contained in the word....

this exercise helps you not only to learn to mix, but to feel and begin to sense how the vowels (which are throat shapes) allow the voice to release and move up.

you can vary it too...do one set of elongated meows, one set of fast meows, and one set of mee, yows (just 2 syllables)...follow?

try to add in a little bit of cry as you do these.

i found this to be one of the best exercises to do. start low and work your way up as high as you can comfortably go.

[ronws]

I agree with Owen.

[Owen Korzec]

i dont wanna annoy or something (just want to help) but, what you have is a flageolet split of the voice, do your research on complete vocal technique's flageolet split, and you will understand.

i had this problem, and because no one helped me or told me that i had it (and i personally denied having a problem that others dont), it got STUCK, it took me years to fix it.

the thing is, the coordination you are using for high notes (flageolet) it's fine above around C5/high C (really cool for high power metal screams), but below that it will cause a split on the voice (having 2 voices. the moments in which your voice cracks, it's not vocalfry/creaking, it is your voice fighting between those 2 voices).

to advice you to solve this, i will not focus about support, semioccluded phonations or twang, because despite those things are useful, those will not solve the split.

i recommend you to not bridge, just extend your max volume on a EH vowel, high larynx, first almost shouting (or directly shout if necessary to avoid the split), maybe use GEH (G as onset, also try vocal fry as onset, focus on volume and cord closure, dont rely too much on twang yet because you need to focus first on pure isolated medial compression/cord closure), and build upwards in range in PURE overdrive (then you can mix it with edge later), first, then curbing (a bit twanged, medium volume), then edge (twanged overdrive), and little by little build your softer volume (neutral), without the flageolet, maintaining the connection you had in your overdrive. the mid-high notes (4th octave, C4-B4) have to be connected and feel exactly like your lower speaking notes (2nd and 3rd octave), not like your notes on the 5th octave or 6th.

hope this helps

hey Geran you are only referring to his falsetto right? The first part of his clip sounds like non-flageolet to me and that's what I recommended he work on

[Steven Fraser]

Cool breakthrough. Congrats.

Where do you want to go vocally?

[Felipe Carvalho]

Although it is not breaking, this alone will not solve anything... Again, teacher, or just sing and try to improve on the songs.

And geran, the "flageolet" used in CVT is a bandaid to avoid talking about registration, which would go against the paradigms of the way they model the singing voice.