Starting head voice

Mark_Azzi

How far in should I be before I can start working on my head voice? I sing in a band and my bandmates have been wanting to do some songs that require it. I plan to get the course soon, and want to know what to tell my bandmates about when I can start.

doc_ramadani

Hi @Mark_Azzi,

a warm Welcome to the forums from Germany. I am Marco, 49 years old and started the course 15 months ago. I had absolutely no experience in singing and wasn't able to hit one single note on pitch. Personally, I haven't touched head voice, which will be addressed in Volume 4 (out of 5).

But we have here some guys who worked their head voice before starting the course. Maybe @Diego can tell you about his experiences.

Doc

DogMeat

I think it's still fair to say that head voice improves during the Vol1 and Vol2 training. Not necessarily the range, but the quality of tone and bridging from chest.

Mark_Azzi

@DogMeat I figured that much. I'm really just wondering more about how developed my chest should be before I can start working on head voice. I'm more concerned with safety than tone at the moment.

DogMeat

Just keep in mind that whenever the sound cracks you need to either pull back the volume or stop. Start very quietly.

doc_ramadani

And there is one thing I want to add:

By definition the term head voice is used in KTVA in means of reinforced falsetto, the bright timbral head voice that matches the sound of your chest voice. The aim is to have one long register.

Doc

Klaus_T

@Mark_Azzi very good that you are thinking about safety first, this will keep your voice from being damaged. i think you will learn more about your voice from day 1, even if head voice might only be taught porperly later in the course (depending on the definition, see above). i think your voice will benefit from the training either way. it will be a long process, depending on how good you want to be, but the sooner you start, the sooner you will get there

Wigs

The start of the course is all about balance between head and chest. We try not to over develop one or the other and spend the same amount of time training each. So even if you are going to spend alot of time singing in head in the future, you shouldn't neglect the chest or vice versa. Keeping this in mind I don't see a problem with working on your head voice now.

GaryDrumm

My honest thoughts on this, and maybe you can share with band mates, When I first picked up a bass guitar, I played a note. Over time, and with lots of practice, I learned more and more notes, and more fingerings, chord structures, time signatures, slaps, picking, etc. I think a strong head voice, which is what I am here for as well, is something that is developed once you get the foundational material down. The breathing is extremely important in strong head voice.

My strategy is to go through the course in its entirety, learn the techniques and exercises, warm ups, tips and tricks, etc, and then focus in more on the specificities areas I'm wanting to improve.

That's just my 2 cents.

Mark_Azzi

@Wigs I have the course now. It seems to me that Ken doesn't want us working on head voice from the beginning. It sounds to me like volume 1 is all about chest (with some bridging to get us started) rather than balance between chest and head. Given how heavily he stresses that working on head voice to early will atrophy the chest voice, I think it's safe to say that I shouldn't be working on my chest voice right now. Do you agree?

doc_ramadani

Hi Mark,

great to see that you are a student now. With balancing Wigs means to do the bridging exercises and the chest stretching exercises to the same extent. You are right, the goal of Volume 1 to 3 is to build a rock solid chest voice WHILE being able to keep the throat open when bridging through the passaggio. Since you will get better on bridging over time you will train your falsetto too. And then, again over time, you will grow your falsetto towards a reinforced falsetto, which we call by definition head voice here at KTVA.

Doc