I’m the One Harmonies

tylers714

Hello KTVA. I am a drummer who is attempting to sing backup vocals in my band. We are covering “I’m the One” by Van Halen and I am struggling with the harmonies during the verses and the chorus. I’m singing the high harmony when we play it in my band.

Here is a link to the song for reference:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EllEztdbBhg

I’m mainly having a hard time deciphering if the harmonies are being sung in falsetto or head voice. How do I go about hitting the notes properly without sounding too shrill?

Wigs

Falsetto would be still be head voice, just alot more air in the sound. To hit those notes without sounding shrill, you'll first want to make sure its not at the absolute top of your range. If you can just manage to squeak out the note in a set of scales, singing them in a song will be extremely hard to do. The next thing is to of course make sure you are supporting well and managing your air so you dont blast and dry your cords. Next is getting a nice rounded vowel sound that you can manage in that register and experimenting with how much of your mask you need to lean into to achieve nice tone. More mask can make it easier to get higher notes, but there is a fine line between a nice bright tone and starting to sound too nasally. If you like you can post some samples of your attempts for us to listen to and give you a bit more precise feed back.