Is it normal to be able to reach higher with full voice than falsetto?

dreamist

Just saw Ken's 10 tips for singing high notes. Tip #4 suggests trying to sing with falsetto first then build it up to full voice. I have a problem working with this tip, because my falsetto is somehow constricted and cannot reach as high as my full voice does (I'm talking about E5-G5 range here). I have to push really hard, yet still cannot place my falsetto on that range, while it feels a lot more relaxed using full voice (still difficult, but much less so and still possible).

So I wonder, is it true that falsetto usually reaches higher than full voice? For me, it doesn't seem to be so. Perhaps I have a wrong falsetto technique? Can anyone suggest please?

highmtn

Hi, @dreamist!

Tip #4 is true, but when you are talking about notes up in the 5th octave, it's high for either chest voice OR head voice.  That's where just about everybody starts running out of steam on high notes, whether in chest or head. 

For many singers , a G4 or B4 would be a very high note in chest voice, and practicing with that note in head voice and gradually bringing chest into it would be a way of learning it softly first, and then putting some chest weight into it, as Ken suggests in the Singing High Notes article (By the way, that really IS a good article!)

After a singer becomes more advanced, eventually making it up past C5, then E, F, G5, etc. in chest voice, funny things start to happen.  You may in fact be able to take your mix or a light chest voice up higher than you can in head voice or falsetto.  It seems crazy that chest voice could go that high, but it can, and some of the things that apply down lower have different characteristics at those higher-pitched resonance areas. 

So, to answer your question, this tip is to help people who aren't singing stratospheric notes like G5's quite yet.  It kind of depends on what timbre you are using, the volume level, how chesty or heady you are configuring your voice, what vowel you are using, and where it is placed, but I do find, just like you, that sometimes I can sing crazy-high, thinned-down chest notes quite easily that will require a lot more effort to sing in head voice or falsetto.

If you want to sing in head voice higher (or lower) than you can now, you may need to start doing head voice workouts to expand that head voice range.  Eventually you will reach your maximum high and low ranges in each vocal configuration.

But singing down in the 4th octave, around F#4 to B4, Tip #4 in Ken's article is right on the money.  That's where most newer vocal students are fighting to stretch chest voice just one more half-step, yodeling, and trying to figure everything out.  Most of us have to work that area of the voice for quite some time before the Rocket Engines Really Kick In!!!

It's odd to even be talking about notes like G4 to be "way down there", but when you sing G5's, suddenly a G4 IS way down there.  It's all relative to your point of view.  Where you will be with your voice five years from now you may be looking down on the G5. 

: ^ )

All the Best!

Bob 

dreamist

That explains it! Thank you very much!

I'll have a long way to go. Still can't relax enough up there.