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Learning Falsetto

So my head voice is rather strong but I need some guidance on how to do a falsetto voice. How do you actually learn to do it? Everybody just says "it's that sound" but that doesn't help me to be able to produce it. What do I do to develop it? I just can't do it. Thank you.

Comments

  • huberthubert Pro Posts: 125
    Add the air to the head voice sound ("h" sound) and you get falsetto ;) You need to weaken vocal folds closure to make falsetto sound, and you do it by not supporting the head voice or just adding air to the sound. You can lower the volume as well if that's necessary.
  • hoOphoOp Member Posts: 8
    I'm not sure if youre right on that. Falsetto is produced by a different coordination of vocal folds as far as I know, which is not the same as head voice. Also in doesn't sound like falsetto when I just add air to head voice, it sounds like an airy head voice =)
  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,357
    The terminology used on this site is consistent with what is taught by the KTVA method. Head voice would be the normal sound your voice makes above the secondo passaggio. This sound uses normal cord closure and can have a very timbral sound to it.

    Falsetto would be that same sound above the secondo passaggio, but with the vocal cords slightly apart, less cord closure. This introduces more air into the sound, and can sound somewhat hooty. It is the sound most often associated with a soprano singing classical music.

    To get to head voice, you have to release into it when you go above the secondo passaggio in pitch. It's above the vocal break (that place where you sometimes "yodel". If you don't release into head voice, you just hit a stopping point where you can't go any higher.

    All the Best.

    Bob
  • hoOphoOp Member Posts: 8
    I appreciate your answer, although I still don't fully understand the issue. Let's leave the terminology and just operate with examples. The sound I'd like to get is the one that has that flip when you go up, as you called it "yodel". They say when you go down you can't reach your lower notes and connect with chest using that sound, it just breakes there. With what I have now I'm able to go to the very bottom of my range, so its not what I want.
  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,357
    Your voice can break either when going up or when going down, through the secondo passaggio. Not everybody's voice breaks in both directions. Some people only break when going up. Some only break when going down. It's a matter of coordination. The register break is still there, but if you are skillful, you can minimize it and it won't be apparent. That's what is called being "connected". When you "connect" you go past the register break smoothly, without "breaking" or "yodeling".

    In a lot of Country singing and some other styles, the Yodel, or vocal break, is accentuated on purpose to get more of a "hillbilly" kind of sound, or a "cry" in the voice. Either way, it's the register break between the mid voice and head voice. Some vocalists also experience a yodel between the Lower full chest register and the mid register, which is called the Primo Passaggio.

    Bob
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