Home Ken Tamplin's Corner

Questions About Exercises Falsetto VS Head Voice

legacylegacy Enrolled Posts: 15

I feel very comfortable singing up to D above middle C in my my chest voice.  Sometimes I can make it to F or F#

I have developed a strong sense of falsetto getting that flutte sound. and can do up to B above middle C fairly easily

However I still get confused about the differences between falsetto and head voice.

When I do the stage 2 vocal excercises, when I go to shift into the upper registers I tend to go into falsetto. I can do that comfortablely but I want to go into head voice instead.  Should I continue to do it and if I flip into falsetto so be it or should I slow down and be sure I am doing head voice or??? 

 

Any thoughts?

Comments

  • legacylegacy Enrolled Posts: 15

    I guess part of my confusion is that in the Head Voice program it says to wait until you develop your Chest Voice before you do your head voice, but to do any of the vocal excercises in the volumes you are going into head voice or falsetto to reach those notes.

    I've been singing for a while and I feel really confortable singing in my chest voice, so I'm guessing doing some Head voice stuff is worthwhile

  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354

    When you come out on the high side of your passagio, instead of using a lot of air, you need to do a timbral head voice with your cords closed together. 

    The flutey sound is the sound of your cords being held apart.  True Head Voice sounds more like chest voice, only higher.  You need the timbral sound so that the tone of your voice more closely matches your chest voice.  That helps the chest and head voices to come together more seamlessly.

    The Building Head Voice program is intended to be done after finishing Volume Three.  It takes that much strength and support to be able to sustain the kind of power it takes to handle the Building Head Voice exercises safely and properly.  You also should spend considerable time attempting to stretch your chest voice prior to diving into Building Head Voice.

    In the meantime, work with the Volume One and Volume Two, and eventually Volume Three exercises and when you do go into head voice, close those cords and make it as bright as you can.  No leaking air.  After stretching your chest voice THEN you should do alternating days of BHV and Stretching Chest.

    Bob

  • legacylegacy Enrolled Posts: 15

    Highmtn - thanks for response.   My question is though: while doing the Volume 2 exercises when I get up to notices that transition into what is now my "head voice" do I NOT attempt to sing in head voice or falsetto, simply try to do everything in chest voice?    So when Ken reaches notes that I can't reach in chest voice I stop singing until he comes back down? 

     

    Also how high up should I be able to sing in chest before I attempt to develop head voice or a mix voice.  I'm at D above middle C pretty strong now and can sometimes reach as high as F#

     

    It's confusing to me because Ken talks about "bridge building" between your head and chest voices with sliders and all, and has excercises that clearly go into "head voice" range, but then I also hear don't try to develop your head voice. So I'm confused as to what to do when I'm doing these excerices and I reach notes that I clearly can't sing without head voice.

     

    Thanks for any clarification

  • legacylegacy Enrolled Posts: 15

    I realized my above question wasn't clear, let me simplify:

    If i'm doing the "Chest voice" exercises and am hitting the higher notes that are in the falsetto/head voice range and I can't sing them too well in head voice but find it easy to go into falsetto should I sing them in falsetto or should I instead simply stop singing at that point in the exercise and wait till it comes back down to notes I can sing.

  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354

    You should learn to sing in head voice instead of falsetto when you are through your passagio.

    That is, learn to get a more timbral, closed-cord sound when you bridge above your chest voice.

     

    Stretching your chest voice higher so you can bridge at higher notes is a skill you need to learn, IN ADDITION to learning to bridge smoothly. 

    You will be singing in head voice, but you won't be drilling heavily on it until you have graduated from Volumes 1, 2, and 3.  In the meantime, you should learn to sing in true head insead of false head.  The difference is in the closed cords. 

    Bob

Sign In or Register to comment.