♬
Hi everybody!
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of
New York Vocal Coaching here in New York City.
Welcome to episode 87 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you as singers
by answering your questions from all over.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later,
but our question for this week comes from
Carlos G. in Puerto Natales, Chile.
And Carlos writes, "Dear Justin how do I find my head voice?"
Now Carlos what a great coincidence.
And not just because I have a head cold today you can hear.
[Hits piano]
But also because this is part 2 of our Vocal Register World Tour.
So pack your passport, pack your luggage,
pack your kit bag, pack your cat bag,
we're going on a Vocal Register World Tour.
♬
The second stop on our world tour is head voice.
And so we're going to talk about what it is,
look at it in some songs, and then give you
some tips and an exercise to develop it.
But first of all, what is head voice?
Well, head voice is a cricothyroid dominant production.
What we mean is that the cricothyroid muscle
is very present in this register.
The cricothyroid muscle is a muscle that runs between
the cricoid cartilage and the thyroid cartilage in the larynx.
It moves those two cartilages together.
When this happens the vocal cords stretch out, thin out.
This stretching causes the pitches to go up,
the vocal folds to vibrate faster,
and registers like head voice to be encouraged.
It's also a register of vocal flexibility.
In the last episode with the thyroarytenoid dominant production
we saw that equaled vocal strength.
Head voice is really just the exact opposite.
It's vocal flexibility.
You can think about when you go to the gym.
You do strength work and also flexibility work.
Head voice is very much like your flexibility work.
And this flexibility causes things like agility for the voice,
vibrato, pitch accuracy, and the ability to go higher
without getting louder or pushing.
So you can see why that's very important.
Not only that but head voice is built for high notes.
The vocal folds vibrate hundreds, even thousands, of times per second.
In chest voice with that high closed quotient
and all that thick mass, it's going to be hard
to make the vocal folds vibrate fast enough.
But in head voice with the cords thinning out,
the closed quotient decreases.
The vocal cords don't stay together as long.
This allows them to vibrate more quickly
and allows you to sing high notes more easily.
But head voice also involves resonance.
When the vocal cords stretch out,
the larynx tilts and rocks.
This sends the air up and into the head resonance.
So when we feel more head resonance
we get more stretch to the cords.
When we feel the air move out into the room you get less stretch.
So resonance is a key ingredient for head voice
and any of the stretching that we want.
So that should make head voice very clear on a cord level,
on a larynx level, and on a resonance level.
Yet still, there can be controversy.
Most of the confusion and the controversy come from the fact
that we use head voice differently for a male than we do for a female.
Now both genders have the tilting and rocking,
the stretching of the cords, the use of the resonance,
and the reduction of the closed quotient.
But for males the vocal cords stay connected, like a mix with chest voice.
And for females they disconnect from chest voice.
So males stay connected, females do not stay connected in head voice.
This is best heard in some song examples.
So let's do it.
Here's a male song example.
To illustrate male head voice. I chose "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol
so that you could hear a very light production that's not falsetto.
♪
♪ If I lay here ♪
♪
♪ If I just lay here ♪
♪
♪ Would you lie with me and just forget the world ♪
♪
Now, I didn't do...
♪ If I lay ♪ [falsetto]
And I didn't do...
♪ If I lay ♪ [chest]
But something right in between.
It's very light but not disconnected.
Now what about a female head voice?
A female singer singing purely in her head voice
might sing a song like "I Could Have Danced All Night"
from My Fair Lady.
♪
♪ I could have danced all night ♪
♪ And still have begged for more ♪
Now, I ain't no lady. [hits piano]
But you can hear that that's at least
a passable job at a female head voice.
You can also hear the difference between that and the male head voice.
So now that we've heard these song examples,
let's look, male or female, at some tips for developing head voice.
First place we're going to start is with breathing.
And we'll see that it's very different than what we saw with chest voice.
It's that still, small breath.
In head voice we're really going to have to mind our breath support.
And you know what that means,
it means don't let the ribcage collapse,
don't let the upper abdominals squeeze as you exhale.
You might say, Justin if we're going to high notes
and all those fast vibrations of the vocal cords happen,
then don't we need more breath?
Well no that's where the CT stretch takes over
and we don't need, and we should not use
lots of forceful breath for head voice.
Instead it's that small breath.
Very different than what we talked about with chest voice.
Next let's look at the larynx.
We don't want a low larynx, necessarily.
Or a high larynx.
But what about a wide larynx?
Since head voice can be used in all styles,
all larynx positions can be used.
But no matter what we do, we want to have
a sense of width to the larynx.
A sense of wideness, a sense of give.
We don't want the cords coming towards the center being
too solid, too strong, too compressed.
No we want to be moving them towards decompression,
towards breathiness.
Head voice doesn't have to be breathy
but we want to go in that direction
so that the closed quotient doesn't get too high.
But we go towards that open quotient, towards head voice.
Next let's talk about the things that make it go "mmm".
We talk a lot on this show about the importance of nasal resonance.
It's not going to make you sound nasal,
it's just going to bring the sound up into
the nasal resonance, and the head resonance.
You can practice this on sounds like N, M, and NG.
All the sounds that a guy with a cold like me has trouble with.
Or you can try the vowels OO and EE that bring head resonance.
All of these different sounds you can practice to build the resonance
that you're going to need for your head voice.
We're going to do an exercise in a few minutes
but you can also practice those sounds.
Next, dare to be that guy or that lady.
There's a psychological component with head voice
just like there was with chest voice.
But chest voice is our speaking voice,
so it's a little easier to identify with.
Guys, you can't always be this guy, you just can't.
You got to learn how to be this guy too.
If you can talk like this guy
then you'll learn how to do head voice.
But if you talk like this guy all the time
you're never gonna learn how to do your head voice.
Now ladies, you can't always be this lady.
You also have to be this lady.
If you're never talking like this and you don't know how to do that
then your head voice is not going to develop
if you're always this lady all the time.
[Hits piano]
Last, head voice is not optional.
Now, I know we all want to belt,
we all want to mix, we all want to make
strong rockin' vocal sounds.
And who's got time for a head voice?
Nobody!
No, somebody.
Us.
You and I.
And here's why, because head voice is our flexibility.
Head voice is our vocal health.
It's something that you need to be practicing every single day.
Just like an athlete always stretches out,
you always need your head voice to be in good shape.
I'm actually glad that I'm doing this episode today sick.
Because since I've got my head voice worked out
it helps to protect me.
I might not be feeling good, but my voice is feeling great.
Because it can stretch right out thanks to head voice.
So please promise me that you will value head voice
and keep it in your daily practice.
Speaking of which we're going to move to our vocal exercise.
This is going to be VWOHM, V-W-O-H-M on a 6-4-4-1 slide.
It sounds like this...
♪ Vwohm ♪
So the V is for that small breath,
the O is for that tilt and stretch.
And the M is for that resonance.
Now this is going to be guys and ladies together.
Ladies start off in a light mix and then go to head voice.
Guys start off in a head voice and then if it gets too high go to falsetto.
Here we go together with VWOHM...
♪ Vwohm ♪
That's right.
♪
Beautiful.
♪
Correct.
♪ Vwohm ♪
Good for you.
♪
That's it, small breath flow...
♪
Feel that stretch...
♪
Excellent.
♪ Vwohm ♪
♪
Great.
♪
Feel that resonance...
♪ Vwohm ♪
♪
Good stuff.
♪
Small breath...
♪
That's it...
♪
♪ Vwohm ♪
Good for you!
♪
A few more...
♪
And last...
♪ Vwohm ♪
♪
Fantastic work with that head voice.
So Carlos and all, I hope that's been helpful for you guys today as singers.
And this has been part two of our vocal register world tour.
If you've got questions that you'd like to see us answer on the show
you can send an email to Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
And I just encourage you don't lose the joy, don't lose the passion,
don't let people tell you that you can't sing
you and I both know it's not true.
Get with a great voice teacher near you
or if you're in New York or you'd like to Skype with one of our staff
check out NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
If you'd like a vocal course you can do at home, [♪]
the Voice Lessons To The World Vocal Course [♪]
is a twelve part course that takes you on a singing journey [♪]
from beginner to master level vocal exercises. [♪]
You can find that at VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
If you'd like free daily vocal tips sent to your email every day [♪]
sign up at DailyVocalTips.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
Until next time, make a joyful noise. [♪]
♬
♪ I could have slept all night, I could have slept all night ♪
♪ And still slept some more ♪