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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 21 of Voice Lessons To The World,
the show where we want to help you guys 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 Nathan L. in St. George, Utah.
And Nathan writes, "Dear Justin, I'm a choral singer, and I enjoy singing,
and I've looked all over the web for the answer that I can never find.
What's the difference between falsetto and head voice in a male?"
Now Nathan that's a great question, because I know so many people
want to know the answer to that.
And it's not understood, it's a big debate out there.
But I would love to answer this question for you guys once and for all.
So a male falsetto versus a male head voice,
they sound very similar and people mistake the two for each other all the time.
The first thing I'm going to do is a little sound making- just in my speaking voice.
I just want to show you the difference in my speech
what the sound of falsetto and the sound of head voice is.
So if I'm in this voice right here, this is my falsetto.
You can hear that it's very weak, very leaky, very breathy,
and a very strange sound for me to be making.
So there's your falsetto sound.
Next I'm going to do my head voice.
So now if I move into my head voice it's
still kind of a strange sound for me to be making.
It kind of sounds similar to falsetto.
But it's not quite the same.
You can hear that this falsetto voice, this is a little bit lighter
and weaker than this head voice which is not too manly itself,
but it's different than this sound.
You hear the difference? Falsetto, head voice.
Very similar, but not quite the same.
So now we'll talk about what. What is falsetto?
Falsetto is when the vocal cords stretch out and lengthen
and tilt the air to the back.
So you've got long flexible vocal cords that shoot the air to the back.
That's how the voice makes high notes,
is we've got muscles that stretch the vocal cords.
So when you do falsetto, you're stretching the cords.
Long cords, and air shooting to the back.
So it's this sound, but it's breathy.
There's not much compression and it's kind of leaky and breathy.
Now, for head voice, this is why it's so similar.
You have long cords, they're being stretched out,
the air is being shot to the back but this time you have,
not just this, but a little bit of this.
A little bit of compression on the voice too.
So it's long cords, air to the back, but not breathy, a little bit compressed.
Now head voice is a form of a mix, because a mix is some blend of coordinations.
This is no coordination at all, it's just air to the back.
This is air to the back, plus a little bit of something else.
Head voice has a little bit of something else.
And that thing is something we've talked about before,
which is compression.
So that's why they're so similar and that's why
people get them confused all the time,
is because both of them have air to the back,
both of them have long cords.
But the x-factor is the thing that's misunderstood: Compression.
So Nathan, or anybody, if you're ever wondering what the difference is, that's it.
It's just a little bit more put together on the vocal cord level.
Falsetto, not put together, head voice, some degree of put togetherness.
Okay?
So next we're going to just talk about a few song
examples where you hear falsetto.
Okay. The Beatles are famous for doing their ♪ woo ♪ on the high notes.
So that would be an example of when you hear falsetto in a male, in a song.
There's tons of them, but that's a really classic one
when the Beatles do their, ♪ woo ♪
A style of music that uses head voice, a lot of times almost exclusively,
would be, like an Irish folk song.
So you hear an Irish tenor kind of doing something like a,
♪ Toora loora loora ♪
♪ Toora loora li ♪
And that's not quite my falsetto,
♪ Ah-i ♪
I put my vocal cords together in a subtle fashion,
and I get something from ♪ Ah-i ♪
And I come into my head voice.
So, you know,
♪ Oh Danny Boy the pipes the pipes are calling ♪
That kind of sound, is a very, very light head voice.
But it's not falsetto.
And then you got your songs that come in and out of falsetto a lot
and we'll actually talk about this really soon.
But you have "Apologize" by Timbaland.
♪ It's too late to apologize ♪
Right?
♪ It's too late to apologize ♪
♪ It's too late ♪
So ♪ falsetto and then to mix ♪
♪ It's too late to apologize ♪
Coming in and out of that falsetto coordination into your mix.
So that's a song example of both,
and some song examples that use one or the other
exclusively at different moments.
So then what you want to work on if you
want to get a good falsetto, or a good head voice, or both.
Basically, what I encourage guys to do is just not stop working on your falsetto.
Falsetto is neglected so much in vocal exercise and training.
It's your flexibility function you need to keep on stretching that falsetto all the time.
It's not going to hurt you.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing a falsetto.
In fact it is very, very good for you.
And then, make sure you're guiding your air up and back for high notes.
Head voice is a stronger coordination than falsetto,
but the problem with how males often sing
is they're using so much of a thick coordination, such a chesty sound,
and so much power in the voice all the time
that they never send the air up and back in a light way.
So if you work on your falsetto and you continue to have your
notes moving this way, and not straight out that way,
you're going to develop a good head voice over time as well.
But hopefully knowing the difference between falsetto
and head voice can get you a little bit of a start.
So Nathan and everybody, I hope that settles the debate once and for all
about the difference between the two,
and gives you a few tips for working on them.
If you have questions that you'd like to see us answer on the show
you can send an email to: Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com [♪]
We just encourage you not to lose the joy, don't lose the passion. [♪]
Get with a great voice teacher in your area. [♪]
And if you guys are in New York City [♪]
you can visit us at: www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com [♪]
And if you like these videos you can check out: [♪]
www.VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
We'll see you next time. [♪]
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