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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 89 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
Shady S. in Tanta, Egypt.
And shady writes, "Dear Justin, will falsetto harm my voice?"
Now Shady, that question is definitely not shady
because we need to understand falsetto.
You know that we're in our Vocal Register World Tour
and so today we're going to talk about
what is falsetto and how can we do it successfully in our voices?
So adios, auf wiedersehen, ciao bon voyage, godspeed,
we're going on a Vocal Register World Tour.
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Now that we've arrived let's look at the facts of falsetto.
And determine what is falsetto.
Starting with the fact that falsetto is
our most flexible vocal register.
We've seen so far on our Vocal Register World Tour
that vocal registers really boil down to
closed quotient versus open quotient.
That just means the amount of time the vocal cords
stay shut when they vibrate.
In a strong register like chest voice, they stay shut a long time.
But a flexible vocal register like falsetto,
they stay shut the least amount of time.
Not only that, but falsetto is a time where the CT,
the cricothyroid muscle,
wins the war with the TA muscle, the thyroarytenoid.
That means that the strength muscle of the voice
loses the battle to the flexibility muscle
and we get a lot of vocal cord stretching.
Finally falsetto is a register that's disconnected
from the chest voice, from the mix,
and the connected gears of the voice.
That means if I'm in my falsetto and I come down through chest voice
it's going to break, I'm going to get a yodel effect.
Oh my! [yodels]
And we hear a disconnect between falsetto and the other gears.
But why is it fals...etto?
There's nothing false about falsetto.
In fact, it's as real as can be!
But what happened is, back in the day,
men primarily spoke and sang in chest voice.
To speak or sing in falsetto would be false.
Whereas females spoke and sung in head voice,
to speak or sing in chest voice would be
uncouth, unthinkable, unheard of.
But today we know better.
We know that men and women
need to sing in all the vocal registers
and can healthfully and sustainably.
So do women have falsetto?
Well yes and no.
And this is where it gets very confusing.
And I didn't come up with the terms
but this is what we've got.
A disconnected gear in a male voice we call falsetto.
But a disconnected gear in a female voice we call head voice.
So male falsetto and female head voice are very similar
This being said, when a female sings with a breathy head voice,
a sort of...
♪ Heeey! ♪ [breathily]
...kind of sound, we'll sometimes call that
a female falsetto when really it's just a breathy head voice.
Or if you're a male a breathy falsetto.
But does falsetto or female head voice need to be breathy?
The answer is- absolutely not.
Just because I've got less closed quotient
doesn't mean my sound has to be weak.
In fact it can be reinforced with the resonance of the instrument.
Sometimes we call this reinforced falsetto.
I can be in my falsetto and do things like...
♪ The hills are alive with the sound of music ♪
Or, for example...
♪ Sherry, Sherry baby! ♪
And it's not a weak falsetto
even though it's a disconnected gear.
But wait a minute Justin what is this thing
you're always talking about, flageolet?
I've never heard of flageolet before.
What does that mean?
Flageolet means flute, so it's your flute voice.
And no it's not your whistle voice,
I know you guys are ravenous hungry wolves for whistle voice,
I get an email about it literally every day.
I promise we'll get to it, but flageolet means flute.
Now this is the voice above your falsetto.
Men and women have this voice and it's a kind of squeaky gear
that allows falsetto and head voice
to be extended even higher.
So you can hear it in my voice,
here's falsetto...
♪ Ooo ♪
Now I'm going to transition to flageolet...
♪ Ooo ♪
And it allows me to go even higher in my voice.
Very important for vocal range and stretching your voice.
Now we've looked at all things falsetto,
so let's check out falsetto in a song.
This is going to be one of Manny Cooner's very favorites,
this is "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
I chose this song not just for our friend Manny Cooner,
but also because it's one of the greatest falsetto songs in history.
You're really not going to find a better falsetto song than this one.
What you're going to hear is the
light, disconnected, falsetto gear at the top
and some of the connected gears at the bottom.
So you can really hear the distinction between the two.
So here it is, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".
♪
♪ In the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight ♪
♪ Ohi'mbube ♪
♪ Falsetto, now here's my mix ♪
♪
So you really hear that distinction between the
disconnected and the connected.
Next let's look at tips for how to improve your falsetto.
The first tip should really answer your question, Shady.
Because falsetto is not bad for you.
Whoever started this myth that falsetto
is somehow bad for us is really the false one.
Because I'm telling you good singers of the world,
falsetto is your vocal health.
It's your indication, your sign, that things are going well.
Your sign that the superficial lamina propria
is free to move and not stiff, not rigid, not damaged.
Working on falsetto shows you that you're healthy
and keeps you healthy.
So I beg of you, work on your falsetto.
It's not bad for you, it's very, very good for you.
Next, cracking is not whacking.
Now we talked all about this in episode 12 of the show.
Cracking is something that we fear.
But cracking is not whacking.
It's not going to be bad for your voice.
In fact it's your voice picking its preferred vibrational situation,
which is falsetto.
So in fact it's good for your voice.
If you haven't been able to access your falsetto before
it's probably because you're hanging on too tightly with the vocal cords.
You need to get used to letting them crack
and letting them break.
That's how you're going to finally access your falsetto.
And next, decompression is the key!
The vocal folds have muscles that
control how tight and compressed
or loose and decompressed they are.
If you've had trouble getting into male falsetto or female head voice,
I suggest the consonant H.
Maybe this is the issue...
♪ Ooo ♪
And I can't transition.
What about...
♪ Hoo ♪
That H gives me decompression, loosens things,
and in this case gets me all the way to falsetto.
So work with that H consonant.
And also, make sure you recruit the right vowels.
Certain vowels are head dominant vowels
and certain vowels are chest dominant vowels.
The head dominant vowels encourage vocal registers
like head voice and falsetto.
So if you're working on your falsetto
you might want to try an OO vowel.
That's the best one.
Also an EE vowel.
Those two vowels will encourage falsetto to happen the most.
Last, don't fear the squeak!
If the lion sleeps tonight, about the only thing
that's gonna wake up the lion is a squeaky mouse.
But the lion's not afraid of the squeak.
The lion goes after the squeak.
It's singers who are afraid of the squeaky part of their voice
and for that reason many singers lack flageolet.
The highest phonating register that we've got.
If you develop your flageolet you're going to
increase your range, increase your cricothyroid stretch,
and increase your flexibility in every vocal register.
So we're about to do our vocal exercise for the day.
But I want you to not fear the squeak as we work on it.
The exercise in fact is a squeaky HW.
So it's a squeaky HW on an 8-5-1.
What you need to do is keep the W, the puckered embouchure, all the way up.
Don't let it open, keep it small
feel the decompression of the H and don't fear the squeak.
Guys and ladies in the same octave.
Here we go!
♪ Hwoo ♪
♪
Correct!
♪ Hwoo ♪
That's right.
♪
Keep it small.
♪
That's it.
♪
And, squeak!
♪ Hwoo ♪
Right.
♪
And tiny...
♪
Great!
♪ Hwoo ♪
Correct.
♪
Keep the H...
♪ Hwoo ♪
That's it.
♪
Good for you.
♪
♪ Hwoo ♪
Two more...
♪
And last...
♪ Hwoo ♪
♪
Whoa! Great job with that squeaky HW extending the range of the voice.
So Shady and all, I hope that's been helpful
for you guys today in part 4 of our Vocal Register World Tour.
We just have one more part to go for next time
but I hope that's been helpful for you today.
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.
So I 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 false.
Get with a great voice teacher so you can work on this important falsetto.
If you're in New York or you'd like to Skype with one of our staff
you can visit us at NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
If you'd like a vocal course you can do in the comfort of your own home [♪]
check out the Voice Lessons To The World Vocal Course, [♪]
a 12-part course that takes you on a journey from [♪]
beginner to master level vocal exercises. [♪]
You can find that at VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
And if you'd like free vocal tips sent to you every day, [♪]
sign up at DailyVocalTips.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
Until next time, make a joyful noise. [♪]
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♪ Feeeeeeed him right away ♪ [to the tune of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"]