Am I abnormal?

[Optiplex]

Here's a 10 second file of me singing the high notes. I just improvised into Audacity doing a quick scale then improvising with 2 harmony parts. Just did it on the spot, improvising. It was easy. Playing: 3 in 1.mp3 - picosong I'm "male" by the way (in case the singing confuses you).

But, but, but ------ here's the problem. I can do the high notes like that all day. But when I sing in my normal low or mid range I constantly, and I mean "constantly", strain my voice. To a point where I can often barely get through any song without coughing, gagging, broken notes and overall strain etc.

Aren't people supposed to find the high notes hard and the lower notes easy? Surely I must be abnormal. Are there psychiatrists who specialize in ridiculously abnormal singers?

 

[gecko zzed]

You are doing ok in the high notes because you are singing falsetto, which, for many people (including me), is easier than singing in your normal register.

Coughing and scratchy throats are usually caused by dryness. Try drinking water at room temperature before singing.

Read this, which is quite useful:
Singers, Learn How to Avoid Throat Irritation When Singing

 

[RAMI]

Yeah, there's a huge difference between "hitting high notes" and singing falsetto. I don't mean this as a put down at all, but pretty much everyone can hit those notes singing falsetto.

Don't get me wrong, falsetto is a legitimate singing technique. But it's not the same as a singer who's able to hit those notes with power in their "real" voice. It's just two different hings.

 

[Weissey]

That didn't sound like falsetto to me, it sounded like head voice sung lightly and done with extremely high notes for a guy. His notes reached the 2nd E above middle C, that's the highest E note on the 12th guitar fret. A man trying to sing up there in his chest voice instead of head voice would be just crazy and damaging to the voice. So tell us Opti, were you in head voice or falsetto?

 

[RAMI]

That didn't sound like falsetto to me, it sounded like head voice sung lightly and done with extremely high notes for a guy. His notes reached the 2nd E above middle C, that's the highest E note on the 12th guitar fret. A man trying to sing up there in his chest voice instead of head voice would be just crazy and damaging to the voice. So tell us Opti, were you in head voice or falsetto?

I might have used the wrong term then. I thought "head voice" was falsetto.

 

[gecko zzed]

I thought a male head voice was falsetto too, so I did a bit of reading, and apparently they are different. You learn something knew everyday.

To me it still sounds very much like falsetto . . . very much like what I can do when I flip from 'normal' voice into that higher register.

 

[RAMI]

I thought a male head voice was falsetto too, so I did a bit of reading, and apparently they are different. You learn something knew everyday.

To me it still sounds very much like falsetto . . . very much like what I can do when I flip from 'normal' voice into that higher register.

Interesting. I guess I had the term wrong all along. But same with me, when I'm able to sit at my computer and sing along to pretty much any song at a low volume and hit outrageously high notes, I always called that "falsetto" and "head voice" interchangeably. I will never do that again...once I figure out which one of those I'm actually doing.

---------- Update ----------

You learn something knew everyday.

I new that.

 

[Optiplex]

So tell us Opti, were you in head voice or falsetto?

Head voice. I was doing it really soft because there were people sleeping in the next room.

Here's the physical difference between head voice and falsetto. With falsetto the voice flips over as you direct the airflow OVER the soft palate, and the tone can't merge with your chest voice without tonal change. With head voice the air remains directed UNDER the soft palate, it merges perfectly with the chest voice and there's no change of tone ---- the tone feels like it's traveling forward into the top of your mouth when you go into head voice. Head voice enables you to sing really high notes at full tone and full volume.

Wish I knew how to sing the low and especially mid range notes without strain.