Using My Head Voice?

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ZANDER1994

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I can't sing that high, and my teacher even tells me I'm a bass. But I really don't want to be that. So I've been experimenting with my head voice a bit. Opinions? Any tips from pro singers out there?

 
Sounds nice. The diction is a bit swallowed when you're up there, but the tone is nice. I don't really know what to tell you to remedy that, as I wouldn't consider myself a "pro" singer; maybe your teacher can. Definitely think it's worth continuing to develop though!
 
you can't "unbe" what you are. if you are a bass, as much as you work on your high notes, there's a healthy limit you can reach before you start damaging your instrument (vocal chords and all muscles involved in the phonatory actions). you have a great tone, overall - but if you were a tenor, your first "the end" would be bright and not an airy falsetto. stop running away from yourself, or you'll regret that lost time of denial later...
 
nielphine said:
you can't "unbe" what you are. if you are a bass, as much as you work on your high notes, there's a healthy limit you can reach before you start damaging your instrument (vocal chords and all muscles involved in the phonatory actions). you have a great tone, overall - but if you were a tenor, your first "the end" would be bright and not an airy falsetto. stop running away from yourself, or you'll regret that lost time of denial later...
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Sounds fine to me.
I'd be surprised if you had a full bass range though. Doesn't seem likely.

^^^ I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like he has chosen to sing "the end" falsetto because it's a little easier and it works with the phrasing of the whole thing.
He sounds like he could reach it just fine, if he wanted to.
 
I guess I don't know what a bass is. I couldn't near that high.
 
Sounds similar to Enrique Iglesias to me. He does the same thing with jumping to falsetto. I don't see the issue for the genre myself. Maybe some more control over the falsetto of your voice is the best for you.

That being said, I agree that your voice is what it is. And not bad by any means. Actually quite good. Use it within it's limitations. Not every instrument is capable of doing everything. It is the way you use your voice and build upon the character it has that will determine what is perceived as great. :)

Just my non-pro singer opinion.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Sounds fine to me.
I'd be surprised if you had a full bass range though. Doesn't seem likely.

^^^ I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like he has chosen to sing "the end" falsetto because it's a little easier and it works with the phrasing of the whole thing.
He sounds like he could reach it just fine, if he wanted to.
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well, he's the one who said he can't reach "that high", so I assume he used the falsetto where he felt uncomfortable. and I'd actually guess a baritone for the overtones he gets when he sings the first "hand", but classification depends on his age. I'd never engrave anything in stone before 25. for a pop style you guys are right, he could make a whole career on that. in the end, what makes the difference is how he works with what he's got - but you can only bend a twig so far... (and sing so many hours with a voice that's not your own)

dm60 - young basses can have pretty large extensions (3-4 octaves) and very good falsettos. BUT baritones are WAY more common than true basses. people just tend to throw them in the same little box and label "bass", for some lazy reason. same with mezzos ¬¬.
 
Your falsetto sounds alright. You could be a decent countertenor (wiki). Your transitions seem a little weak (i.e. the first note or two after you switch to falsetto doesn't have a lot of power), but I think that'll come with practice.
 
Yeah I'd say you sound more like a countertenor than a bass, but your teacher could have been differentiating between tenor/bass I suppose. I thought it sounded good.
 
are you guys crazy? he doesn't sound like a countertenor AT ALL, not even his falsettos o.O a potential falsettist, yes, and exactly because he is not a tenor.

on countertenors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrab716ytxM

a bit more info on the difference of falsetto/falsettists and countertenors: Falsetto: Am I Really a Countertenor? - Choirly.com

a pop use of bass/baritone range: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH1Z9DEDqpk

but if I was a baritone, I'd choose to be this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpzV_0l5ILI

in the end, you can either go for the falsetto style of maroon five (gotta work a bit to develop your own falsetto id, though) or lean towards philip philips, your voice actually sounds a bit like his...
 
nielphine said:
are you guys crazy? he doesn't sound like a countertenor AT ALL, not even his falsettos o.O a potential falsettist, yes, and exactly because he is not a tenor.

on countertenors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrab716ytxM

a bit more info on the difference of falsetto/falsettists and countertenors: Falsetto: Am I Really a Countertenor? - Choirly.com

a pop use of bass/baritone range: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH1Z9DEDqpk

but if I was a baritone, I'd choose to be this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpzV_0l5ILI

in the end, you can either go for the falsetto style of maroon five (gotta work a bit to develop your own falsetto id, though) or lean towards philip philips, your voice actually sounds a bit like his...
Click to expand...

Ugh ... Can't stand Adam Levine's (Maroon 5 guy) voice. Just rubs me the wrong way. Anyway, carry on.
 
The difference between a Bass and a Countertenor are pretty wide. I don't know why you'd say he's actually a counter tenor when he says he's a bass.

Bass-Baritone-Tenor-Countertenor

His range here is a high baritone, low tenor
 
VomitHatSteve said:
I question this guy's expertise. Why would you refer to falsetto as a "fake, artifical" voice so emphatically? Also, I'm not entirely sure I buy the "hormonal imbalance" idea.
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start questioning your knowledge altogether. FALSEtto IS an artificial timbre: Falsetto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and about the hormonal imbalance controversy - the main problem is that the terms countertenor and falsettist are pretty much unclear everywhere.

Perhaps this can make it clearer to you: Men Getting High: Falsettists, Countertenors, Pop, Rock, and Opera « Fire and Air

" Countertenor: Guys singing alto. This is what the word itself means, “against and above the tenor,” meaning alto range. The three possible types are:

Falsettist: Guys singing alto in falsetto.
Classical: Andreas Scholl, David Daniels, Michael Chance, James Bowman, Alfred Deller
Pop/Rock: Jimmy Somerville, Brian Wilson, Franki Valli, occasionally Mick Jagger
Again, to many people, countertenor equals falsettist. And not all men’s falsettos sit in the alto range. Some men with extremely deep voices would probably never reach the female registers even in falsetto, and some men with high chest voices may have falsettos that sit in mezzo or soprano. (Such men, such as the aforementioned Jaroussky, are properly called “sopranists.”) Most men’s falsettos, however, land right in the middle of the alto range.

Tenor altino: Guys singing alto in chest voice.
 Classical: Russell Oberlin
Pop/Rock: Neil Sedaka, Steve Perry, Art Garfunkel, Smokey Robinson
This is an extremely rare voice type. Note that all are Americans. I’ve tried to list the pop ones in descending order of range; ranking Perry and Sedaka presents a challenge as Sedaka’s range is completely circumscribed by Perry’s. Perry however used his voice much, much more vigorously, causing it to drop it relative to Sedaka while still circumscribing his range. Garfunkel is a half-and-half, sitting directly between high tenor and low alto.

Castrato: Guys singing alto (or even soprano) in chest voice because they have no testosterone and sometimes no balls.
Classical: Alessandro Moreschi, Radu Marian
Pop: Ain’t none
Moreschi was the last of the surviving castrati, who was recorded a century ago when he was 60 years old. The modern-day Marian is believed to have an endocrine disorder. The other best known names are Senesino (alto) and Farinelli (mezzo), but no recordings survive of them.

All other options also require the absence of testosterone by using either a woman or a young boy. The three options above are the only ones for adult males. The first two are the only options for healthy adult males — you were either born with a naturally high voice, or you squeak your way in by using your falsetto (pun not intended but I’ll take it anyway). That’s it.

There’s one other vocalist around that I should mention. His name’s Michael Maniaci, also an American. His voice is very light and high and sits naturally in the soprano register, far above Oberlin and Perry. He’s quite healthy, and unlike Radu Marian, he has no endocrine disorder; his larynx simply never matured for whatever quirk of fate. Consequently, he cannot be considered an endocrinological castrato.

Maniaci was born with a slight facial palsy that resulted in the right side of his face having significantly less nerve insertion that the left and being consequently less mobile. It isn’t terribly noticeable — his features are pleasant and attractive — but if his larynx also has unusual nerve insertion, it may have affected that body part’s ability to respond to his testosterone. Indeed, his voice has transformed partially, but not entirely. As Maniaci himself states, while his “vocal cords did lengthen and thicken somewhat, they didn’t to the extent that most men experience.”

The rest of him, however, most certainly did respond to his testosterone. Maniaci may have the larynx of a castrato, but unlike them, he also has the (rather burly) body of a hormonally normal man. Hence, he does not sound like a castrato. He does not sound like a falsettist, nor does he sound like a typical man, and he doesn’t sound like a woman, either. He could be considered the extreme end of the spectrum represented by the altinos, but he is so radically far above them and so very unique that he really is his own category. "

this bbc doc on castrati talks about the vocal folds behaviour and how do healthy men produce high notes on falsetto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8ZAraf5wMc
 
I may be going on the wrong definition of countertenor, I suppose. The wikipedia article on it was confusingly worded. (And I got there by way of someone referring to Raine Maida as one).
 
Interesting stuff, although I still can't wrap my head around all of it.

Is Philip Bailey(Earth Wind and Fire) an example of a countertenor rather than a falsettist?
 
VomitHatSteve said:
I may be going on the wrong definition of countertenor, I suppose. The wikipedia article on it was confusingly worded. (And I got there by way of someone referring to Raine Maida as one).
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yeah, the wikipedia article on countertenors is but a pile of garbage ¬¬.

Philip Bailey is a falsettist - I'm not sure he scores for the countertenor label (he's a baritone, I guess). in the recording I heard he doesn't go above a g5, and that's a note tenors have rather naturally...

as seafroggys put above, from lower range to higher range, male voices are described as:

Bass-Baritone-Tenor-Countertenor

and the text I quoted means, in other words: most countertenors are falsettists, but not all falsettists are countertenors.

on raine maida: based on this, I think he's a low tenor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY-jWZzYec4

btw: I'd refrain from classifying someone as a falsettist or countertenor or whatever based on those three bars they sing on a song, or even that one song they do. some people just explore their ranges more than does the average singer - that's what makes them remarkable. one can be a bass and still work on their falsettos, as one can be an alto and hit a g6 (see mariah and her whistles). hitting those notes as passages doesn't mean they can sing in that register comfortably for a long time.
 
Nielphine,

I find your posts to be very educational and interesting.
Where does Jon Anderson of Yes fit in?
 
thanks, tashmoo. I kind of hijacked the thread, since the op never again manifested himself, but it's been enlightening for me as well, I actually have been reading a lot to discuss it here with you guys. and, well, I get to read so much good stuff on the other forums on things I know nothing about, I think it's just fair that I get to contribute on an area I'm actually not a noob at =)

I'd place him as a tenor, if I were to put him on my choir. as he got older, his voice got a bit higher, but I think it's just this habit of singing with his head high and raised larynx (it sounds a bit squeezed, imo).
 
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