The topic of ‘falsetto’ comes up a lot in lessons. Questions like “what is it? when should I do it? SHOULD I do it? Where is it useful?”, etc.
Recently I’ve had some clients ask me whether I even like it when singers sing in falsetto, as I’ve often given the impression that I don’t like it when singers do this. As such, I thought it worth covering here to clarify a few things.
Firstly, let’s be precise about what falsetto is, what it isn’t, and then we’ll get into the details on falsetto usage.
What exactly is falsetto?
When singers sing in true falsetto, their vocal folds are no longer operating normally – or ‘modally’ – like they would when speaking.
When singing or speaking normally, the vocal folds are adducting (coming together) firmly against each other in order to make sense. They are actually contacting one another. In falsetto, it’s just the very edges of the mucosal layers of the vocal folds which are loosely flapping against the airflow. It’s more like the vocal folds are roughly hewing the air into a particular pitch.
This sound is extremely light and breathy as a result. And due to there not being any real musculature involved, you can’t drive any extra volume out of that particular function. True falsetto is therefore limited both tonally and dynamically.
What falsetto is NOT
Here’s the thing, when MOST people think they are hearing falsetto, what they are actually hearing is very light head voice or a very light heady mix (the blend between chest and head voice). Even light head voice is what we call modal singing, where the vocal folds are contacting with each other like in normal speaking/singing (even if it’s done very lightly).
When light head voice/mixed voice is done at its very lightest, it can sound aesthetically very similar to falsetto. As a result, people often use the term falsetto – which is a primarily functional definition – to describe a particular quality in a singer’s sound. It might feel like I’m splitting hairs, but I want to be precise.
The key difference is at the vocal fold level
If the singer is in true falsetto, then they are mechanically disconnected from being able to use their normal voice. This in turn affects artistry and ease of singing. If a singer wishes to sing a given high note in that light quality, falsetto will require them to switch gears enormously and leave them limited options. They’d then have to switch back to their normal voice, which can feel quite jarring.
In contrast, a light mix or even just light head voice will deliver a very similar aesthetic, without any gear switching, and present options for changing the volume/timbre at the same time. It’s a win-win, and presents many different tonal colours to the singer, without any of the downsides of switching to falsetto.
A good mix enables a singer to dive into the chestiest low notes as well as to the lightest high notes with that quality people associate with falsetto, and everything in-between. Some in-between shades of the voice may require practice, but all the qualities one might want exist on that spectrum. I am more in favour of this, than falsetto.
I’m not against that sound
To summarise, I’m not against a voice singing with that lighter quality (ala falsetto) when done appropriately, but I am not in favour of teaching people to switch into true falsetto. I AM for doing it in the right way to enable maximum ease and maximum artistry.
Nevertheless, in sessions and voice training I do not actively teach people to make such switches in sessions – why? And why would I get someone to sing a given line in a full mixed voice first before trying out that lighter sound?
There’s several reasons:
Philosophical
At it’s philosophical core the technique I teach is trying to build a complete and uniform voice from top to bottom, with no breaks flips or obvious tonal changes. It is therefore philosophically incongruous for me to advocate for introducing breaks, flips or obvious tonal changes into someone’s voice. If we spend all our time trying to get our voice onto the right tracks, why would we then try so had to jump those tracks?
Dynamic variation to explore lighter sounds is part and parcel of technical development, but shoehorning a lot of these stylistic ‘flips’ into a falsetto (or even light mix) is not something that is beneficial for vocal development. It’s easy to make a voice do something INconsistent, especially once we have built a voice to be inherently consistent from top to bottom. It becomes a very easy stylistic choice to make.
Artistic
True artistry is predicated on choice. Namely, a singer should be able to choose to sing any line of a given song at least TWO different ways. If a singer cannot sing a given note any other way than by flipping into falsetto for it, that is by (this) definition, not artistry. It’s this way or bust.
Which leads us to a final point:
Nine times out of ten, mixed voice sounds objectively better
Here’s what tends to happen in sessions. Once a singer has trained their voice well enough to sing a given line in a full and solid mixed voice, at a few different dynamic levels (e.g. loud, medium, soft), and they compare how they sound on those options to how the falsetto option sound, nine times out of ten they prefer the full mixed voice version over the falsetto.
Once we give them the choice of how they wish to sound (instead of only being able to sing in falsetto), they generally prefer the fuller sound.
Sure, there’s still 1 time out of every 10 that they prefer the lighter/falsetto sound, but guess what – they can now choose whichever one they prefer at any given moment. For a singer with a good mix and control of their voice, switching into that sound is relatively easy. If they need to do it more often, they have to practice it, but rarely does a well-trained singer enjoy regularly switching into that sound. It feels jarring, and nine times out of ten, it doesn’t sound as good.