AboutPamela Thomas Expertise Questions on Opera performance, repertoire, vocal technique, acting for opera. I have some 20 years experience in opera in both leading roles and chorus. I have sung with New York City Opera since 1981. I have studied voice in NYC for over 20 years and have also taught technique and coached singers in acting.
Question Recently my choir teacher and I had a argument over the definition of a falsetto. She is basically telling me that full voice only resides in the chest, but I've been told by my Voice teacher of 3 years that there is a Chest, Head, and then Falsetto part of the voice. If Falsetto is different from head voice, could you explain to me how falsetto works and when to know when its happening.
-Thanks Joey
Answer Hi Joey,
I side with your voice teacher. Falsetto and headvoice are different. This is something much easier explained in person. You should ask your teacher to demonstrate. But also - here are some websites that explain the differences pretty well:
Some people think the falsetto has to be breathy. I do not.
Again - this is something that should be done live. So I think you should ask your teacher to demonstrate the difference between head voice and falsetto.
But read the info on the websites above. They may help.
If you want to investigate further - just search on falsetto and head voice and you'll see this question asked many times!
