Expert: Pamela Thomas - 9/30/2008

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:

This one is pretty technical:
http://chanteur.net/contribu/index.htm#http://chanteur.net/contribu/cLHfalse.htm

This one is simpler:
http://www.artspace2000.com/singing_lessons/singing_tips/falsetto.htm

This explains how the teacher works with his male students:
http://www.vocalist.org.uk/falsetto.html

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!

I hope this helps you somewhat.

Best,

Pamela