A Beginner's Guide to Falsetto: What It Sounds Like, How to Do It and Why You Should Do It

The terms falsetto and head voice are often used interchangeably and it causes confusion. Both terms refer to the different vocal tone colors that you can sing high notes in.

For the purposes of this article, the falsetto quality refers to the breathy vocal tone color when you sing high notes. Head voice quality refers to the resonant strong vocal tone color when you sing high notes.

What is falsetto?

Watch the video above to hear what falsetto quality and head voice quality sounds like.

Why sing in falsetto? 

Falsetto is the foundation of powerful sounding high notes. It sounds counterintuitive but if you want to make your high notes stronger, you need to first master the falsetto quality.

Our voice is capable of singing in different tone colors. In the lower register, we usually sing in speech quality. Imagine the tone of your voice when you are chatting with a friend, that is speech quality. Watch the video above for a demonstration.

To make our high notes sound stronger, we blend speech quality with falsetto quality - giving us the head voice quality.

Speech quality + Falsetto quality = Head Voice quality

That is why some people call it the “mix voice”.

I do not like calling it that because you can also ‘mix’ or blend tone colors in the lower and middle registers. You can blend twang and speech quality to get the belting quality. You can blend falsetto and twang to get a yodeling tone.

Therefore, I like to use the term “head voice quality”.

How to sing in falsetto?

First, you do not need a lot of breath for falsetto.

It should not be loud because falsetto is not a projecting voice quality.

You need to tilt your larynx to get into the falsetto zone of your vocal range.

There is a simple exercise that involves doing a puppy whining sound. Watch the video for a demonstration to learn how to do it.

Conclusion

I hope that clears up a few things for you about falsetto and head voice quality. Remember: it is not wrong to sing in falsetto. It is just another vocal tone color in your toolbox. If it suits the context of the song, or if you are learning to strengthen your high notes, then it is right to sing in falsetto.