"Almost Falsetto" technique ... ?

it is a mixed register with a lot of head voice, Stevie Wonder has always sung like that. You probably don't know well what falsetto is, like many others. And that's fine, it's not essential to know everything :-) But this sentence of yours:

Maybe this technique is even convenient to use

worries me... I am a staunch opponent of technical advice given on forums, at least regarding singing. I believe you are a girl (Annuccia should be an unmistakable nickname), which means you cannot apply Stevie Wonder's techniques. And more generally, to use techniques like falsetto (which you will probably never use, since women very rarely use falsetto), it would be advisable to have a teacher, a good teacher.

thallo wrote:

women very rarely use falsetto

Curiosity, any example? Does anyone come to mind? Who?

to respond I must make a terminological introduction. I will be brief and sometimes imprecise. Perhaps I have already spoken about it, but I don't remember in which discussion...

The human voice has two important "registers", chest and head. Registers are particular timbral qualities that can be used in certain parts of the vocal range. The chest is generally used for low notes, the head for high notes. In singing practice, the use of only chest or only head is almost always avoided, and this is the reason why we almost always sing in a register defined as mixed.

Now, traditionally "falsetto" is the technique that involves the almost exclusive use of the head register. It is called falsetto (in tradition) because it falsifies the voice, meaning it makes its typical characteristics less recognizable. This is also called "timbratura" [timbre-shifting/thinning] and is strictly linked to the elimination of other registers. By eliminating chest, mixed, and other resonances, in short, you eliminate the characteristics of YOUR voice, lightening it and making it "false".

This extreme case, which is the only one that should be called falsetto, is VERY RARE, because in reality all those who claim to sing in falsetto actually sing in mixed register. Stevie Wonder is an example; even in very high notes we are all able to perceive a rich "grain" of the voice, a homogeneity between the low and high notes. The most blatant example of a "more falsetto-like" falsetto is that of the singer from Cugini di Campagna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vr-EI05kB4 the entire first phrase can easily be sung in a very timbral mixed register, whereas he voluntarily thins the timbre to seek a very clear color. This leads him to have very clear, diaphanous, and thin-timbred high notes.

A contrary example can be the famous caballetta for tenor from Donizetti's La figlia del reggimento, the one with the do... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgqpQKEXtYQ even though it is mixed, this is a very timbral mixed register. Timbre is fundamental in operatic singing, even in the techniques of so-called falsettists, i.e., male singers who sing in female registers or in castrato repertoire. This is a contralto friend of mine, who doesn't thin the timbre for even a single note http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMnFG2H2G1A . Look, to define this voice as falsetto, in the traditional sense, is absurd...

Coming to the problem of "falsetto in women". The problem is that it is very difficult to understand how much head and how much chest women use in high notes. The register transition is much more homogeneous by nature and the timbre is more complex to perceive. A small lesson on register changes is the piece "Amore lontanissimo" by Antonella Ruggiero

she uses nasal resonances a lot, although it seems that during that evening at Sanremo she had a fever, so she wasn't fully controlling the resonances... anyway, around minute 1.10 she says "mi farò ancor più piccola", and she sings it in a register close to falsetto (thinning the timbre and using a lot of nose); then at 1.30 she sings "amore lontAnissimo", and on the "a" she does the same note as before, but in full mixed register, with timbre (and the difference is very noticeable, even though she is still singing softly). At minute 2.55, then, there is the famous ascent into true falsetto "mi farò ancor più piccola", and this indeed is a sound very close to the female falsetto. Same thing at 3.40 where, in fact, she puts her hand to her forehead :-) if she really had a fever, as they said at the time, she must have felt it vibrating a lot in her head... if you have a cold or a fever, high notes in falsetto cause a lot of discomfort in the eye sockets :-)

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Layman's question, if it is true that

"By eliminating chest voice, mixed voice, and other resonances, in short, you eliminate the characteristics of YOUR voice, clearing it and making it 'false'."

And if you maintain that it is so... theoretically all falsettos would be "the same", so (knowing that technique) everyone could pass themselves off as country cousins, for example. Correct deduction?

it doesn't work like that, the voice is not a neutral instrument. I am always and only talking about theory, the voice in falsetto "tends" towards timbre but some personal characteristics remain.

Good morning!

I was wandering the web and happened to stumble upon this topic while looking for phoniatric details.

I am intervening because the topic is from this year and I see inaccuracies written that confuse a potential reader (such as myself).

It is incredible how confusion can still exist between head voice and falsetto.

There are two mechanisms: heavy (or modal) and light. The difference between the two is that in the heavy mechanism there is complete
adduction of the vocal cords, while in the light mechanism only the free edge is involved.

To put it simply, we can divide them into "full voice" and "falsetto". Head voice is FULL VOICE! The resonance chamber changes,

but head voice is NOT falsetto. What Cugini di Campagna does is all falsetto; mixed voice has absolutely nothing to do with it.

In your friend's video, however, as absurd as it may seem to you, that is precisely the light mechanism, i.e., FALSETTO!

The difference between the little falsetto of Cugini di Campagna and that of your friend is the support and the coverage.

The supported and covered falsetto is called FALSETTONE or REINFORCED FALSETTO and allows for the emission of very full notes,

with great dynamic range, sometimes similar to full voice. In fact, the first note is in full voice, then it immediately shifts into falsettone.

The same goes for the 1:20 mark, when he says "ancor" in full voice.

Tito Schipa was a master of falsettone, while Florez sings in head voice, i.e., full voice.

We are talking about the basics here, though... it is impossible that there is still all this confusion

Thank you Olindolindo for the precise clarifications

dear olindolindo, I see that you have appropriately avoided my premises.

This is not a forum for singers; I try to adapt my explanations first and foremost to the topic which, as you probably have NOT read, had nothing to do with phoniatrics or technique but with a Stevie Wonder song. The potentially confused reader, like yourself, should read the entire discussion rather than intervening briskly with the red pen :-) besides, you do not seem confused to me at all.

I have read the entire topic and watched all the videos, so she can keep her alleged probabilities to herself.

She was the one who brought up the discussion on vocal technique to answer Annuccia's question, I believe... or not?

In fact, I am not confused at all; I am a singing teacher and I study phoniatrics and acoustics.

However, before that, I was a student (and always will be) who spent years in true despair

because of ignorant and unprepared people who made me waste years of work and thousands of euros,

passing themselves off as teachers without even knowing the basics!

So please do not hold it against me if, when I see certain nonsense written, I take the trouble to correct it in order to avoid further confusion for the eventual reader, who, as I wrote, could be me—in which case I recognize them as such—but could also be a beginner student who wouldn't know how to recognize them.

To answer the initial question in any case, Stevie Wonder makes massive use of falsettone, so Annuccia's intuition regarding "almost falsetto" was correct! He is a true master of falsettone, so much so that he confuses those who are less experienced and believe he sings in full voice. In his recent CDs, now in his sixties, it is clearly audible when he transitions from full voice to falsettone; this track is a glaring example:

Here he sings in reinforced falsettone, exactly like his friend, but with light, non-lyrical phrasing.

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thallo wrote:

This is not a forum for singers

It really seems to me that this is the section dedicated to vocal technique, so it is normal that those who are interested and reading expect contributions suitable for the section itself

olindolindo wrote:

I have read the entire topic and seen all the videos, so he can keep his alleged probabilities to himself.

You may use the informal 'tu' with me. If you wish.

Anyway, the premise of my response was that I would be brief and imprecise. And that I do not like talking about technique online, especially if the discussion is approached in a didactic manner. Singing pedagogy is done with teachers, live.

I studied singing, I am also a singer, but I never had any intention of teaching singing to anyone. When I use terms from singing pedagogy, sincerely, I DON'T CARE if someone takes them as technical "advice," because anyone who believes they can learn singing online is mistaken. I use them for analytical purposes, at least in this forum.

And I take the opportunity, therefore, to respond immediately to LucianoP

LucianoP wrote:

It seems to me that this is precisely the section dedicated to vocal technique, so it is normal that those who are interested and read expect contributions suitable for the section itself

To say, as I said, that this is not a forum for singers means, at least in my intentions, that my interventions (at least mine) are primarily musicological. For some time now, I have not been interested in pure technique; I prefer the musical performance. If this diminishes my contributions, well, then I say it openly: anyone who takes my interventions, especially technical ones, as if they were advice, indications, or absolute truths, is responsible for the consequences that these misunderstandings may cause.

You were the one who brought up the discussion on vocal technique to answer Annuccia's question, I believe... or not?

I am not confused at all; in fact, I am a singing teacher and I study phoniatrics and acoustics.

However, before that, I was a student (and always will be) who spent years of true despair

because of ignorant and unprepared people who made me lose years of work and thousands of euros,

passing themselves off as teachers without even knowing the basics!

It is something that happens to many. I am sorry for you, but besides the fact that I have not asked anyone for money, I wrote clearly in my first message that to study singing you need a teacher, not a forum.

So do not blame me if, when I see certain nonsense written, I take the trouble to correct it in order to avoid further confusion for the eventual reader, who, as I wrote, could be me; in that case, I recognize them as such, but it could be a novice student who would not know how to recognize them.

If the novice student cannot read my first comment, well, that is their own fault.

To answer the initial question in any case, Stevie Wonder makes massive use of falsettone, so Annuccia's intuition of "almost falsetto" was right! And he is a true master of falsettone, so much so as to confuse those less experienced who believe he sings in full voice. In recent CDs, now in his sixties, it is clearly heard when he passes from full voice to falsettone; this track is a prime example:

Here he sings in reinforced falsettone, exactly like your friend, but with light, non-lyrical phrasing.

My explanation, which was partial, mainly examined the concepts of timbre and tonal color. I believe I have repeated them several times. It does not interest me—and if it wasn't understood, I will say it now—to understand the way individual singers arrived at producing those sounds. I don't explain it, I don't talk about it; I use the term "register" to avoid talking about techniques and I define it as a "particular timbral quality." I prefer to focus on the sonic output, not on the technique adopted.

That said, there are many other Stevie Wonder tracks that make me think he uses mixed voice. Classics like "Master Blaster" seem to me to be indubitably sung in mixed voice, certainly not in falsetto and, as far as my knowledge goes, not in falsettone. I do not consider myself a technician, nor an enthusiast of technique or phoniatrics, but I have never heard of falsettone for extensions lower than an A4. Furthermore, I do not like to use such historicized terminology to describe a modern repertoire. I am not an expert in modern singing either; I don't consider myself an expert in anything, but as a listener, I continue not to consider what I hear in Stevie Wonder to be falsettone.

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thallo wrote:

the premise for my response was that I would be brief and imprecise.

i do not like talking about technique online, especially if the discussion is approached in a didactic way.

When I use terms from vocal pedagogy, sincerely, I DON'T CARE if someone takes them as technical "advice"

if the beginner student cannot read my first comment, well, that is their own fault.

I am not interested, and if it wasn't understood I will say it now, in understanding the way individual singers arrived at producing those sounds.

Fine then, everything is fine, who cares about concepts, definitions, techniques, or nomenclature.

But then I ask myself... why give an answer if one is not capable of giving anything other than an 'OPINION'?

If someone asks me to describe how to perform a bodybuilding exercise, I respond that I have no idea,
in alternative, if I really want to try, I specify "in my opinion it might be like this..."

If instead I present myself with authority "it is done like this and that" and then a user reading, thinking that I am speaking with

knowledge of the facts, gets injured, I cannot wash my hands of it by saying "well, their business, they can't expect

to learn on the internet" because I would be an irresponsible charlatan, like there are many, too many.

thallo wrote:

it is mixed register with a lot of head, Stevie Wonder has always sung like that. You probably don't know well what
falsetto is, like many

This is the first comment: it doesn't seem to me at all like an opinion, but as an authoritative definition, moreover, an incorrect one!

thallo wrote:

Furthermore, I do not like using such historicized terminology to describe a modern repertoire

This is not a matter of "ancient" or "modern" terminology!!! It is the same from the 1800s to today!

The Americccans now take the treatises of the great singers of the past and translate them with terms

like belting, cry, sob, vocal tract and other translations; the language changes but the concepts remain the same!

Confusing mixed with falsetto means confusing modal with light, it is an error and that's it, they are two

different emission modes; you can use modern terms as much as you want, you could even call them Mickey and Donald, but they remain two distinct and well-defined things.

On one thing I agree: you don't learn to sing online.

But online I have learned much more than in lessons with many charlatans, discovering at my own expense who was saying the right thing

and who was talking nonsense without knowing what they were talking about. So let's at least avoid spreading misinformation.

olindolindo wrote:

On one thing I agree: you cannot learn to sing online.

Online it is difficult to learn anything but...

olindolindo wrote:

But I have learned much more online than in lessons with many charlatans, discovering at my own expense who was saying the right thing and who was talking nonsense without knowing what they were talking about. So let's at least avoid spreading misinformation.

I quote!