Female falsetto?

The “Best Falsetto Pop/Rock Vocalist” thread got me thinking about female singers.

There are a few female singers out there who seem to be able to ‘crack’ their voice up to a higher register, when required. Joni Mitchell, Sinead O’Connor, and Dolores O’Riordan spring to mind, though I’m sure there are others.

Does anyone know if they are actually using falsetto, or is something else going on with their larynges?

And if it is falsetto, why don’t more female singers use this powerful effect?

I went to high school with a young woman who was a soprano and had also developed her falsetto. She could sing the old castrato parts in Renaissance pieces.

My singing teacher, who was nationally recognized, said there was no such thing as female falsetto. I.e., the physiologicaly way a man reaches falsetto notes is not the way a woman does it. She referred to them as “head voice” and “chest voice,” but I’m not sure what the physiological difference is exactly.

That isn’t much of a feat since they were usually Alto or Soprano parts that she should have been able to sing anyway.

There is no “higher” register to a woman’s voice. Women can sing in a chest voice which is deeper than their normal voice. Many female rock singers do this actually.

To put this in perspective, the reason that men have a falsetto voice is because of our hormones. Our voice deepens into what is the equivalent of an adult woman’s chest voice whereas our falsetto would be equivalent of her head voice. Whatever happens to our vocal chords deepens the falsetto some too.

Chico Marx: “You sing-a high.”
Thelma Todd: “Yes, I have a falsetto voice.”
Chico Marx: “That’sa fine. My last pupil she had a false set o’ teeth.”

There’s some disagreement among vocal professionals as to the meanings of the terms “head voice” and “chest voice”.

One choral director I head used “head voice” as a synonym for falsetto, and “chest voice” to mean anything that wasn’t falsetto.

Another choral director, and at least one voice teacher, told me that the “head voice” was just the upper register of the non-falsetto voice, and that the “chest voice” was the lower register of said non-falsetto voice. The two are supposedly named according to where the singer feels the sound vibrations originating from in his/her body.

A manuscript on the voice from a few centuries ago also used the term “head voice” as a synonym for “falsetto”, but one written critique of that old manuscript swears up-and-down that its author did not mean “falsetto” as we use the term today. :confused:

A woman’s “falsetto” is also known as the Whistle Register.

For example, Mariah Carey’s dog-pitched squeals.

This site has a lot of information on whistle register singing.

Minnie Riperton. Or Ripperton or something like that. Otherwise unremarkable piece of 70s kitschy-fluff called “Loving You”…until she did this “doot 'n dootle de doo” thing and then followed it with an effortless-sounding descant from about an octave and a half higher. I don’t mean once, it was the refrain in the song (such as it was – consisting mostly of “la la la la la”) and she went up there over and over and over again.

My sister could do that kind of thing back when she was in high school. She could do this bell-clear C, C#, even D, the notes that you need to draw at least two extra lines above the topmost line on the treble clef in order to write. And her everyday singing range was second soprano (mezzo).

They don’t usually call it “falsetto” though.

Annie Haslam is a castrato ???

:eek: :eek:

:wink:

I’m not sure that whistle register is jjimm is talking about. He mentioned Sinead O’Connor, who ordinarily sings in her chest voice, down in alto range. Occasionally, though, she’ll flip up to head voice for a note, then back down (think about the end of “Nothing Compares 2 U” for a moment) again. It’s the same with Dolores O’Riordan (think of “Dreams”). The notes aren’t even especially high, but the sudden contrast makes them stand out.

Thank you, look!ninjas - I’m glad someone else has observed this. Given the mechanics involved in singing falsetto, I don’t see any reason women couldn’t do it. Anyone got any theories?

Is this “whistle register” the one what’s-her-name used to get the really really high orgasm note in “Lovin’ You”?

Interesting link, jjimm. I thought it was interesting that the author mentioned that a male singer who had been properly trained would be more likely to sing in head voice than falsetto. I’m not an expert by any means, I’m speaking totally out of my own limited personal experience, but it seems like most women who have any sort of vocal training spend most of their time working in head voice. Even when I was singing Alto II parts, I still spent most of my time up in head voice. It’s totally a WAG, but maybe this is why most women never make that falsetto sound.

Going back to the examples I mentioned in my previous post, none of the falsetto-sounding notes that I can think of in either song is sustained for any length of time. I wonder if they could have kept the falsetto sound if they’d sustained, or if they’d have gone into head voice despite themselves.

I heard a perfect example of this on the Beth Orton song “Stolen Car” this weekend - for those of you who are doubting this phenomenon, see if you can get hold of a copy of this song, and listen to what she does with her voice on the words “said you” in the first line of each chorus, or the words “wrong melody” in the first line of the second verse.

Also, enjoy the song - it’s excellent.