I didn't know there really was a difference between falsetto and head voice.
In fact I thought the term falsetto was saved for males only.
Falsetto, regardless of gender, will be breathy/airy and more flute-y or hoot-y (depending on the voice).
Whereas head voice will have a bigger, richer, more rounded sound to it.
Example in artist:
Falsetto: Christina A.
Head voice: Whitney
Contrary to popular belief, women do have falsetto. Many pop singers actually use falsetto as opposed to pure head voice.
WOMEN DO NOT HAVE FALSETTOS! It's not "popular belief", it's fact! Ask any self-respecting professional singer and they will tell you "women do not have falsettos"! The "falsetto" is in the name: "false"; it's a false representation of a male vocal exceeding their normal range in the upper register.
With falsetto, you're basically blowing air through the vocal folds as they are not fully adducted. But with head voice, the folds are fully adducted and results in a fuller sound.
WOMEN DO NOT HAVE FALSETTOS! It's not "popular belief", it's fact! Ask any self-respecting professional singer and they will tell you "women do not have falsettos"! The "falsetto" is in the name: "false"; it's a false representation of a male vocal exceeding their normal range in the upper register.
Actually it isn't fact. Many assumed that because women have the innate to ability to sing "high" whereas it take a little more effort and/or manipulation on a man's part.
Quote:
It was previously said that women do not have a falsetto voice, but recent research has proved that women too can achieve this falsetto setting. Women probably use it less frequently as their head register already contains pitches and tones similar to their falsetto sound.
Although many people use these terms interchangeably, they are both physically different processes that occur within the larynx. Both men and women have a head voice as well as falsetto. During speech, the vocal cords naturally adduct and vibrate at their full length. When a singer ascends from their speaking chest voice into their head voice, the vocal cords shorten in vibrating length as sound waves begin to travel more and more behind the soft palate, resonating in the head cavity. When done correctly there is no sudden shift in tone production because the vocal cords are staying adducted while the singer crosses the bridge into their head voice.
Falsetto is the maximal elongation of vocal cords with minimal glottic gap. It can be produced at almost any frequency, but is mostly produced in the upper range for both male and female voices. It is the uncontrolled breathy or whistly sound that results from the vocal cords separating and most often occurs when a singer has not learned to coordinate their vocal cords to stay closing between registers. As a result, too much air forces the vocal cords apart, creating a "break." During falsetto the vocal cords are actually bowed apart and are unable to blend with chest voice, making it impractical to use except for special vocal stylings. While falsetto is sometimes used for style (such as in yodeling), most of the time it either occurs accidentally or as a stylistic means to disguise the singer's inability to coordinate their vocal cords between registers.
Okay so head voice is achieving TRUE resonance in the head. While falsetto is just pure air.
If women don't have falsetto then what how would you describe Katy's upper register then? It's just pure air, it's not head voice.
I think women do have falsetto.
OMG, this is turning into a mess. Falsetto is not pure air. Listen to "Climax", "I Luv Your Girl", or "How Do I Breathe". Those are examples of falsetto. If women who do have some kind of falsetto range, they'd have to be extremely rare, because women can naturally hit the notes that men normally struggle to hit in their register. And I'm not saying the actual notes in particular, I'm talking about the intervals away from their natural register. Like a man hitting a C5 would definitely be singing that in his falsetto, but a woman hitting a C6 wouldn't be considered falsetto because it's not going to sound airy. If it does, that's not falsetto, that's straining one's vocal cords.
OMG, this is turning into a mess. Falsetto is not pure air. Listen to "Climax", "I Luv Your Girl", or "How Do I Breathe". Those are examples of falsetto. If women who do have some kind of falsetto range, they'd have to be extremely rare, because women can naturally hit the notes that men normally struggle to hit in their register. And I'm not saying the actual notes in particular, I'm talking about the intervals away from their natural register. Like a man hitting a C5 would definitely be singing that in his falsetto, but a woman hitting a C6 wouldn't be considered falsetto because it's not going to sound airy. If it does, that's not falsetto, that's straining one's vocal cords.
But many women, especially pop singers hit those notes using falsetto. Just because they can naturally hit them doesn't mean it's automatically in head voice.
I really can't think of a female who started out using falsetto and later in their career (through training) developed and started using their head voice, so I can't give an example there.
But since you said C6: listen to an opera singer hit that note, then listen to Christina or Ariana sing the same note. If an opera singer tried to sing that note with falsetto, she either wouldn't be heard at all or she would have to push and strain her voice for such a light sound to carry over everything.
Head voice will be a much bigger sound than falsetto because it utilizes the vocal folds adduction instead of blowing through it.
But many women, especially pop singers hit those notes using falsetto. Just because they can naturally hit them doesn't mean it's automatically in head voice.
I really can't think of a female who started out using falsetto and later in their career (through training) developed and started using their head voice, so I can't give an example there.
But since you said C6: listen to an opera singer hit that note, then listen to Christina or Ariana sing the same note. If an opera singer tried to sing that note with falsetto, she either wouldn't be heard at all or she would have to push and strain her voice for such a light sound to carry over everything.
Head voice will be a much bigger sound than falsetto because it utilizes the vocal folds adduction instead of blowing through it.
Ugh, fine. I really hate the idea of calling it "falsetto", and I probably won't call it that anyways since I'm a male and I could care less how a female wants to push her voice…
^I know and I really don't care anymore. Pop girls don't use proper singing technique and they don't need to. They can falsetto the **** out of an entire song and no one will care, I get it now… it's been like this for as long as I've been born and longer and everything I thought I knew about female voices is a lie. I'm over it. I don't even know my own voice, what the **** am I doing using my theory knowledge for this ********…?
Ugh, fine. I really hate the idea of calling it "falsetto", and I probably won't call it that anyways since I'm a male and I could care less how a female wants to push her voice…
I can understand that since the term came about to describe men imitating the female voice