Singing Higher with Power

Question

I want to know how high I can sing, with power. I understand now that I have a chest voice, a head voice, and a falsetto. Naturally, I can sing really high with my falsetto, but I don't get the POWER I get from my chest voice. So head voice is something that I would need to learn.

With my chest voice, I can sing up to around an A4 in a powerful voice before I would have to strain, but I would really like to be able to sing up to a C5.

With my head voice, I can reach well up to F5. However, my head voice sounds really weak, and I was wondering if it is possible to make the notes at this kind of range sound as powerful and vibrant as the notes I can hit with my chest voice.

I do not take any formal lessons or training, so forgive me if I am wrong about the terms and words. Thanks appreciated :)

Answer 1

First of all, careful with saying "I want to be able to sing a C5". Remember that there's a physical limit that you can expand a little through years of practising with technique, but don't try to get there fast without singing lessons - it may cause you some serious throat damage.

Second of all, I don't think you've really understood Head Voice vs Falsetto, as you mix the concepts in your first paragraph.

To answer your question about the power you can get with your reinforced falsetto (I believe this is what you call Head Voice), you need to know some anatomy as well. There are vocal cords and false vocal cords. When you're going that high, you're only using these false vocal cords, so only the mucous is vibrating. You can never achieve the same power as when both vocal and false vocal cords are vibrating (you add "weight" to the sound).

But the very first thing you need to practise is breathing. You can never achieve any of this if you don't control your breathing 100%. Remember that breathing is the key of singing.

Answer 2

Singing is completely reliant on air, and we only have one air pump: the lungs, which are powered by the diaphragm. If you have ever been 'winded' you will have experienced the truth of this. The answer to power always lies in the diaphragm, so work on your breathing to develop more power.

Answer 3

I somewhat agree with Lucas Bernalte. My understanding (and teaching through a voice teacher ) is that falsetto is not the same thing as head voice. Falsetto is always very whispery (for example, if you listen to "I can wait forever" by Air supply, the background vocalist (not Russell Hitchcock) always sings airy, that's falsetto.

Head voice is just as high as falsetto, but THAT can be very powerful (for example, Franki Vali sings headvoice in "Sherry" and he goes high and IS loud (You can hear him switch when he sings "Sherry can you come out tonight (the word Sherry starts in head voice then goes to chest voice by the time he starts singing "Can you come out tonight " ) ).

Headvoice uses the top end of your vocal chords to create sound, and because of this, diagphram support can be used to make the high notes loud. You should work with a voice teacher to learn how to do this properly!

Answer 4

Yea I will say, what you need most in this aspect is to learn how to control your breadth once you conquer that you are good to go