Hey there! Before I get to my problem I'd just like to say a big WOW about the Raise Your Voice E-book in general, it's easy to read and not too overwhelming for a just turned 15 year old.

Despite me joy at how user friendly this program seems I already have a problem with an exercise... The falsetto slide. I am fine with starting out in falsetto and sliding down into full voice but I get a pretty big gap of silence in that transition, i don't just mean a flicker I mean silence and then maybe a 4 tone jump as I hit full voice.

Does everyone start out with this problem or am I doing something seriously wrong?

P.S I am doing as Mr Vendera advises and taking it slow... but that doesn't seem to change the size of the gap.

That sounds like a problem in coordination. Make sure you keep your larynx and tongue relax and that you are supporting your voice properly using your support. My guess is that your larynx is suddenly raising as you are trying to go up your range totally paralyzing your vocal cords...

For starters, if I know the exercise right, you never go into full voice. You slide down in falsetto into light chest voice. Just so your clear, it has to stay as quiet as you can do the entire exercise, regardless of pitch.

I used to have the same problem as you, and to add to what Oiselle said, it can also be a breath issue. Use as little breath as possible. This is a very light exercise, and if you are pushing out more air than the sound being made, especially when the sound is at such a low volume, you could just stop producing sound. It tends to happen right in that breaking area because thats where the coordination comes into play.

The good news is, the more you practice, the less it happens. By the end of the week, you should be an expert on it :)

Well first off you are only 15 years old, and the whole vocal apparatus isnt fullgrown until you are 25. I started singing when i was 17 years old and i had the same problem you face now. A huge gap between my lowest falsetto note and highest chestnote.
So if none of the tips you get here seams to work youll sure grow into it.

Actually a light chect voice is still full voice;) I would say that you are having trouble connecting that very tiny falsetto like voice to your full voice, or light chest voice.. It IS a coordination issueas Oiselle states and it might take you several weeks to get it through. But just remember that everytime you try this exercise and work your way through that gap, you are getting closer to making it seemless;) Everyone is different. It might take one person only 10 times to smooth out that break, it might take another person 1000 times before it happens. You just got to face your weaknesses head on and keep working until the muscles are strong enough to do the job;)

Is this what or similar to what your refering to ?

http://media.putfile.com/Falsetto-Gap

If so this is just lack of cordination or the voice being tired.

Congratulations on starting the program! :)

Just a note, though: Don't be frustrated if you don't find the range/power/whatever coming to you instantly. Give yourself lots of time and BE GENTLE when you're doing the exercises.

15 is very young, and you have so long for your voice to grow into its full size.


Also if you have a lot of 'bad' vocal days where things don't want to click, just be patient and stay focused. Most of the people I know don't really truly start to get vocally stable till they're at least 20ish... again not to say they can't do amazing things way before then, because most of them sounded great way before 20 from good training... but the ease of good technique and just general vocal freedom didn't kick in till a little later when their voice was more matured.


Again not to discourage, I'm very happy that you're excited to start this. But again just be gentle, be patient, and don't expect more than your own personal best ;). Expect that, strive for it, but don't try to meet someone else's personal best.

Hey,

I was 15 when I started to use Jaime's program. In my opinion, it's never to early to get a good grasp on proper technique!

About your problem: make sure you're using a light heady sound, and not a "typical falsetto". I demonstrate the two different types in this clip:

http://media.putfile.com/Falsetto---my-take-on-it-addition

You COULD be making it a breathy falsetto which makes the exercise impossible to do smoothly.

Try to keep your adams apple down when doing the falsetto too. It will go up, but it shouldnt go up too high.

Wow thank you so much for all the feedback, it's very encouraging that your all do keen to help!

Well after waking up and practicing a little think the co-ordiantion is alrady getting there, but maybe im just getting optimistic?

Yes, I'm keeping my larynx low throught out the exercise and only using a light shest voice, nothing to powerful. jlk7jester was dead on with that incorrect sound I'm getting but like I said i think it's all reay getting better.

Practice makes perfect huh?

Again thanks for all the feedback.

Yeah all the exercises at first will sometimes be hard to do them right. But thats the point. Making your weaknesses stronger.

Andrew has a point, if it is breathy you WILL have a problem with the transiton.

Also just thought i'd point it out that on the audio files, Jaime attempts to do some exercises breathy, and fails horribly. So if Jaime fails horribly with doing them breathy, you'll PHAIL more with doing them breathy xP.

Yes fail with PH in front makes it more intense of a fail ;)

Im having problems with this exercise also. When i do it, it sounds exactly like the second example of Legatoman's clip http://media.putfile.com/Falsetto---my-take-on-it-addition. I tried to make sure its not breathy on my falsetto but as I slide down lower my falsetto becomes weaker and breathier. Apparently fomr the replys , you cant do it breathy

Yeah, the second way will not get you very far! That's using a very disconnected voice that men use to imitate women, counter tenors sing in, and austrian singers yodel with. It's what I personally call "falsetto", but I think Jaime calls it "reinforced falsetto" or something.

So the voice you need to use is a very light head voice... Jaime calls this "falsetto". If you're having trouble finding this voice, a very good technique to use is "lip bubbles". Jaime describes and demonstrates this technique in RYV. Use lip bubbles on a scale, and always think "less baggage" towards the top. Keep everything light, and it should be very easy to go seamlessly into head voice.

Do i slide down my falsetto untill i reach the breaking point where i flip into full voice or can i switch to full voice at any point when sliding down?

If you are using the correct voice, there should be no "flip". It will be a gradual transition, like in the first example of my clip.

One thing that was very helpful for me in smoothing out my break was when my voice would crack, I would (without stopping) slide back up into falsetto from the place where it had cracked. That helped me get a better feeling for what kind of 'voice' I needed to use to slide seamlessly.

When I did Brett Manning's singing sucess, I mistook what Jaime calls light head voice for full head voice. So I did the exercises like that. After hearing full head voice I realized I was way off. But for the falsetto slides, its that kind of sound. Like falsetto but more of a solid note. Breathy falsetto sounds kind of grainy, this is a solid pitch.

This is my attempt on falsetto slide , as you can hear it breaks and flips to full voice . Any comments or advice?

http://media.putfile.com/Failed-Falsetto-Slide

I'm afraid you're using the wrong type of Falsetto.

Can you do lip bubbles? Sustain a light E3 while doing them. Now, slide very slowly upwards, and "let go" of your voice as you go higher. Try to make the sound quieter as you go up. You should feel a gradual "gear change" around C4-E4. Just go with this light feeling and carry it on into your higher range! If it feels connected to your chest range, then you're in the right type of Falsetto for the Falsetto Slide.

"When I did Brett Manning's singing sucess, I mistook what Jaime calls light head voice for full head voice. So I did the exercises like that. After hearing full head voice I realized I was way off. But for the falsetto slides, its that kind of sound. Like falsetto but more of a solid note. Breathy falsetto sounds kind of grainy, this is a solid pitch."

one thing about brett's program is his demonstration of full head voice and falsetto sounded the same to me. Jaime's there is a definite recognizable difference

The difference between Brett's use of head voice and falsetto is that head voice uses adequate vocal fold closure whereas falsetto does not. Therefore he uses the term falsetto for a breathy head voice. Neither of these are full voice sounds. They are the light 'hooty' sounds of the uper register. He uses the terms for sound qulaity rather than where you 'feel' resonance (which I personally prefer). You will hear people talking about head voice often as full voice stuff over the passagio. This is not what Brett is talking about. He refers to this as 'mixed' voice (often referred to elsewhere as middle voice).
Alot of people don't notice the difference at first. Once you've heard it once though, you will always pick it out.
Loads of people use different terminology though. I use the term a little differently than Brett although my definition is similar.

Yeah, Bretts sounded weak. Jaime's sounds way more full.

What I noticed about every other singing teacher and Jaime is that: Jaime says to do loud sirens to gain full voice range. Every other teacher says gain range quietly and don't raise the volume until you master it quietly.

I know i've gained range from Jaime's way, and I can get the notes quieter now than at the beginning. But why do other people teach it that way? It seems like its harder.

yea i figured out that i was using the wrong voice after listening to the audio files ... but i find it hard to get a light non breathy sound even on lip bubbles

That's okay. Just keep working on it! Listen to the clip and really just try to mimic that sound. Remember, it's a completely different sensation in your throat than pure falsetto. It will definitely feel "higher", and probably more "tensed" at first.

Also try this: yawn, and then slide up with your voice as relaxed as you can. See where that takes you!

Andrew, Jaime also says to master the "light range" before attempting the "heavy range". In fact, his whole method is based on that! 1. Working out your light range with the Falsetto Slide, then 2. gradually increasing volume and resonance while staying on the same note (Transcending Tone), and 3. performing entirely full voiced exercises (Siren).

Here is one of my favourite exercises for dealing with an unapproximated headvoice.
Now this exercises is meant to be very light and NOT to be done in full voice. It encourages closure of the vocal folds and if you use this in full voice loudly passed your passagio you are at risk of pressing your voice (ie pulling chest).
Take the 'ah' sound. That is 'ah' and NOT 'hah'. Now this is meant to be a staccato exercise. That is to say the 'ah' should be very short and snappy. Do this on an octave scale (such as 1,3,5,8,8,8,8,5,3,1 in terms of major scale degrees).
This exercise takes advantage of the property all vowel sounds have, the fact that they are 'voiced' ie they require fold closure to articulate (unlike unvoiced consonants such as 'p'). Many people have problems where they are too glottal with their vowels causing their folds to smash together leading to a traumatic injury but if you take advantage of this and do this exercise light, you will find that you will begin to get adequate vocal fold closure in your head voice (as I call it).
Give it a go. With practise, it will dramatically improve this issue.

I was talking about full voice. Most teachers say don't sing a full voice note loud till you can do it soft.

Yup, but the clip that was posted showed a lack of approximation an so this exercise will help the legit head voice.

I was replying to LegatoMan, when I posted that, i didnt even read your post open mic.

im still having issues getting that light sound but im optimistic. To me when im sliding down it gets breathier but when i started it sounds the same as legatomans falsetto slide