Falsetto and Countertenors

In the past 20 years there has been an increase of male singers in popular music who use falsetto to sing their songs. Indeed, some artists have based their whole careers on singing falsetto.

As a result, many young men today try to imitate them and confuse their singing falsetto with countertenoring. Though both techniques allow you to reach the same high notes, they are extremely different in a physical level, and are utilized by different voice types.

Believe it or not, most people who utilize falsetto because they can’t reach high notes in their full voice, are not countertenors, not even tenors, but actually baritones. Read on to learn more about it.

As a quick side note at this point, I want to note that women, too, can sing in a less developed falsetto, but most of the time they don’t have a use for it. The only tradition that utilizes female falsetto is classical Indian singing.

1. Falsetto Definition

Falsetto is a type of pseudo-voice, or false voice (therefore false-tto), which results when a man tries to imitate a female voice or sing notes that are higher than his normal range.

Falsetto is not a legitimate, higher version of the male voice, but instead it’s a fake, artificial, and disembodied sound that started and was encouraged in the sacred music tradition because women were not allowed to participate in choirs.

Though up to the 16th century little boys would sing the soprano parts, the Baroque fashion with its intricate and flamboyant designs had a toll in music as well. Melodic lines became too hard for boys to sing and therefore falsettists were called in to take on their place.

Falsettist is somebody who utilizes, usually, only falsetto in his singing. So again, Adam Levine and Chris Martin are falsettists, not countertenors.

In the classical tradition, falsettists can, also, be known as male altos, but I personally feel that this characterization is not appropriate as a female alto sings in full voice, whereas a male alto doesn’t.

Male singers usually switch to falsetto between a C4 and an E4.

2. How Does Falsetto Work?

In normal, full singing, your entire vocal folds vibrate, with the elastic mucous membrane billowing as air passes through, and opening and closing with each vibration. If you’re not squeamish, take a look at this high speed Youtube video of vocal folds vibrating.

In falsetto singing, however, the vocal folds stay open all throughout the sound production and only their edges vibrate as air is blasted through them.

Though it might seem that falsetto is easier to sing because you need less air to produce sound than with full voice singing, it’s actually more strenuous and fatigue can come about really fast.

The reason for this is because although you need less air to make the edges of your vocal folds vibrate, you need to push that air out really fast in order to overcome the stretched vocal fold resistance.

Think of it as trying to make an overstretched guitar chord produce sound. You have to put some effort when striking it. It’s the same thing with falsetto; you have to utilize your diaphragm and tense your abdominal muscles in order to blast out air.

Knowing that it’s only the edges of the vocal folds that vibrate during falsetto singing, it’s also a very good indication of why falsetto sound is so light and lacking in timbre. The warmth and depth of a singing voice is directly correlated to the amount of harmonics that a sound has.

 Harmonics are, basically, secondary multiple frequencies of the primary frequency the air vibrates at when we produce sound. So, if the air vibrates at 261.6 Hz when you sing the middle C, the second harmonic vibrates at 523.2 Hz, the third harmonic vibrates at 784.8 Hz, etc. The more the harmonics you produce, the more full that note sounds.

Since it’s only the edges of the vocal folds that vibrate when singing falsetto, it’s natural that the sound lacks in harmonics, and thus the notes sound light and disembodied.

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