Helping a Student Find Head Voice

Weekly Teaching Tip – April 11, 2018
by MaryAnnKehler

Occasionally there are students that just can’t seem to get into their head voice no matter what you try. Even when they do a “bubble” on a long scale they get stuck. With these students I first try “sound effects”; like making a siren sound, or even imitating sounds like a monkey makes or something. Sometimes doing a long scale with a tongue roll will force the muscles to “let go” so the student can experience the sensation of head voice, although there are many people who cannot do a tongue roll. At this point I don’t even worry about doing a scale and matching pitches though. Just finding the feeling of head voice is the goal. Matching actual pitches can come later.

If all else fails there is something I discovered that has had great success. Have the student yawn and talk at the same time. Once they are feeling head voice they can slide down from there into their chest. Even if there is a huge crack or break between their head and chest this is ok at first. The first thing a student must do is discover both their chest and their head resonances. Once they have found both of these “voices” they can then star working on “connecting” them, or in other words, moving smoothly between the two without a change of sound quality.