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Duration:03:33
Uploaded:2018-12-11
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MLA Full: "How Do You Sing in Falsetto?" YouTube, uploaded by SciShow, 11 December 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwv36XLhyig.
MLA Inline: (SciShow, 2018)
APA Full: SciShow. (2018, December 11). How Do You Sing in Falsetto? [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=xwv36XLhyig
APA Inline: (SciShow, 2018)
Chicago Full: SciShow, "How Do You Sing in Falsetto?", December 11, 2018, YouTube, 03:33,
https://youtube.com/watch?v=xwv36XLhyig.
High-pitched falsetto singing can show off a singer’s physical ability, because singing this way takes a lot of effort and some careful physics!

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Sources:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281239604_How_does_genre_shape_the_vocal_behaviour_of_female_singers_Empirical_studies_of_professional_female_singing_in_Western_Lyric_and_Contemporary_Commercial_Music_genres
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Manwa_Ng2/publication/236937678_Vocal_fold_vibratory_differences_associated_with_different_professional_singing_voices_-_An_electroglottographic_analysis/links/557696af08aeb6d8c01af30b.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1351146/
http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/jw/voice.html
https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/science/article/pii/S0892199707001518?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18538982
https://research.gold.ac.uk/9621/1/phonation-r11.pdf
https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/263540

Images:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tlpkdq8a8c
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Musculusthyreoarytenoideus.png
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Larynx_external_en.svg
This episode of SciShow is supported by Skillshare. [♩INTRO].

When you think of beloved singers like Prince, Sam Smith, or Ariana Grande, you probably think of their impressive high notes. They’re often in sung in what’s called falsetto a type of high-pitched singing these artists are famous for being good at.

Falsetto adds complexity to songs, but it also shows off physical ability, because singing this way takes a whole lot of effort. Not to mention some careful physics. You speak and sing by pushing air past your vocal folds, or what people sometimes call vocal cords: they’re two thick membranes that sit horizontally in your neck, just above the trachea.

As you speak, they change shape, stiffness, and length, which helps give your voice different qualities. This is all done using two groups of muscles: the TA muscles that shorten the vocal folds, and the CT muscles that lengthen them. When it comes to singing, these muscles interact to create four distinct types of sound, called vocal mechanisms.

The lowest is the gravelly-sounding vocal fry, while the highest is whistle voice, made famous by singers like Mariah Carey. But if you want to become a falsetto pro, you’ll have to master the two modes in the middle. First, there’s M1, also called the chest voice.

It’s a low frequency range that's amplified, or resonates, in the chest, and is mostly controlled by the TA muscles. When you listen to divas like Aretha belt out songs, that’s usually chest voice. Then there’s M2.

It’s a higher frequency range that resonates in the head, and is mostly controlled by the CT muscles. Falsetto is one type of M2, but getting that perfect sound takes more than just getting into that vocal mode. See, there are also different ways of producing those sounds, called phonations, that depend on exactly how your vocal folds behave.

They’re kind of like subcategories within each mechanism. For example, if you create more air resistance by keeping the vocal folds tense, you’ll actually get pressed M2, which has a clear quality like something called head voice. It’s still high-pitched, but it sounds stronger.

More Freddie Mercury than Charlie Puth. To get breathy M2, which sounds more like that famous, flute-like falsetto, you have to create less air resistance with less tension in your vocal folds. Contrary to what many vocal instructors say, research over the last few decades suggests people of any sex are capable of both head voice and falsetto.

What’s most important is vocal anatomy and training. Singing in falsetto requires you to have a vocal range that includes high notes, which not everyone has. And even if you do, you still have to produce enough air, and have enough control to get your vocal folds to vibrate the right way.

That takes strength and lots of training. On top of all that, you still have to switch into falsetto smoothly for it to be impressive, something called passaggio. That means you have to switch between muscle groups controlling your vocal folds, which is notoriously difficult.

It’s hard to learn to control those muscles in your throat. All together, this makes singing in falsetto one impressive feat. There’s definitely a lot of art that goes into making music, but the science is pretty cool, too.

I really enjoy music production, which is why I love that Skillshare has a ton of music-related classes. You can learn about everything from singing to songwriting to recording to mixing, like in this class by Grammy-nominated music producer Young Guru. If you find terms like reverb or EQ kind of confusing, you might want to check this one out.

It walks you through through all the basics of audio mixing, from how to organize things to how to make sure your track sounds balanced. And right now, Skillshare is offering SciShow viewers 2 months of unlimited access for free. So you can take this class, or any one of their more than 20,000 other classes for free!

And if music isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other subjects to choose from, too. You can follow the link in the description to check it out! [♩OUTRO].