Your head voice is a lighter, higher voice than your chest voice. It is produced by the
vocal cords lengthening and thinning. Some singers who use a lot of head voice are Ariana
Grande, Billie Eilish, and the Beach Boys.
To find your head voice, you should try speaking in a high, “girlish” tone, and then
experiment with singing in that same tone.
Head voice is often confused with falsetto because the two are very similar. Basically,
the difference is that falsetto is an airy, breathy version of head voice. Many beginner singers
trying to sing in head voice will really be singing in their falsetto until their voice matures. After some practice, a true, clear, strong head voice will emerge. Falsetto can be used as a stylistic choice to great effect, however it should not be a singer’s default when singing high notes.
To develop a strong, clear head voice a singer should experiment with the energy they
give to their singing. Much of the time a breathy falsetto tone is due to a lack of energy.
However, sometimes a breathy voice is not the fault of the singer at all. When singers’ voices
are developing, especially in the case of young singers still in high school, their vocal cords
simply have not matured enough. These immature vocal cords can not close fully and allow too much air through them creating a breathy tone. In this case, it is best to focus on other aspects of the voice and wait until the singer has grown out of that phase.
Women will most often use their head voice in a choral setting, whether they sing alto or soprano in their choir. They will also use a head voice as a stylistic choice in pop or rock music. Men on the other hand will only use head voice for high tenor notes in a choral setting or for stylistic choice in rock or pop as well. So whether or not you are a choir kid or a pop star, you will find the well-developed head voice an asset and a good tool to have in your vocal tool box!
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