Just a heads up to any new viewers: There has been a change in terminology! I no longer call this technique "flageolet tension." I now refer to it as the "tight mode" and will refer to it that way in future videos. The "tension" component of it will be referred to as "creaking tension" which is the muscular effort that can CAUSE the tight mode, but it is not the tight mode itself. Essentially, there is a difference between the tension (creaking) and the place the tension takes you or rather, can take you(tight mode). This update is important because you can engage the creaking tension without necessarily going into tight mode. I apologize for the confusion- the ideas explained here are basically the same, it's just the words used that are changing. -Gregory West
Greg I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, because, stumbling upon this video, some years ago, is what finally helped me become a singer. I believe, at least this is what I feel in my own voice, that we can actually engage this "creaking tension" in both M1 and M2 separately. I think all good or "natural singers" aplyy this tension either conciously or without even realizing , and that's why their registers sound so unified and they are able to "bridge into" their high range or thin out their chest voices without losing that much power or resonance, provided they pick the correct vowel depending on the intensity of the sounds they are producing, or in CVT terms , provided they use the appropriate modes. I always struggled trying to belt above E4 (the E above middle C), it would feel either super tight or I would use some kind of reinforced falsetto/super twangy M2, anyway it didn't have enough TA activity to call it a true belt. Later, I was taught how to actually navigate the passaggio releasing unnecesary tension and using a specifc vowel or vocal tract configuration to add resonance, however that kind of "mixed voice" was not my singing goal, the themes or ballads I wanted to sing weren't sung using that coordination, most of the time the singers were using lots of TA or chest voice. I would complain about that to my teachers and they all would tell me that, eventually, my head voice would get stronger and my "mixed voice" would start sounding like chest, that was completely and absolute bullshit btw, and I was so limited because I could only use one vowel, practically all of my vowels were a modified "UH" or "OO", and whenever I tried opening a bit, my" mix" collapsed. I had even lost the abillity to properly sing in chest voice below an E4. All of my teachers told me that I had to start " thinning out" and letting go almost entirely of my chest voice, when approaching an A3. All of that useless advice frustrated me so badly, that I eventually quit singing lessons and went back to my old habits of "pulling" chest voice and just "muscling through" songs. After watching your video for the first time, I started working on my flageolet and THAT WAS IT, IT'S LITERALLY THE MISSING LINK OR SECRET PRACTICALLY NO VOCAL TEACHER TALKS ABOUT. Yeah lots of teachers acknoledge the existence of the flute register or flageolet , some even incorrectly refer to it as whistle register, but no one is telling you that training and developing that thing is what's going to make your voice strong. I've been training my flageolet register for 2 years, I felt its benefits only after 2 weeks. My usable range is now C3-E5, I'm finally able to apply messa di voce in that range, I can sing soft or loud without "flipping" I only need to make tiny adjustments to the vowels and I feel I can open them, like your belting video, I get it now. Thank you so much Greg, you've helped me achieve my dream. Perhaps one day, if I get the money, I'll be able to afford some lessons wih you.
@@cyclophonica I can, friends of mine can, and there are lots of male singers in RUclips who can do it. Look up for male covers of Mariah Carey songs. And watch male singer Dimash, whistling a D8, live. I think you need to be a Tenor though, but I read that some people , regardless of gender or voice type, can't produce those kind of sounds.
Have you seen this? ruclips.net/video/bbH_TOZLnhs/видео.html I think Jack Livigni refers to tension that grants access to higher notes here, but I remember him saying that you can do it or you can't (create the right tension in the vocal folds). It's sounds like you've found a way to feel the exact right spot to create that cord closure and I will be experimenting with this as I have never found my flageolet voice. Thank-you for this. It gives me a method to begin exploring.
Oh my god finally someone is talking about flageolet.Before i was stuck in F5 with falsetto along with a lot of neck tensions, and a very high larynx.It took me weeks to get the feel of it and a lot of practice, and finally my range has increased hugely! Thanks for the information Greg, u the best!
It's so inspiring to see people like you who first were unable to achieve flageolet, to now that you're capable of it! Similar situation for me, falsetto stuck at F5 (at most G5 if I give my abs the ultimate push), though I'm able to keep a neutral larynx for most of the time. I feel like I couldn't get over this roof. Difference is that I'm still exploring my mixed voice, so maybe that's why I couldn't find flageolet...
Omg.. I have been wondering about this for like 7 years. Asked so many vocal coaches about it and no one knew what the heck I was talking about. Thank you.
This is easily the most important video on flageolet, ever. Really excellent work! I got curious about what was happening in flageolet tension, and started looking for information about the swallowing reflex. When you swallow, it brings the arytenoids together to close the vocal folds and keep liquid or food from getting into the airway. I'm not sure what your larynx height is when you do flag tension, but for me it is almost a swallow height. So, I believe that the tiny OO in flageolet improves vocal adduction via semi occlusion with back pressure, as well as stretches the vocal folds longer and thinner, making them more agile. Outside of chest voice, I think flageolet is the only thing that really grows in the voice. As has been pointed out before, falsetto never grows into anything. In fact, it can weaken every sound you make, especially if you take it down into chest voice because it doesn't have much compression and can teach the vocal folds not to come together all the way.
To clarify, relaxed fry is what I have been missing in both warm-ups and vocal workouts. Forgot that I used to emulate Marilyn Manson and spent a lot of time messing around with fry, not realizing that it was strengthening my chest voice in the process. It is really, really nice to know how to fix your own vocal imbalances and I owe it to you, Jens, and Salman for inspiring a re-examination of my technique. So, fry is flageolet! The mystery has been solved. :D
I studied counter tenor for a while in college. Every once in a while during voice lessons my voice would do this weird thing where it'd crack, get breathy, small, feels like the voice "goes back", gets really high... every thing you described as the flip into flageolet. My voice teacher told be exploring that sound would do nothing but give me nodes. I'm realizing while watching all these voice lessons online that all the "vocal instruction" I've ever received was shit :(
yeah dude, totally agreed... I've experienced this as a failure or some weird soud that my voice wasn't supposed to make... Astonishing that it would be the ground technique for high fuller mixed voices... Can't seem to understand how it's possible to take this sound so low and pratice with it, because for me this sound is very very unstable, can't believe i'd be able to tame it
@@clmasseare you a singer? cuz literally every singer, including opera singers, will tell you that falsetto can be connected and mixed with the rest of your voice lol there is even name for it, mixed voice/ reinforced falsetto.
Nice one. Can definitely relate to the flageolet tension concept.I don’t think it’s a surprise that vocal fry was creeping in when you were going down with your flageolet into chest. My issue is that there’s something wrong with my flageolet. It doesn’t extend as high as it probably should and it feels like I’m tensing and using too much air. Need to refine it.
Yes, good ear. It's not a coincidence :) I've encountered a lot of people like that. They have some form of this compressed falsetto (what ive been referring to as flageolet in this video) but they don't have the upper extension. It comes with time. Keep the vowels very closed and small and the volume very low. Focus on the crying feeling and gradually stretch it. Hope that helps! -Gregory
Interesting! A few weeks ago I stumbled onto something similar: I was starting with the fry and was trying to get clear notes "through" it, in the F#4-A4 range. And that resulted in a pretty bright clean tone, which to me sounded like mixed voice. Now wondering if that's the same thing underneath
Would you accept the term superhead voice to describe this? It seems like falsetto, as you describe it, is precluding the strong connectedness of true head voice. Is it not possible top keep the chords connected throughout the range?
boy oh boy.. I am literally stuck with my falsetto at E5-G5 area as you mentioned in the video.. and I also tend to open my mouth wide open even if I don't want to, it seems like the only way of getting higher and of course this thing causes a lot of jaw, tongue and neck tension. The only difference is that I am not even close to being LOUD when I reach that limit, it is actually other way around, I mean it seems like I am already in flageolet at this moment, it's tiny and quiet sound that I am unable to push any higher than that. I am so confused about it, because I am a tenor but my m2 range is really poor, at the same time my lower range (F3-G2) is even worse T_T I can totally relate to this video and I really appreciate your effort to help fellow-singers, but nevertheless I didn't found it helpfull for me personally, this video is rather educational !
@@StudioWestLessons well, I mean, I can make a loud falsetto sound up to A5 and then I hit the ceiling... it also feels really uncomfortable, airy, pushed and may cause a "heat in the throat" sensation... but If i'm not being that loud and pushed, I always end up hitting this ceiling eariler: around D5-E5 and it's a small sound with A LOT of flageolet tension. I can make this sound louder, clearer and have more ring to it, and that's probably how I first found my mix up there, but that's not the sound I am wanting to go for... Anyways, thank you for reply, I might experiment with vocal tract shapes!
@@StudioWestLessons I can't really do that.. he-he.. when I willingly try to apply the flag tension (past E5) it just doesnt work, I feel something in the throat coming together but no sound at all, just this sense of "can't go any higher" and the sound of air coming through. However, when Im trying to relax my ass off and get there without any sort of tension at all - it only goes with a shit ton of air and the subsequent sensation of "heat" in the throat. I guess it's just a matter of vocal health for me because my voice is really vulnerable to any "out of comfort zone" type of sound. It gets tired very quickly, so I reckon going to laryngeologist/phoniatrist isn't the wrong thing to do lol 😂
Your very last comment through me off. You said the more open the vowel sound is , your more likely to step away from the “fragilent tension “ method … Well then , what would you do to hit the high notes ? (If not the flagilent method)
Hi Greg. Thank you for the informative video! I find myself struggling though. I have a lower voice down to a consistent D2-C2 most days. I really want to work my flageolet though. I think use falsetto and then head voice and can usually go up to a E5 OR F5 like that. I almost always end up getting topped out with all this tension. A few times though I've felt a looseness and the squeaky "flip" up into flageolet notes up to A5. And I can inhale a clear flageolet up to C6 pretty consistently. I'm just wondering if I'm missing it most times because of tension, and if so, how can I go about working through that? I will continue practicing the fry. Thanks!
5:14 My voice doesn’t go into flageolet after falsetto, it just goes into my extension/head voice and keeps going up until it’s around C6-E6, then it usually transitions to flageolet after that Probably a leggero tenor if that explains anything
How long it take to B Abel to do five keys scale like do re mi fa sol and back????? Thanks ur video about the flageolet it should be all over good luck
Can anyone tell me this? I recently got consistent at going from chest into head or falsetto or whatever that is I'm still trying to figure it out. Does that mean that transition zone is mixed voice? Nobody can answer. Thank you!
It depends who you ask. You need to understand that interpretations of the vocal registers differ WILDLY. My definition of mixed voice would be the laryngeal registration in-between a smooth switch from chest to falsetto, yes. Something that's lighter/hollower than light chest and more full/weighty than falsetto.
@@StudioWestLessons Right, you mention the discrepancies with different descriptions and terminology. I understand exactly what you mean with how you just described it! You helped me unlock something I've been working on for 10 years. haha Seriously!
yo... my jaw has been wide open for 12 whole minutes of watching this video because you are literally describing in perfect detail EXACTLY what’s happening to me😂
As someone who discovered flageolet around a year ago, I totally agree with your approach. Phenomenal, I think its your best *how to sing in mix* video and I watched all of them
Oh man! I am just experiencing this confusion these days! I keep practicing my falsetto to the upmost but always fail at F5 with horrible tensions. I saw some videos talking about using the vocal fry to BRING out the Flageolet but it doesn't work for me. They all forget to mention what you are saying: keep that creaky tension! apply the tension to vocal fry and bring it higher, then adding some sound to it to make Flageolet works! enlightening!!
I first started out doing mixed really lightly and discovered that I could hit all the notes in my favorite songs. I thought this was amazing. I didn't know it was mix or called flageole back then. I had to be very relaxed in order to it and only concentrate on the sensation in the back of my throat.
@@hedreamt9455 it’s so freeing ! Use this technique on every song you have struggled with. Record yourself use it as a warm up to find that placement every time!
BRO, YOU REOPENED MY UPPER REGISTER! NOW, I'M ONLY JUST BEYOND THE CREAKING STAGE, BUT IT'S GETTING MORE OPEN, AND I CAN'T WAIT TILL I GET SMOOTHER, THEN LOUDER
This is crazy that you put a video out about this. I just started figuring this out about my own singing two weeks or so ago. Feel this is such an important topic!!
Hey Greg, thank you so much for covering this topic. It explains really well some things that made me confused about my own voice. You know people that naturally transition their voice from chest to falsetto while just speaking. Do they use that flag tension or is it something else? My goal is to develop a coordination that resembles something effortless as that when singing.
I like singing with that kind feeling in flageolet tension but only in (A#4- C5-G5) so I've always stick with this technique but do you think I should let go of that flageolet tension in my upper register or mixed voice to get rid of the creaky sound like this in 25:00? Im talking particularly about the song (Hope you're familiar with it) She's Gone "Forgive me, gi - iii - iii - rll" I can hit all the notes but I want to go for a clean sound throughout the whole transiton...
My flageolet appears above F sharp for me. The only thing that confuses me is that I don’t use falsetto. I literally am just mixed belting and then anything above that point goes into flageolet. Of course that area of my voice doesn’t always work and it’s also a significant break between my mixed and flageolet registers. Normally when mixing that high I’m typically head dominant in my mixed but still maintain a grit to the sound.
@@StudioWestLessons Oh, I never knew that. Is falsetto something I should have though? Because mine is extremely underwhelming. That’s because I have never used it, so when I do it feels as if majority air is being released.
Wow! I’m so thankful because I managed to understand what is happening to my voice, since I’ve never found a video that literally described it ... I remember once experiencing the whistle register out of a whisper but I never got to access it again, only the flageolet. I want to get it back because feels less effortful than the flageolet... I even tried (and failed) to add the flageolet tension to the whisper mechanism to see if I would get to the whistle register again... So, is there a way I can go from the flageolet (M2) to the whistle register (M3)? Are their mechanisms similar?
Hello Studio West. May I enquire is the feeling of Flageolet Register or tension very near to the sensation of hiccups? I am still trying my best to comprehend more on Flageolet Register. Thank you very much for your enlightenment West. 😊🤝
Amazing video, you've helped me sing above an F#4 up to C6 without needing to 'push' - Thank you! Now how do I find my head voice?! Whenever I look for anything above my 2nd break (F#4) I blend into Flageolet and my volume/ability to support plummets. It's fine in a quiet room, tbh You'd never know, but if I'm trying to sing along to The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love in a louder environment (like when I'm driving) I can't get anywhere near enough volume in this register. Should I keep strengthening this register? Or is there another technique to find head voice without going straight into Flageolet?
Great discussion, demo and essay- I heard Pavarotti describing a 'tourniquet' experience in upper passaggio- I think that's related In other centuries the terms voix feinte (feigned or deceptive voice) and voce finta (again, 'pretended' voice) were used to describe some of the sounds you're demonstrating IOW- a developed voice that sounds like one thing but is actually a developed version of other things- I think it allowed them to do very subtle and artistically expressive singing. When looking at the scores, you see markings that indicate this was an expected skill set- Thanks- More, please
This is the first time anyone has really talked about the creeky gritty super high fry thing I do. I feel like what it its that allows that fry to go up high is the area above the primary cords holding back air. I use these sounds and feelings when I'm doing James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Bobby Womack or Prince style screams
err chest straight to falsetto. What happened to head voice? Male voice - order Chest, Head, Falsetto, Flageolet, Whistle agreed? and mixed voice between each to blend two voices (in order). Each voice has a useful vocal range? with blending (mixing) from one to another?
I am currently at a point where I am learning to use my flageolet tension to help me bridge over my passagio. Currently it is the only coordination with which I can freely bridge over my voice break. However, the "mixed voice" I am able to achieve with this tension does not quite sound like the one I am aiming for (a bruno mars style mixed voice). This might be because i dont have enough practice in this coordination (my current mixed voice does sound quite shaky after all), however you also mentioned in the video how you had to unlearn flageolet tension to achieve another type of sound which you liked more. Would you know if this also applies in my case, and if so how I could start learning other mixed voice coordinations?
When I try to practice and develop my flageolet, I can always do it only for some minutes until it is completely gone (then no sound comes out at all when I want to do flageolet, but the other registers of my voice still feel and work great). It mostly comes back after some resting time, but this is really frustrating, because I can't really grow it this way. Sometimes I can take it a bit lower and make it louder, but after that my flageolet doesn't work anymore. This has been going on for about a year, and I'm making no progress with my flageolet. Do you have any tips for me?
Hey Greg! I'd like to thank you for still giving us such indispensable advice as you always do in the ways which have never been described before by anybody else! I did notice this what you call Flageolet Tension even in my lower range but was really not able to explain it... I would like to raise the topic of applying one's mixed voice to actually singing songs. I've recently faced this problem when you already have learnt how to sing sirens and/or sing schedules in the region from say C4 to C5, you have learnt how to manipulate your first and second passaggio but cannot move any further towards singing a real song because as soon as you apply CONSONANTS you throat gets stuck and overly tensed. You either break into falsetto or your vocal chords simply stop vibrating...even though when you just sing vowels you feel perfectly free... so I should be very much obliged if you would make a video lesson about maintaining the air pressure and flow and also keeping your throat open during the articulation process while singing something as high as "Death of the Bachelor" or "Separate Ways" for instance (bc ima rock fan)/ You have touched upon this issue briefly in your interview with a CVT - teacher, so if you consider giving an explanatory respond to this comment that would also be great!
I discovered the same thing by myself! but do you know when? When I was trying to sing quietly my highest falsetto notes (around G5/A5/B5) and trying to go to a connected quiet sound that wasn't falsetto. I always called that "quiet mixed voice", because it sounded like my mixed voice sound quality but taken to the extreme, so very narrow and squeaky sounding and, of course, quiet.
Wow with the creaking I was able to hit F5 at a lower volume. Normally I have to belt that falsetto out to reach F5, G5. Amazing. How often do you do the creaking, is there a possibility of harming the voice if you do it too much? P.S. I love your videos. They are one of the things keeping me going through this UK lockdown.
Do you realise falsetto is not a register? It is a quality which is on the thin edge of the folds. This is achieved when the Arytenoids (the cartilage that opens and closes the true vocal folds) rock backwards. You CAN sing falsetto on low notes. You cannot successfully teach other singers with what works for your voice. Every voice is different.
This is the definition used by ESTILL voice technique (EVT). This is not a universal definition and it is not shared by the majority of voice scientists, teachers, and pedagogues. It is more of a fringe interpretation on falsetto. You are welcome to use it and to make up your own mind about how you want to label sounds but you cannot insist that this word has a objective definition to it and that I am simply ignorant of it. The more common definition of falsetto is in fact thin vocal folds (an Estill term) with the outer upper edge of the folds vibrating without a vertical phase difference. This is not achieved with anything to do with the arytenoids. It is achieved moreso with less TA, thyroarytenoid, tension. It's more complex than simply reducing it to a simple muscle contraction though since falsetto can have varying amounts of muscle contractions (in the TA and other intrinsic laryngeal muscles) and it can have many different settings in the vocal tract, which will affect the vocal folds vibration and the muscular effort needed from those intrinsic laryngeal muscles. You can successfully teach other singers with what works for your voice because if you couldn't there would be no basis for singing to be a teachable/learnable skill. The entire thing is predicated on the idea that there is an element of universality in singing because we all possess the human body which is mostly the same and functions the same way. In general we all have the same directions vocally with different extremes, and yes some things work better for some people than others, no doubt. That doesn't discredit using your personal experience with helping someone learn to use their voice. That experience is the bedrock of vocal pedagogy. Jo Estill herself believed in that principle. The entire underpinning of her method was something to the effect of, "I can do all these things with my voice, so everyone else should be able to as well." -Gregory West
Hello Gregory. Like you've said, if I use fry to enter mix coordination, very often the fry remains somewhere around E4~A5 and it's ruining the tone completely.. any advice on that, please? Thanks a lot :)
Wow... So this is what it's called, I always thought that this was a Falsetto version 2 that allows me to sing higher falsetto notes. And the way that you described it, I immediately knew what you were talking about, especially the part where you said it kinda feels like another register, because to me it feels that way too! But I never knew what it was called. I'm midway to strengthening my mix thanks to your vids and I feel like this is the last piece of the puzzle to make my mix sound not shaky when I sing. So if I understood this correctly, when using flageolet tension, I should try to bring that down and blend it to my falsetto and chest, am I correct? Then add a little weight for belting quality? Thank you in advanced.
Yes. Look at this as a "mode" your voice can enter that can be overlayed onto any register. The "tension" causes you to enter that mode and the tension is very useful for stabilization of your mix (whether or not you enter fully into the "mode"). Ive updated some of these terms and will be releasing a video on it soon! -Greg
i have to use as little air as possible to do it, almost feels like i’m inhaling whilst doing this voice so i wonder if this is what is meant by “inhalare la voce” in vocal pedagogy
So I have a question: is the flageolet tension achievable by increasing the vocal folds resistance but without increasing the air pressure by squeezing more with support, right? Also, is it useful if I'm using this creeky sound to slide through my passaggio, starting in a very light but bright chest voice, almost like a sight? (It's an exercise I saw you teach in the livestream with your student blake)
Hi! Yes you've got that right. Tho you can certainly push the air pressure while also increasing the folds resistance simultaneously with the flageolet tension. And yes, but if you are sighing with more airflow then you are probably not in this tight, compressed, "flag mode" and rather are just engaging the same tension without getting enough resistance to be fully in this "mode". Hope that helps! -Gregory
Thank you so much for making these type of videos!!! I have a thing when I’m trying use mix voice and I’m really confused of what could it be. When I’m singing high notes, for example like a F5, it doesn’t sound strong like it would if I use head voice. So, how can I fix it? I would really appreciate the help💙
Thank you so much. I was able to discover my mixed voice just today. However, it feels a little bit shaky when I try to bring it down to where my passagio is. And it also gets unstable when I try to sing with it. Any advice on how to work on that?
I want to ask if the creek exercise is the way for person don't have flagoelet voice? My falseto is stuck around g5 and the larynx position is so high so i can't slip it.
Congratulations for your explanations, my problem is that when I work on it in the afternoon, in the evening when I want to try again it has disappeared, is this normal? or I'm not doing it right. thanks again for your videos.
That is not uncommon. Do a little test. Try to not sing or speak until the afternoon and see if it is still not there. You could be swelling your vocal folds in practice in such a way that it throws your technique off. Just a hypothesis! -Gregory
Love this video sm!!! I found my flageolet. But I'm struggling to go higher and to have easy access to it. It's like there's always a bad tension going on blocking me to go higher. What should I do? :)
very usefull, thank you very much... just a couple of questions: 1) once i've carried this flageolet tension down to chest voice, how to apply that into a song? i mean how do i activate this mechanism? 2) how can i make my voice more resistent, in a song with middle-high notes F#4, G4, G#4?
@@StudioWestLessons i mean, just vocal resistance, right now I am able to sing in mixed voice but, after I sing a song with long parts with that kind of notes (not very high), I feel hoarseness in my voice
This video helped me so much. It's still helping! You are right about staying away from closed vowels in flageolet. That can make your full voice not work. "HAH" is amazing. It raised my second harmonic substantially. Did some research and found flageolet in old opera books. It was referred to as the "voice of a ventriloquist", "la voce finta", and "coperta". It has historically been used to blend the voice by slowly closing the gap at the front of the glottis. Granted, it's not a new concept, but you are teaching it better than aaaaanyone. At the very least, it seems that flageolet takes the airiness out of falsetto. It also stretches the vocal folds so that the thyroid cartilage can tilt easier. It probably does other stuff too, but it's just great. If any opera master has ever called it "falsetto", suddenly centuries of Classical books would make sense why they focus so much on developing it and bringing it lower. Especially given that what we generally think of as "falsetto" is pretty useless for that because it would just make our voices really airy in the first passaggio. A couple of questions: Is it safe to sing in flageolet at a loud volume? CVT used to say that it causes splitting. Did they change their mind on that?
@@StudioWestLessons It is really cool that you got to see flageolet on an endo! Always wanted to have that experience. The reason I thought flageolet induced closure at the front of the folds above the trachea, is because practicing falsetto with air makes me choke on and positively drown in saliva, and flageolet exercises make it possible to sleep on my back without choking. If it closes the posterior of the true folds, why would that help with swallowing? Sorry for sounding dense, the anatomy stuff is just a bit confusing to me. It is possible that the flageolet coordination with high larynx moves the epiglottis, which might be getting stuck otherwise (due to dehydration)? I just want this dysphagia stuff to stop, whatever it takes. Would even consider surgery to stop choking and gagging on everything. Sounds like flageolet is present in metallic modes. Isolated by itself, could it be "pure metal"? This seems separate from twang.
@@StudioWestLessons I don't have any more opinions to put forward, but can only say that swelling the OO vowel in flageolet from a quiet volume to as loud as possible has been huge for me. My full voice is more solid, resonant easier, clearer, and less airy. Thank you forever, Greg.
Just a heads up to any new viewers: There has been a change in terminology!
I no longer call this technique "flageolet tension." I now refer to it as the "tight mode" and will refer to it that way in future videos. The "tension" component of it will be referred to as "creaking tension" which is the muscular effort that can CAUSE the tight mode, but it is not the tight mode itself. Essentially, there is a difference between the tension (creaking) and the place the tension takes you or rather, can take you(tight mode). This update is important because you can engage the creaking tension without necessarily going into tight mode.
I apologize for the confusion- the ideas explained here are basically the same, it's just the words used that are changing.
-Gregory West
Can you produce the " whistle" voice ? Have you ever met other male singers producing the whistle ?
Greg I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, because, stumbling upon this video, some years ago, is what finally helped me become a singer. I believe, at least this is what I feel in my own voice, that we can actually engage this "creaking tension" in both M1 and M2 separately. I think all good or "natural singers" aplyy this tension either conciously or without even realizing , and that's why their registers sound so unified and they are able to "bridge into" their high range or thin out their chest voices without losing that much power or resonance, provided they pick the correct vowel depending on the intensity of the sounds they are producing, or in CVT terms , provided they use the appropriate modes.
I always struggled trying to belt above E4 (the E above middle C), it would feel either super tight or I would use some kind of reinforced falsetto/super twangy M2, anyway it didn't have enough TA activity to call it a true belt.
Later, I was taught how to actually navigate the passaggio releasing unnecesary tension and using a specifc vowel or vocal tract configuration to add resonance, however that kind of "mixed voice" was not my singing goal, the themes or ballads I wanted to sing weren't sung using that coordination, most of the time the singers were using lots of TA or chest voice. I would complain about that to my teachers and they all would tell me that, eventually, my head voice would get stronger and my "mixed voice" would start sounding like chest, that was completely and absolute bullshit btw, and I was so limited because I could only use one vowel, practically all of my vowels were a modified "UH" or "OO", and whenever I tried opening a bit, my" mix" collapsed.
I had even lost the abillity to properly sing in chest voice below an E4. All of my teachers told me that I had to start " thinning out" and letting go almost entirely of my chest voice, when approaching an A3. All of that useless advice frustrated me so badly, that I eventually quit singing lessons and went back to my old habits of "pulling" chest voice and just "muscling through" songs.
After watching your video for the first time, I started working on my flageolet and THAT WAS IT, IT'S LITERALLY THE MISSING LINK OR SECRET PRACTICALLY NO VOCAL TEACHER TALKS ABOUT. Yeah lots of teachers acknoledge the existence of the flute register or flageolet , some even incorrectly refer to it as whistle register, but no one is telling you that training and developing that thing is what's going to make your voice strong.
I've been training my flageolet register for 2 years, I felt its benefits only after 2 weeks. My usable range is now C3-E5, I'm finally able to apply messa di voce in that range, I can sing soft or loud without "flipping" I only need to make tiny adjustments to the vowels and I feel I can open them, like your belting video, I get it now.
Thank you so much Greg, you've helped me achieve my dream. Perhaps one day, if I get the money, I'll be able to afford some lessons wih you.
@@cyclophonica I can, friends of mine can, and there are lots of male singers in RUclips who can do it. Look up for male covers of Mariah Carey songs. And watch male singer Dimash, whistling a D8, live. I think you need to be a Tenor though, but I read that some people , regardless of gender or voice type, can't produce those kind of sounds.
@@aionlover3981 Would you say there is a difference between flageolet and falsetto? That's the one thing I've never been able to determine.
Have you seen this? ruclips.net/video/bbH_TOZLnhs/видео.html I think Jack Livigni refers to tension that grants access to higher notes here, but I remember him saying that you can do it or you can't (create the right tension in the vocal folds). It's sounds like you've found a way to feel the exact right spot to create that cord closure and I will be experimenting with this as I have never found my flageolet voice. Thank-you for this. It gives me a method to begin exploring.
Oh my god finally someone is talking about flageolet.Before i was stuck in F5 with falsetto along with a lot of neck tensions, and a very high larynx.It took me weeks to get the feel of it and a lot of practice, and finally my range has increased hugely! Thanks for the information Greg, u the best!
It's so inspiring to see people like you who first were unable to achieve flageolet, to now that you're capable of it!
Similar situation for me, falsetto stuck at F5 (at most G5 if I give my abs the ultimate push), though I'm able to keep a neutral larynx for most of the time. I feel like I couldn't get over this roof.
Difference is that I'm still exploring my mixed voice, so maybe that's why I couldn't find flageolet...
Found something I did not know I had, this is truly game changing ! Keep those tips coming:)
Omg.. I have been wondering about this for like 7 years. Asked so many vocal coaches about it and no one knew what the heck I was talking about. Thank you.
This is easily the most important video on flageolet, ever. Really excellent work!
I got curious about what was happening in flageolet tension, and started looking for information about the swallowing reflex. When you swallow, it brings the arytenoids together to close the vocal folds and keep liquid or food from getting into the airway. I'm not sure what your larynx height is when you do flag tension, but for me it is almost a swallow height. So, I believe that the tiny OO in flageolet improves vocal adduction via semi occlusion with back pressure, as well as stretches the vocal folds longer and thinner, making them more agile.
Outside of chest voice, I think flageolet is the only thing that really grows in the voice. As has been pointed out before, falsetto never grows into anything. In fact, it can weaken every sound you make, especially if you take it down into chest voice because it doesn't have much compression and can teach the vocal folds not to come together all the way.
To clarify, relaxed fry is what I have been missing in both warm-ups and vocal workouts. Forgot that I used to emulate Marilyn Manson and spent a lot of time messing around with fry, not realizing that it was strengthening my chest voice in the process.
It is really, really nice to know how to fix your own vocal imbalances and I owe it to you, Jens, and Salman for inspiring a re-examination of my technique. So, fry is flageolet! The mystery has been solved. :D
I studied counter tenor for a while in college. Every once in a while during voice lessons my voice would do this weird thing where it'd crack, get breathy, small, feels like the voice "goes back", gets really high... every thing you described as the flip into flageolet. My voice teacher told be exploring that sound would do nothing but give me nodes. I'm realizing while watching all these voice lessons online that all the "vocal instruction" I've ever received was shit :(
yeah dude, totally agreed... I've experienced this as a failure or some weird soud that my voice wasn't supposed to make... Astonishing that it would be the ground technique for high fuller mixed voices... Can't seem to understand how it's possible to take this sound so low and pratice with it, because for me this sound is very very unstable, can't believe i'd be able to tame it
It is the falsetto, it can't be mixed with normal voice, hence the "crack."
@@clmasseit can 100% be mixed with the normal voice. don't know how told you that
@@Celatra Don't tell it because it is wrong.
@@clmasseare you a singer? cuz literally every singer, including opera singers, will tell you that falsetto can be connected and mixed with the rest of your voice lol there is even name for it, mixed voice/ reinforced falsetto.
So this is how Dimash can sing very high and powerfully. Thanks a lot for sharing, man! You rock! I am definitely trying this out 😃
Nice one. Can definitely relate to the flageolet tension concept.I don’t think it’s a surprise that vocal fry was creeping in when you were going down with your flageolet into chest.
My issue is that there’s something wrong with my flageolet. It doesn’t extend as high as it probably should and it feels like I’m tensing and using too much air. Need to refine it.
Yes, good ear. It's not a coincidence :)
I've encountered a lot of people like that. They have some form of this compressed falsetto (what ive been referring to as flageolet in this video) but they don't have the upper extension. It comes with time. Keep the vowels very closed and small and the volume very low. Focus on the crying feeling and gradually stretch it. Hope that helps!
-Gregory
I NEVER learned that u should PRACTICE making the creak go HIGHER! and I did squeek😊 IT'S WORKING!
Interesting! A few weeks ago I stumbled onto something similar: I was starting with the fry and was trying to get clear notes "through" it, in the F#4-A4 range. And that resulted in a pretty bright clean tone, which to me sounded like mixed voice. Now wondering if that's the same thing underneath
If I do this, I have creaky chest voice that flips into flageolet as I go higher and nothing in between. 😢
Jared Leto uses it. We can often hear this creak in his mixed voice.
Would you accept the term superhead voice to describe this? It seems like falsetto, as you describe it, is precluding the strong connectedness of true head voice. Is it not possible top keep the chords connected throughout the range?
Question, which range i should expect for flageolet for baritone?
boy oh boy..
I am literally stuck with my falsetto at E5-G5 area as you mentioned in the video.. and I also tend to open my mouth wide open even if I don't want to, it seems like the only way of getting higher and of course this thing causes a lot of jaw, tongue and neck tension. The only difference is that I am not even close to being LOUD when I reach that limit, it is actually other way around, I mean it seems like I am already in flageolet at this moment, it's tiny and quiet sound that I am unable to push any higher than that. I am so confused about it, because I am a tenor but my m2 range is really poor, at the same time my lower range (F3-G2) is even worse T_T
I can totally relate to this video and I really appreciate your effort to help fellow-singers, but nevertheless I didn't found it helpfull for me personally, this video is rather educational !
@@StudioWestLessons well, I mean, I can make a loud falsetto sound up to A5 and then I hit the ceiling... it also feels really uncomfortable, airy, pushed and may cause a "heat in the throat" sensation...
but If i'm not being that loud and pushed, I always end up hitting this ceiling eariler: around D5-E5 and it's a small sound with A LOT of flageolet tension.
I can make this sound louder, clearer and have more ring to it, and that's probably how I first found my mix up there, but that's not the sound I am wanting to go for...
Anyways, thank you for reply, I might experiment with vocal tract shapes!
@@StudioWestLessons I can't really do that.. he-he.. when I willingly try to apply the flag tension (past E5) it just doesnt work, I feel something in the throat coming together but no sound at all, just this sense of "can't go any higher" and the sound of air coming through.
However, when Im trying to relax my ass off and get there without any sort of tension at all - it only goes with a shit ton of air and the subsequent sensation of "heat" in the throat.
I guess it's just a matter of vocal health for me because my voice is really vulnerable to any "out of comfort zone" type of sound. It gets tired very quickly, so I reckon going to laryngeologist/phoniatrist isn't the wrong thing to do lol 😂
thank you so so so much, always incredibly useful information well explained!!!
Your very last comment through me off. You said the more open the vowel sound is , your more likely to step away from the “fragilent tension “ method …
Well then , what would you do to hit the high notes ? (If not the flagilent method)
Great tips mate! Just one question. Are you inhaling the voice for flagoelet singing?
Hi Greg. Thank you for the informative video! I find myself struggling though. I have a lower voice down to a consistent D2-C2 most days. I really want to work my flageolet though. I think use falsetto and then head voice and can usually go up to a E5 OR F5 like that. I almost always end up getting topped out with all this tension. A few times though I've felt a looseness and the squeaky "flip" up into flageolet notes up to A5. And I can inhale a clear flageolet up to C6 pretty consistently. I'm just wondering if I'm missing it most times because of tension, and if so, how can I go about working through that? I will continue practicing the fry. Thanks!
@@StudioWestLessons Thanks Greg! I appreciate it!
I dont even understand what flageolet is
5:14 My voice doesn’t go into flageolet after falsetto, it just goes into my extension/head voice and keeps going up until it’s around C6-E6, then it usually transitions to flageolet after that
Probably a leggero tenor if that explains anything
How long it take to B Abel to do five keys scale like do re mi fa sol and back????? Thanks ur video about the flageolet it should be all over good luck
Hey Greg, is flageolet just another name for whistle voice ?
I think I was able to access it when I tried to sing like a girl.
whats the difference between this and whistle register?
i can do flageolet but by inhaling air rather then exhaling its hard while im trying to exhale and to suiz kind of thing
Ohhhh
Can anyone tell me this? I recently got consistent at going from chest into head or falsetto or whatever that is I'm still trying to figure it out. Does that mean that transition zone is mixed voice? Nobody can answer. Thank you!
It depends who you ask. You need to understand that interpretations of the vocal registers differ WILDLY. My definition of mixed voice would be the laryngeal registration in-between a smooth switch from chest to falsetto, yes. Something that's lighter/hollower than light chest and more full/weighty than falsetto.
@@StudioWestLessons Right, you mention the discrepancies with different descriptions and terminology. I understand exactly what you mean with how you just described it! You helped me unlock something I've been working on for 10 years. haha Seriously!
yo... my jaw has been wide open for 12 whole minutes of watching this video because you are literally describing in perfect detail EXACTLY what’s happening to me😂
Me too
@@chinchiIIa me too
Before my vocal coach, I didn’t even know mixed voice existed 😂 it’s been a process but we’re getting there
Same even though I already had access to it 😂
Are u there?
@@tehextra3907 I am
As someone who discovered flageolet around a year ago, I totally agree with your approach.
Phenomenal, I think its your best *how to sing in mix* video and I watched all of them
Oh man! I am just experiencing this confusion these days! I keep practicing my falsetto to the upmost but always fail at F5 with horrible tensions. I saw some videos talking about using the vocal fry to BRING out the Flageolet but it doesn't work for me. They all forget to mention what you are saying: keep that creaky tension! apply the tension to vocal fry and bring it higher, then adding some sound to it to make Flageolet works! enlightening!!
Hi, what i hear is you have better cord closure when you use the flageolet tension! imo it improves your tone by like 20%
Greg any advice on how to connect flag tension below C5 with your chest voice/ M1?
I first started out doing mixed really lightly and discovered that I could hit all the notes in my favorite songs. I thought this was amazing. I didn't know it was mix or called flageole back then. I had to be very relaxed in order to it and only concentrate on the sensation in the back of my throat.
Exactly! Thought I was a baritone until I found it
@@Brandonreneeofficial i’m literally at this point rn and astonished at the new notes i’m able to hit without hurting myself
@@hedreamt9455 it’s so freeing ! Use this technique on every song you have struggled with. Record yourself use it as a warm up to find that placement every time!
BRO, YOU REOPENED MY UPPER REGISTER! NOW, I'M ONLY JUST BEYOND THE CREAKING STAGE, BUT IT'S GETTING MORE OPEN, AND I CAN'T WAIT TILL I GET SMOOTHER, THEN LOUDER
Yo!! I found my flaglet using the creak so easily, in maybe three minutes. I never knew it existed before then. Thanks so much Greg!
I used to do flageolet when laughing, and anyway you're videos are very good, you're good at explaining
This is crazy that you put a video out about this. I just started figuring this out about my own singing two weeks or so ago. Feel this is such an important topic!!
I usually break into flageolet like around f5 if I'm lazy with falsetto lol
Hey Greg, thank you so much for covering this topic. It explains really well some things that made me confused about my own voice.
You know people that naturally transition their voice from chest to falsetto while just speaking. Do they use that flag tension or is it something else? My goal is to develop a coordination that resembles something effortless as that when singing.
@@StudioWestLessons Thenk you so much!! Looking foreward to that!
I think I gave this video 300% watch time lol. Thanks Greg, honestly.
I like singing with that kind feeling in flageolet tension but only in (A#4- C5-G5) so I've always stick with this technique but do you think I should let go of that flageolet tension in my upper register or mixed voice to get rid of the creaky sound like this in 25:00?
Im talking particularly about the song (Hope you're familiar with it) She's Gone "Forgive me, gi - iii - iii - rll" I can hit all the notes but I want to go for a clean sound throughout the whole transiton...
I remember you from Tristan's vids, years ago. : )
Do you have a Discord server?
My flageolet appears above F sharp for me. The only thing that confuses me is that I don’t use falsetto. I literally am just mixed belting and then anything above that point goes into flageolet. Of course that area of my voice doesn’t always work and it’s also a significant break between my mixed and flageolet registers. Normally when mixing that high I’m typically head dominant in my mixed but still maintain a grit to the sound.
@@StudioWestLessons Oh, I never knew that. Is falsetto something I should have though? Because mine is extremely underwhelming. That’s because I have never used it, so when I do it feels as if majority air is being released.
this is one of the most useful videos i have seen because this has been a struggle for me since ever
Wow! I’m so thankful because I managed to understand what is happening to my voice, since I’ve never found a video that literally described it ... I remember once experiencing the whistle register out of a whisper but I never got to access it again, only the flageolet. I want to get it back because feels less effortful than the flageolet... I even tried (and failed) to add the flageolet tension to the whisper mechanism to see if I would get to the whistle register again... So, is there a way I can go from the flageolet (M2) to the whistle register (M3)? Are their mechanisms similar?
Hello Studio West. May I enquire is the feeling of Flageolet Register or tension very near to the sensation of hiccups?
I am still trying my best to comprehend more on Flageolet Register. Thank you very much for your enlightenment West. 😊🤝
Amazing video, you've helped me sing above an F#4 up to C6 without needing to 'push' - Thank you! Now how do I find my head voice?!
Whenever I look for anything above my 2nd break (F#4) I blend into Flageolet and my volume/ability to support plummets. It's fine in a quiet room, tbh You'd never know, but if I'm trying to sing along to The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love in a louder environment (like when I'm driving) I can't get anywhere near enough volume in this register.
Should I keep strengthening this register? Or is there another technique to find head voice without going straight into Flageolet?
Great discussion, demo and essay- I heard Pavarotti describing a 'tourniquet' experience in upper passaggio- I think that's related In other centuries the terms voix feinte (feigned or deceptive voice) and voce finta (again, 'pretended' voice) were used to describe some of the sounds you're demonstrating IOW- a developed voice that sounds like one thing but is actually a developed version of other things- I think it allowed them to do very subtle and artistically expressive singing. When looking at the scores, you see markings that indicate this was an expected skill set-
Thanks- More, please
This is the first time anyone has really talked about the creeky gritty super high fry thing I do. I feel like what it its that allows that fry to go up high is the area above the primary cords holding back air. I use these sounds and feelings when I'm doing James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Bobby Womack or Prince style screams
err chest straight to falsetto. What happened to head voice? Male voice - order Chest, Head, Falsetto, Flageolet, Whistle agreed? and mixed voice between each to blend two voices (in order). Each voice has a useful vocal range? with blending (mixing) from one to another?
I am currently at a point where I am learning to use my flageolet tension to help me bridge over my passagio. Currently it is the only coordination with which I can freely bridge over my voice break. However, the "mixed voice" I am able to achieve with this tension does not quite sound like the one I am aiming for (a bruno mars style mixed voice). This might be because i dont have enough practice in this coordination (my current mixed voice does sound quite shaky after all), however you also mentioned in the video how you had to unlearn flageolet tension to achieve another type of sound which you liked more. Would you know if this also applies in my case, and if so how I could start learning other mixed voice coordinations?
When I try to practice and develop my flageolet, I can always do it only for some minutes until it is completely gone (then no sound comes out at all when I want to do flageolet, but the other registers of my voice still feel and work great). It mostly comes back after some resting time, but this is really frustrating, because I can't really grow it this way. Sometimes I can take it a bit lower and make it louder, but after that my flageolet doesn't work anymore. This has been going on for about a year, and I'm making no progress with my flageolet. Do you have any tips for me?
You sound like one of those youtube stock market gurus
@@StudioWestLessons 😂
your voice at the ends demos sounds like M. Jackson's voice in the clases with Seth Riggs... Could this be the secret of SLS?
this is very hard for me to learn as 1 my natural falsetto goes up to a C#6 and 2 my voice just flips to whistle register when doing this
HOLY SHIT ! This is EXACTLY what I needed ! Thank you so much man !
You want me to creep my neighbours that there is a rake cave monster in my house 😂😂😂
Bro I tried the creaks and moving my Adam’s apple up and down and it worked dude I got it sounding like I’m a bird in here lol
do you have any tips on raising the creak? i just feel like it’s always stuck lower.
Hey Greg! I'd like to thank you for still giving us such indispensable advice as you always do in the ways which have never been described before by anybody else! I did notice this what you call Flageolet Tension even in my lower range but was really not able to explain it... I would like to raise the topic of applying one's mixed voice to actually singing songs. I've recently faced this problem when you already have learnt how to sing sirens and/or sing schedules in the region from say C4 to C5, you have learnt how to manipulate your first and second passaggio but cannot move any further towards singing a real song because as soon as you apply CONSONANTS you throat gets stuck and overly tensed. You either break into falsetto or your vocal chords simply stop vibrating...even though when you just sing vowels you feel perfectly free... so I should be very much obliged if you would make a video lesson about maintaining the air pressure and flow and also keeping your throat open during the articulation process while singing something as high as "Death of the Bachelor" or "Separate Ways" for instance (bc ima rock fan)/ You have touched upon this issue briefly in your interview with a CVT - teacher, so if you consider giving an explanatory respond to this comment that would also be great!
@@StudioWestLessons you are awesome
I have the same problems with consonants, still looking for a solution
The part of the vid that starts at 3:13 is called flashlight tension. WTF is that name.
I discovered the same thing by myself! but do you know when? When I was trying to sing quietly my highest falsetto notes (around G5/A5/B5) and trying to go to a connected quiet sound that wasn't falsetto.
I always called that "quiet mixed voice", because it sounded like my mixed voice sound quality but taken to the extreme, so very narrow and squeaky sounding and, of course, quiet.
@@StudioWestLessons one thing, do you do your super high and distorted blues squalls with flageolet tension?
Interesting. Very similar with Brett Manning’s sound.
Вау, даже Иван Радьков здесь
I just started singing about a week ago I can go from a g2 to g5 so far g5 feels a little tight
My chest voice is higher than my falsetto somehow😂
It is possible to access that „flagolet“ by yawning your falsetto.
kiddo! The Lord sent me to your videos. Thank you. #answertomyprayers
Been watching this for 17 minutes and just noticed I have a can of flageolet beans in my cupboard. It’s a sign!
K, son
Done! Enjoy. 😁😎
They’re flatulence beans!
I always had that flagonent thing in my voice.
12:35 reminds me of Jeff Buckley
Wow with the creaking I was able to hit F5 at a lower volume. Normally I have to belt that falsetto out to reach F5, G5. Amazing. How often do you do the creaking, is there a possibility of harming the voice if you do it too much?
P.S. I love your videos. They are one of the things keeping me going through this UK lockdown.
So what I’m hearing is Flagele is the Alto clef
Hello greg, how can I strengthen my flageolet register and eventually mix it with my chest voice?
Did you figure that out?
Do you realise falsetto is not a register? It is a quality which is on the thin edge of the folds. This is achieved when the Arytenoids (the cartilage that opens and closes the true vocal folds) rock backwards. You CAN sing falsetto on low notes. You cannot successfully teach other singers with what works for your voice. Every voice is different.
This is the definition used by ESTILL voice technique (EVT). This is not a universal definition and it is not shared by the majority of voice scientists, teachers, and pedagogues. It is more of a fringe interpretation on falsetto. You are welcome to use it and to make up your own mind about how you want to label sounds but you cannot insist that this word has a objective definition to it and that I am simply ignorant of it. The more common definition of falsetto is in fact thin vocal folds (an Estill term) with the outer upper edge of the folds vibrating without a vertical phase difference. This is not achieved with anything to do with the arytenoids. It is achieved moreso with less TA, thyroarytenoid, tension. It's more complex than simply reducing it to a simple muscle contraction though since falsetto can have varying amounts of muscle contractions (in the TA and other intrinsic laryngeal muscles) and it can have many different settings in the vocal tract, which will affect the vocal folds vibration and the muscular effort needed from those intrinsic laryngeal muscles.
You can successfully teach other singers with what works for your voice because if you couldn't there would be no basis for singing to be a teachable/learnable skill. The entire thing is predicated on the idea that there is an element of universality in singing because we all possess the human body which is mostly the same and functions the same way. In general we all have the same directions vocally with different extremes, and yes some things work better for some people than others, no doubt. That doesn't discredit using your personal experience with helping someone learn to use their voice. That experience is the bedrock of vocal pedagogy. Jo Estill herself believed in that principle. The entire underpinning of her method was something to the effect of, "I can do all these things with my voice, so everyone else should be able to as well."
-Gregory West
I felt this tension any time i tried to sing a bee gees song while showering lol
Thr singers who had the most struggles are the best teachers
Hello Gregory. Like you've said, if I use fry to enter mix coordination, very often the fry remains somewhere around E4~A5 and it's ruining the tone completely.. any advice on that, please? Thanks a lot :)
Wow... So this is what it's called, I always thought that this was a Falsetto version 2 that allows me to sing higher falsetto notes. And the way that you described it, I immediately knew what you were talking about, especially the part where you said it kinda feels like another register, because to me it feels that way too! But I never knew what it was called. I'm midway to strengthening my mix thanks to your vids and I feel like this is the last piece of the puzzle to make my mix sound not shaky when I sing. So if I understood this correctly, when using flageolet tension, I should try to bring that down and blend it to my falsetto and chest, am I correct? Then add a little weight for belting quality? Thank you in advanced.
Yes. Look at this as a "mode" your voice can enter that can be overlayed onto any register. The "tension" causes you to enter that mode and the tension is very useful for stabilization of your mix (whether or not you enter fully into the "mode").
Ive updated some of these terms and will be releasing a video on it soon!
-Greg
Oh Greg you are a fucking god, ive never seen nobody getting this practical and specific on how to do mix!! Cheers and merry christmas everyone!!
i have to use as little air as possible to do it, almost feels like i’m inhaling whilst doing this voice so i wonder if this is what is meant by “inhalare la voce” in vocal pedagogy
When i press on the sound it falls apart . How do I prevent that
So I have a question: is the flageolet tension achievable by increasing the vocal folds resistance but without increasing the air pressure by squeezing more with support, right?
Also, is it useful if I'm using this creeky sound to slide through my passaggio, starting in a very light but bright chest voice, almost like a sight? (It's an exercise I saw you teach in the livestream with your student blake)
It's been useful for me
Hi!
Yes you've got that right. Tho you can certainly push the air pressure while also increasing the folds resistance simultaneously with the flageolet tension.
And yes, but if you are sighing with more airflow then you are probably not in this tight, compressed, "flag mode" and rather are just engaging the same tension without getting enough resistance to be fully in this "mode".
Hope that helps!
-Gregory
I think it's because of this tension that I can't use my falsetto/head voice. So I hit high notes in mixed voice or in whistle voice.
Thank you so much for making these type of videos!!! I have a thing when I’m trying use mix voice and I’m really confused of what could it be. When I’m singing high notes, for example like a F5, it doesn’t sound strong like it would if I use head voice. So, how can I fix it? I would really appreciate the help💙
Thank you so much. I was able to discover my mixed voice just today.
However, it feels a little bit shaky when I try to bring it down to where my passagio is. And it also gets unstable when I try to sing with it. Any advice on how to work on that?
Been watching a dozen vidéos , and first one that allows me to do it !! Thanks a lot
So far you’re the best one who can explain the flageolet good for you you have my respect
You have a bright future kid! This stuff is gold. How do you make your money? Do you give lessons?
I want to ask if the creek exercise is the way for person don't have flagoelet voice?
My falseto is stuck around g5 and the larynx position is so high so i can't slip it.
Yes, it is
i cant do flaggeolet because i have a vocal nodule :/
Congratulations for your explanations, my problem is that when I work on it in the afternoon, in the evening when I want to try again it has disappeared, is this normal? or I'm not doing it right.
thanks again for your videos.
That is not uncommon. Do a little test. Try to not sing or speak until the afternoon and see if it is still not there. You could be swelling your vocal folds in practice in such a way that it throws your technique off. Just a hypothesis!
-Gregory
How do you relate flageolet with inhale fonation? For me it's been súper helpful... do you know why is that?
How to enunciate wit flageolet?😭
Love this video sm!!! I found my flageolet. But I'm struggling to go higher and to have easy access to it. It's like there's always a bad tension going on blocking me to go higher. What should I do? :)
I cant go in Falsetto😢😢😢
very usefull, thank you very much... just a couple of questions:
1) once i've carried this flageolet tension down to chest voice, how to apply that into a song? i mean how do i activate this mechanism?
2) how can i make my voice more resistent, in a song with middle-high notes F#4, G4, G#4?
@@StudioWestLessons i mean, just vocal resistance, right now I am able to sing in mixed voice but, after I sing a song with long parts with that kind of notes (not very high), I feel hoarseness in my voice
This video helped me so much. It's still helping! You are right about staying away from closed vowels in flageolet. That can make your full voice not work. "HAH" is amazing. It raised my second harmonic substantially.
Did some research and found flageolet in old opera books. It was referred to as the "voice of a ventriloquist", "la voce finta", and "coperta". It has historically been used to blend the voice by slowly closing the gap at the front of the glottis.
Granted, it's not a new concept, but you are teaching it better than aaaaanyone.
At the very least, it seems that flageolet takes the airiness out of falsetto. It also stretches the vocal folds so that the thyroid cartilage can tilt easier. It probably does other stuff too, but it's just great. If any opera master has ever called it "falsetto", suddenly centuries of Classical books would make sense why they focus so much on developing it and bringing it lower. Especially given that what we generally think of as "falsetto" is pretty useless for that because it would just make our voices really airy in the first passaggio.
A couple of questions: Is it safe to sing in flageolet at a loud volume? CVT used to say that it causes splitting. Did they change their mind on that?
@@StudioWestLessons It is really cool that you got to see flageolet on an endo! Always wanted to have that experience. The reason I thought flageolet induced closure at the front of the folds above the trachea, is because practicing falsetto with air makes me choke on and positively drown in saliva, and flageolet exercises make it possible to sleep on my back without choking. If it closes the posterior of the true folds, why would that help with swallowing? Sorry for sounding dense, the anatomy stuff is just a bit confusing to me. It is possible that the flageolet coordination with high larynx moves the epiglottis, which might be getting stuck otherwise (due to dehydration)? I just want this dysphagia stuff to stop, whatever it takes. Would even consider surgery to stop choking and gagging on everything.
Sounds like flageolet is present in metallic modes. Isolated by itself, could it be "pure metal"? This seems separate from twang.
@@StudioWestLessons I don't have any more opinions to put forward, but can only say that swelling the OO vowel in flageolet from a quiet volume to as loud as possible has been huge for me. My full voice is more solid, resonant easier, clearer, and less airy. Thank you forever, Greg.
It’s using a little whistle Voice?
I still can't get past D5 but I think this technique has helped my Middle!