Developing Head Voice in Sopranos

In my previous blog post, I described the basics of registration for female singers.  But a big question is why should a female, soprano or alto, develop their head voice?  It is a legitimate question, since some of my young singers have amazing belts.

Here's why:

1) New Tone Color:  The head voice gives a completely new vocal quality to a female voice.  Compared to a belt on higher notes, it tends to have a more warm and less strident quality.

2) Expands your range:  There is a limit to how far the 'belt' can go.  While everyone is different, most sopranos find it difficult to stay in their chest-dominated voice beyond B flat, and while altos can go a little higher than that, there comes a point when using head voice is simply more practical and efficient.  More importantly, head voice gives you access to pitches that are simply impossible in a belt.

3) Safer Singing Style:  While belting can be done in a healthy and safe manner, it is very typical in young girls for their belts to turn into screaming, which is not good for the voice!

DWS