Head voice, chest voice, and falsetto. These are terms tossed around in almost any singing setting, but what do they mean? Both head voice and chest voice derive their name from the area of the body where the vibration and resonance of singing seems to be occurring for most singers. (A word of caution: physical sensation and awareness are such subjective experiences that this may not be true for every singer out there.) Falsetto literally means false voice. Falsetto is often confused with head voice by singers. The difference between head voice and falsetto is that in head voice the vocal cords are still adducted while in falsetto they are apart. The functional difference is that it is impossible to transition from falsetto to chest voice without a flip or crack while the transition from head voice to chest can be made almost undetectable. Falsetto is very limited in the amount of power and intensity it can achieve because the vocal cords are apart. Head voice on the other hand opens up a greater range of dynamics and intensity levels.
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This information is not consistent with current voice science that says “head voice” and “falsetto” are different names for the same thing. That is the vocal folds are vibrating with a Cricothyroid (CT) dominant tone regardless of what you call it.
If it disconnects between chest and head voice, it’s a bad register coordination and bad technique, not something different. If it’s breathy, it’s because the balance between vocal fold adduction (closure) and breath flow is not right.
I disagree… Head and Falsetto are not the same thing. If you sing in falsetto then you will not be able to get into chest voice on a smooth transition. However you can move from chest to head and head to chest on a smooth connection. Which can not happen if you are in falsetto. The reason people get this mixed up is that you resonate head and falsetto in the same place but the mechanics on the vocal cords of head and falsetto are very different. Hope this helps and thanks for the comments!
I agree with Mindy. There’s a difference between head and falsetto voices, and they can be transitioned between. A pure transition from falsetto to full chest voice is physically impossible, and it takes a freak of a voice (e.g., an Al Green) to pull off the jump at all, at least in the pop music world.
Correct me if I’m mistaken, but wouldn’t this be a good example of a transition from falsetto to head voice?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsxa8d9Tp9s
In the song’s chorus (after the 1-minute mark), Daryl Hall does it several times (“i wanna play that —> game tonight” … “one on one I —> know”).