Question from a Teen (gender unknown): Please help me develop a nice whistle register?
Monday, July 28th, 2008Yesterday I figured out that I have the whistle register (Hit B6). And now, I want to know how to maintain it, and how to make it less forced. I do not want to damage this gift.
How can I practice in the whistle register, right now it hurts even when I hit the lowest note in the register? Should I drink lots of cold water after practice? Should I drink lots of warm water during practice? Honey?
Lastly, I know your supposed to cool down your voice after singing, how would I cool it down after whistle?
Answer: Dear Friend,
It is not my wish to burst your bubble – but to speak the truth with compassion.
Women with high voices–like coloratura sopranos, and small children have the capability for the “whistle” register. The occurrence of this register in the human voice usually begins around C – two octaves above middle C, and ascends higher. If you indeed have the capability of singing and vocalizing in the whistle register you are most likely either a female with a naturally high voice, or a boy or girl well prior to puberty.
Men with changed voices do not naturally possess the capability of having or using the whistle register. In scientific study the whistle register was difficult to film because the epiglottis closes down over the larynx and the resonating chamber assumes its smallest dimensions. Early voice scientists indicated that the vocal folds actually puckered like lips to form a whistle, however, more recent study indicates that the vocal ligaments adduct (close) except at one end through which the “whistle” is produced.
In music literature a very small percentage of songs require or ask for notes in the whistle register. One of the most well known pieces to require it is an aria sung by the Queen of the Night, in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”
Now, you speak of “having found” that you have the whistle register – as though it is gold and something to cultivate. However, it takes a great deal of vocal tension to produce (in a woman’s voice) and therefore should never attempt to sound big, loud or heavy – but as it comes with least tension, light and flute-like. Should one spend a lot of time vocalizing up there? No, with the possible exception of coloratura sopranos.