Question from a Teen (gender unknown): Please help me develop a nice whistle register?
Yesterday 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.
In the part of the range where the whistle register takes place (known in vocal literature also as “flageolet, flute, small and superfalsetto”) the mouth and throat are at their most open. If you can imagine attempting to fit your favorite apple in your mouth (but can’t) – that approximates the “feel” for the need for space to produce notes in the whistle register.
Now let me back up. If you are a male with a changed voice, you are calling some high notes “whistle” which I would guess are probably falsetto. [If you are indeed producing the shrill small sound of the whistle, don't think of it as being something to spend much time in.]
Here again, while there are schools of thought that produce professional “falsettists” (in England especially), over-use of the falsetto range is not particularly helpful to the development of your singing range. You admit that “it hurts” after using the “whistle” register even the lowest notes. Pain is a sure indicator that you are already doing damage to your voice – and your body is saying “stop.”
Let me encourage you to find out where the full compass of your range lies, high and low – and accept that as being you. I assure you that you will do lasting damage to your voice by attempting to force high notes over a long period of time.
Still, if I were giving you advice about balancing the development of your upper range – I’d say sing comfortably low too. Yawn-sigh, letting your voice ‘siren’ down easily to your low notes. Give your voice a break.
Friend, I have to say that what I have written is not only for you, but for anyone else who has the notion that “high-tension high notes” are something to be desired. If you get a chance to study with a reliable voice teacher, do so for your own benefit.
Best wishes to you.
Tags: learn how to sing, vocal teacher, vocal tension, whistle register