# Odd Vocal problem



## MsFelix5 (Aug 4, 2015)

I need some advice from any singers (or possibly teachers) out there. I've had this odd vocal problem for my entire life, I'm incapable of singing in falsetto or using my head voice. I am a female with a voice in the lower alto range. At this point I couldn't tell you if I'm a mezzo soprano or a contralto, so I just say "low alto range." My range sits somewhere between D3/E3 to about C5/D5 (I've always had issues hitting C5 and D5, even before puberty). If I warm up well, I can squeak out notes up to G5 maybe A5 and drone out notes down to G2.

I'm an untrained singer, so I realize that I'm probably going to have some severe issues with range, but what I don't understand is why these notes come so easily for everyone else and yet I can barely squeak them out.

I've been thinking that I may have some type of biological problem or limitation in my vocal chords.

I've been to various singing teachers to no avail, I even tried seeing a pathologist once. (She insisted I was a mezzo soprano who was damaging her voice through talking...she hadn't even heard me sing, nor did she look inside my throat..)

Most teachers will spend a second listening to my voice warm up (I don't even get to sing for them!) and declare that I'm a mezzo soprano and I'm just not utilizing my higher notes. They don't seem to believe that I physically struggle to get notes out passed a certain point. One teacher even admitted that it sounded as if I was having some difficulty getting them out (finally!) and that I may have an issue with my vocal chords in which I might outgrow. I'm 27 already...so I find this difficult to believe.

It frustrates me because I wish to pursue a career in singing, but that will never happen if I can't widen my range. I wish I had a clip of my voice to play for someone here, but I have no recording equipment. Anyone have any clues whatsoever? Or tips?

Does anyone here have issues using falsetto voice or their head voice?


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## Vixen (Sep 25, 2015)

1. Its not the job of a pathologist to look in your throat. You should see an ENT with videostroboscopy for that if indeed you do have a physical limitation.

2. Can you talk like a child? or make a police siren sound? 

3. It strikes me as unlikley that you can sing in yoru chest voice up to G5 but without using proper technique you are probably doing damage to your voice pushing your chest voice up that far. 

Whatever your voice is they say that range isn't the essential item for being a singer. Billy Holliday only had two octaves of range i read. 

To shift into headvoice its like there's a bit of a gear change in the larynx. It think its called laryngeal tilt. You need to be able to do that and training helps you smooth out the transition from chest to head voice. My transition happens around F4 but i can belt up around B4.


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