Before we start with my 4 favorite head voice exercises, let's talk a bit about this sneaky term head voice. It used to mean:

“the sound which resonates in the head resonance”

Others called it...

“the sound that naturally occurs at a certain point higher in the range."

This article is part of my Singing Techniques & Exercises guide, where I break down the skills that make your voice easier to control and more expressive. Here, we’ll zoom in on head voice.

What is head voice, in short

Head voice is the lighter, higher function of your vocal cords, the “beauty” part of the voice. The cords stretch thinner, so the sound gets softer, and it can still be rich. The short version:

1. It's a vocal function, not a place. You're not pushing the sound “up,” you're letting the cords thin out.
2. Keep it connected, not breathy. A little air is fine, but too much makes it weak and tiring.
3. Find it gently, through a sigh, a hum, or an almost-yawn, never by forcing.

The exercises below build a head voice you can choose, rather than one that just happens to you.

To be honest, there are so many explanations of head, chest and mix voice, and other qualities and registers, that it makes the head explode. But for now, let me tell you what I mean when I say head voice.

What is head voice in singing: the 'beauty' part

To me, head voice is a vocal function. It’s a certain vocal quality which is soft in my ears, but can still be rich and dark. It’s the “beauty” part of the sound, while the chest voice function I would describe as bright and clear. You won't get all voice teachers to agree on this, but that's my view.

The great Justin Stoney backs me up on this: head and chest voice are both functions of the vocal cords.

Head voice and M2

The function of the vocal cords that some people would call head voice is called M2 (mode2). Justin explains that M2 in male voices is falsetto and in female voices is head voice - this has historically been the way those terms have been used.

What Justin would call a male head voice, would be a kind of mixed voice when the singer uses a lighter form of M1 (chest voice). Confusing, right?

Either way, head voice has a spectrum of densities, richness and colors. Some use a head voice that's soft, breathy and less audible. Others have more “meat” to theirs.

Why Strengthening Your Head Voice Matters

Before the exercises, a quick word on why this matters so much.

The biggest fear most singers have is their voice cracking or breaking. I don't think a crack has to be a disaster, but you do want to decide when it happens rather than be surprised by it. A stronger head voice lets you transition smoothly and avoid those unpredictable flips.

It also means more freedom and less strain. If you try to stay in chest voice all the way up to the high notes, your voice tires fast. A developed head voice lets you move through your range with ease.

And it gives you versatility. A well-trained head voice means you choose how light, dark or powerful your tone is, instead of being stuck with whatever comes out. Whether you sing pop, classical or in a choir, that choice is the goal.

I'd like you to have a safe choice between different kinds of head voice, which is why this tutorial teaches you to enrich yours. You can always add air and make it less rich, but at least then it's your own choice. Let's go.

Here are the four head voice exercises I demonstrate in the video.

Before you start: let it happen, don't force it

Two quick mindset notes that make all of this easier.

First, don't reach for head voice. Pitch isn't something you grab with your throat. A part of your brain handles it by stretching the cords thinner, I call him George, and your job is just to free things up and let him work. The moment you reach, you tense the very area that needs to be loose.

Second, trust the feeling, not the sound. Head voice is soft and unfamiliar in your own ears, so it can feel “weak” even when it's perfectly good. Judge it by how free and easy it feels, not by how big it sounds from the inside.

And if you want a soft head voice without it going breathy and weak, borrow a character: talk like you're tucking a child into bed. The voice softens on its own, no air added.

(00:34 in the video.) You can feel head resonance by putting one hand right under your skull at the back of your neck (we did this with the hand trap in the resonance exercises). Start humming and see if you feel vibrations there. Relax your muscles and make it a bit like a sigh. If your sound is too airy (you run out of air quickly, or it sounds airy in recordings), don't exhale so much. You can also put your fingers under your cheekbones and feel the vibrations there

Next, sigh and hum on an exercise, for example mm-mm-mm-mm-mm (1-2-3-2-1). Make sure you sigh. You can have this ‘sighy’ head-voice quality in the low notes too.

Personally, as I go higher I close my cords a bit better and get a slightly more speaky voice. Experiment and see how it goes for you.

(6:28.) Make a sound as if you're about to sneeze. That gives you a slightly richer head voice, the sound right before a sneeze. We'll make it on ‘hoaw’ (3-2-1).

Play with the amount of air and notice what it does to your throat. Different people tolerate more or less air through the cords. I don't love it personally, but some don't mind. In the long run, I wouldn't recommend living in your head voice all the time.

(10:55.) Slide from bottom to top and back. We're after an almost spooky voice. Some people think of a ghost, a slightly different sound but the same principle, which gets you more head voice. It also helps you take that quality into the low notes. 

Experiment with the ghost or the owl and see which helps more.

(13:37.) For direct access to head voice while singing a song. Your sound should stay clear and live in the resonances, not be ‘sent out.’ In head voice the sound can get a bit too dark and unclear, so to stay understandable, use the yoga teacher voice: talk as if you're calming someone down. First say the words in that voice, then put them on the notes.

If by this point you are wondering: can there be a sound which has both chest AND head function? The answer is yes. It’s called: mixed voice (spoiler: every sound you sing is mixed, but there are mixes which are mostly head or mostly chest).

Where in my practice session do I do head voice exercises?

I teach a structure for practicing with best results:

I teach a 4-part practice structure to keep you motivated and on a clear path:

1. Bodywork
2. Warm up
3. Vocal technique (in this case head voice)
4. Sing-through 

You can read more on the article: how to practice singing at home.

This tutorial is the technique part, part 3, after the warm-up. Do it alongside working on a song, or on its own, and finish with some singing for joy. That matters too.

Give these a try a few times and tell me what new head-voice qualities you find. I also have other vocal exercises, like belting exercises.