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How to differentiate between head voice and falsetto?

As far as I can see it isn't off-topic; it's asking a pertinent question about a style of vocal.

It may not be the best question of all time, but it doesn't appear to be 'identifying a song' etc. It is asking a clear question about a vocal technique, using a specific example.

Maybe it just needs the 'technique' part adding into the question & the reliance on the specific example dropping into the body of the question?

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    I'd guess as an "analysis of a specific work" - it seems pretty dead on that imo. A better question may be "How do you identify if a singer is singing in falsetto or not?" - I'm not sure.
    – Chris
    Commented Nov 24, 2014 at 19:54
  • I can't find "analysis of a specific work" as a banned topic. I see "identifying a song, genre, instrument, etc.". Not sure if I'm not looking hard enough, but...
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Nov 24, 2014 at 20:01
  • The close reason right below that was the one I was referring to. (I haven't voted to close yet, but it's probably better for someone else to take an attempt at edition rather than me - with my limited vocal knowledge!)
    – Chris
    Commented Nov 24, 2014 at 20:02
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    Why don't you think this is an identification question? There is no technical question present, he just wants to know what voice the singer is using.
    – user28
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 6:55
  • ... which, for a singer, is a technical question. You wouldn't believe how much I've read up about pedagogic techniques since I joined this forum... & I'm still really no wiser.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 20:00

2 Answers 2

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I can't find "analysis of a specific work" as a banned topic. I see "identifying a song, genre, instrument, etc.". Not sure if I'm not looking hard enough, but...

Asking for analysis of specific work is off topic. From the Closing Reasons popup:

enter preformatted text here

Now that I look at the Help Center - What topics can I ask about here?, this closing reason isn't mentioned; this is wrong.

I can understand why you didn't see it. This should be added. You can ask a question with a tag to do that.

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  • We should really clarify that close reason. We are typically ok with questions on a technique given a specific example that can be perceive as analysis and we usually like answering questions about analysis of works as long as the user has the chords/notes/sheet music/notation needed for it. When a question is solely about transcription it tends to be closed for the reason mentioned above. I think we should replace analysis with the word transcription.
    – Dom Mod
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 1:45
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    @Dom Transcription is far too narrow, the close reason is indeed meant to cover analysis in general (of a work in specific). Asking about how to play a certain note pattern, what particular markings mean, etc. using a specific passage as an example would be perfectly acceptable, however, as you say. We mostly want to avoid identification and overly broad "How would you analyze this?" questions.
    – user28
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 6:34
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    I think it's good to mention transcription in specific, however, so thanks for pointing that out. I have updated the on-topic page linked in this answer.
    – user28
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 6:38
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I think this should have been allowed. The question could have been edited, like suggested to "How to identify falsetto", and the example left in there. So, an edit instead of closing could have saved it without closing, and without changing any existing policies. I'll do this edit, and we'll see what happens.

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    There has been a long discussion about editing a question into a completely different one, where the answer is no. If OP wants to edit it into something like that, he can. Other users shouldn't change the question. (I cannot find the discussion right now)
    – Shevliaskovic
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 12:27
  • @Shevliaskovic: I guess you mean this one: meta.music.stackexchange.com/questions/850/…. I don't know if this should be considered "heavy editing". If it's reopened, it's reopened, otherwise it will remain closed...
    – Meaningful Username
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 13:41
  • In this instance, after being pointed to this meta with a comment to the edit, it seems to have been well-recieved, so I think in this case we have win-win. As regards the question itself, I'd love to see a good definitive answer, because, after having been a singer [untrained] for 35 years, including several as a session singer... I still have no real clue what a 'head voice' is & only ever heard the term for the first time recently.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 19:34
  • @MeaningfulUsername I am the author of the original question and I approve this editing. ;) Thanks!
    – Michaël Le Barbier
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 5:29

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