Ever since my February posting on the whistle register I have had a large number of visits to my blog from people wanting information on how to access the whistle register. At that time, I was in no position to give any advice as I was only just beginning to discover this region of the voice for myself. My explorations arose out of curiosity, after hearing ordinary people—young and old alike and not necessarily trained in singing—using it unwittingly. Babies in prams, children in the park, groups of women in uproarious laughter, my fitness teacher in her exercise classes—none of them singers—could all use this high register yet I couldn't. How galling! I simply had to find out how it worked. I began to suspect that whistle register involved a manoeuvre of the laryngeal muscles not normally used in speech—a trick that you either had or (as in my case) not, and that it could probably be acquired if it wasn't inbuilt. I remembered the tongue-tip rolled R, which I was absolutely incapable of doing until I had to learn to use it when I started Russian lessons at school at age thirteen. I practised it for hours, days and weeks, and eventually it came, little by little, until I could do it automatically and with ease. Now I wonder why I ever found it difficult. If these things are not learned in infancy through imitation (we don't used trilled Rs in English or French), or if for some reason they are suppressed (well-behaved 1950s children were not encouraged to make high, piercing sounds in whistle register), they are much more difficult to acquire later on!
Hence my experimentation with the whistle register, which resulted, a few months later, in my February post. Now, two months further down the line, here's a summary of progress so far, together with an attempt to describe in words something that is in fact almost impossible to describe in words—unless you are very knowledgeable about how the vocal mechanism works, which I am not!
My whistle register is not yet fully functioning (i.e. I can't just call upon it at any time and produce perfect high Fs on demand!), but it gets easier to access every day. There were many more misses than hits to begin with, and now the ratio is about equally balanced. That, to me, is progress. It is important to realize what a tiny manoeuvre is used to produce sound in this register, and what a tiny sound it is. To find the placement, one must—for once!—ignore any muscles below the neck, as everything happens in the throat and above, and any temptation to use the large muscles of the body must be held at bay. It helps to work on this register while sitting (rather than standing) to promote relaxation of the lower body and focus entirely on the positioning of the larynx, tongue and throat. The larynx should be kept low, the tongue low and relaxed, the back of the nose shut (as if you wanted to avoid a nasty smell) and the thoat open. At first, the sound is either not there or barely there, and it will keep cutting out. The temptation is to squeeze or force. Resist this temptation like mad, and do not work on it for more than a couple of minutes a time. This way of phonating is maddeningly elusive—just like the trilled R was for me at first—but I'm finding that the muscles are gradually learning to stabilise their position. Split-second sounds that are prone to slip out of gear eventually turn into whole second notes, but it's a slow process requiring patience (for me, at any rate). Pitch control is an added skill that comes later. The sensation has been described by some as a back-flip, but for me it feels more like a folding in half, with the back half bending upward and forward over the front half. I recently achieved a seamless "siren" transition from the lowest vocal fry to the top of the whistle register, going through all passaggios smoothly. Six months ago I would not have thought it possible.
The reason for exercising this area of the voice is not (for most singers who are not coloratura sopranos) to use it in performance but for the added flexibility it gives to the whole laryngeal mechanism. I have noticed that high notes in ordinary head register feel easier afterwards.
The best advice I can give, though, is to watch Brett Manning demonstrating the whistle register on
YouTube. Watching in this case is almost as important as listening. See in particular the relaxation involved, and follow his instructions on how to find the placement. His laid back attitude has a purpose: it is contra to everything one has been told about maintaining a noble position for normal singing, but in this instance, it is more important to relax the foundations than to brace them. I find the best place to practise this register is lying back in a warm bath. And as with everything in learning, keep going back over that video. In two weeks' time you will see and hear things in it that you didn't see and hear before. This is why (and I keep harping on about this) YouTube is such a fantastic educational tool.
For a demonstration of whistle register at its most virtuosic, look no further than Yma Sumac. I doubt she will ever be surpassed.