THE FALSETTO REGISTER
All the tones of the falsetto register are produced by vibrations only of the fine, inner, slender edges of the vocal ligaments. In this action the vocal ligaments are not so near together, but allow of a fine linear space between them, and the superior ligaments are pressed farther back than in the production of the tones of the chest register. The rest of the action of the glottis is, however, entirely the same. With the beginning of the falsetto register at fa
, the whole glottis appears again longer, and the vocal ligaments are much looser than in the highest tones of the chest register. The united action, already described, of the arytenoid cartilages and the ligaments in forming the deeper tones of the chest register, extends to do do
in the female voice, and in the male voice to mi
mi
commonly written thus: mi
mi
but which only rarely occurs in composition, and then is sung by tenorists as I have given it; that is, one octave lower.
With the do
in the female voice and the mi
mi
in the male voice, the arytenoid cartilages cease again to act, and as before, at the second higher series of tones of the chest register, leave the formation of the sounds to the vocal ligaments alone, which at this change appear again longer and looser, but with every higher tone tighten up to fa fa
in the female voice, and in the male voice to sol
, or as it is commonly written:
. In the falsetto register the larynx preserves its natural position, as in quiet breathing.