An important goal of vocal development is to learn to sing to the natural limits of one’s vocal range without any obvious or distracting changes of quality or technique. Vocal pedagogists teach that a singer can only achieve this goal when all of the physical processes involved in singing (such as laryngeal action, breath support, resonance adjustment, and articulatory movement) are effectively working together. Most vocal pedagogists believe in coordinating these processes by
(1) establishing good vocal habits in the most comfortable tessitura of the voice, and then
(2) slowly expanding the range.
There are three factors that significantly affect the ability to sing higher or lower:
(a) The energy factor — “energy” has several connotations. It refers to the total response of the body to the making of sound; to a dynamic relationship between the breathing-in muscles and the breathing-out muscles known as the breath support mechanism; to the amount of breath pressure delivered to the vocal folds and their resistance to that pressure; and to the dynamic level of the sound.
(b) The space factor — “space” refers to the size of the inside of the mouth and the position of the palate and larynx. Generally speaking, a singer’s mouth should be opened wider the higher he or she sings. The internal space or position of the soft palate and larynx can be widened by relaxing the throat. Vocal pedagogists describe this as feeling like the “beginning of a yawn”.
(c)The depth factor — “depth” has two connotations. It refers to the actual physical sensations of depth in the body and vocal mechanism, and to mental concepts of depth that are related to tone quality.
McKinney says, “These three factors can be expressed in three basic rules:
(1) As you sing higher, you must use more energy; as you sing lower, you must use less.
(2) As you sing higher, you must use more space; as you sing lower, you must use less.
(3) As you sing higher, you must use more depth; as you sing lower, you must use less.
How To Increase Your Vocal Range
What ever you think your vocal range is, there’s always more. Singing vocal ranges is a very misunderstood topic. In fact, most singing teachers have it plain wrong! And how do I know this? Because I personally increased my range by over an octave, in a very short amount of time.
And this was after studying singing for years! I went through four vocal teachers, none who knew how to increase my range. Actually, their message was more like “you don’t have the ability to sing any higher”.
“This is the range you were born with”…… But I didn’t believe them. After finding and using the right instruction, my range increased dramatically, and yours can too. You Don’t Need To Strain To Hit High Notes
I see it all the time. Singers pushing their neck’s forwards, poking their chin’s out. Reaching…. and hoping for that note to come out. And it does…. but by the time it reaches my ears it’s been destroyed! Every last bit of sound quality has disappeared from the voice.
Another unfortunate thing. This technique will burn out a voice, in a matter of minutes, leaving it hoarse and useless!
The problem with this belting technique, is it encourages the wrong muscles to become part of the singing process. Because there is too much air being forced through the vocal chords, your swallowing muscles ‘jump in’ to try and help out.
But unfortunately they do more harm than good. They prevent the correct singing muscles, the inner muscles of the larynx, to function correctly.
There Are Muscle Coordinations That Will Increase Your Range….. Dramatically
To increase your singing vocal range, all you need to do is discover a new muscle coordination. This new muscle coordination will allow you to sing in a range beyond your wildest dreams. And you will not have to strain for your high notes! Your highest note will actually be as easy as speaking it. Here’s why…
When you sing correctly, and move up into your higher range… you use less air, not more. This is an important key to LARGE singing vocal ranges.
It allows your vocal chords to form a new muscle coordination… a shortened vocal chord. With good technique, your vocal chords will learn how to ‘zip up’ as you sing higher. Yes…. just like zipping up a sweater!
As you continue to zip up your chords, there is less chord free to vibrate (it’s the vibration that creates the sound). As a smaller part of the chords are vibrating, it takes less air to move the chords faster…. And a faster vibration means a higher note!
Simple Exercises That Produce Incredible Results
There is a method of teaching, the speech level singing method , that is the most effective way to increase your singing vocal range. Remember how I spoke of my dramatic range increase earlier? This is how I did it…
Speech level singing uses many special (but very simple) exercises that teach your vocal cords how to ‘zip up’. As your chords get more and more efficient, you begin to see how easy it is to sing higher and higher. It’s actually not uncommon for a speech level singing student to increase their range by an octave in the very first lesson!
The exercises are so effective that many people find their upper range immediately. And as you go through the process, your range gets larger, stronger, and the tone quality improves. This is the key to LARGE singing vocal ranges.
Firstly, let me say….. You can extend your vocal range….. Dramatically. To do this you need the right training…. Exercises that target very specific muscles in your larynx (voice box that sits in your throat).
By developing these muscles (known as the inner larynx of the muscles) they will learn how to “zip up” as you sing higher. When your vocal chords “zip up” or “shorten”, less of the vocal chords are left free to vibrate. It is now easier for the chords to vibrate faster………And this means you can hit higher notes, with ease.
How much air do you need to vibrate the vocal chords once they have shortened? That’s right……. less air!
It takes less air to sing higher notes.
It’s a dangerous myth that “more support” is needed to sing higher notes. Because “support” is often mistaken for “more air”. The result is singers blasting their vocal chords with air as they try and reach for their high notes…..
When you send too much air, you will have grave vocal problems. The muscles around your larynx (your swallowing muscles) become active every time you send too much air to your vocal chords. This is the main cause of vocal strain. To avoid this, you must use exercises that teach you to regulate your air supply.
To Sing Those Stunning High Notes, You Need The Right Exercises…
There are exercises that will do all this for you:
1. (force you to) regulate the air supply to the correct amount.
2. Make it easy for your vocal chords to “zip up”, giving you access to those spectacular high notes!
3. Balance your vocal resonance (which I haven’t discussed here, but is important to get your best tone quality)
The speech level singing method contains exercises that will help you do all this, and more. It is the technique used by the majority of the singers you hear on the radio.
This method of learning is the most effective way of increasing vocal range.
The common misconception is that high notes are only accessible to talented singers. Have you ever heard the saying “you have it or you don’t”? Many vocal instructor have told me this, but it is simply not true!
Vocal range extension is available to you, if you have the desire and motivation. (although, with correct training, you can achieve large vocal range extension, almost immediately)
With correct training, your vocal range can be expanded beyond belief. Large vocal range is achieved by a technique called “zipping up your vocal chords”.
In this new muscle coordination, your vocal chords will actually “zip up”, effectively closing off a section of the chord. This leaves less of the chords free to vibrate, and therefore can vibrate faster, producing a higher note.
When you learn to zip up your vocal chords correctly, every note, high or low can be accessed with the same ease. It’s almost like playing the piano. It’s no harder to press the highest note on the piano than it is any other note.
With correct technique, singing is the same. Every note in your range can be accessed without straining or reaching. This “zipping up” action is the most effective vocal range extension technique.
Actually, as you sing higher, you should be using less and less effort! The vocal chords will zip up more and more as you sing higher. This leaves less of the chords to vibrate therefore you need less air to vibrate the chords… It’s actually easier to sing high notes than lower notes!
There are two vocal registers that use this “zipped up” muscle coordination. They are:
- Head voice
- Mixed or middle voice
Both of these vocal registers form the upper part of your singing range. The mixed voice sounds quite similar to chest voice (chest voice is the voice you speak in, and it forms the lower part of your range). Mixed voice has a sweeter tone quality than chest voice though…
This is because half of the tone resonates in the head cavity.
You see, when you go into the mixed voice, your vocal chords will “zip up”. When this happens, the vocal resonance splits, with half going into the mouth, and the other half into the head. It has the best of both worlds… the power and depth of chest voice, and the sweetness and purity of head voice. Let me tell you… a good mixed voice sounds incredible!
The other register for hitting those high notes, is the head voice. This is what you use when you climb even further into your range. Your chords will zip up even more, and more of the resonance will travel behind the soft palate, and into the head (the soft palate extends back from your tongue and forms a divider between your mouth and nasal cavity).
The head voice also sounds sensational when done properly. And when you get to know your voice well, you can mix a little mouth resonance into your very high, head voice notes. This slight mix can give your sound more power on those extreme highs.
Don’t accept the range you have now, unless it is amazing!
Learn Vocal Range Extension
So firstly, if you can’t already, learn how to sing on a zipped up chord! Once you can do this, learn how to blend your vocal resonance. You will have an endless palate of vocal colors to choose.
Vocal range extension is really in the reach of anyone. that has the desire to achieve it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing
http://www.become-a-singing-master.com/increasing-vocal-range.html
http://www.become-a-singing-master.com/vocal-range-extension.html
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