Archive for May, 2011

In our first article, we have looked at the first two steps to improving our vocal range. It is important that you have identified your vocal range so you can set realistic goals as you improve. Now let us look at the next three steps together.

Do these Vocal exercises

As with your muscles in your body, the muscles surrounding your voice box (larynx) need to be strengthened and worked on to allow you to be able to control your voice better. The ability to sing a high note is really the ability to control your voice better. These exercises will help you to extend your Voice range.

First, start at the lower end of your vocal range (this is the lowest note you can sing comfortably). You don’t want to just suddenly jump up to the highest note – let your voice warm up gently. Sing the word “hmm” and feel how the note resonates in your larynx and chest area. You don’t want the sound to be shallow, but you want it to be a deeper chest tone. Open the back of your throat (like when you yawn except now with your mouth closed).

Now slowly move up the scale holding four beats per note. Feel the resonance of each note. You will feel as you move up the scale that the resonance will shift from your chest to your head. This exercise will help you to recognise and control your voice. As you move up the scale, the resonating tone should be consistent; it should not shift into a nasal tone. As you practice you will notice that you will have better control of your voice. This control is very important to improving your vocal range.

Another fun exercise you can practice with is to sing arpeggios (Doh, Mee, Soh, or C, E, G) with the words “Gi,” (pronounced as “Gyeee”) “Ki” or “Qi.” Sing it in this arrangement – Doh, Mee, Soh, Soh, Soh, Mee, Doh but with the words “Gi.” Then slowly move up the scale a semitone each time with each cord. For male singers you would want to start with the B key, then you move on to C, C#, etc. until you reach the B flat key. For female singers you would want to start with the G key, then move on to G#, A, etc. until you reach the next G key. The goal of this exercise is not to reach very high notes but to teach your vocal cords how to adduct (or close itself) properly. Throughout this exercise you want to maintain the same solid sound and not a nasal sound.

With these exercises, your vocal muscles will grow stronger allowing you to reach higher notes with greater control and ease.

Practice Constantly

Wise men says, practice makes perfect, and they’re right! Without practice do you think your vocal range would just improve by it self? You need to keep practicing! (There is no other way of saying that.) Do these exercises everyday or at least every other day. Like other muscles in your body, your vocal muscles can become stiff and tight when not used regularly (sorry, but talking a lot won’t help as you want to target the specific muscle group that helps you sing). When it is stiff you will realise that your vocal range will be greatly affected (this is why it is harder to sing songs with high notes in the morning when you just woke up).

You need to put in effort to practice; there are no shortcuts to improving your Range of Voice.

Enjoy Singing

To list this as a step to improve your vocal range seems to be strange. But to enjoy singing is so important that it cannot be overemphasised. As you practice singing, sometimes frustration may set in. You don’t see yourself improving as quickly as you would like to; you don’t see results. You feel like throwing in the towel and giving up. But you must realise that you have actually never fail in your struggle until you quit trying.

Having a right mentality is very important and to enjoy singing is the mentality you must have. If you are singing with enjoyment you will see yourself improving faster. This step seems so simple but in reality it is something we have to remind ourselves to do. When you feel frustrated and come to the point where you feel like giving up, stop practicing for a while. Take a break, sing your favourite song, listen to some music, watch some videos on YouTube, be inspired to sing better, and start enjoying singing again.

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Is this your experience? Trying to sing a song that you like but not being able to reach that reasonably high note? While every singer aspires to have a large vocal range, the reality of life is that not every singer can have the same large vocal ranges (especially those that can reach the lowest E and the highest D).

Different singers have varying vocal ranges hence the classifications of soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass. This is not to discourage us from giving up singing. In fact, the quality of your voice is not affected by your range of voice at all. There are great singers who may have a small vocal range but are still able to move the hearts of their listeners. Of course this then does not mean that we do not want to improve our vocal range, with a larger vocal range, we will be able to sing a greater variety of songs. Furthermore as singers we should always seek to improve various aspect of our singing ability.

While we may never be able to have vocal ranges of singers like Pavarotti (some of you may), there are still steps we can take to improve our singing range. In fact, I believe that many are not singing to the full potential of their vocal range. This article will outline several baby steps to help you improve your vocal range.

Don’t Push Your Voice

This first step is perhaps the simplest one to understand yet the hardest one to practice. This is probably the most basic, and if I may add, the most dangerous mistake a young singer can make. Does your throat hurt after choir practice or a karaoke session with friends? If it does you could have been straining your voice in trying to reach that high notes. Sometimes a singer may think that if he forces enough air out, he will be able to reach that high note. This is totally not true. In fact, when you push your voice, you risk straining your vocal cords. The vocal cords are made up of delicate tissue that can be damaged if you keep straining it while singing (sometimes the damage may be permanent). If you want to improve your vocal range the first thing you must do is to stop straining your voice.

Identify Your Unique Range of Voice

Everyone is born with a unique range of voice – while not as unique like our fingerprints, it is still unique. We would call this our natural range of voice. The problem with many aspiring singers is the failure to recognise their own unique range of voice. If you want to expand your vocal range, you first need to admit that this is the range that you have been endowed with and start working from their. The most common vocal ranges are the soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone and bass. There are some other special classifications of voices like mezzo-soprano or countertenor, which will not be discussed in this article. Let me now move on to show you how to identify your natural range. It would be good if you can now go to the piano or find any musical instruments to help you in this exercise (you must want to print this article out if you are going to the piano, unless you are going to carry the piano here). Please note that this exercise is just a guide and we are now talking about the natural range of voices. There may be some who can have a larger range and can easily sing, for example, both tenor and bass.

To identify your natural vocal range, first start by humming the middle C note. Next, slowly move down the scale of notes (this would be towards the left of middle C on the piano) – without pushing! – until you can no longer sing the low notes comfortably. Take note of the lowest note you can reach comfortably. Starting from middle C again, now work you way up the scale and until you are not able to sustain a note comfortably (or when you start screeching. But always remember: Don’t push and don’t strain your vocal cords). Take note of the highest note you can reach comfortably.

If you are a soprano, your range would be approximately from the A note below middle C (A3) to the G note 2 octaves (one octave is made up of eight notes) above middle C (G6). This would be a range of about 3 octaves.

If you have a Contralto’s range, your voice would range from the E note below middle C (E3) to the D note an octave above the middle C (D5).

If you are a tenor, you would range from the C note one octave below middle C (C3) to the C note one octave above the middle C (C5). This will be a range of about two octaves.

A baritone’s voice range would be between the A note one octave below the middle C (A2) to the A note above the middle C (A4).

The bass would have a vocal range of between the F note one octave below the middle C (F2) to the E note above the middle C (E4).

Take some time to find out your natural voice range. Good singers always their own voice. If you want to improve, you need to know your voice better – the strengths and weaknesses of your voice. You should start to know your voice better by finding out your own vocal range. This will help you have a realistic expectation in your journey to be a better singer.

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