Is there a way to increase my vocal range?

[Chance125]

I have just started seriously thinking about singing, and I have realized that my range is not that great. It seems like I have to go into falsetto notes fairly quickly. Is it possible to improve on this?

Also, there seems to be this great boundary between high and low notes, almost like I have to stop singing to switch between to kinds of voices. It's hard to explain, but is there any way to eliminate this?

[GDan]

IMO (note, "opinion" I'm not an expert) there are three ways to extend your range up past chest voice

1)Mix your voices. my old singing teacher explained this like so. I you think of your chest voice as black paint and your head voice as white paint co-ordinating the two will give you a smooth transition of greys up to the top. Making it hard for a listener to discern where the break is. This is probably the best way to do it and the path with the most benefit for your voice overall, but its very hard and will take a long time to perfect.

Do scales at a speaking voice volume, keeping your larynx low (ahhhh not aaaaa) and blending into your top voice easily and keeping your volume steady.

2)Belt. you can get higher just by putting more force in. Overall not advised as a means of gaining range, but you can belt more or less safely by perfecting the right reflex actions to engare the right support actions without too much stress or dificulty. YOu cant do this indefinately though, It'll get you to the limit of your chest voice and past that you'll just be blowing your chords out.

Breath freely and low into your body, support with an expande ribcage and a little tension in the low back and just yell. Its a little more complex than that but at heart belting is basically just the same mechanism as shouting.

3)Scream. Screaming is weird becasue it that grit, snarl, whatever naturally is something of a mixed voice. Thats how Axl Rose and those guys hit the notes, its basically head voice with enough rasp to it that it doesent sound like head voice. it takes finesse though, they are NOT just blowing their voices out as hard as they can.

[amygould]

I agree, the fastest way to increase your range is to work on how you access the high range. First of all practice singing in chest voice on the low range. If you put your hand on your chest as you sing down low, you should feel your chest vibrate. If you sing a scale going up, you should feel your chest buzz less and less, as you get higher the sound should feel like it buzzes or vibrates in your face somewhere near your nose. If you have trouble getting up into the upper range, try singing the scale on guhg and pretend that you are sobbing. This should help you get up into the high range a little easier. Once you have gotten up into the high range using this technique, try singing on a normal guhg. Remember how it felt to sing the high note using the sob, then try to recreate that feeling as you sing the high note without the sob. As you come back down the scale, you should feel head voice (or buzz in the head) and more chest voice (or buzz in the chest).

Hope this helps,

Amy Gould
Voice Teacher
www.singerspot.com
Sing with the voice of your dreams.

[jive4005]

it's like "how do I get to Carnege Hall?"...... "Practice a lot!"

Peace & harmony,
J. Slick

[Consume]

I have just started seriously thinking about singing, and I have realized that my range is not that great. It seems like I have to go into falsetto notes fairly quickly. Is it possible to improve on this?

Also, there seems to be this great boundary between high and low notes, almost like I have to stop singing to switch between to kinds of voices. It's hard to explain, but is there any way to eliminate this?

Well, at one point - I couldn't hit anything above a Middle C, but now I have a really wide range with a lot of power. What I did was get "Raise Your Voice" and that program worked wonders for me.



C

[emak3232]

IMO (note, "opinion" I'm not an expert) there are three ways to extend your range up past chest voice

1)Mix your voices. my old singing teacher explained this like so. I you think of your chest voice as black paint and your head voice as white paint co-ordinating the two will give you a smooth transition of greys up to the top. Making it hard for a listener to discern where the break is. This is probably the best way to do it and the path with the most benefit for your voice overall, but its very hard and will take a long time to perfect.

Do scales at a speaking voice volume, keeping your larynx low (ahhhh not aaaaa) and blending into your top voice easily and keeping your volume steady.

2)Belt. you can get higher just by putting more force in. Overall not advised as a means of gaining range, but you can belt more or less safely by perfecting the right reflex actions to engare the right support actions without too much stress or dificulty. YOu cant do this indefinately though, It'll get you to the limit of your chest voice and past that you'll just be blowing your chords out.

Breath freely and low into your body, support with an expande ribcage and a little tension in the low back and just yell. Its a little more complex than that but at heart belting is basically just the same mechanism as shouting.

3)Scream. Screaming is weird becasue it that grit, snarl, whatever naturally is something of a mixed voice. Thats how Axl Rose and those guys hit the notes, its basically head voice with enough rasp to it that it doesent sound like head voice. it takes finesse though, they are NOT just blowing their voices out as hard as they can.

OMGSH... this is excellent advice...
ty.

[Bajazz]

- Get rid of the mindset that your range is somehow set in stone. You don't need to believe that you can sing higher than Mariah Carey and lower than the deepest bass singer. You just need to be open about testing out different things and find what works for you.
- Practice your weakness the most. transpose so the songs are on the edge of what you can do.
- Get some instruction. Teacher, books, DVD, or better all of them.
- Test out different approaches. If one doesn't work now, go further, but come back at a later time.
- Try to make things fun. When in a rut, try different things. Singing is supposed to be fun!!

Good luck!!

[strat2]

I agree, the fastest way to increase your range is to work on how you access the high range. First of all practice singing in chest voice on the low range. If you put your hand on your chest as you sing down low, you should feel your chest vibrate. If you sing a scale going up, you should feel your chest buzz less and less, as you get higher the sound should feel like it buzzes or vibrates in your face somewhere near your nose. If you have trouble getting up into the upper range, try singing the scale on guhg and pretend that you are sobbing. This should help you get up into the high range a little easier. Once you have gotten up into the high range using this technique, try singing on a normal guhg. Remember how it felt to sing the high note using the sob, then try to recreate that feeling as you sing the high note without the sob. As you come back down the scale, you should feel head voice (or buzz in the head) and more chest voice (or buzz in the chest).

Hope this helps,

Amy Gould
Voice Teacher
www.singerspot.com
Sing with the voice of your dreams.

Hi Amy,

Welcome to the forum , and thanks for sharing these nuts and bolts tips that work extremely well.....:thu::thu:
I hope you find time to chime in, and often........ :)

[Terry Allan Hall]

Learning yoga breathing techniques helped me quite a it.

[sonnykane]

The main advice I would give anyone is to learn all the nuances of your natural voice first. Forget your scream, falsetta, gimmics, etc. Get use to your voice. After you have an understanding of your voice then work in your gadget voices.

Second: Never sing tired, drained, sleepy. You tend to push harder to get the range and only do more damage to your voice. It actually helps to stay in shape. The more wind you have the more you can push without gasping. Get a good nights sleep, and avoid alcahol while singing. You need a good moist throat. Alcahol dehydrates you.

Third: Make sure you can hear yourself. Home practicing is easy, but at a show you need to hear your voice well or you will just start pushing unnaturally hard again. It is very important you don't start a volume war with another musician. You only get one pair of ears and you don't want to ruin them by having a "who can get louder " contest with a guitar player. Use some basic ear plugs if you have to. I would suggest hearo's. The foam ones swell open and closed while you sing and can compromise your seal. If you got the cash you could always go inner ear.

And last: Sing within yourself. As much as I love Steve Perry, I don't sound like him. If you can emulate a singer, GreT. If you can't, sing the song the best you can. Just try to make sure you have the basic elements in mind. Pitch, tone, stamina, enunciation, and vibrato.

I guess that's my long winded way of saying, Good Luck.

[strat2]

The main advice I would give anyone is to learn all the nuances of your natural voice first. Forget your scream, falsetta, gimmics, etc. Get use to your voice. After you have an understanding of your voice then work in your gadget voices.

Second: Never sing tired, drained, sleepy. You tend to push harder to get the range and only do more damage to your voice. It actually helps to stay in shape. The more wind you have the more you can push without gasping. Get a good nights sleep, and avoid alcahol while singing. You need a good moist throat. Alcahol dehydrates you.

Third: Make sure you can hear yourself. Home practicing is easy, but at a show you need to hear your voice well or you will just start pushing unnaturally hard again. It is very important you don't start a volume war with another musician. You only get one pair of ears and you don't want to ruin them by having a "who can get louder " contest with a guitar player. Use some basic ear plugs if you have to. I would suggest hearo's. The foam ones swell open and closed while you sing and can compromise your seal. If you got the cash you could always go inner ear.

And last: Sing within yourself. As much as I love Steve Perry, I don't sound like him. If you can emulate a singer, GreT. If you can't, sing the song the best you can. Just try to make sure you have the basic elements in mind. Pitch, tone, stamina, enunciation, and vibrato.

I guess that's my long winded way of saying, Good Luck.

Lol, good points.......especially "......Save your gadget voices........"http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e128/riverstrat/spitlaugh.gif
It's fine to chase these gadgets, but icing doesn't stick well to a cake if there is no cake......:D

I have one issue though for the noobies that may be reading :

"The more wind you have the more you can push without gasping."sonnykane

You probably know well what you're saying, but the sentence sends the all too common WRONG signal to the noobies IMO.....
I think you're more talking about being in shape and not needing to beg for a breath......At any rate:

DO NOT PUSH noobies, you can get a little more volume by pushing extra air, but over all it will take your voice into a tailspin over time, you need to control air flow with your diaphram support, it's much more about not exhaling than it is about big air flow, the control is at the diaphram and not the throat in case you're not sure.
Don't think of holding the air back , cause you don't want the baloon effect to take over on you , that is where your throat constricts to hold in the air....don't.
Don't constrict the throat to control your air flow.
Think 'support'.
The pushing part, is droping your diaphram a bit (you need lessons to get it right) and drawing in with a yawn and 'aw' to help maitain a relaxed open throat feel.(You'll learn the mechanics of 'breath' in your lessons).
Breathing fundamentals are one thing, but finding the ring and resonance in your voice is another much more tedious task for most singers, some have it genetically or congenitally, or due to deformities, most of us have to work like the devil to find it.
Your sustainable volume should come from resonance, not lot's of air.
I no longer think about 'air' while I'm singing, I can sing long phrases when I haven't taken a breath at all, because I work off resonance.
Once in a great while , I'll be in a spot in a tune where I say to self, here's where you need a breath.....

IMO noobs, have fun with your 'gadgets' but get lessons if you want to learn to actually sing.
I loves a little falsetto and screamy stuff if done well, so don't get me wrong, but do get the basics down as well.........:cop:

[sonnykane]

I have to agree with the don't push, If it is followed by the don't push hard. If you don't push, nothing comes out. If you can't hear yourself, you over push and do damage. The more lung capacity you have the more comes out without having to push too hard. Last time I tried to explain to someone how to push from their diaphram, they just asked "How." Try not to get lost in semantics. Push, don't push. I have heard pro vocal trainers that have differed on the point. They are usually trying to say the same thing, from a different point of view. I have seen guys push hard and last a lifetime. I have also seen guys gently sing for a short time and lose their voice. Take your time to learn your voice, concentrate on pitch and tone, then work your way into vibratto, and remmember projection does require a little push. I figured if everyone could afford pro voice coaching, there would be no need for forums like this. Take all advice you get with a grain of salt, even what you get from me, and learn your body and voice. Good luck guys.

[mariajohnson9]

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Please visit the above link and gets lots of information.

[samalka]

I was also wondering the same thing. One technique I heard was to try to hit that next note just beyond your range - even though you cannot do it and will probably lose your voice - when your voice comes back eventually you will be able to hit that note - and then you can go for the next note, etc.

Can anyone let me know if that's a good way to look at it - or is it dumb - and you'll do nothing but lose your voice?

[Bajazz]

And definitely check out the zipping technique! This allows you to get those loud high notes way above high C. It's lot's of coordination work, and is weird to do at first, but pays off. Jaime Venderas "Raise your voice" might be the most mentioned method on this technique in this forum.

[SevenString]

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/bahnand000/funny_soccer1.gif

I've been wanting to post this pic for weeks... :lol:

[Jersey Jack]

Breathing fundamentals are one thing, but finding the ring and resonance in your voice is another much more tedious task for most singers, some have it genetically or congenitally, or due to deformities, most of us have to work like the devil to find it.
Your sustainable volume should come from resonance, not lot's of air.
I no longer think about 'air' while I'm singing, I can sing long phrases when I haven't taken a breath at all, because I work off resonance.

This may be matter for a new thread, but since you brought it up, I'll run with it. Simply put, this to me is the BIG ISSUE in learning to sing. How does one find the "ring and resonance" that you describe? :confused:

If I could go down to the crossroads and sell my soul to the devil for it, I just might. Barring that, what to do? If singing can indeed be taught (and I believe it can), this is the true test. Are there exercizes, techniques? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[The Bard Rocks]

Hi, You have been given good advice by many good folks. I would add that you need to measure your range from time to time in order to see any changes. If you know your range, you can adjust the key you sing in to accommodate it. I was topping out at D and bottoming at B below the staff, which is a very shallow range, but now, though practice, have extended it to E and A making life much easier. Very few songs I sing have notes that demand a greater range than that. And my voice does not break or change throughout that range now. There is hope. Roland, "The Bard Rocks"

[Bajazz]

Another tips:

- If you keep doing what's comfortable all the time, you'll stay there. The range doesn't suddenly change if you stay within it all the time.

By that I don't mean you should strain to the to point of pain. One thing you can do is to sing a short scale a couple of notes higher than what's easy and work on it for a while. Let it sound funny and let it flip to falsetto, but at the same time search for ways to sing so you can do it without flip: Change wovels, alter sound, make faces, make strange sounds, alter volume, sing softer, harder, breathy, thinner etc... experiment. Chances is you'll find ways to do it, after all, range is plain technique.