Expanding Your Range Singing: Its Highs and Lows A large range is not a mystical occurrence. How high you can fly - and how low you can go - are results more of simple, daily practice than of innate talent. A range of 1 1/2 to 2 octaves is a good range. Many singers have ranges of 3 octaves. If you'd like to extend your range, in both directions, read on.Key #1: Patience Here's the thing about the voice: It can't be forced. There's just no way around the fact that developing your voice is a lifelong pursuit. Don't forget that even the most accomplished opera singers still see their coaches regularly. Expanding your range happens slowly. Be happy with a half step higher or lower each week. And, too, you will hit plateaus where your voice just won't go any farther. When that happens, vocalize over your newly acquired range, but don't push it until - and if - it feels easy again. Key #2: Ease When you begin to hit new high or low notes, it should come easily. Straining to hit a note, getting sore throats from vocalizing, or simply sounding awful are warning signs that you're pushing your voice to expand too far too fast. How to extend your range? Just keep vocalizing. Here's the good news: A singer's range expands naturally as he or she studies and vocalizes daily. It's a by-product of regular singing. Go through the chapter on how to vocalize, work with your voice teacher on whatever your other vocal challenges are (agility, fluidity of tone, or whatever), and you will experience the magic of an ever widening range. I would suggest keeping track of your range, so you can see the progress. Once a week, jot down the date and the average range for that week. You might even note your extreme highs and lows. The very high or very low notes that only grace your routine on occasion, will soon become easy-to-reach notes that are a part of your every day song singing. An expanded range is also a by-product of good breathing technique. So as you include your breathing exercises in your daily routine, and use a supported breath in your song singing, you will naturally see your range increase. Range expansion by developing the registers: If you want to go about expanding your range in a more methodical way, here's another approach. Review the chapter on registers if you need to, before proceeding. 1. Expand the range of your chest register, both higher and lower. 2. Expand the range of your head register, higher and lower. 3. Polish the "break notes" that occur between the registers, and match the tones as best as possible. By expanding your chest register upward and your head register down, you'll have a larger number of overlap notes - these are notes you can do in either head or chest, depending on the demands of the song. 4. For women, you'll want to develop and work on the "high head" or "super head" register, if you want to hit that high C. 5. For men, you'll want to make decisions about your head register, or your falsetto. You can go up higher than you ever thought possible, if you're willing to use your falsetto. You can work on the tone of your falsetto so that it blends in with the chest tones. In listening to a good singer who generally sings in chest, it's often impossible to tell when he has switched to falsetto in order to hit a few high notes. Also, working on your head tones has the side benefit of improving the overall tone of your whole voice. -Many voice teachers hear more than just chest and falsetto in the male voice. They hear chest, head, mixed falsetto, and pure falsetto. Depending on how involved you want to get, these are all doors of opportunity for you in developing your range. Chandra begins with a range that goes up an octave from the B just below middle C. She naturally sings in chest from her B up to an E-flat, then breaks into head on the E. She works her chest register, slowly expanding the range over which she vocalizes, eventually getting it down to the F below middle C, and up to the F above middle C. She's now got an entire octave she can work with, in her chest voice alone -At the same time, she gently works her head voice, extending the range over which she vocalizes in this register from the E above middle C, down a whole step to D. On the upward expansion, she vocalizes a little higher each week until she can comfortably hit two D's above middle C. She's gone up by a minor third in this register. With the help of her voice teacher, she learns how it feels to sing in "high head," or "super head." This entire register is new to her, and as she becomes comfortable with it, she finds that a whole new door of possibilities has opened up for her - for without trying, using no stress or strain whatsoever, she is able to sing from her previous high note of D, all the way up to a high A-flat. Now she also has the luxury of an overlap in her registers. She can sing over the D, E, and F in the middle C scale using her choice of either head or chest - whichever she prefers. She will also work on those three "break notes" to make sure their tones blend in with both her chest and head registers. In her "high head" voice, too, will come the luxury of an overlap with the head voice. She's now got a range of over two octaves. Steven has never worried excessively about registers, break notes, or changing from chest to falsetto. His voice does change registers easily and fluidly, and it's something he's never had to worry about. He sings with a supported breath and a relaxed jaw, and trusts his instrument. - One of his favorite exercises is a quick, light scale, on various syllables, going up a ninth and down again. (An example of this exercise follows.) He begins in his midrange, and transposes this exercise up by half-steps, stopping before he becomes uncomfortable. Then he goes back to his midrange, and does the exercise again, this time transposing down by half-steps each time he does the scale. Again, he stops before he hits any uncomfortable notes. Later in his vocalizing session, when his voice is thoroughly warmed up, he goes back to this exercise and does it again, but this time he makes it a point to transpose up and then down to a scale that lands him a half step higher and then lower than was previously comfortable. Each week he adds a half step in both directions, thus expanding his range gradually and comfortably. - Once he gets to the point where his new notes are part of his "comfortable" range, he does slower scales, and holds each note a little longer, instead of quickly moving through the scales as he had done before. This helps him develop the tone he wants for his new notes, so they will blend in with the rest of his range (an example follows). Key #3: Lightness When practicing scales and working on range expansion, you generally want to keep your tone light and your volume soft. First of all, light dynamics and brighter tones are easier to blend. Secondly, the voice is more agile when it's light. And third, this will help prevent damage to the voice. Stomping around like a rhinoceros in new parts of your range can cause problems. (Don't forget that soft volumes are still tonal, focused, pure sounds. Don't be breathy.) Remember, too, when we talk about registers, that your voice will be different every day. So you've got to be easy-going and fluid about the whole register-changing process. The overall feeling in changing registers is not one of forcing a change at a particular note, although you can consciously change at a particular note, but rather of letting it change. It's a mental image thing, with tangible results. Everything in voice must feel smooth and easy, never forced or strained. If you're a woman working on your "high head" voice, you'll find that it simply won't go into that register by force. The only way to get to that register is through relaxation; letting it flow there. Key #4: Overshoot Most singers actually have two sets of ranges: one that they vocalize over, and another, smaller, range that they actually sing over. It's a good idea to vocalize over more than you will ever sing over. For one thing, your very high and low notes will usually always need some work. For another thing, overshooting during practice will give you confidence for performances. If you regularly vocalize up to a high C, for example, singing that high A for your performance will be a piece of cake. Key #5: Physical relaxation You can't sing well if you're tense, and you certainly can't reach your highest and lowest notes if you're tense. I've seen singers actually stand on their toes with their eyes looking upward and their shoulders up around their ears, in an attempt to hit a high note. Imagine how this sounds. It's like when you go to the doctor for a shot. If you're tense, it's going to hurt. Conversely, trying to hit very low notes by bending your head forward and creating double chins will do nothing but scrunch up your tone. For each half step you take that's higher or lower, you must consciously relax your body one degree more. Quick, light, stress-free scales are your best exercises. Here's an example of the nine-note scale Steven used:  Another good set of exercises are slower 3-note major triad arpeggios. On the slower exercises you'll want to listen for depth and richness of tone, and a certain ease and beauty in your very high and low notes. Here's an example.  Key #6: Help for high notes  Because singing your very high notes can be such an emotional, stressful event, I would have to conclude that tension and lack of confidence are the two biggest enemies to a gorgeous high register. Assuming, of course, that you're breathing properly, your best "technique" in singing high notes is mental. It's a feeling of physical ease, of mental ease, of "letting go." A mental image that helps me is one of "floating." As I go for the high notes, I imagine myself small and light. I also imagine myself gently landing onto the high note from some cloud up above it.
Some singers use the mental image of "coming down to the high note from a note above it," even if they never sing the note above it. What you never want to do is imagine yourself climbing up a slippery ladder. Bracing yourself and saying, "Oh rats, here it comes," as you approach your high B-flat is dangerous business. If you're singing the lyric "On that clear day, how it will astound you..." and in your head you're thinking "I promise, God, if you help me through this upcoming high note I will never (whatever you do) again, and in addition if I can just get through this without utterly annihilating humiliation, I will live a quiet and secluded life in a monastery," you're in trouble.
Also in singing high notes, you don't want to hang on to your consonants. Remember that music travels on vowels. Get the consonants out of the way crisply, clearly, and quickly.
Get that jaw dropped. You cannot sing high notes through gritted teeth.
Modify your vowels if you need to. Many singers take slight liberties in their upper ranges, trying to go for an "ah" sound as much as possible, no matter what the actual vowel is. For instance, if you're singing the vowel "ee," you might want to modify it slightly in your high range. Do this by thinking "ee" but singing a slightly more "oh" sound. The audience will hear it as "ee." The chapter on vowel sounds goes into more detail about modifications.
You need lots of breath support, but not more volume.
The throat should feel "open." You never want to feel constricted, pinched, or tense in your throat or neck area. There should be a feeling of ease, as if all the power comes from the lower abdomen and the rest of your body just lets the sound float out.
Key #7: In search of non-booming low notes When you sing low notes, remember to keep the tone bright, focused, and forward; never breathy or boomy.
As with high notes, the mental attitude in singing low notes is one of ease and relaxation. If you push for low notes, furrow your brow, or get nervous as you go down, it will make you sound like you're singing from a swamp.
Also as with high notes, approach low notes "from above." This is a mental image that helps keep the tone bright and matched with the tones of your midrange.
You use more breath in singing low notes. That doesn't mean you must take in more air; rather it means you must be stingy with the amount of air you let out on the exhale. Also, don't fall into the trap of making your low notes louder than the rest of your range. If anything, practice them at a soft volume.
Your jaw on the low notes need not be dropped as far as you drop it for the high notes. In fact, dropping the jaw too much will produce an unwanted boomy quality. If the lamps rattle on your low notes, your jaw is dropped too much.
If your low notes tend to get boomy, practice scales on the forward vowel sounds, such as "ee" and "ay," or practice your scales on a hum. The hum will bring the sound forward. (The "Placement Waker-Upper" exercise from Warm-up II is one of many humming exercises that can help.)
from Vocal Vibrance: The Complete Technique for Singers and Speakers by Suzann Kale Available from Lulu Press. |
