vocalcoach.ca

CRACKING / BREAKING BETWEEN YOUR LOW NOTES AND HIGH NOTES:

Do you break between your chest voice (low notes) to a soft / airy head voice (high notes) making you sound uneven and lacking control? Is one part of your voice strong with control and volume while the other part feels weak and too soft to be heard? Often people flip between these two very different parts of their voice causing breaks and cracks to take place while singing. This reduces your vocal range drastically because the high notes are just too challenging to hit this way causing your voice to close down rather then open effortlessly. You may even feel apprehension when approaching high notes. Notes are often hit flat or sharp and with so much strain that it sounds unpleasing to the listener. People sing this way because it is a habit from years of singing like that. Once you know what you are doing incorrectly and why you can begin to do the proper things allowing you to sing evenly from your lowest notes up to your highest notes. To make up for the lack of power on the high notes singers often compensate by pushing or forcing the sound out causing even more problems. If you feel yourself flipping between your chest and head registers you may want to consider learning some voice techniques to eliminate the problem once and for all!


PUSHING AND STRAINING TO HIT NOTES AND TO PRODUCE VOLUME:

Do you push to sing high or difficult notes? Do you jam the sound into place causing neck muscle tension and strain on your throat? Do you sometimes sing with a nasal sound? We have a mental image of where we want the voice to go but lack the technique and strength to sing it so we push and strain attempting to get the voice to do what it cannot do. Singers mistakenly think that if they keep doing the same thing over and over the voice will improve. It will not! In fact, “practice does not make perfect” as the saying goes, “practice makes permanent”. So you will want to be sure you are doing the “right things” so you reinforce what develops and improves your voice rather then the opposite. Pushing and forcing will never get your voice where you want it to go. Doing vocal exercises “correctly” rather then forcing things to happen will allow you to develop your entire voice and have balance between all the components that go into singing. What felt fatiguing and likely caused you to feel hoarse will become effortless and pleasing to the listener.

LACKING POWER WHEN YOU SING:

Do you sing with a soft/airy voice that lacks power? Is it difficult for people to hear you? Do you feel your voice lacks a solid foundation and grounding needed to have control over your voice? Does your voice feel tired and dry not only when you sing but at the end of a day of work or speaking? You cannot get the volume you need so you force yourself and may even yell just to be heard. While you make your best effort to project yourself the increase in volume is limited and makes your voice sound and feel fatigued. In fact, you may find that your effort to sing with more power actually cuts your voice off from being produced and projected. Trying to get your voice to do what it cannot do is a guarantee to stop the voice from doing what it has the natural ability to do on its own. Instead consider building and strengthening your voice to sing with presence and confidence.