Stop Straining on your Lower Notes
Are you straining on your lower notes? Here’s why and what you can do about it.
Read MorePitch problems? This will help.
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There are several reasons you might find yourself singing off-pitch.
If you sing flat...
It might be because you are using too much weight in your vocal fold coordination. In other words, you’re using too much chest voice, and it’s weighing your voice down and making it difficult to go up in pitch.
If you sing sharp...
You may not be using enough chest voice, and too much head voice, so your voice is thinning out and stretching too much. This is causing you to sing above the pitch.
The Brain/Body Connection
When neither of these is the issue, it can be a brain/body disconnection. You might need to work on your ability to audiate, meaning you need to be able to hear the pitch in your head. This is how the brain tells the vocal folds what pitch to sing.
Auditation can be improved with ear training practice and by changing the way we listen.
How do you listen to music?
Singers often just listen to the vocal melody and lyrics.
If you play an instrument, you’re more likely to listen to the layers below the lyrics and melody. You can bet a drummer is listening to the beat and rhythm before they listen to anything else!
Separate the Layers of Song
Try separating the layers in your mind and hearing them individually. Then specifically listen to the rhythm layer and the harmony layer, one at a time.
Lyrics
Lyrics are the icing on the cake. They tell the story in words, and they allow the singer to play with different vowels and consonants. While the lyrics are an integral part of the song, they are not going to help you stay on pitch.
Melody
The melody lies on top of the harmony. If you can hear the bass line and start to follow along with that, you’ll hear how the melody “fits” on top of it. The harmony supports the melody. This is what the singer sings, but other instruments also get a chance to have the melody when there is an instrumental solo.
Harmony
The harmony is the instrumental layer beneath the melody. There might be a piano, guitar, keyboard, or other instruments, but I want you to listen for the bass, which is usually the lowest note you’ll hear. The bass is most often playing the root, also known as the tonic. This helps you hear the overall chord structure of the song, which repeats throughout the song. You’ll likely hear the same order of chords for the verses. The chorus or other sections will have different chords, but they will also repeat throughout the song. They also usually stay in the same key signature unless the songwriter really wants a section to stand out from the rest of the song.
Rhythm
The rhythm layer is the feel of the song. For example, the rhythm is what gives it a feel like a swinging jazz beat or a rock beat.
Beat
The beat is just the basic rhythmic unit of each measure. A song in 4/4 would have a beat like 1 - 2 - 3 - 4.
The Layers as a Whole
Each layer of the song needs to be strong individually as well as fitting together as a whole. All of the layers of a song support one another in the communication of the song’s message.
Practice Listening
When you exercise your brain to hear music this way, you’ll get better at being able to hear where the melody fits in and your pitch will improve!
If hearing the layers separately is too much of a challenge to do on your own, find a teacher or musician friend to listen with you and help point each layer out.
Practice listening like this for 10 minutes a few times a week, and you’ll hear your pitch improve!
The other benefit to listening in this way is that riffing will be easier! To be able to riff or improvise, you have to be able to always know what the harmony is doing.
Give it a try!
Let me know if you found this helpful, or if you have any questions.
Introduction to Scale Patterns for Singers
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In my years of teaching, I have seen how being unfamiliar with scale and arpeggio patterns can get in the way of making the most of a lesson. They might be intimidating at first, but don’t worry, I’m here to ease the worry and prepare you for what’s to come.
These patterns will feel easy in no time!
Below you’ll find practice recordings of the 3 most commonly used scale patterns for you to listen to right here, or download to your device so you can practice them on-the-go.
Let’s start with this video to see what these patterns are all about.
The 3 Most Used Scale Patterns for voice lessons
What are The scale patterns?
Scale and arpeggio patterns are a specific order of pitches and intervals that form a repeated melodic sequence.
5 Tone - uses the scale degrees 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1. We will use this for your vocal assessment and other exercises.
Octave Repeat - uses the scale degrees 1 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 8 - 8 - 8 - 5 - 3 - 1. This one gets used a lot for a variety of exercises.
Octave and a Half - uses the scale degrees 1 - 3 - 5 - 1 - 3 - 5 - 4 - 2 - 7 - 5 - 4 - 2 - 1. This one is usually the trickiest, but just keep listening and either humming or lip trilling along like I demonstrated in the video. I would not attempt this one with numbers.
Scale Pattern Practice Recordings for Singers
How to use the practice recordings
For each pattern there are two versions, one set for higher voices, and one set for lower voices. Use what feels most comfortable for your voice.
When you practice the patterns, just focus on getting the pitches, so that you’ll be free to explore your voice and technique once you get to your lesson.
As I demonstrate in the video, you can sing along, hum along, use numbers, or even a lip trill while you get familiar with these patterns.
If ever it feels too high or too low, just drop out, no big deal!
Higher Voices
Lower Voices
Singing Pop After Classical Training
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Let’s See Some Tools In Action During A Live Lesson
Meet Lisa. Lisa was classically trained and had a wonderful opera career on the big stage in Europe for 20 years. She currently teaches classical singing, and some contemporary styles, so we focused on finding a more contemporary “pop” sound using Adele’s song “Skyfall”.
Lisa is a Mezzo soprano, so she naturally had more depth in her lower register and her chest voice has a little more weight in it.
Watch me demonstrate some acoustic strategies, vowel adjustments and tools that helped her even out her range, keep more resistance in her mix, and find a more divergent vocal tract shape.
Lisa’s Lesson
0:55 - Lisa’s singing background
2:00 - Beginning of live lesson
3:10 - Adding a "cry" to the high notes
4:15 - Using the Pharyngeal or Twang sound
4:55 - Using a straw to even the range and balance airflow
6:05 - Describing chest voice and where you feel it
6:35 - Why talking the lyrics helps connect chest voice to the high notes
7:20 - Using the Pharyngeal to "NUH" and "NO"
10:10 - Optimizing vowels
13:45 - Final take!
14:25 - Lisa's thoughts
Tools I used with Lisa
Twang or pharyngeal
You can find this by making witchy, bratty or nasty sound. Often times it’s used in vocalizes by using a bratty NAY.
Tends to be on a bit of a raised larynx or at least neutral
Thins out the folds
Thickens falsetto
Assists in moderate adduction to smooth out the connection
Ring
In a mezzo soprano it can be common to use an acoustic “Ring” to cut through the orchestra. This is also called “squilo” in Italian.
On a physical level the root of the tongue is pulled back slightly which narrows the opening of the space right above the glottis or vocal folds. By making this space slightly smaller it resonates higher frequencies and can really carry the sound.
This same strategy can be used in pop, but we want to make sure it’s not too much or it can start to sound classical or manipulated.
Cry
This is just what it sounds like. You add a little cry or pout while you sing.
Tends to lower the larynx without imposing it and it thins the folds
Maintains adduction while allowing the larynx to rest
Thins out too much weight
Thickens up lighter/breathier vocal production
Reduce airflow and air “push”
Straw Exercises
I used the straw to thin Lisa out at the vocal fold level and also find a more consistent vowel, so she would feel more connection between her lower and upper registers.
Would love to hear from you. Please feel free to comment if you have any questions or thoughts you’d like to share!
How to Sing More Powerful High Notes
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Every singer wants more Powerful High notes.
But, they can be really challenging if you don’t know how to skillfully execute them.
Learn more in this episode of VoiceTalk!
Why are high notes easier for some people?
High notes always came pretty easily to me. 😮 Powerful high notes, on the other hand, did not. 😩
Let’s look at why this was the case.
I have a naturally higher voice.
Some people have naturally shorter vocal tracts that more easily resonates higher frequencies and smaller vocal folds, which take less tension to get up to pitch. That’s why children have higher sounding voices.
Now, that being said, I had to learn how to sing high notes with power. I had a nice classical head voice, but I wanted a more contemporary sound, one that would translate to pop and musical theatre, and that took some time and training.
I had to learn to “mix” more of my chest voice into my head voice to get more power.
Some singers naturally accept the sensations of “mix” more easily, and yet some find it more challenging. I would say for me it was the latter.
What is mix?
If we are talking about the two extremes we can go to in the voice, we have this gentle, hootie, falsetto, head voice, like a whoop, or we have this more intense sounding yell or chest voice.
The headier, whoop voice can go really high without too much effort, but there isn’t much power or intensity.
The yell voice has intensity, but on it’s own, it can’t go up that high without causing a lot of strain and tension.
So we need to be in the middle of them and use a mix of both, so that we have the strength and intensity of the yell or chest voice and the flexibility of the whoop or head voice.
There are two sets of muscles that primarily control pitch
Thyroarytenoid (TA) - These muscles are inside the vocal folds, and they shorten and thicken vocal folds. They are primarily associated with our lower register and are dominant in the production of chest voice.
Cricothyroid (CT) - These muscles are outside the vocal folds, and they stretch and thin the vocal folds allowing us to go up in pitch. They are associated with our upper register and are dominant in the production of head voice.
The TA and the CT muscles don’t always want to play well together.
Some singers (most of us) have to learn how to get them to coordinate and work together because one or the other wants to take over.
If you’re a singer who experiences that big flip in the middle of your voice where you go from a stronger sounding lower register to flipping into a lighter and weaker sounding higher register, then you know what I’m talking about here.
It’s more challenging to get a stronger more “leaned in” sound in your high notes than a more heady classical sound because you have to engage more TA muscle (the ones that shorten and thicken) to get that more intense sound.
When you start activating more of that TA muscle, you can increase the amount of resistance to the air, and increase the closed quotient. As the vocal folds are vibrating, they are really just opening and closing really fast. So even if they are opening and closing the same amount of times per second, if you increase the closed quotient, it means they are staying closed longer than they are open, which is why you get more of that resistance to the air coming up from the lungs.
Because the TA muscle can tend to either want to either be on or off, as you start to employ more it, you will often overshoot. You end up with too much and you start to feel squeezed and all jammed up.
Do’s and don’ts:
The classical way is very helpful to begin to establish that part of our range. Rather than going for a really powerful sound, you can add a little at a time.
Do:
Experiment with lip bubbles, straws, and other SOVTs
Try exercises on more closed vowels Foo, or Boo, Whee
Sing songs and substitute those same closed vowels for the word.
Once you can sing higher notes in your head voice, you can slowly add more TA muscle and get more depth in the vocal folds to start to get more power.
Try a bratty Nay
Use the speaking voice: “Hey guys!”
Use the concession guy’s voice “Get your hot dogs!”
Use “one” or “no”
Speak the line of the song up high in your speaking voice.
DON’T:
Force it. If it’s uncomfortable and you are squeezing then stop.
Use wide vowels like AH “father” or AE “bat” when you are going up to belt a note. Instead, narrow them by adding OU “book” to the AH “father”. And, add EH “bet” to the AE “bat”.
Have fun and let me know how it goes in the comments below or email me at annie@annielittle.com!
Want to explore your high notes and MIX voice with a skilled voice teacher?