Increasing Vocal Range?

Question

heh i was just wondering if any of u guys know any vocal techniques which are sure to increase my vocal range. i am singing practically all the time i can see progress but i also want some vocal techniques that would help me to increase my vocal range.

Answer 1

There are certainly ways to increase your vocal range. But first, some critical information.

Every voice has a definite bottom. This because there is a point at which your vocal chords can not shorten any more. At that point, your vocal chords will separate and you will not be able to go any lower. Because your chords will move away from each other, the air simply moves between then and may only illicit a small sound (it will be pitched but it won't really be "singing"). Most people can easily sing down to their lowest note, and there's very little you can do to strech lower. You can smoke and get sick, both of which result in a thickening of the chords which in turn results in you being able to sing lower before they push so far apart that you can't sing. (However, I strongly discourage you from smoking or getting sick on order to thicken your chords to attain a few lower notes. Then again, there are many professional singers who intentionally smoke to lower their voices and to change the vocal quality/timbre. Go figure.)

At the other extreme, your voice can go higher and higher until you reach a point where your personal physiology constrains the chords so that they can stretch no more. As you stretch your chords, they become longer and tighter. The pitch goes up and up. The best vocal exercises are the ones that gradually stretch the vocal chords. Here are some helpful exercises:

1. Hum in a slow siren over intervals of fifths. For example, C-G-C. Go up by half steps. The humming helps because it doesn't require any tongue or mouth movements. That tends to keep everyting loose in the neck area.
2. You need to make sure that you neck is absolutely loose. Absolutely NO tenstion what so ever. As soon as you start to feel tension, slowly turn your head a little bit to the left and right. That usually prevents the "tension causing" muscles to loosen up.
3. Make sure your breath support is solid. The hardest thing to do is sing high notes without proper breath support. You need the requisite air velocity to vibrate the chords. The higher you go, the thinner and tighter they get and the more air it takes to make them vibrate.
4. Sing 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 (ex. C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D-C) where you pronounce the five as fahv. Start in the middle of your voice and go up by half steps. Hold the "fahv" until the sound is clear and focused then go back down the scale. Make sure you "punch" the top note out with air.

There are tons of exercises. Your best bet is to find a voice teacher who can see/hear you and customize exercises to your particular voice and to address whatever "bad habits" you may have.

Note for women: there is, for some women, a whistle register that sometimes adds a few notes, but that is infrequent and there is a lot of controversey over what it is and how it works. It's better to sing the notes in full voice than to depend upon a "whistle" tone.

Note for men: there is, for most men, a falsetto register, that can add several additional notes. However, you need to learn how to support it properly. For some men, they can sing very high notes because of a situation that occurs where they are singing with only a fraction of the total length of the vocal chords. This results in singing that sounds like a woman's voice because the amount of chords they sing with is comparable to the size of women's chords)

Note for both: there is something refered to as the "vocal fry" at the very bottom. It's not a "lovely" sound and technically it really isn't singing but it can add a few breathy pitches to the bottom.

Bottom line: You will reach a point where you can go no higher and go no lower. That's just the way it is. There is no fix. Some people have a potential for a wide range - others don't. Ones isn't necessarily better than the other. It is what it is.

There is only one exception: If you have a physiological problem (such as nodes) that are preventing you from attaining your full range, you need to see an ENT to have it addressed.

Good luck with your range expansion endeavors!

Answer 2

everyone can increase their range it just takes time and effort. the people who say you cannot, are spreading rediculous rumours because they were never able to sing properly.

now it depends what range you want to increase, whether that be your head voice, falsetto or chest-sounding voice. The falsetto is the soft sounding 'craig david' high sound, head voice is the operatic woman sound, and chest voice, well that's the normal talking sound.

assuming, like most people you want a high chest sound, like mariah carey, whitney houston types of people! the best way to do it is to do lip rolls, humming, buzzing exercising... anything that DOES NOT cause the neck muscles to tense! muscles SHOULD NOT be involved in singing, except maybe the consanants, but all vowels, should be pure sounding with no interruption from muscles. The best way to do this, is to take some time off from singing, and focus entirely on changing your technique and do vocal exercises. this may take some time since you may have bad technique, doing these lip rolls, and buzzes helps to increase the range, by stopping the muscles from interfering with the vocal prodcuction.

and a caution on vocal teachers. the problem with vocal teachers is many of them have terrible ranges, and cannot sing very high or very low. if you choose a teacher, make sure you find one that has a good range, because obviously they know how to unlock the voice to get the full potential.

Answer 3

Although warming up your voice can make hitting high and low notes easier to sing, you cannot naturally increase your vocal range. Although surgically this may be possible, its not exactly realistic.

Warming up before singing (both physically and vocally) will make hitting the notes at the top of your range easier. Also, with the help of a vocal coach you can 'fine tune' notes at the very top of your register, perhaps even notes you didn't think you could hit.

As for vocal exercises, try singing the vowel sounds ('ee', 'ah', 'oo') as scales, starting low and raising by half a step each time until you reach the top of your comfortable range.

Equally important can be physical exercises. These are similar to the ones you might do for gym, but focusing on the muscles in the chest and neck area.

Answer 4

You most certainly can increase your vocal range. If you have a good coach, follow the vocalises that are given to you for warming up, remember that the higher the range, the more breath support is needed, letting the vocal sound come from your head, NOT from your throat, you will most definitely increase your vocal range up a few notes if that's what you want. I'm assuming you want to be able to sing a little higher, not in the chest tones, but in the head tones. Either way, good breath support, a general state of good health, and a good coach will take you a long way toward realizing your goal of increasing your vocal range. One thing I used to have my students do was make little "puppy whimper" sounds from the bridge of the nose area.

Good luck!

Answer 5

Check with your local college. They usually have voice teachers there and/or know of outside voice teachers they would recommend. If you want to SAFELY increase your range, you will need a good coach to assist you! Whatever you do, DO NOT try to do things like this on your own!!! Attempting to do this on your own, you COULD wind up doing more damage to your voice than harm. You could even wind up with a condition known as vocal nodes (nodules on your vocal folds...usually requires surgery in order to correct and you will NOT be able to sing if you have it...often singrs with this condition can lose an entire octave of notes somewhere in the MIDDLE of their range) GET A TEACHER who knows their stuff and you can do it without harming the voice. (That is, provided you are not at the top of your range already which does happen!)

Answer 6

The most important technique is to take lessons with a good teacher.

Range is controlled by the muscles in your throat. Strengthening them reduces muscle tension, and improves your vocal flexibility. However, the trick to this is having an instructor who can give you the right exercises. In that sense, vocal instruction is like a physiotherapist - you've got a specialist who can help you make the most of what you've got.

Answer 7

If your favorite "lyric" songs - that means it has to have words - have different pitches, start singing the low-pitched ones first. Every time you hit the highest note in the song, go to the song with the next highest pitch. Worked for me in about a month.

That, or don't drink dairy stuff, like, 3 hours before singing. Clogs up your throat.

If neither of those work, just get a voice lesson or two ;)

Answer 8

warm up higher note then u are going to sing, that way the notes bellow it become more comfortable, keep doing this to slowly push up your range. also, the biggger your mouth is open, the easier high notes will be

Answer 9

There is really no substitute for getting your own voice teacher, sorry! This website can help you find one in your area.