How do you Sing Higher without Cracking or Breaking? This is one of the most embarrassing
things that can happen when you sing.
There’s a specific cause for breaks and cracks and here’s a great exercise to prevent
it! This is a more advanced exercise.
Hi! I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing.
Have you ever tried to sing higher only to have your voice crack and break? It’s frustrating
in practice and embarrassing in a performance.
What causes this to happen? Here are several reasons for a crack or a break.
The Larynx is rising. This causes the vocal cords to break apart.
The chest voice is being pulled up. The added tension and pressure will also cause the cords
to break apart into falsetto. Swollen Vocal Cords from illness, menstruation,
allergies, lack of sleep, vocal abuse or damage, reflux, dehydration, medications, etc. Under
these conditions, the vocal cords, like a sore muscle, become unstable and the larynx
quickly goes up which causes the crack or break.
Here’s a great exercise that can help with the high larynx, pulled chest and swollen
cords.
Important: If you have vocal damage of any kind, a doctor should be consulted before
doing any vocal exercises.
The exercise goes by various names such as squeaky door, sometimes I call it the puppy
dog sound. It sounds like this. [Demo]
Two factors make this effective. First, just the outer edges of the vocal cords are used,
so you don’t want to jam it or press it too hard. Second, try to do this exercise
without using any external neck muscles.
Monitor yourself by putting your thumb under your chin and gently press in. Now swallow.
Do you feel the muscles push your thumb outward. These are called digastric muscles. When these
activate it pulls the larynx upward.
Your job is to do this exercise without those muscles pushing against your thumb and raising
the larynx.
First start on a pitch in your chest and inflect the voice upward like this.
Start on a pitch in your chest voice and then inflect the voice upward.
Practice doing it until you can do it without the muscles pushing against your thumb. Don’t
do it hard or loud. Just enough to keep the vocal cords connected.
Once you’re able to do that, move on to this exercise. Using the squeaky door sound
at medium volume, and placing your thumb under your chin, do this scale. It’s a 1 ½ scale.
Men begin on the B2. Women begin on the F#3. Both voices go up three half steps and back
down.
First do it staccato. Start with the men. Ready? Now
the Ladies. Practice this until you can do it without the muscle pushing against your
thumb. Then move on to this exercise. On the same 1 ½ scale with a gallop. It sounds like
this. Now men, the gallop.Now women, the gallop.
Once you are able to do that exercise without the muscles kicking against your thumb, progress
to this next exercise. It’s a triplet, same scale. [Demo] Now men, the triplet. Now Women,
the triplet. Progress to the next exercise once you’re able to do it without the muscles
pushing.
This will isolate the vocal cords from the external muscles in the neck. This will retrain
your neuromuscular system to produce your tones at the vocal cord level without the
extrinsic muscles raising the larynx.
This is a great exercise for every vocal type. It:
Trains the vocal cords to function without the external muscles
Keeps the larynx down which eliminates the breaks
Helps build vocal cord adduction (bringing the cords together)
Rehabilitates the vocal cords
What do you tend to do when you sing? Does the larynx go up? Do you pull chest voice
too high? Do you crack or sing too breathy. Do you tend to mix?
Go to PowerToSing.com and take the vocal test, which I call the PowerTest. Take the quiz
and discover your vocal type. Then go to the Knowledge Center and watch all the videos
about your vocal type.
Download the free exercises and use them to start improving your voice immediately.
I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing. You can sing higher with beauty, confidence and
power.
I’ll see you inside the next video.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community