Next to singing in tune, increasing one's vocal range
seems to be the holy grail of vocal development for most
singers.
So today I'm going to give you some practical singing
tips that will help you to realize the full potential
of your anatomical instrument.
Today we're going to tackle a heavily misunderstood area
of vocal development.
All over the internet, you can find
people promoting the idea of increasing one's vocal range.
Unfortunately, much of the time this
is done in a somewhat misleading way,
because it's actually impossible to increase your vocal range.
Why?
Well, you're a biological instrument
with anatomical limitations.
For example, I'm 5 foot, 8 inches tall.
There have been times when I've thought
it might be nice to stand a few inches taller,
but alas, this frame is what God has given me.
No matter how much I want to be taller,
I have to be reconciled to the fact
that I am an anatomical average height.
So where does this leave us with our vocal range?
Well, it is true to say that you have an anatomical limit to how
low and how high you can sing.
This being said, most of us are not
realizing the full potential of our biology.
Most human voices are capable of between 3 to 3 and 1/2 octaves.
And most singers who I work with have not
learned how to work the full breadth of their vocal range.
So today, I'm going to give you some great tips on how
to explore your complete vocal range
and realize the full potential of your God-given anatomy.
Now as we go through these activities
together, if one of them really jumps out as helpful
I'd love you to leave a thumbs up.
I love hearing how my videos are helping everyone in the Voice
Essentials community.
The first picture I want you to form in your head
as we develop your vocal range is
something completely unrelated.
I want you to think about the idea
of learning to do the splits.
Every time I see a gymnast drop into the splits,
I can't help but admire their physical agility.
It takes many months to learn to do the splits without injuring
yourself because the muscles and ligaments need
to be slowly but surely stretched out over time.
And herein lies an important caution for us
as we explore the complete range of our voice.
It's important that you stretch the vocal ligaments
over an extended period of time.
Too many singers have done themselves a great disservice
by trying to increase their range by simply
pushing and pulling on unwilling muscles.
A good rule of thumb when working
on any vocal exercise, especially when you're looking
to embrace your full vocal range,
is to sing to the top of a given scale
and then require your voice to work higher by one or two
steps relative to its current limitations.
It's all too easy to allow the voice
to settle for what it knows.
But equally, we need to be sensible in how
we require the voice to move beyond its current boundaries.
So only ever require the voice to sing one or two
semi-tones higher or lower than what it knows.
This way, you're developing your range
without compromising the health of your voice.
Two of the best vocal exercises you
can implement for the exploration of your full range
are lip trills and sirens.
I have another YouTube clip about lip trills
that you might like to watch at the end of this video,
so I won't go into the full explanation
here about their awesome benefits.
Suffice to say, lip trills-- sometimes
called lip bubbles-- are great for working the voice
through its full range.
You can lip bubble any scale.
I often use track 16 on my exercise
CD as a great nine-note melodic pattern to lip trill over.
We'll do a few together now, so just follow my lead.
[LIP TRILLING]
One more.
[LIP TRILLING]
Cool, how'd that go?
You may have had to stop before me, and some of you
may've been able to go on further.
Again, you can do lip trills over any scale.
But you need to work the voice to the top
of your relative range and then encourage
the voice to explore one or two steps higher.
The second exercises that we're going to look at is sirens.
Now I love sirens, but they do come with a small disclaimer.
I advise all of my students to only implement sirens
at the end of a full vocal warn-up.
Why?
I hear you ask.
Well, sirens are designed to traverse
your entire vocal range.
Let me show you.
Did you notice how the siren stretched my voice right out?
Quick question, what should you never do to a cold muscle?
Right, you should never stretch a cold muscle
through its full range of motion until you've warmed it up.
It's really important to get the blood flowing
through your muscles before you place them under load.
So always-- and I want to stress-- always
save your sirens until the end of your vocal work out.
So let me point out the obvious.
The awesome benefit of sirens-- according
to our topic in this video-- is the full range of motion
that they employ.
If you're already vocally warmed up,
you can join me on this activity.
We're going to do three sirens using an NG sound.
The first siren will move through the range of your lower
register.
The second will transition into your upper register.
And the third will move all the way
into your flute register for ladies,
and falsetto register for guys.
That sounds like this.
So let's do each of these together as one
connected siren.
Here we go.
[SINGING]
Let's do it once more.
[SINGING]
How'd that go?
When you try the sirens again by yourself,
be sure not to push too much air into the top registers.
Too much air pressure can cause the voice to constrict.
So try to keep a good sense of breath pressure
in behind the NG sound.
As I suggested earlier, learning to realize
the full potential of your biological range
is like learning to do the splits.
It takes time, it also requires regular and consistent
practice.
So start workshopping your voice today.
You might be surprised at how many undiscovered notes sit
dormant at both ends of your voice.
I hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial,
and I hope this video demystifies the concept
of extending you range.
Perhaps you've got a vocal exercise
that you've found helpful when it comes to singing
through your anatomical range.
I'd love for you to share it with all of us
here at Voice Essentials in the comment section below.
Because the best part of this community
is the opportunity for all of us to learn from each other,
me included.
And if this is your very first time here, welcome.
I hope you found this video helpful
as you seek to develop your voice and improve your sound.
Allow me to extend a personal invitation for you
to subscribe to the channel and join our ever-growing growing
community of passionate singers from across the globe.
Who just like you, want to raise their voice in song.
But for now, I'm going to say goodbye
so you can get on with the task of realizing the full potential
of your voice.
I'm Dr. Dan.
Sing well.