Head voice or open, chest voice?

Hello Camille! I hope you are doing well. I just started 30 day singer and now I'm on Day 2: the warm up excersises. I have some questions I hope you can clarify.  For exercises like the lip trill, ooo walk down, open ah/yah, and basic mum, do you suggest I do them in head voice or chest voice? I struggle with high notes a lot, especially in chest voice.  Do I stop when you say "higher voices keep going?" (I have a lower voice). I hope to be able to reach higher notes easily after this course and someday become a really good musician. 

Hi, Lakshita! Great question. Almost every warmup/vocal exercise (unless it has a very limited range on purpose) will require you to use both head and chest voice at some point. Over time, we also work to develop a "mix" in the middle/upper register so we can transition from chest to head register more smoothly. 

When I say "higher voices keep going", I'm usually referring to both altos and sopranos. But every voice is different! Here are a few things to try if you're feeling the exercise is going too high or low:

1. Modify the exercise to make it easier (ie: sing on a lip trill, hum or NN/NG instead of an open vowel or other syllable, if that's more doable). 

2. Sing most of the exercise, and just "think" (audiate, or sing in your head) the pitches you can't reach without straining or going sharp/flat. This gives your vocal folds an opportunity to still adjust and prepare to sing those out-of-reach pitches, even if just air comes out. 

3. Make sure you're shifting registers when necessary. For example, you may be unable to sing higher pitches because you're still in chest voice, in which case you'd need to "shift gears" and find your head voice placement. 

Thank you so much for your reply! I understand what you said and will put it to use when doing my exercises. However, future lessons my range and will make me able to sing higher notes in open voice with ease right? My goal is to sing notes out of my comfort zone without strain. 

Absolutely! Now, we aren't limitless - that's why voices tend to fall most comfortably within a range. But untrained voices can definitely expect to increase their comfortable range with practice.