Description:
When some singers say they want to sing higher, this is what they mean: they want to sing higher, without cracking or “flipping” into their head voice. These 3 exercises will help you develop your chest-dominant mix: a coordination that retains a lot of chest voice quality, but isn’t solely chest or speaking voice, since that has a fairly limited range.
Exercise: Hujahjahjah (1,3,5,8,5,3,1) C to F
One of the most important tips for keeping your mix smooth is to keep your tongue flexible with exercises like this. When the tongue gets rigid it tends to fall back or push forward and block the vocal tract, acting as a barrier to register shifting. You can feel under your chin to see if your tongue is pressing down and getting hard. Try to keep it flat and by the tip of your bottom teeth.
Exercise: Balanced mix (ONE) 1355531 F to G
Now we’ll work on a more “finished” or “performance-ready” mix sound, on the syllable ONE. If you prefer the syllable WHY, use that instead! With either syllable, remember to drop your jaw and think about “speaking” into those higher pitches so you retain a connection to your chest voice.
Exercise: Open vowel sweeping pattern (1123345567891011 etc.) to A
Let’s test our work with a challenging sweeping pattern on a single vowel. Try to keep your head from lifting or stringing and use the pulsing rhythm of this pattern to grain connection to your support.
If you are reaching and straining a lot here, check to see if your jaw, head, neck and shoulders are relaxed and that your larynx is in a neutral position before you start. Are you engaging your support through the high note and then letting it relax back down? Please switch to a lighter head voice or stop when you feel you are at your limit.
Lessons:
- 1: Welcome
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2:
Warmup
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3:
Low Range Extension
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4:
Head Voice Extension
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5:
Mix-belt Range Extension
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6:
Conclusion
Instructor: Abram Poliakoff
Abram Poliakoff is a singer, guitarist, pianist, teacher, conductor, and composer. He received a Bachelors of Music in Vocal Arts from USC’s Thornton School of Music and has been teaching music for 8 years. He is currently both the Associate Artistic Director and a tenor in the L.A. Choral Lab, which recently released its first studio album Sonic Visions in the fall of 2019. Abram teaches and performs a wide range of genres including Classical, Jazz, Folk and Popular music in the Los Angeles area. He has also sung with the San Francisco Opera and Pocket Opera in the Bay Area. His teaching mission is to help his students utilize vocal technique to find their authentic and healthy voice while maximizing genre flexibility and a naturalness of expression.