Expanding Your Vocal Range

Jeannie Deva

In teaching thousands of singers around the world, I have never met one who did not have more potential range than they knew and were using. Sometimes factors such as smoking cigarettes or pot, heavy drug or alcohol use, etc., can limit range expansion. However, in the absence of these inhibitors, an increase of range can be achieved with knowledge, understanding, and the right exercises. With that in mind, let's explore what you need to do to expand your vocal range.

How The Voice Works

Usually when you refer to "my voice" you're thinking of the way you sound rather than the physical parts of your instrument. It's important to know that the way you sound and the size of your range is the result of small natural muscle movements inside your body. Of particular interest are the muscles in your throat, back of mouth and larynx (voice box). The better conditioned and limber these muscles are and the less you interfere with their natural movements, the better you sound.

The sounds of your voice are varying degrees of vibrations which emanate from the vocal folds (yes, folds, vocal cords is not the right name). Your vocal folds are located in the front of the throat just behind the Adam's apple. They lie horizontally across the inside of your breathing tube. In order for your vocal folds to produce different pitches for you, they must vibrate at different speeds.

Breathing Versus Vocal Sound

For breathing, the folds are relaxed open. Air passes freely between them as you inhale and exhale. To demonstrate, put your feet flat on the floor. Now put them together side by side. Keeping your toes together, open your heels. You'll see a wedge-like space between them. This is somewhat how your vocal folds are positioned during breathing. Your toes together represent your Adam's apple. Looking down at your feet is like looking down through your throat and seeing the tops of your vocal folds inside your larynx (the front tube of your throat).

Now keep your toes together and close your heels. Your feet should be touching side by side. For singing or speaking, the back ends (your heels) automatically close and the rims of the folds lie next to each other. This is so the air can make them vibrate. The air stream must come under them, support their particular position, and stimulate their vibration. For different pitches, the folds stretch and thin. Different lengths of the folds vibrate appropriately. This is similar to how you would fret a string on a guitar, shortening it, in order to make different pitches.

The muscles of the vocal folds are able to do this automatically, as long as they are conditioned properly and nothing hinders them, such as too forceful an air stream or throat muscle tension. But who wants to have to think about breathing while singing!? The best breath support would be one which automatically provided just the right amount of air for each pitch you sing without causing tension.

Five Primary Causes Of Throat Muscle Tension

1) Lack of adequate vocal warm-up
2) Air over-blow
3) Over articulation (emphasizing mouth, lip movements when singing or talking)
4) Using force rather than resonance for volume
5) Trying to compensate for under-developed vocal muscles

1) Lack of Adequate Vocal Warm-Up - To understand why vocal warm-up is important, let's take a look at certain realities of muscles. The more active your muscles are, the more blood flow they need to supply oxygen and nutrients. As well, the muscle tissues need to have elasticity, which is, in part, furnished by having a certain fluid level. In other words, they need to be hydrated. If you were an athlete or dancer and attempted your workout or performance without preparing your muscles, you would overexert your body and suffer the consequences.

Gentle stretching of the muscles increases the fluid, blood and oxygen into the muscles. Once stretched, the muscles are awake and ready to "deliver the goods" without stress or tension. Just as an athlete would not expect to perform without a warm-up, neither should you. It is so much easier to sing after a correct warm-up. If you've never experienced this, you'll be surprised once you try it. As well, tonal qualities automatically get better, as does ease of range. The reason: Your muscles are awake and better able to do what they're designed to do, naturally. Of course, it is helpful to know what to do. Singing songs does not properly warm-up your voice! You need a program of correct warm-ups.

To fully expand range, it is necessary to undue any reason for throat muscle tension. Of course, when I speak of expanding range, I mean having a wide “playing field” of many notes high and low within which you are able to create varied volumes, colors, textures and emotions. In the first part of this article, we looked at the need for vocal warm-up as the first remedy. Let’s continue our exploration of the Five Primary Causes of Throat Muscle Tension.

2. Air Over-blow - Air vibrates the vocal folds. Too much air pushing under the vocal folds can push them out of position. They will either tighten in resistance, or become blown apart. If they tighten, you will sound strained, can go off pitch, and will reach what could feel like a “ceiling” in your range. The muscles of your vocal apparatus will essentially become locked and unable to move as needed to give you faster vibrations = higher pitches.

There are, of course, various reasons for air over-blow. All of the reasons and their antidotes are fully covered in my home study course: “The Contemporary Vocalist” Volumes I and II. Here are a few: If you think you need to push up to “hit” the pitch, your body will respond by pushing out too much air. If you push-in your stomach you will force your body to push out too much air in relation to the needs of your vocal folds. In fact, as you sing, if anything happens to cause your lungs to be compressed, you will have air over-blow.

3. Over-Articulation - If you manipulate the movement of your lips and/or jaw while singing, it can tighten the muscles in the back of your throat and the muscle of your tongue. This is called hypertension (Hyper = too much). In turn, your larynx, which houses your vocal folds, is stiffened and made inflexible. The best way to sing includes the relaxation of the lips and jaw. Let your inner instrument do its job. Tight movements of the lips and wide stretches of the jaw do not assist. Rather, they prevent your inner vocal apparatus from moving easily. This gives you the apparent reality that it’s harder to sing or achieve higher notes. This is a self-imposed difficulty. Of course you have to form your consonants. You do not, however, need to exaggerate the positions of lips and tongue in order to be understood. The vowels should take the spotlight.

4. Using Tension Rather than Resonance for Volume To sing loudly, the use of throat/mouth muscle-tension is counter productive. Tension causes a reduction of muscle function and so limits the results. Singers can tend to tighten the muscles of the body to achieve an increase in volume, and yet: Big Sound Needs Big Space. Tension reduces the inner space of your body. Try this: As you sing, put the palm of your hand on the back of your neck. Imagine the vowels of each word you are singing gently going into the palm of your hand. Don't push them there, just think it. You may notice a relaxation of the inner muscles of your throat, and find your sound becoming at least a bit bigger with less effort.

5. Trying to Compensate for Under-Developed Vocal Muscles If you tried to pick up an object that was heavier than your body's ability to lift, you'd probably use extra effort and strain. With the voice, if you try to sing notes that you have not yet comfortably included in your useable range, you might use muscular effort in an attempt to get them to do what they have not yet been developed to produce. Unfortunately, as we have begun to explore, when effort is put into muscle function, tightening occurs and with it, a limiting of function/result.

Exercise

Vocal Exercises are not easy to explain or direct in writing. It's better to have them explained, sung and coached in person, or on an audio recording. However, short of having in-person voice training sessions or working with my home study course, you can try the following: Open your mouth about a two-finger width. Let your tongue relax with the tip resting against the back of your bottom teeth. Choose a pitch that's around your natural speaking voice.

Start by singing on an AAh,@ pitch-wise going back and forth an interval of a whole step. Let's call this a wiggle. Wiggle the AAh@ about 6 times. Next start on a slightly higher pitch and wiggle the AAh@ again. Keep going slightly higher and then slightly lower. Never reach or strain for a pitch. Go only so high as is comfortable and then come back down the scale, little by little. After some minutes using the AAh@ vowel, repeat the whole procedure using an AAe@. Try to keep your jaw open and unmoving as you do this so that your inner vocal muscles can be gently, naturally, and automatically worked. Do this exercise for about 10 minutes. Don't push for volume nor sing breathy. A speaking approach is best. After a few days, you may notice certain pitches coming more easily than before. I use many different exercises to assist in range development.