Whether you have been singing for days or decades, you can always work on increasing your vocal range. Unless you have achieved Mariah Carey or Axl Rose-status vocals, there is always plenty of room for improvement.
Hitting high notes with ease can make all the difference between a memorable show and one that’s easily forgotten.
However, the most important thing to keep in mind is to not injure yourself in the process. Singing isn’t quite as strenuous as boxing or football, but you can still injure yourself if you aren’t careful enough.
In this article, we will explore a few tips that will help you increase your vocal range safely. So get ready to hit those tough notes!
8 Tip on How to Increase Your Vocal Range
Tip #1 – Get to Know Your Existing Range
Before working on your vocal range, you need to know your existing range. It is important to keep in mind that your vocal range doesn’t comprise of the lowest nor highest notes you can possibly squeak out.
Rather, your vocal range is the range between the highest and lowest notes you can sing consistently and comfortably.
If you don’t know how to determine your vocal range, you can simply do so by downloading a keyboard app or hopping over to a piano. You can identify your range by using the piano numbering system.
A popular technique is to accompany the note names with their given octave number on a keyboard. Middle “C” is known as C4 as it’s the 4th C up on the keyboard.
The “C” an octave above C3 is C4, the “C” an octave below C5 is C4, and so on.
Once you know your range, you can start expanding and improving it.
Tip #2 – Pay Attention to Your Vocal Health
Even though it isn’t possible to be in excellent health all the time, there are some things you can do to take care of your vocal health.
- Sleep Well – Make sure you sleep for 7 to 9 hours every night!
- Drink Water – Try to drink at least half a gallon of water every day.
Another great way to take care of your vocal health is by avoiding particular foods and drinks before singing. These include
- Drying Foods and Drinks – Citrus juices or fruits, alcohol, and coffee.
- Dairy Products –The problem with dairy products like milk is that they add a layer of mucus to your vocal cords.
- Throat Irritants – Extremely sour or spicy foods.
You surely need to avoid these foods before you start singing because singing through heavy mucus, constriction, or dryness will result in a major strain on your vocal cords.
Tip #3 – Sing with the Right Posture
It might sound overly simplistic; however, singing with the right posture is surely one of the simplest ways to increase your vocal range. Standing with an upright and tall posture is the right way to stand and hold your body for singing.
This posture is very easy to attain. There are essentially 4 steps:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Your feet, hips, and shoulder should all be in line.
- Stand straight and slightly raise your chest.
- Don’t slouch too far forward or too far backward. Rather, form a straight line down your back.
Tip #4 – Relax Your Muscles
When you sing high notes, you often tighten your body and strain your vocal cords. This tendency may be counterproductive to increasing your vocal range. Thus, instead of straining and tensing your vocal cords, you need to stand firm and keep your feet grounded on the floor.
Try to sing in an “ooh” vowel from a lower note right up to a very high note. Practice this in front of a mirror.
If you are like most people, you will notice that as you move towards a higher note, your jaw is going to relax naturally as you aim to reach the high notes.
Tip #5 – Check for Tongue Tension
A great way for easing into your higher notes is to check for and get rid of tongue tension.
Tongue tension even makes the larynx move higher. As the larynx rises, the vocal folds are going to tighten, and this usually leads to a vocal break. Rather, you need to keep your larynx and tongue relaxed as you sing higher notes.
To check for any tongue tension, just put your thumb below your chin and on the muscular tissue underneath your tongue.
While feeling this spot with your thumb, swallow, and you will observe the muscles underneath your tongue tighten. While you sing, you need to ensure that this part of your throat stays as relaxed as possible.
Tip #6 – Practice Vocal Sirens
A vocal siren is one of the easiest exercises you can do to increase your vocal range. In such as case, you can try to sing vowels like “ee” or “ooh” from a very low note right up to a very high note and back down. This produces a siren sound.
The thing with vocal sirens is to let your voice attain the top-most notes without straining or getting tight.
Tip #7 – Use Warm-Up Techniques
Warming up your vocal cords before you start singing is just like warming up your body before starting to exercise. However, it is important to slowly warm up your vocal cords. Hum is the gentlest technique to start warming up your voice. Start with some large pent scales and work your way up by half a step as you can comfortably go.
Repeat this procedure, now descending a half step as far as you can safely go. You can even hum arpeggios, octaves, minor pentatonic scales, and any other melodic patterns. Simply hum till your vocal cords start to warm up and get ready.
Tip #8 – Be Consistent and Patient
Increasing your vocal range is a slow and gradual process. Perhaps the most difficult thing you need to do is wait.
With continuous exercise, you are doing a lot more than simply adding a few notes to your vocal range. While you might not be able to hit the E-flat as soon as you would want to, you will quickly start to observe your voice getting stronger and lasting longer than when you began training. Plus, you will also observe that the notes you can generally only reach on a “good day” will start to come out a lot clearer. Thus, if you start feeling discouraged, shift your focus on the good things you’re doing for your voice as you work to increase your vocal range.
Last Few Words
We hope our tips have been helpful and you are now prepared to start increasing your range.
The most important thing to keep in mind while you’re in this process is to always prioritize your safety. Don’t overdo it in your practicing, performing, or warming up.
Pushing through strain or not letting yourself rest when required can injure your vocal cords and set you back much further than if you had just decided to go on a break. You should never sing if you’re in pain, so don’t ever feel guilty if you have to skip a few days of practice!
