This was a topic I covered with a client recently, so I wanted to share the discussion with you here.
With some singers, if I add even half an octave of range to their voice, they naturally sing into that range as a matter of course. But with other singers, I can add an octave of useable range, but they sing more or less exactly where they did before. Why would this be? Does this imply there’s more to singing high than JUST range extension?
The short answer is ‘yes’. Here’s the longer version.
Brief Summary
The way the technique I teach works is this: by improving someone’s vocal function, the automatic by-product is extending range, better tone, stamina, etc.
Here’s a brief summary of what I mean by good vocal function, so that you don’t need to read a myriad of other articles I’ve written on this:
– To sing low notes the vocal folds need to contract and thicken; and to sing high notes they need to stretch and thin.
– The vocal tract also needs to shape the vowels precisely to enable good interaction between the folds and the tract.
– The more precisely and smoothly these two aspects are co-ordinated by a singer, the more range/tone/stamina arise as a natural result.
There’s a little more to it than that, but this covers the basic underpinnings.
Here’s the rub
Improving the instrument is a huge part of the battle, obviously. If the notes aren’t available, you can’t sing them. If they don’t feel easy or good to sing, you then don’t want to sing them. By improving range, making singing feel easy to do, the singer is free to explore singing as they wish to do it.
What generally happens as we remove their vocal ability (or lack thereof), the sensibilities of that particular singer tend to reveal themselves. Like teaching an aspiring painter better techniques and fluidity in their painting, the more they can express whatever is deep within them.
This is where we can see divergent outcomes from singer to singer, as so much of this is down to their personality and their internal sense of aesthetic.
Different outcomes
Per my opening comment, with some singers I can add even half an octave of new and relatively easy range, and their whole voice will immediately shift upwards in their songs. Their brain and body was already crying out for that facility, and as soon as that is available, they tap into it. What they were always artistically looking for exists in that range, and so their voice translates higher.
Sometimes this is down to the music they enjoy, sometimes it’s down to how they actually speak and their body recognising that is where they want to sing as well. Other times it’s entirely down to their body being very accepting of the technical improvement. But ultimately it’s the unconscious preference of the driver operating the voice directing them there. Much like a well-tuned car can only be driven to the potential of the driver in the driving seat.
In contrast, there are other singers I’ve unlocked an octave of extra range (or more), and their voice stays broadly where it was to begin with. We’ve given them TONNES of extra range, but when it comes to song, they are most comfortable where they were to begin with. Something in the way they hear their voice inside their own head means that it’s happy staying put. Until that changes, singing higher with ease simply won’t happen.
Example: Baritone to Tenor
As an example, I have worked with a singer for a long time, who makes a tidy living singing as a baritone. This means his current material only really requires him to sing to around E4/F4. In terms of vocal ability, we have built his voice extensively. We regularly take him to C5/D5, almost an octave higher.
For the longest time, because of the material he loves and sings professionally, he would drive his voice such that it would reach it’s climax at the E4/F4 notes. The feeling of singing baritone is what he was locked into, and that’s the aesthetic quality he was trying to maintain. Trying to shift material higher in his voice would lead to tension and unease, because of his internal sensibilities about how his voice should sound/feel.
But earlier this year he had an aural epiphany. Something switched in what he was hearing in other singers. He suddenly REALLY tuned into what a tenor voice sounded like vs his (previous) baritone sensibilities. Within a month, we could track his material several keys higher with none of the previous issues.
Remember, his range hadn’t changed. All the notes were already available because of the range extension we’d done in exercises. The issue was he could not access them with ease, primarily because of his internal sensibility about how his instrument should be driven. As soon as that internal compass shifted, we could access and leverage all that good vocal function we’d bedded in.
It’s as much ear training as it is vocal training
All of this is trainable in every voice. Baritones that are wanting to sing tenor can be trained to do this, and altos wanting to sing soprano can do this also… but it doesn’t solely lie in “give a singer extra range“.
Good vocal technique is the first thing I’m trying to instil in clients. But after technique starts to bed in, it becomes how to access that new available range. We need to slowly adjust and inform their sensibility of how their instrument should be driven in order to inhabit and enjoy that new function. This means what we are not just building the instrument, we are learning to play it also. With finesse, and also learn how it SHOULD sound.
If this is something you’d like to unlock and discover for yourself, then please do book in for a session with me via my booking form. I’d love to start work with you.