Preparing singers for careers in music

Patricia Feltmann,

Singing instructor

Tip of the Month

(Note: this article is aimed at the female voice, sorry guys!  It won’t hurt you to try it, but it probably won’t have the same effect.)

Many of you who have a naturally heavy lean (chest voice) have had great success in expanding the top of your range in your contemporary (lean) voice with our top down exercises, but some of you are still resisting the exercises!

Yes, they are a bit silly sounding sometimes, but wow, you should hear the difference in the sound of singers when they consistently use them.  I hear improved tone and pitch from greater relaxation and less pushing, less fatigue, more comfort.  It’s great!  In addition, I’m hearing singers use that idea to find that in-between sound, that’s not quite classical, but not full lean either that works so well with some pop songs and other styles as well. 

Let’s review how to do it:

Think of a “Valley Girl”, an overly prissy young woman.  She speaks very high.  Now imagine her calling to her friends across the cafeteria at school.  “Hi, girls!”  Now try just saying “hi”, like that, but start in a high voice and then slide down to a low voice.  So it’s a siren from top to bottom.  Make sure you are sounding more like talking high than singing.  Then do a siren from the top to the bottom and back up again, staying in that somewhat lighter sound of the “Valley Girl”.

The big idea is that there needs to be a small change in the voice to reach the highest notes, but not so big of a change that you sound classical.  (Some call that voice your head voice or falsetto.)  I want you to stay in your lean voice (some would call that your chest voice), but it needs to lighten up or you’ll get stuck, or tense, or sing flat.  We still want a contemporary sound, but to get high, you’ll need to change gears into your “Valley Girl” voice.

In your song, just before you get to the phrase with the high notes in it, stop the CD, or have your accompanist wait for you while you take a breath, then do a high to middle siren and then sing your phrase. Make sure the siren begins much higher than the high notes in your song and slide down to the beginning note of the phrase.  It works best if you don’t breathe again after the siren, just go right into the phrase.  Do that several times until you can easily reach the notes.

The next step is to take a longer than normal time to breathe and only imagine what that siren felt like.  That will get you into the “Valley Girl” mode without having to actually do the siren.  Then sing the phrase.  Next, simply shorten the time you take before the phrase until you can sing it up to tempo.  If you find you still don’t have time to “change gears”, you may have to begin your change on the previous phrase, or maybe even the beginning of that section of music, even if it begins lower.

Remember, sometimes a “valley phrase” before the high note can be the culprit, but that’s another article all-together!

Date: 12/10/07