Tips & Tricks

Welcome to our singing tips and tricks! Here, you’ll find a growing and delightful collection of resources designed to help you along your musical journey. If you have any tidbits to share, email Sara with the info and she’ll add it.

Reaching and Singing the High Notes

To keep your larynx open for high notes, focus on maintaining a stable, relaxed position rather than letting it rise.  You can achieve this by supporting your breath from the diaphragm, consciously creating a “yawn-like” feeling, keeping your jaw and tongue relaxed, and ensuring your overall posture is open and supported.  These techniques prevent tension in the neck and throat, allowing for better airflow and resonance.

Key Techniques:

Use diaphramic breathing:  Support your voice with breath from the diaphragm, not your throat.  Lack of airflow is a primary cause of tension, making you strain to push sound out. (added note from Dawn… use up all your air before your next breath)

Adopt a relaxed posture:  Maintain an open and supportive posture.  Good posture provides a stable base for your breathing and vocal production.

Relax your jaw and tongue:  Keep your jaw loose and your tongue from pushing back against your throat.  Exercises like feeling a “yawning” sensation and pointing the tongue tip down can help.

Create a “yawn-like” feeling:  Think of a slight “yawn” sound as you approach high notes.  This encourages a slightly higher soft palate and a more open throat.

Maintain vowel shapes: Keep a consistent, open oval shape with your mouth for vowels, as this helps keep the larynx down. (Dawn note: Remember Sue’s eeee to ooooh exercise that brings the voice forward)

Avoid “chasing” the note:  Don’t tense your throat and neck muscles to physically pull the sound higher.  Instead, let the sound come from a relaxed, supported body.

Vocalize with “Ooh”:  Use the “ooh” vowel for vocal sirens as it naturally encourages a more relaxed and open vocal chord position, especially for high notes.

Aging Voices – What To Expect And What You Can Do About It

Excuse the instructor plugging her product but she has a ton of free videos on her YouTube channel