Vocal Range :(

Sigh, I have to type this up again.

Hello, I'm Sean, 17.

I discovered I loved singing about 5 months ago, when I started singing when revising for exams.

Recently I've been wanting to join a band, as lead vocals, sadly I hit a dead end.

As you all probably know, most lead singers can go quite high, when playing around with a keyboard I discovered middle C was close to the highest I can go in chest voice. So I reckon I'm a baritone, what came as a comfort was the fact that you can train yourself to go higher, but not lower, so does that not potentially leave me with the possibility of a large range?

Of course I have another voice, I'm not sure whether it is head voice or falsetto. But I can go mega high, higher than... my sister haha.

This voice sounds kinda girly and weaker in a sense than chest voice.

The main problem is there seems to be a break in between in which an octave is missing, that octave being used a TON in lead singing roles.

Chest voice >>>> break >>>>> headvoice - when I bring the head voice down it goes all hollow and horrible.

So I started looking around to see what I could do to improve.

First I came across 'mixed voice' I tried for awhile at that, but my voice feels like a light switch, up for head, down for chest, no inbetween.

Others said to keep a low layrnx, but when I go high it just chokes me and I can't seem to keep it down - even when 'pretending to yawn'.

Others said just practice and eventually it will increase, but progression has been very slow.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To give an idea when my voice cuts out

0:32 Litterally have to sing an octave down I think.

[video=youtube;zMmQSEaS-w0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMmQSEaS-w0

0:41 Voice breaks out all the time, cant keep the notes that strong either.

[video=youtube;XN4M1dQLzUU]

Please help me, I think I'm going to attempt to join the band this week :/

Those notes are "passaggio notes". It's normal for it to crack. Cracking is actually better than forcing your voice. The passaggio will take time and practice to develop properly. There's no other way around it. You could try getting the band to transpose the song a few steps lower. Sometimes when performing live, bands will change the key.

You've only started singing 5 months ago and you expect to lead a band while having range like a professional singer????

It takes time to develop your voice(i.e years not months). I know those high school years are about the fast life in the limelight.

But you should think about singing as something you'll stick with in the long run.

For the time being, you should get voice lessons if you can.

A voice teacher can teach you proper technique and shape your

voice according to what you'd like to sing.

There are no solutions that'll make you sound like a pro a month from now (or even before this school year ends).

Just daily voice exercises/drills and letting your voice change over time.

Just focus on improving your voice and worry about bands when you get to college.

The better you voice gets before then the better you'll sound live. You will improve

a lot during those first few years of voice lessons. So it's worth it.

There's also a book called "The Complete Vocal Workout" by Roger Kain and it has a heavy focus on rock singing

(even some ultra-low death metal singing). But voice lessons are more important IMHO.

Once you get better, you can read some books on your own and it'll make more sense.

There are a lot of vocal workout CDs/books online.

If you can, try to find a vocal workout you like and practice it daily.

Over time, your voice will change and vocal range will increase, too.

Right now, your vocal muscles might be weak.

A lot of singing has to do with building those vocal muscles (kind of like working out in a gym).

When certain muscles get stronger, your tone and range will change.

But it takes time.

From reading this, I don't think it's your vocal range that's the issue. If you are a baritone or bass or whatever (can you post a clip of yourself singing something? A wide range of things? I assume those 2 clips above are not you singing), and yet can do falsetto or head voice way up high, then your range seems to be pretty impressive.

Basically, if you have a naturally low voice, then it's simply going to be more difficult and less "natural" for you to be able to sing in an adept manner up high. But that's not to say you can't train your voice to do that.

There's already good advice in this thread, and I can't really say much as I've never had singing lessons, but I had about a 1 octave range when I first started singing when I was 12-13 years old. By the time I was 14 I could do over 3 octaves without much trouble. No lessons. Just many hours of "practice" (which for me consisted of singing for hours each day along to my favourite songs and learning from the original singers how to do what they did by listening and imitating), and major motivation to get better and better.

I had never heard of head voice, mixed voice, falsetto, keeping your larynx low, pretending to yawn, and all of that stuff back then. I just listened and kept trying to copy people.

NOWADAYS, I have a good voice, but I do have problems and limitations that I now see I would need voice lessons to overcome. My voice has been trained (by myself) a certain way, and it's not always what I want from it now.

So yeah. If you want to improve slowly, just sing along with stuff, stretch your range by singing songs you currently find difficult, do Youtube vocal exercises relating to mixed voice, record yourself ALL the time to learn exactly what you're doing when you sing certain notes and when you sing a certain way, and just keep at it.

If you want to improve quicker, do all of the above as well as having voice lessons.

The others have already given you good advice, but here is a video that helped me (and still continues to help):

@chamcham cheers for that, I understand that it takes time, I just thought I would see some improvement! But my tone has definitively got better. I don't think I can get singing lessons at the moment, maybe in about half a year when I'm at uni.

@Grace Yeah I will post a clip when I get some alone time in the house, I prefer to sing to songs which are playing so my family doesnt hear me!

Yeah, my range is very wide, but it feels like there is a massive chunk out of the middle, but it could be the fact that head voice sounds different in.. your head than your chest voice...idk

@partlycloudy I've looked into breathing exercises and I don't feel like that's the area thats letting me down, but I can't be sure.

If he's singing way up high in falsetto or an ultra high head voice range, his larynx WILL go up.

Oh. Never mind then, somehow I thought the larynx was not supposed to go up or down regardless of register.

Links to the original artist video with some notes is not terribly helpful for us... can you post something of yourself singing?

Sorry if this is late when you see it, my accounts weird and it means everything I do has to be approved by jack!

Sorry, it's the best I could do atm...

I will be recording The Kill (acoustic) sometime in the next week, but this is all pretty much in my range, so you won't hear me cracking up haha.

Edit: Oop this one didn't need to approved.

I don't think I can get lessons at the moment, perhaps in half a yeah when I'm in uni, by the sounds of things, I've got plenty of time.

I've heard that is a technique to sing high notes, however my larynx is UNCONTROLLABLE haha!

My layrnx goes up, just like in chest voice when I get chocked for going to high. :/

Larynx shouldn't move excessively, the way I understand it. At least not in the chest register.

This voice is less used and less developed.

I joined a band a few years back and it took me a couple of months of hard work to strengthen my mix. I'd say some hundred hours. So just keep singing along to those songs you want to nail and let your voice flip, don't try to pull chest. After some time it all will start to make sense. Also check out stuff mentioned here, my favorite is Jaime Venderas "Raise your voice"

Interesting, the reason why I haven't used my head voice is because it sounds girly, but when people say you can develop it with abit of chest they just mean that the head voice is developed as much as the chest voice.

:S

I mean man, my range would be insane if I could get my head voice to sound like my chest voice, but at the moment it sounds abit like this guy! haha

[video=youtube;xOL5fdysqWY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOL5fdysqWY&feature=related

Or herbert from family guy!

And I still can't bring it down to the cross over.

I just meant when you go up REALLY high, you're using your voice in a different way to how you generally use it lower down in more natural and comfortable ranges, so your larynx has to go up (not DRASTICALLY, and never painfully) in order to reach those really high notes. It should NOT be going up when you're singing lower down, in mixed voice and certainly not in chest voice. Chest voice should be the easiest, most relaxed and natural voice (I think).

My larynx goes down slightly when I sing really high because I pull air from my nasal passage - sounds like a siren blast.

Wow, that's interesting! lol

When I go up higher, my voice feels fairly relaxed, but when I get up to the really high ranges, my larynx just naturally goes up. If I try to keep it lowered, I can't reach those notes.

My larynx goes up as I go higher in each register

Ok, thanks for the clarification, this makes sense.

With all this talk about the larynx, I just want to post some of Brett Manning's videos related to the larynx. For those who don't know, he has a Youtube channel called "SingingSuccess".

OK. I know some people consider Brett Manning "the dark side", but I like his free Youtube videos.

Learn How To Sing - The Science Of Singing

[video=youtube;WxhOllFOJnU]

How Do You Sing - Singing Lessons Part 1 - Lowering The Larynx

[video=youtube;VLYEiRB08B4]

Keeping a Neutral Larynx

[video=youtube;sVDmtcbNUXs]

Learn To Sing - Controlling Your Larynx

[video=youtube;eEmUeyKKD3Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEmUeyKKD3Y

Vocal Tips - Chris Keller Teaches How to Sing Easier

[video=youtube;jz7ZiMOAYmU]

Tension vs. Strain

[video=youtube;cYs13DeNm4A]

Of course, I can't guarantee these videos alone will solve all your problems.

Even if you know why something works, it still takes time to exercise your voice and build muscle memory.

Anyway, good luck.

Bookmarking this page Thanks Cham-master

The three first videos are useless, if you ask me. Yawning doesn't help the least bit unless you're already one step away from the finish line.

The female coach seems to know what the {censored} is about, but she doesn't say how to fix it in practise.

The first three are useless cause it's Brett Manning himself

Bookmarking this page Thanks Cham-master

You're welcome.

I added one last video (Tension vs. Strain) on the first page.

Get Roger Love's book Set your voice free. It really helps with the break. You can also seek vocal lessons form a qualified vocal coach.

It's a matter of changing registers properly. If I sing a note in a pulled chest voice and the same note in (what I consider) middle voice, the chest has a high larynx and the middle has a neutral larynx. If I do the same with middle and head, again high vs low larynx. I can hit notes that are very high for me breathing inwards that I'm yet to figure out how to sing properly. Inwards my larynx is low, to sing normally I'm trying to pull my head voice way above its range and my larynx shoots up.

I've never really found that "yawning" thing to be of any use to me. It's all good to say this is where the larynx should be, but you can't (and shouldn't be trying to) force it to stay down. When you're doing things properly, it will stay down (or more accurately, relatively neutral).