Need tips on avoiding breaks in voice

Hey guys, recently I've decided that I wanted to start singing because its something I enjoy and like to do (when no ones around haha). I've noticed that when I try to sing higher that my voice breaks and doesn't transition thoroughly. When I try to smoothen it out, my voice gets weaker.

Here's me singing a portion of Sweat Pea by Amos Lee

http://picosong.com/wSah/

I also feel kinda monotonish/vibrate-ish while singing

Is there any way to strengthen my voice?

those points in your voice are known as a passagio, and they occur in every voice. practice 5 note scales around them, switching which scale degree the passagio note is. also do 5th and octave slides (such as sliding from D3 to D4 for an octave, or C4-G5 for a 5th). you don't have to use a lot of power at first, just get used to going through the note without cracking

also, you don't appear to be supporting very well at all. When you breathe, think outwards, not upwards. Expand your ribcage, and keep your stomach out, thinking of the air you'reholding in your stomach as an upside down balloon, and you want to let as little air out as possible. Don't collapse your stomach while you sing, this will help you to support.

Someone may very well correct me, as I'm no professional....just my personal thoughts

Around your break, the most important thing to remember is to relax the throat and tongue as to allow your larynx to tilt forward correctly in place to pull the vocal cords according to pitch. Most often, when people pull chest, the front of the larynx is going up as opposed to the back of the larynx raising to pull the cords.

Don't push too much with your support as this is sending pressure on your vocal cords. Release your voice as in a sigh to find balance between not enough and too much breath support. Good luck!

Yes, I agree with this. Most of my singing problems were gone in short order when I worked with a voice teacher who cured me of "pulling chest" with a hiked front larynx.

In addition, he gave me a couple of interesting exercises to smooth out the connection, which I still use to this day.

First is a "witch's cackle", recommended to strengthen the middle to upper register. Basically, you cackle like a witch using a sound that might seem like falsetto, but more compressed. This strengthens the pharyngeal or "middle muscle". It's supposed to sound harsh and ugly, like The Wicked Witch of the West.

To bridge the connection, he recommended a "heeeeeeeeyaaaaaaaaw" sounding exercise, where you start on a comfortable "witch's cackle" note with a "heee" sound, and without stopping, try to SLOWLY slide down to a chest note an octave lower, moving to the "yyyyaaaaaawwww" sound as you do. The trick is, do this WITHOUT a noticeable break in your voice, just a smooth slide from the upper note to the lower, sliding from pharyngeal to chest. Also, to,get it to work, you will probably have to start very quietly, and there will some trial and error.

I hope,this is useful.

Speaking of witches cackle, i always though that oiselle looks like a witch. A hat and broom and she'd have the perfect halloween costume.

NOTE: I don't mean any kind of disrespect. Just that whenever I see oiselle's photo, I imagine her wearing a witches hat.

Thank you all for the helpful information! Don't know much about octaves, notes and what not but i'll do my research