My first voice lesson was short and to the point.  I was twelve, singing in the church choir next to the aging love child of Gandalf and Opera Man.  We were (drum roll) the tenor section! It was a small church.

 “How do I sing the high notes?”

       

This Yoda of tenors squinted his eyes, leaned down, and in a deliberate voice said:

“Open wider.  Push harder.”

Great advice, I thought.  I tried it...it worked...the note was finally mine!  I had just graduated from Belting 101. 

Fast forward five years, I’m singing lead in a few bands, singing background vocals in a few professional bands.  By this point, I had surpassed the Grandmaster himself to procure the coveted Black Belt of Belting.  My mouth opened in direct proportion to the height of the note.  Here’s your high A, ladies and gentlemen...and you’re right, my tonsils are looking a bit swollen this evening.

I could be forgiven for being so naive.  I was a young, awkward teenage boy trying to impress girls with the only pipes I had..and sadly, they weren’t on my arms.  I had bought into the myth that in singing, more means more.  Need more sound?  Work harder.  Can’t hit the high notes?  Open up wide and say, “AAHHHH!!!”  There’s no problem in the world that blunt force trauma can’t solve.

But then Luther Vandross crushed my paradigm.  Good singing is refusing to help the pitch...and Luther was doing just that.  He could sing any pitch in his impressive range, quiet, medium, or loud.  The same high notes that I was barking out, he could float on them effortlessly.  Vocal Gandalf never told me about this.

Ever gotten to that place in your voice as you sing up a scale where you feel that something has to change.  You can’t just keep singing in your bottom voice, at least not with the easy volume you’ve enjoyed thus far.  You’ve arrived at a crossroads, a transitional point in your voice.

You have three options:

 

#1  FLIP:  Let it crack, break, pop into that really light voice sometimes called falsetto.  

Pros: it releases the pressure (all of it) off your voice.  You can effortlessly sing higher.

Cons: Elmo called, and he wants his voice back. This is glorified yodeling...singing in two voices, the bottom voice you speak in and the one Mickey Mouse prefers.  While falsetto can sometimes be a beautiful vocal special effect, it is a very limited way to sing, especially when at the climax of a song.

#2 PULL:  Refuse so adamantly to flip into falsetto that you widen your mouth, push harder, and use every ounce of volume to pull up to the note.

Pros:  you aren’t singing in two voices.

Cons: well then again, maybe you are.  The audience just saw you go from singing with ease on the bottom to passing a watermelon on the top.  What did you tell them by doing this?  “I can sing higher, but it’s really difficult...and I’m not very good at it.”

#3 MIX:  Learn how to blend your bottom voice and top voice together so that you transition from the bottom register (called “chest voice”) into the middle register.  It’s like shifting gears in a car - you need to do it to drive faster, but no one need be jarred by the gear change.

Pros: sounds like one voice.  You notice the transition internally, but the audience doesn’t notice a change in volume, tone, or effort.  It feels effortless, so there’s no need to lose your voice for your art.

Cons: none if you do it correctly.  No one ever said, “Come on, you look too relaxed singing that.  Strain a bit more!” 

Whatever you do, don’t take voice lessons from your choir neighbors...especially if they look like Gandalf and teach like Yoda.

                                    

- Spencer Welch
*Used with permission