🎶 How To Help You Increase Your Vocal Range And Control 🎶

Two days ago I wrote a post on heavy metal music to give you a vocal challenge, in the comments I was asked by @sgtechservices where I would recommend someone start to improve their voice if they aren't a good singer?

I wrote a rather massive response to him and in the process realised I had a post in the making, so here is a more fleshed out response for anyone curious about how to move forward with improving their voice.

Firstly I would like to note that I am not a vocal coach and whilst I have studied music I am not an authority, I am only sharing my own personal methods I have used to train and improve my own voice - if at anytime you feel pain or discomfort attempting any exercises please stop, failure to do so could result in permanent damage to our voice and vocal cords.

As someone who has lost their voice before for many years, it is devastating and very challenging to overcome - I still struggle at times with my voice and know to stop to prevent doing further damage when I feel pain, just be smart with your body and don't push it too far.

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Establish Your Vocal Range:

To improve your vocal range it is first important to know what you're working with, before you start ensure you have warmed up your voice - a simple way to do this is to run through simple scales, doe, ray, me, so, far, la, tee, doe and run up and then back down a few times.

Once your voice is ready to test, I find it easiest to use a keyboard but a guitar (even an online recording) will work as well - find middle C then using your voice try to match the pitch, once hit move up one note (please note during this I don't use sharps or flats until reaching the end of the comfortable range)

Once you have middle C strike the note then match pitch then step up in one note increments, and then continue this process until you hit the higher limit your voice can comfortably produce the note without wavering or faulting.

At the top limits record the note you finished on and then make your back down to middle C, then repeat this process in the opposite direction, again once you hit your limit record the note you landed on - the space between these two notes is your natural vocal range.

There are many uses in learning your range our purpose is to be able to track any improvements to your range, other benefits include knowing what songs and keys your voice is capable of reproducing with little difficulty.

I believe most people have around a one and a half to a two and a half octave range, since damaging my voice I average around three octaves a half extra if my voice is optimal - though at my best I had access to four octaves.

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Improving Pitch:

I believe that anyone can sing and sing well for that matter, all it takes is time, focus and lots of practice - the biggest thing that can let down someone singing is their ability to stay in pitch.

I grew up with and still have a severe hearing impairment, this used to cause me no end of trouble when it came to staying in tune - and given my large range, I found myself moving further and further away from where I should have been.

To help myself learn to control my voice, I would spend hours on my keyboard practicing matching pitch - rather than follow scales this time I would randomly hit different notes and then try to match what I heard.

After time I began to learn how the two sounds differed and if I needed to raise or lower my pitch to match it, some people have perfect pitch but others like me work at it - over time and practice I begin to hear the subtle differences and how to correct my errors.

This can be a boring way to learn, but I found it worked really well for me - I rarely go out of key these days, but the truly awesome thing is now I can tell when I do make a mistake and I know how to fix it.

Ensuring you are hitting the correct note drastically improves how well your voice sounds, that coupled with staying within your vocal range results in an overall pleasant sound.

Working on control is always really important in my view, you may not be able to change the range you have to work with - but you can make the range you have work for you.

What I mean by this, is that some of my favourite songs and singers have a vary limited range but it's what they do within the range they have - that makes them amazing to hear and sing along with.

I spent countless hours just matching pitch with either guitar or piano, I'd run scales do, ray, me, so, far, la, te, do, etc. without accompaniment just up and down and then check that I was still hitting the correct note after a few runs and octave changes.

This is about the tone of the voice making, it sound as nice as it can - whether it be deep and rich or haunting with less focus on vocal gymnastics.

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Stretching Your Vocal Range:

Again ensure your voice is warmed up and ready before starting any exercises, test your range for the day - as this can change over time and in different circumstances.

Starting at middle C again as a guide for the first note and match pitch, then with or without accompaniment you run up five notes and then return to the beginning - then as you are about to start your next run start from the next note D, then continue on in this manner.

Another way of trying to explain this is from C go up C- la, D- la, E- la, F- la, G- la, and then start back down F - la, E - la, D - la, C - la, back to where you started.

Then on the next run up start from the next note D - la, E - la, F - la, G - la, A - la, and then start back down G, - la, F - la, E - la, D - la, and repeat this until you reach the edge of your range.

Once you hit the top end of your range focus on this grouping of five notes, then try to stretch higher and move further up and see how far you can go - again stop if it hurts.

I found this method extremely useful as the run up helps gradually ease you into the next note at the top of the range, the voice is a muscle and needs to be exercised - but also like a muscle it can be strained so please be careful.

You can also use different sounds while practicing these exercises, do, ray, me, so, far, tee, and many other combinations, this will help stretch and exercise the muscles in the mouth and throat.

As you get more control over your voice, you can start to experiment with using the acoustics within your head and mouth - with time you can train yourself to allow your voice into your mouth, but your mouth is held in a specific position which creates or amplifies a high note to sound even higher in pitch.

This method is something I am just discovering myself now and I believe would be unique to each person and the shape of their mouth, throat and head - it's all just acoustics and learning how to replicate them on demand, so again practice.

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To Improve Control:

This one can be tricky depending on ability level, I personally love testing out and challenging my control with a bit of vocal gymnastics.

I believe with practise and with time anyone can achieve great control of their vocal range, once you step outside your range however can be tricky business.

The easiest way I believe to train someone to increase their control is to slow things down, take the timing and breathing issues out of the picture.

Figure out the note sequences of the section you wish to master and with a keyboard (I find easiest) practise the steps between the notes one by one until you master the progression then start to add speed.

As you grow more confident continue to add the speed back until your reach the songs tempo then have at it, this can take time but like any skill out their worth having - it's worth the time taken to master.

I would start with simple songs that stick to a smaller range, work on the technique used to transition from one note to the next - is there a roll to the voice or is it more like stairs where each note is struck individually.

Once you feel you have mastered simple vocal gymnastics, there are plenty of amazing songs out there to practice along with that will help you improve over time.

I would strongly recommend listening to Guy Sebastian's singing in this and most of his songs he showcases the most beautiful ability to perform amazing vocal gymnastics - this is really worth listening to and practicing along with.

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I have always loved music in spite of my severe hearing issues, I struggled a lot with pitch and control and now after many years of focussed practice I feel more confident in my abilities than ever before.

Everyone is capable of singing and singing well, for some people things come naturally for others you have to work at it - this is what I did to work on the shortcomings I found with my voice.

I love to sing songs filled with complicated vocal gymnastics, it's a fun challenge and when you manage to hit all the notes it sounds amazing and makes you feel phenomenal - well at least I do, singing is a massive part of my everyday life.

Music is so powerful, it can control and influence your emotions and has the ability to energize your mind and body - there is something primal about singing (and dancing for that matter) and being able to control your voice and create these effects for others, is unlike anything.

I hope this has helped anyone interested in working on their voice, whether it be control or range I have tried to suggest methods I used and that I found helped me achieve my goals - hopefully this can help you too.

What Methods Have You Used To Improve Your Voice?

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