Expanding into the higher registers of your voice: head voice, whistle range, and falsetto

For 95% of the people I’ve worked with who are new to singing and want to sing higher, this is one of the easiest things to improve on (like, immediately)!  I often see singers discover up to a whole additional octave or even more in their voices when I take them through this series, as outlined below. The higher range initially feels difficult and scary, but the reason is usually because it’s simply new and different!  We don’t speak in our head voices, and there are very few occasions where we naturally create sound in a high range.  

There ARE some instances though, and I like to use these as a soft introduction to the higher range.

1. Imagine you see a big scary spider (or whatever might freak you out) crawling onto your shoulder.  What sound might you make?  Make that sound.

2. Imagine you’re on a roller coaster, and here comes that huge, steeeeeep drop.  What’s the sound you’ll make?  Make that sound.

3. Remember Elmo?  How does Elmo talk?  Imitate Elmo -  match his pitch. 

4. Make the sound of the sirens on a police car.  

(More example sounds to imitate to take you into a head voice are a witch cackling and wolf howling!)

Now that we’ve started exploring higher sounds, the next step is to begin adding melodic tone, but oh so gently.   We can do these with lip buzzes most easily.  If you can’t do that, do a tongue trill.  If you can’t do lip buzzes or tongue trills, I highly recommend you watch some videos to learn!!!  These techniques are tremendously helpful and useful for singers of all levels.  Now all you have to do is slide your voice from a comfortable note in your range slowly up higher and higher, and then slowly come back down again.  Just like this:

Do this a few times, testing how far you can go.  Chances are, you’re already discovering how much higher you can sing than you realized!  Now do the lip buzz again, but this time go back and forth like the police siren at the top of your range, before sliding back down.

Now there’s one more exercise to bridge these new sounds into singing.  Do the same slides again, from low to high, and back down again, with your mouth open, on the syllable, “ah.”  Like you’re sighing or yawning.

Finally, we add these upper notes to some sung exercises.  

The most important tip as you explore these new notes on sung pitches is to OPEN YOUR MOUTH.  Remember the last exercise we did, where I said to say “ah” like you’re sighing or yawning?  THAT.  How big is your mouth when you yawn?  Make sure it opens that big for your high notes.  Place two fingers on each side of your mouth, on the muscles that connect your jaw together as you imitate a yawn.  Keep your fingers there as you go through the exercise and make sure you feel that same sensation of opening wide (just like the dentist told you to do!).  Watch yourself in the mirror and check for that shape.  

The other big tip I can offer to newbies in their upper ranges, is to use more intense breath energy for the higher notes.  If you’re afraid of these notes, you’re going to squeak them out.  Use a nice fast burst of air to propel those notes out.  It might feel weird initially to hear yourself singing high, but you just have to get used to it!  Add vibrato if possible.  That makes the tone production much easier.  I often tell people to imitate an opera singer during exercises in the high range.  Opera singers know exactly how to hit these notes with optimum technique.  

Now a special note for MEN.  Guys, there is some bad news.  Most men are NOT tenors (high range singers).  Most men on the radio ARE tenors.  That means, if you LOVE how Bruno Mars sings, for example (who doesn’t?!), now matter how much you wish to sing like him, you’ll never come close to his range.  Sorry, it’s just facts.  I don’t know why the tenor range became the popular range for audiences, and some men with lower ranges - hello, Johnny Cash, have managed to break through.  But here’s the GOOD news.  Most men also have a much higher range that they haven’t tapped into yet.  And that’s the falsetto range!  The challenge for men is connecting the falsetto range to the rest of their voices.  But that’s for another lesson.  Today, let’s own the falsetto. 

Your non-singing introductory exercise is simple: “talk like a girl.”  Yup.  Go ahead and make it over the top, stereotype all you want (I won’t tell anyone!) i.e. “Oh my gosh you guys, did you hear what Becky said?  Do you think this lipstick looks good on me” etc.  THAT’S your falsetto.  

Now try singing along in your “imitating a chick” voice with these examples in total falsetto:  

1. Start with short bursts of falsetto, try this moment in Billie Jean by Michael Jackson It’s just “hee!  hoo!”  That’s all there is, try it.

2. Falsetto practice song 1 - let’s start with a low, relaxed, light falsetto with this gem: Just My Imagination by The Temptations 

3. Falsetto practice song 2 - you guessed it, possibly the best know song with falsetto all the way through: Stayin Alive by The Bee Gees. 

4. Falsetto practice song 3 - see how far you get in this falsetto classic: Kiss by Prince.  He brings his falsetto higher and higher, but most of the songs sits right in a fairly comfortable falsetto.  Can you do it? 

Falsetto bonus challenge song - if you’ve gotten through all of this, and want something harder, here’s the next one for you: Sugar by Maroon 5.  There are two factors that make this song challenging.  1) Unlike the other examples, this song switches between full tones and falsetto.  2) These notes are SUPER high.  If you can sing this song, you’re officially a tenor.

You’ve done it: Hello, High Range!