# How to get my voice to hit the higher note?



## arts

I practice my voice every day and I run into many challenges, but the main one for me is I have a hard time hitting high notes. When I try to get my voice louder on the high notes, my voice cracks, ut: and my body gets stiff. When I am recording my next singing video now and I am running into the same challenges. Please give me some suggestions for me to hit higher notes?

The following video is me singing "On My Own" from "Less Mis". You will see what I am taking about. I am desperate. Please *HELP*!!! :






Thank you so much.
Elena House


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## Sofronitsky

There aren't really any tricks. I know this sounds silly, but most of the people in our choir say that if you kind of flex your bottom while you hit the note it will come out alright. Maybe it will work for you, I don't even want to try it.

On the long term note, which is what you should be aiming for, singing a scale with notes at the end a little out of your range is a good idea. Sing this scale often, every day, and you should see progress as your vocal chords develop. 

You seem like a pretty dedicated musician! I hope you are successful.


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## Meaghan

When I am in my voice lessons, my teacher plays warm-up exercises on the piano and repeats the same sequence of notes higher and higher with me singing along. This is when I am able to hit my highest notes with no problem, and it's because I can't see the piano and don't know what notes I'm singing. If I'm thinking, "Oh God, here comes that E...*" I tense up and it doesn't come out. But if I don't think about it coming, I just relax and sing like I always do and it comes out. Do you have someone who can play warm-ups for you? There are also CDs that do this. The one I use is "Winning Warms-Ups." Also, make sure you're not pushing from your chest (if that makes any sense) when you sing high notes; even when you're singing Broadway and want to belt, high notes are more prone to cracking if you make them too weighty. And make sure the back of your throat is very open.

Good luck! 

*I'm an alto who hasn't been taking lessons that long, so E's are scary.


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## TresPicos

Meaghan said:


> If I'm thinking, "Oh God, here comes that E...*" I tense up and it doesn't come out. But if I don't think about it coming, I just relax and sing like I always do and it comes out.


I once turned the score upside down to get rid of that psychological "Oh God, here comes that E" (or in my case A) effect, and it worked. I didn't tense up, and instead I sang it like it was a much lower note, without the strain, which made things easier. Then, I could turn the score right again, but keep with that new way of singing the high notes.


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## Lukecash12

Your body gets stiff, huh? Well, that definitely sounds like stress to me. You need other things to concentrate on than stress, and it's been my experience that these are some of the best ways to widen your range:

1. Practice breathing with a sharp intake, for extended periods of time.
2. Regularly go over the bumble bee exercise in every key and range you are comfortable with (do me re fa me sol fa la sol ti la do ti re do, C major example: C E D F E G F A G B A C B E C), producing a firm push with your diaphragm for each note. Make the air come right from your gut, enough so for you to see and feel your belly distend at the beginning of each note.
3. Just get rid of that habit (that I'm guessing you have), that makes you tilt your head up and scrunch your forehead when you sing a higher note. If you consciously work against that habit every time you sing, it will go away in short order.
4. Round out the shape of your mouth a bit and sing the vowel of the note closer to an oh or uh, without altogether changing whatever vowel it is that you are singing. The reason for this technique is that the less nasal you are, the less difficulty you will have with your range.
5. If you are more concerned with tone, diction, vibrato, phrasing, dynamics, and everything else that concerns a singer, then you are less concerned with hitting the note. Think more of how it is that you sing a high note (diaphragm pressure, less nasal), rather than whether or not you are going to sing that high note.


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## Bix

I very much concur with Lukecash12.

Exercise your range regularly and don't spend the bars previous to the high note stressing about it as most of what you sing before it might present badly because you are building up to a high note. Often when this happens people will sing most of the parts before a note without the skills Luke mentions in part five of his post just to get a perfect high note - imagine hearing 'O mio babino caro' and the clearest part is one high note and the rest is just rubbish (not that you will be).

Best wishes - B


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## vishonly

Hi Elena, 
You have good voice , But I think you need to more practice, I have been learning Indian classical vocals. And it helped me a lot to strengthen my voice like hitting high notes and also singing at very low notes. I think your voice becomes bit nasal at higher notes. In indian classical music, when we practice ( called as Riyaz ) we don't hit the higher note unless we are comfortable with the note previous to it. So this way we move forward one by one and eventually we become comfortable at higher notes.


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## kv466

I like your singing as well, although I am sorry I can not share my tricks because I just do them and don't think of it...I do something in my gut to let it all out and one thing I've noticed I do when I hit a particularly high note is that I tend to stand on my tippie toes and up into the mic...nonetheless, these are probably just bodily reactions I have because I get so into music and performing; still, it works for me.

Oh, and I'd never sing sitting down unless I were just messing around.


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## Barelytenor

vishonly said:


> Hi Elena,
> You have good voice , But I think you need to more practice, I have been learning Indian classical vocals. And it helped me a lot to strengthen my voice like hitting high notes and also singing at very low notes. I think your voice becomes bit nasal at higher notes. In indian classical music, when we practice ( called as Riyaz ) we don't hit the higher note unless we are comfortable with the note previous to it. So this way we move forward one by one and eventually we become comfortable at higher notes.


Try to find more "air space" and you will be able to hit those high notes without strain. Here's one way. Imagine that your instrument is open above your head and air moves all through the top of your head, through your front and back abdomen, through your tushy. Your head is like an air vent on an air conditioner, all little air openings. And this is especially important: Open your mouth and run your finger around your teeth, and feel the space between your teeth and your gums. Feel the air move in there. Feel the air around your back teeth. This is how an opera singer sings with that feel like an "O" regardless of what vowel they are singing. You do NOT have to sound like an opera singer, but practice finding all this extra air space. Those top notes, way above your head, are always there. You don't change the air space or your neck position to sing them. Now, once you are comfortable with all that extra air, try singing some vocalises to stretch to those high notes, while, most importantly, keeping your instrument in that same, open position.

This one is pretty advanced, but it's the one I use most. Starting on C major chord going up, CDEF*G* (down)FEDC (up)CDEFG*A*(down)GFEDC (up) CDEFGABCDEF(down, on a G7 major chord/dominant seventh chord)DBGFD(now below where you started and back up)ABC. In other words, you sing to the 5 interval and back down, then up to 5-6 and back down, then up all the way past the octave to the 4th interval above, then you come back down on the (G7/dominant) chord but you add the ABC at the very bottom to the end of the run. Then move up a half-step, and do it again! The top works those high notes, but it is just as important to keep your instrument in the same place when you go down to those lowest ABC/678 notes.

One more tip: When singing an ascending scale, imagine that it is descending. It makes it easier if you have trouble with high notes. If you have trouble with low notes, sing those descending scales but imagine that they are ascending, and support them in that way. Same principle.

I hope this helps a bit.


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## Barelytenor

Barelytenor said:


> Try to find more "air space" and you will be able to hit those high notes without strain. Here's one way. Imagine that your instrument is open above your head and air moves all through the top of your head, through your front and back abdomen, through your tushy. Your head is like an air vent on an air conditioner, all little air openings. And this is especially important: Open your mouth and run your finger around your teeth, and feel the space between your teeth and your gums. Feel the air move in there. Feel the air around your back teeth. This is how an opera singer sings with that feel like an "O" regardless of what vowel they are singing. You do NOT have to sound like an opera singer, but practice finding all this extra air space. Those top notes, way above your head, are always there. You don't change the air space or your neck position to sing them. Now, once you are comfortable with all that extra air, try singing some vocalises to stretch to those high notes, while, most importantly, keeping your instrument in that same, open position.
> 
> This one is pretty advanced, but it's the one I use most. Starting on C major chord going up, CDEF*G* (down)FEDC (up)CDEFG*A*(down)GFEDC (up) CDEFGABCDEF(down, on a G7 major chord/dominant seventh chord)DBGFD(now below where you started and back up)ABC. In other words, you sing to the 5 interval and back down, then up to 5-6 and back down, then up all the way past the octave to the 4th interval above, then you come back down on the (G7/dominant) chord but you add the ABC at the very bottom to the end of the run. Then move up a half-step, and do it again! The top works those high notes, but it is just as important to keep your instrument in the same place when you go down to those lowest ABC/678 notes.
> 
> One more tip: When singing an ascending scale, imagine that it is descending. It makes it easier if you have trouble with high notes. If you have trouble with low notes, sing those descending scales but imagine that they are ascending, and support them in that way. Same principle.
> 
> I hope this helps a bit.


Oh, regarding the above. You sing that long scale on a nice round "ah," in eighth notes. And for your voice I would probably start on the G below middle C and then go up by half steps, rather than beginning on a C. If you do the whole scale you are covering an octave and a minor sixth. Good luck!


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## Krummhorn

To add, as we sing higher notes, our volume gets louder ... naturally ... because the higher notes in our respective ranges are much easier to sing, therefore, we really don't need to 'force' a louder sound as it will naturally happen.


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## Lukecash12

Krummhorn said:


> To add, as we sing higher notes, our volume gets louder ... naturally ... because the higher notes in our respective ranges are much easier to sing, therefore, we really don't need to 'force' a louder sound as it will naturally happen.


Right. A big part of mastering the use of your voice is distinguishing how it feels to sing a note and how that note sounds, if you understand what I mean.


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## suniil

It may sound funny, but the root cause of the issue you face is your age. Though not sure, you must be in the second phase of girls changing voices. One day you may have extended range, but on the very next day you will have a limited range. 

Don't try to reach any notes that you feel uncomfortable. But in general you can improve / broaden the range by correct posture (now it is slightly collapsed in that video) and sing the note on breath!


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## flylooper

Watching your video I noticed that you don't _seem_ to be breathing from your diaphragm. Are you? When you breathe I could see your upper body was pulling in the air, when what I should see is you lower abdomen pulling the air.

Are you getting private voice lessons?


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## rjoy

Try working on breath control. Check out this master class starting at 8 min.s (you can just skip to there if you want.)





Everything in your voice responds to your body. If you tense with the musical tension (as many ppl do without noticing) you're voice will gain tension as well. The more you can remain relaxed with an openness to allow your resonators to be accessed (this gives your voice volume without needing to "push") the better off you'll be.

A few things to work on might include posture, keeping your rib cage open, breathing from you diaphragm and not allowing your head to move up as you move toward a high note. Try practicing in front of a mirror so that you can watch your self.

**I agree with flylooper that voice lessons are something to consider. Famous musicians from Rock stars to Opera stars travel with their teachers.


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