Vocal Advice

I’m a 41 year-old soprano.  I have been a soprano all my life. Recently, I joined the alto section of the church choir because the Alto section is very weak. After a few weeks, I have started to feel throat pain when I sing.  I also get hoarse after singing low for a while.  Is there such as thing as singing too low?   Can you strain your voice singing below your range?

Answer: Very simply the answer is YES - there is such a thing as singing too low and Yes, you can strain your voice by singing in a range that is uncomfortable to sustain for long periods.  Don’t do it.  Strain from singing too high is the more common occurence.  But all the same the answer is yes - you can - and are straining your voice if you have throat pain after singing “alto” in choir.  Requiring your voice to continue to sing too low will ultimately damage the voice.

Every voice (singer) not only has the range within which notes can be reached - but there is also an area where stamina, beauty, comfort occurs with ease.  As a soprano you need to sing in the soprano tessitura to preserve your voice.  Regardless of the needs of the choir - you should be singing soprano - and only join the altos–if absolutely necessary–in passages that are “high” for them.  You’d still be helping the alto section - but in a manageable part of your range.

Thank you for asking this question - I’m sure many others will benefit from this information too.

A word to the wise.  Best wishes.

I’m a 46 year-old woman.

ANSWER: You ask a good and important question - and one that causes me sadness to answer.

There is a lot of research available that documents the damage to the voice resulting from smoking, and it is not encouraging. The thing is, smoking damages so much more than the larynx - that we really need to include “the whole instrument” - the body that has been affected, perhaps especially the respiratory system.

But, in answer to your question, to the extent that you have experienced “damage” to the voice from smoking [whether it be: a) the lowering of the range, b) the slight grating feeling and grating sound in the tone, c) dry cords etc.] the voice will have been altered permanently.  Even if smoking has stopped entirely, while the use of the voice can be regained, it will have lost its original range, flexibility, beauty and power.  The range especially will have been lowered and flexibility curtailed.  This is something with which every singer-smoker has to reckon.  You will likely need to find song literature that is pitched lower than you sang prior to smoking.  I know this is not a very encouraging message.  I’m sorry.  I’m sure this will be sobering to all who read it.

Thanks for being brave enough to ask!

Best wishes.

I’m a 25 year-old female singer.  I enjoy singing, but don’t have many opportunities to sing. I’m sometimes asked to help out at church, but I don’t have a piano or anything to help me practice. What can I do on my own, without any other instrument to help keep up my voice? It seems to be getting weaker and weaker, and the less I use it, the less control I have.

ANSWER:  Wow!  That’s a tough one, but I think I may be able to suggest some things to help you!

Here in the U.S. we have resources that are available that can help you and many others like you that don’t necessarily have musical instruments at home with which to practice.  Obviously, a piano - even a spinet would be a great boon to anyone in your situation - and used ones can be purchased for $2,000 and less.  Inexpensive and much more versatile are a host of electronic keyboards - some with all 88 piano keys.  You can, of course, spend a good deal more than 2K on one of these, but there are plenty to choose from that cost less.

However, your first choice at a much lesser cost is to purchase books of vocal music in the genres that you enjoy and in the voice-setting appropriate for you (high, medium or low) that have accompaniment CDs with them that you can play on your CD player or computer.  Since you’re interested in vocal music appropriate for the church I’d suggest that you look at some of the following useful web sites and browse their vocal collections.  Initially you probably should choose titles with which you are familiar listed in books and collections that have the CD or mp3 accompaniments attached.  By the way, since I am familiar with your voice, I’d suggest that you choose music for “medium voice” or “mezzo-soprano.” Here are some sites to get you started.

http://www.halleonard.com/vocal.jsp

http://www.halleonard.com/search_items.jsp?keywords=Sacred+Songs+for+medium+voice&catcode=09&type=product&location=Vocal

http://www.musicminusone.com/MainPages/Instrument.asp?catID=24

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?item=5154199&cart=34418066342878919&cm_re=289.1.4-_-Results+Item-_-See+More+Info

http://www.jwpepper.com/10060605.item

http://www.jwpepper.com/8057969.item

http://www.jwpepper.com/3297287.item

http://www.jwpepper.com/10017930.item (Sanctuary Praise by Benjamin Harlan)

http://www.jwpepper.com/10044443.item (Praise and Worship w/ CD-Rom)

http://www.jwpepper.com/10005762.item

Here’s hoping you will find some useful material within one or more of these sites.

I do want to offer you a couple of caveats.  You will still need to use your music-reading skills to learn the music.  If some of your choices require learning music from scratch, ask one of your pianist friends to record the tune of the song on a writable CD as it is written in your music book.  Then you can learn it before attempting to sing it with the accompaniment CD.

The other caution is that while CDs are useful in providing an accompaniment that you can hear - CDs also lock you into their own tempo and interpretive quirks.  When you perform, if possible do so with a competent accompanist who will set you free to interpret the song literature in the way and at the tempo you best sing it.  Find that person and practice together - you’ll both be glad you did.

The sites I’ve offered above are just a beginning.  I have no doubt that you will likely be able to find other resource sites on the internet that other singers in your situation will want to know about.  When you discover them please feel free to include those findings in my comment section of this post.

When you’re not actively “practicing” but just want to sing for enjoyment - add to your library more CDs of singers whose voice-type is similar to yours - who sing well in any genre - and sing along with them - just don’t feel you have to “imitate” them.

Best wishes

I’m a 25 year-old woman.  I’m just trying to get back into singing on a regular basis, but my voice gets very tired and weak and hoarse-sounding after about 20-30 minutes.  So, if I practice before I actually perform, I am already tired, and my voice sounds tired and not in control.

Good questions Lynette!  There are two questions and so I’ll answer in two parts.

Answer:  Part of the answer is captured in your question.  One of the keys to getting back into vocal shape is by starting a little at a time – EVERY DAY.  Since your voice gets tired and weak, even hoarse-sounding after about 20-30 minutes, I’d suggest that you

a) start your warm ups and singing in the part of your voice’s range where you find singing most easy, and

b) break up even your warm up period into smaller increments, say 10 – 15 minutes at a time with at least 30 minutes before resuming vocal use.

You see, what you’re aiming at ultimately is something like: being able to sing within your range, comfortably for a long time – say even 60 – 90 minutes – with just a few short breaks thrown in.  To be able to do that – like other muscle groups – there has to be stamina training (repetitions) and strength training (extending the range and the strength of the voice).  Until you have achieved your goals, any time you are called upon to perform – let your vocal warm up be brief and well in advance of the performance time so that your voice has had a chance to rest before singing.  Do this any time you’re planning to perform.  On the day of performance warm up just sufficiently that you know “things are working fine” then let your voice continue to rest for an hour or more until performance time.  In this way you’ll have saved your energy and concentration for the time that you need it.

When you get back into daily practicing and you find that there are days when you want to expend your energy and make demands on your voice (strength and range work) – treat that day as a day in the gym when you’re “pumping iron.” The end of practice on this day may make your voice feel a bit ‘weighty’ even ‘gratey’ for a short period of time.  The next day vocalize easily without any pushing – give your voice a break – allow the voice a day to recover and ‘heal’ itself.  When your voice gets tired and sounds ‘gratey’ – it’s needing a rest.  Over time – with daily practice, those periods of rest will get shorter and your strength and stamina will increase.

Having said that, however, if the feeling of hoarseness that ends one day’s practice continues to the next day – then there is the possibility that you are misusing your voice or making too-strenuous demands on it and either need to allow yourself to sing more easily (lightly) - or have a trustworthy voice teacher listen to you.  The voice is typically very resilient.  When the voice is “in shape” it is often the case that the singer will tire before the voice will.

By the way, allow one little anecdote: I am aware of a tendency in me that I should warn you about - in case it could be true of you.  When I’m out of shape - and then make a decision to “get back in shape” and start playing tennis or running or something else - it’s fairly typical of me to over-do it all at the beginning - and then be so sore or so bruised or injured that I lose hope of ever resuming training and getting back in shape.  The same is possible for us singers.  It is possible in the effort to “get back into singing” to overdo the practicing at the beginning.  Start slow - and allow your voice to tell you when you need to stop - and then do.  In time the stamina will return, and you’ll enjoy singing more for having started slowly.

I trust you find success on your road back to singing.  All best wishes.

I’m 26.  I have been singing for a very long time and I am a vocal performance major in school.  I am classified as a soprano, however, I have not been able to sing above an E-flat6 without some kind of vocal strain.  Some days my D6’s sound better than others.  However, I remember practicing a D6 and C6 and the next day I was super sore.  In my voice lessons I usually vocalize up to a D6 or at least C6 and I am never sore and B-flat5 is a breeze.  I have a very low voice as well.  I can sing all the way down to a G3 sometimes lower. I feel like I need to be able to own an e6 to make it in the soprano world of operatic literature but I am so tired of trying to hit those higher notes.  I read Renee Fleming’s book and found out she did not have high notes either.  This gives me hope because she could not hit above the staff at all.  However, I don’t understand how to approach these high notes (especially the whistle register) I mean how can you tell when you have hit the top. They say true sopranos can’t hit low notes but Fleming has low and high notes as well as Mariah.  I think I might have just not learned enough technique yet but I don’t want to keep trying for these notes if I am never going to get them.

1. Answer: At 26 your voice is close to reaching its full physical maturity.  Inasmuch as you have had years of training but you are finding that the notes above “high C” are a strain, or cause soreness after practicing them - then your body is telling you that your best range is lower - as you say.  Vocalizing briefly up to D or E above high C is one thing.  Being able to use those notes in song literature is another.  But before I wipe the idea of the notes in “whistle register” out completely let me say just a word or two about that.

2. Not all women have the whistle register available to them.  So, you would not be unusual if you found “hanging around” up there to be a real source of strain.

3. Typically, sopranos who do move into the whistle register when vocalizing do so just to touch a note momentarily and descend again.  The sound is not big - it is small.  Don’t try to make a big sound in whistle register.  Sing these notes ‘by feel,’ listening only to tune the notes.  The vocal apparatus is at its most tense, and the vowel posture is what I call in “the apple bite” position; that is, the jaw and lips are at their most open.  Imagine fitting an entire apple into your mouth.  Well, of course you wouldn’t - and you also couldn’t.  But in the attempt you’d open your mouth - in every direction - as widely as possible.  This is typically necessary for notes in the whistle register.

4. Just because a singer doesn’t have notes such as E above high C doesn’t mean that she is not a soprano.  Only a very small percentage of literature requires notes higher than C6 - and most soprano literature doesn’t even require that.  The question I would ask is - in what part of your range are you most comfortable lingering?  If you are comfortable with the preponderance of soprano literature that fits your voice type in which the range ascends up to B-flat, B or C6 - then know that you are a soprano; just not one to be singing Mozart’s Queen of the Night.

5. On the other hand, if you find literature that uses a lower tessitura - songs where the preponderance of notes hang in the mid or lower part of your range - more comfortable to sing, then it might be wise for you to explore mezzo-soprano literature.  Mezzo-sopranos typically have a very wide range - but stamina for remaining high they’d agree is not theirs.  Mezzos can “zing” high Cs - but they don’t want to stay up there.  If this reflects where you are, you’d be wise to choose literature that is more comfortable on your voice.  You’ll save your voice in the process as well as give yourself a longer and happier singing career.

Based on what you’ve told me, I think you fit one of the scenarios described in my answer - paragraphs 4 or 5.

I hope this has been helpful.  Best wishes to you.

I am a 24-year-old man, and I still sound like a lady….no one knows why or what the deal is…it’s getting really bothersome…I sang for about 8 years including high school but I don’t sing anymore.  I was a soprano in 8th grade, then an alto and I graduated high school as an alto.   If I were to categorize myself now would it be alto or countertenor?  I just want to know if I should go to a voice specialist or something.  I don’t know but if you have an answer that would be swell.  Thanks.

Answer: I’d like to put your mind at ease immediately.  What you’ve described makes you a REAL countertenor - not a ‘baritone’ who is actually a “falsettist” - and there are a fair number of those, especially in Britain.  Our phone conversation corroborates this assessment - you are a countertenor.  You’re the kind of singer that all-male groups seek to acquire.  Being a real countertenor is relatively rare - and nothing of which to be ashamed.  It is often the case that a countertenor’s voice is stronger and has more carrying power and has a warmer quality than his female counterpart.

In a mixed choir you would appropriately be singing alto.  In my blog’s subject navigation bar under “Voice Classification” I briefly mention this in answer to the question: “A two octave singing range starting from the F three ledger lines below the staff would be called what?”

I empathize with the feelings you wrestle with - because such a rare high male voice may attract unwanted attention, or worse, embarrassment because of joking.  You’re just rare - not abnormal.  As long as all the other parts of your body are functioning normally - you have nothing to worry about; and, as long as in all other respects you are a normal male human being - those who meet you can get used to your high voice too, and just appreciate that that feature is something that makes you distinctive.   There’s no need to see a medical doctor.

Best wishes.

I am either a bass or baritone – or somewhere in between and have sung in choirs for several years.  I love to sing, but in the more advanced music, I find myself “reaching” to get high notes or sometimes the other way, reaching for low notes that are not comfortably in my range.

Answer: You ask a perfectly legitimate question.  This is a subject that is important to a young man of your age.  The answer to your question is: The range is broadened GRADUALLY.

You have had the opportunity to sing in various choral ensembles already and will continue to do so.  Since you have found challenges singing some of the higher notes in your voice part, or some of the lowest notes – or both, it is natural for you to desire to develop your vocal range such that you can negotiate the extremes of range comfortably.  Let me encourage you first by telling you that a somewhat limited range is not unusual in a young man your age.  Every person develops at his or her own rate.  Young singers your age often find themselves with a limited range.  This will likely not remain so indefinitely, as long as you continue to sing regularly in the days, weeks and years to come.

If you will begin a regimen – a daily routine – vocalizing every day for ten to thirty minutes – in addition to your choral ensemble singing, and devote that time to warming up your voice and extending your range incrementally, you will find that over time your range will grow in one or both directions, up and down.

Elsewhere on my blog I have an article specifically about warming up the voice.  This applies directly to your question.  Part of the purpose of vocal warm-ups is to extend the range.  Read it and follow those directions.

The only thing that I would add to that article is that, at nineteen, while you can expect your voice to develop – you ought not to expect overnight results.  Your voice [the larynx itself] is in a developmental and maturing phase.  So, warming up the voice daily, and learning good singing habits are the keys to good vocal development.  Your vocal range will grow over the next three or four years.

Please find and use specific warm-ups as most benefit you.  Just as a reminder:  you should begin with “small-range” figures at first in a comfortably low part of your range.  Then with each repetition ascend by a half-step until you reach your upper vocal limit.  At this point you should “turn the corner” and descend by half-steps to your lowest limit.  Subsequent vocal figures can be increasingly larger and cover the span of a 5th or 6th and then an octave, etc.  Over time you will discover that one end of your range – or both – will find a new limit.  Your vocal range will be growing.  Let this be a matter of discovery – rather than attempting to force either higher or lower notes so as to “become” some predetermined voice classification.  I have left off a lot of information that deals with the question of extending the range – but as I say, more of that is covered elsewhere on my blog.

As always, I feel strongly, that if you desire to pursue singing seriously, your best plan is to study with a reliable voice teacher.  Best wishes to you.