Vocal Music Advice

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.