How to sing high without strain - part 1 of 3. I put together a video series for you on how to sing high without strain. There's a couple of different factors in singing high notes and also straining in high notes so I've put this video series together for you in three different parts. Today's video is all about the center most points of the sound, which is the aiming of the air.
If you want to sing high without strain, we have to address the elephant in the room. What kind of things contribute towards vocal straining? Now there are two really big factors. There's the pushing of the air into the mouth. So if I go I'm pushing a lot of air into the mouth. Now that might be fine on a note or two if we want to drop into this into a belt but it becomes problematic when we're trying to go from note to note to note to note we just carry a lot of air pressure upward and that becomes problematic because that air pressure eventually has to release. That's where that massive break comes in. So that's too much air pressure and is the influence of the jaw the tongue or the throat. They will sort of create an obstacle that the air has to work around and sometimes they create too much of an obstacle and it slows the air down so much that it pinches it off. So we're going to talk about both of those things in today's video. So we've got Amy on the air and relaxing those muscles so let's address the very first one which is the aim of the air OK.
Let's just go ahead and observe a nice neutral sigh. So anywhere you wish on any pitch. If I just go yep let's try that together on any note. Now I bet you I met you. You did not think you didn't place the voice before you sighed. No no no. You just let the air tell you where it needed to go. Now that's crucial that's really crucial too high notes. We need to be so still that the air tells us where it needs to go. So that's part one of our work so let's observe that right now. Be still inside. Try a different pitch. Then you can experiment with that all the live long day. And I would be so happy with that and you would notice that you do not have to put the voice anywhere you don't have to place the voice. Just consider that for a moment that there is a profound difference between making something happen and letting something happen. So high notes are the release of the entire mechanism. So it's very important that we let them happen. But it is helpful that we know how to aim that air. So that's the very first when we aim the air naturally by saying the air tells us where it needs to go. The second part is that we have to consciously relax the things that will influence the voice which are the jaw the tongue and the back of the throat. Now what do I mean by influence. I mean that they create an obstacle so much so that the flow can't make it past those areas. So it gets pinched off. This is what that sounds like or yeah we all know what that we all know that feels like what that sounds like. There's too much of an influence from throat the jaw and the tongue. They're just interacting too much.
So we've got to know how to aim the air and relax the voice at the same time. So we do the aiming with the sign. So now let's relax the voices feel what that feels like the best ways the best way for us to do that is to battle the head go ahead and with your head with me and notice in the Boeing how the relationship between the jar and the back of the skull was just changed right. Right. So go come back neutral. And notice how neutral how normal that is. The throw is in a nice semi open position and as we bow the head it becomes narrowed because the relationship of the jaw in the back of the skull. Now we can leverage this. This babbling allows the tongue the jaw and the back of the throat to remain in almost lazy position almost collapsed position. Now it will alleviate that but if you have a strong tendency to use them it's not going to eliminate it entirely. That's where you come in.
So in our babbling we're going to notice how relaxed the jaw is by noticing its influence gravity's influence over it. So can you feel right now in the back of your head. Gravity pulling at your jaw your face throat if you can register the feeling of gravity then I want you to sigh and feel that you can remain still as you say that no past those areas. For example Yeah I can remain still I could actively relax as my air moves past that. Now let's try the moving up from there. Now just as a reminder we're just signed we're not trying to give the note any quality. We're just feeling the air flow now again. I'm just going to sort of free trade I'm gonna step in if that's fine if that feels high to and if you're starting to notice that the tongue and the jaw and the throat are trying to do something to make that note happen then I just want you to get off of it. Know it just touched sort of be around it and just touch it.