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Introduction 0:00
Hitting high notes with Head Voice (falsetto) 03:45
Vocal Siren for males 4:25
Vocal Siren for females 5:10
1.5 Octave "ooh" for males 6:25
1.5 Octave "ooh" for females 7:25
1.5 Octave "Wee" for males 8:00
1.5 Octave "Wee" for females 8:45
Octave down "ooh" for males 10:00
Octave down "ooh" for females 10:40
Octave down "Wee" for males 11:45
Octave down "Wee" for females 12:25
Hitting high notes with Chest Voice (Belting) 13:00
Octave Repeat "Bae" for males 14:30
Octave Repeat "Bae" for females 14:50
Octave Repeat "Nae" for males 15:30
Octave Repeat "Nae" for females 15:45
Octave Repeat "Gug" for males 16:30
Octave Repeat "Gug" for females 16:55
Octave Repeat "Bah" for males 17:35
Octave Repeat "Bah" for females 18:00
Octave Repeat "Mah" for males 18:30
Octave Repeat "Mah" for females 18:50
Hitting high notes with Mixed Voice 19:30
1.5 Octave Lip Trill for males 21:00
1.5 Octave Lip Trill for females 22:30
1.5 Octave Ng for males 23:20
1.5 Octave Ng for females 24:25
1.5 Octave "Gee" for males 24:50
1.5 Octave "Gee" for females 25:40
1.5 Octave "Nay" for males 26:20
1.5 Octave "Nay" for females 26:50
1.5 Octave "Nae" for males 27:50
1.5 Octave "Nae" for females 28:20
Learning to sing high notes is one of the biggest goals of new students to my studio.
I'm so glad that in contemporary music, we're seeing tons of singers who are hitting lots of high notes.
It almost seems like it's a singing competition about who can sing the highest note!
But I can tell you from personal experience, that it doesn't matter how high you can sing unless those notes sound good and are comfortable.
So today, I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about 1) where high notes come from, 2) the different ways you can hit high notes and 3) exercises for each of these vocal modes.
Let's get started.
There are a lot of misconceptions about where high notes come from.
But there's no big secret, all singing and high notes come from vocal cords (or vocal folds) that are stretched.
By stretching the vocal folds, the cords naturally thin and create a higher pitch, similar to a string on a guitar.
The thinner the string, the faster it will vibrate and the higher note you will get.
Now that you understand where high notes come from, let's talk about the different modes for hitting high notes.
In my experience, there are 3 main modes for hitting high notes:
1) Hitting high notes with head voice (aka Falsetto)
2) Hitting high notes with chest voice (aka Belting) and...
3) Hitting high notes with a mix or blend of the chest voice and head voice (aka Mixed Voice).
When you're hitting high notes with head voice, you're basically allowing the vocal folds to stretch out to hit the high note, but the cords are a bit thin.
Since the cords are thin, you hear a bit of breath leaking through the vocal cords. This breathiness is responsible for the "fluty" quality you hear in the "falsetto" voice.
When you're singing high notes with your chest voice, you're basically taking the thick cords of your chest voice register and stretching and pushing more air in order to hit higher notes.
Since the cords are so thick, you hear a big brassy resonant sound, usually accompanied by some straining noise.
The 3rd way of hitting high notes is with a mix of your chest voice and head voice registers. Since the cords are stretched as in head voice, but with the requisite thickness of your chest voice you get an amazing combination of a high note with a powerful sound.
Singing these high notes with a mix is definitely my recommended method of getting to those notes for a couple reasons.
1) When you're singing in falsetto, you have very little control over your voice and...
2) When you're belting those high notes, you're usually straining.
By blending the chest voice and the head voice registers together, you allow for an even sound on those high notes that make them sound effortless.
After all, making those high notes sound good and powerful is the whole point.
In the video, I cover several exercises for hitting high notes with a mix.
They include singing lip trills, semi-occlusive "ng" consonants, "Gees", the Bratty "Nay" exercise and the "Mum" exercise.
While all of these exercises can help you learn to sing with a mix, I have found these five exercises to be the most powerful.