“why doesn’t my singing feel free?”

Author

Ivan Lu
December 28, 2023

“why doesn’t my singing feel free?”

Why doesn’t your singing feel free?

You know you’re singing that song, but it always feels like you’re pushing up against a wall.

And worse yet, sometimes your voice cracks and flips and does all kinds of funny things.

Let’s talk about what is happening here today. Also stay right til the end because I’ll also share with you a broad strategy that can help you get to the end of this. And I promise even if you’re completely starting off. This will make sense to you.

Real quick! For those of you who don’t know me. My name is Ivan, I love making music and also teaching singing to students all around the world. On this newsletter my goal is to make learning to sing simple. If that’s up your lane, consider subscribing. If you want to improve your voice faster, check out the links down below for ways to work with me

If you want to inspire our next episode! Drop in the comments below what you want me to talk about next.

To begin, let’s talk about why this even happens?

From experience, singing that tends to feel restrictive stems from 2 things.

The first one is an ENGAGEMENT of the wrong muscles.

We tend to call this “tension” in your singing.

An obvious example of this is when a singer is singing. And you can really see the muscles around their neck working hard.

Those are some obvious ones but, there are also ones that are less obvious.

For example, as you are singing maybe your tongue or jaw feels tight.

These are also signs that tension is there.

Now I’m using the term “wrong” sparingly. Because there’s nothing wrong with clenching our jaws. In fact it’s really important because need those movements to chew.

But in the context of singing, it’s wrong because it is NOT necessary to make a good sound with your singing. You don’t need to engage them.

In fact, keeping them engaged will make it much harder. Imagine clenching your jaw for a 3-4 minutes straight. Of course it’s going to make it hard. But for some of you, that’s exactly how it can feel like.

Now the second thing that makes your singing feel restrictive. And I would argue that it is even more important than the first.

Lack of engagement of the RIGHT muscles.

And I find that most beginner students don’t take the time to really think about this. We think that if I just keep my throat relaxed (aka disengaging the wrong muscles)

Then those high notes will come.

For some it can, but for a lot of students who reach out to me after YEARS of trying this, we need to actually LEARN how to do this.

And so what are the RIGHT muscles?

I would say it’s

  1. The muscles involves in stretching the vocal folds.

Have you ever taken the time to consider how does our voice actually change pitch?

Like what is the fundamental mechanism that allows us to go from different notes.

If you’re not sure and you struggle with the high notes. You’re in big trouble. What this means is that every-time you go up to sing higher. You’re guessing.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

This mechanism is the stretching of the vocal folds, which allow them to get longer AND thin out which in turns creates faster VIBRATIONS (higher pitched sound)

  1. The muscles involves in bringing the vocal folds together

Because if you just stretched the cords and blew air. There probably would be nothing but air or a weak sound.

This is why we need to bring the cords together. Because as they come together and resist airflow. This is what allows us to control “power” in our sound.

And so singing with right muscle is some degree of engaging the right amount of stretching of the vocals folds to allow us to “hit” the note. But at the same time bring the vocal folds together enough to sing with the power that we want.

Alright Ivan. You’ve just blasted me with a whole lot of information. You’ve mention my singing isn’t free because I’m engaging the wrong muscles and not the right ones.

So what is the solution?

Now to caveat, this is a process. It’s not something that happens overnight. Even for myself, I’m constantly working on this

But here’s a general strategy.

Take the time to learn what it feels like to engage the right muscles first instead of getting rid of tension. There are certain sensations/cues you can pick up on which get clearer over time.

Why?

Because often by engaging the right muscles, we naturally disengage the wrong muscles. We simply don’t NEED them anymore.

What does it feel like to you to stretch the cords?

What does it feel like to bring them together just enough as well.

I talk a lot about this in episode 129, 131, 132. So they can be a good next one to watch after this episode.

If you still notice a lot of unnecessary tension, from there you can start to learn how to disengage the wrong muscles. But take your time with this. There is no rush.

Anyway! I hope this episode was useful. If it was, please support this channel through all the usual social media stuff. Like, comment/subscribe.

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Last but not least, if you’ve always wanted to improve your singing faster and with less confusion. Remember you don’t have to do this on your own.

I’ve got ways to work with me in the description down below. Make sure to check it out. Apart from that, my name is Ivan, I'm your voice teacher, and I'll see you for our weekly tutorials every single Thursday or Friday.

Take care.

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