Do this ONE exercise to smooth out your vocal break and strain.

Author

Ivan Lu
May 09, 2024

Do this ONE exercise to smooth out your vocal break and strain

One of the key fundamentals of developing your voice is learning what it feels like to adjust pitch without any extra things happening.

Many of us have been taught that to sing higher we need to

  1. Push from the belly more

  2. Open your mouth more

  3. Or like you need to modify your vowels somewhat

But ultimately I feel like this can mislead a lot of us and doesn’t get to the root of the problem. Especially if you’ve taken this advice, but you feel like you’re always having to add more “effort” to get to the higher notes. You are most likely adding extra junk that you don’t NEED.

And so what if we could show you today, how it feels like to STRETCH the voice without any of this extra junk.

Well today, I want to share with you a simple exercise and more IMPORTANTLY the principle that you can use to help you isolate this stretch.

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. In 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

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So the exercise I want you to come to today is this

Can I go up and down my range on a PURE OO vowel without anything except the pitch change?

Why?

Personally, I find it for myself and the students I work with. This sound is the easiest one to notice when something is changing. And it also tends to be the easiest to find the correct stretch.

Let’s break it down and I’ll also share some demonstration/cues for you to focus on.

Step 1: We’re just going to find a HOOTY or PURE OO sound with a gentle volume.

[DEMONSTRATE]

Now a couple of cues to look out for. Personally for me,

  1. There’s purity in the sound. Almost a hollowness. I would bounce around my range until I could find it.

  2. Sticking with a gentle volume. It’s not breathy, but it’s not very loud. This is going to make that PUSH very apparent in step 2 and also it’s going to be safer working at these volumes.

Step 2: Once we have this sound, it becomes simple. Can we change pitch without ANYTHING else happening.

[DEMONSTRATE]

Now this can work on any particular scale. I would choose one that makes sense to you. You can even just do simple slides

[DEMONSTRATE]

It’s going to be tricky initially. But the principle here is DON’T CHANGE anything except the pitch. In particular

1) Resist the temptation to get the note out by pushing more volume.

2) Not distort the vowel.

You might even feel these as a little grab in the throat. That’s when you know you’re engaging the wrong muscles.

When you get it right, you’ll find there’s this feeling of stillness in the voice which really allows you notice the feeling of pitch adjustment in your voice.

Some of you who are so used to adding the extra junk might even notice. When you truly don’t push or add extra junk. No sound may come up.

This is FINE. Focus on not adding extra effort/distorting the vowel. This is going to force your brain to figure out another way to get to the note. Which is STRETCH.

Now caveat, I know this may feel like a very insignificant exercise. But by working on these details, you’re training in an independence between the muscles that ADJUST pitch and the ones that add pressure.

Ultimately you can find ways to add connection/weight back in like this

But because it’s built on top of these feeling of pure stretch.

It will feel easier

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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