This concept is helping me sing higher (release)

Author

Ivan Lu
August 29, 2025

This concept is helping me sing higher (release)

One concept that has been incredibly helpful for myself and my students in singing or at least vocalising higher, is this concept of RELEASE.

Now I know other teachers may use these terms with a different meaning or in different contexts.

Today I’m going to share with you my interpretation of this, hopefully in a way that makes sense to you.

And I’ll also share with you how to explore this in a simple exercise at the end. So make sure to watch the whole video.

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.

Now let’s lay down some ground work.

This is going to be important as we get deeper into the episode, especially application.

Have you ever wondered how our voice actually sings higher?

So higher pitches happen, when certain muscles activate and stretch and thin the vocal folds.

Kind of like a rubber band.

And so this applies more tension to the folds, and this allows them to vibrate faster.

Now there are also other muscles involved to bring the vocal folds together.

The more they engage the more the vocal folds connect into each other.

Now that we’ve laid down the groundwork.

Let’s talk about the typical problem with range.

Now typically when someone is singing, and they haven’t found correct technique.

A common sensation is this BUILD up of pressure and tension as we go up in range.

We can use this to our advantage.

Because what this means is if we can get our technique correct and stretch the voice.

Instead of that pressure building up, it might stay more even.

Or you might even feel a sense of RELEASE in the pressure or the voice gets more SQUISHY as you go up higher.

But there’s a problem…

We can feel release in 2 ways.

This comes back to the ground work we laid earlier.

We can ease up some of the pressure on the voice by either

  1. Stretching the cords (which is the correct adjustment) or

  2. We let the cords come apart! (the incorrect adjustment)

Or in reality, it’s some combination of both (flipping to falsetto)

So in a sense, a fundamental question we need to resolve in our mind is

How does RELEASE from stretch feel different from release from our cords coming apart?

If we can distinguish these two sensations in our own mind, we have a higher chance of singing higher.

So let’s see if we can explore this difference in an exercise together.

Now the exercise we’re going to use today is an OCTAVE arpeggio on NAY

And it sounds a bit like this

[See video for demonstration]

Now frankly any sound can work.

Step 1

Lt’s highlight the feeling of RELEASING pressure by losing closure.

And we’ll choose somewhere in the middle of our range.

See if you can flip into falsetto, or at the very least go a bit softer or breathier.

This can work.

And notice what this feels like?

Does this feel like there’s less pressure in the voice? The quality of the voice changes.

If so great! Because in

Step 2

Let’s see if we can find another way to release the pressure, that’s not this.

Now I’m going to set some more stricter confines here.

I want you go through the same pattern, but now you need to maintain that SPEAKING closure the ENTIRE way.

You cannot change this. Not more, not less.

If it changes, it’s because of a lack of control.

Within these confines, see if you can still find some sort of release in PRESSURE without sacrificing the closure like this

[See video for demonstration]

If you can. This is a higher chance, that you’re engaging more STRETCH.

For me, I feel a sense of release in the pressure of the voice. And the voice gets squishier, but not from loosing closure, but rather stretching through.

Now this can be tricky initially and you might not get it on the first try.

Now realistically, you’ll feel a bit of release from both initially.

But that’s okay, slowly see if you can separate those 2 feelings in your mind. You will get more refined with it.

Now even you get this exercise, some of you might notice it doesn’t immediately to singing.

This doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It just means you don’t have the control to apply this idea UNIVERSALLY to singing.

If that’s the case I want you to check out episode 222 which will show you how to build from here.

Anyway! I hope this answers your question.

If you found this episode useful, please share or give it 5 star wherever you’re listening from. This really helps spread the word and means the world to me. If you’d like to study with me, links are down in description. Take care!

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