A Simple Guide to Singing High Notes

Something inside of the human spirit is fascinated with high notes. It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, or any of the like - someone singing a high tenor B with grace and elegance will completely astound and floor even the most average person. "But how in the world do they sing that high and well?", one may ask.

There are so many faulty and misleading ideas out in the music world today about finding the elusive upper register. While some have discovered the technique (and yes, it is a technique), the rest of us simply are blind people following other blind people. Most of us are in the dark about how to sing high notes, and whether you are professionally trained or not, everyone desires to impress those around us with the most glorious high note they can possibly sing. Therefore, we attempt incorrectly to sing high notes and ultimately fail. Most people either pull up their chest voice and simply shout as loud as they can to sing higher or break into an airy, toneless falsetto.

So many people have been told that the range you are born with is the range you have. What horrible and misleading news! How can that be so, when, as a child, you can make those high pitched squeals without even thinking about it? Yet somehow as we have grown older, we have forgotten the ways to produce high pitched tones with ease. So, instead of seeking to discover how we used to make those sounds, we believe the lies of the people around us and become comfortable with our miniscule range. But, for those of us who know better than to think that way, techniques are out there that can teach you how to sing high notes with ease!

Firstly, singing high notes IS easy - but you do have to work at it. Don't think for a second that a couple exercises will completely fix your range issues. Hard work truly pays off when it comes to learning how to sing high notes.

Secondly, once you understand that singing high notes IS easy and that it does take hard work, you must invest time into understanding what is taking place when you sing high notes.

Now that you come this far, here we will unfold the technique that enables the latter two points to come true.

The technique that enables you to sing the high notes in your wildest dreams is called Speech Level Singing (SLS). Speech Level Singing is an approach to singing that focuses on the development of the inner muscles of the larynx to control pitch and tone. The keys to speech level singing are a neutral larynx, developed inner larynx muscles and as little tension in the throat area as physically possible¹.

In order to achieve these three things, you must train yourself in the way of speech level singing. Remember, learning how to sing high notes correctly requires good technique and hard work, but the reward is abundant.

One excellent exercise to help develop the inner muscles of your larynx is the place your thumbs up under your chin and apply pressure to your digrastic muscles. The digrastic muscles are the muscles activated in swallowing and are very harmful when attempting to sing high notes². In order to sing high notes freely, you must disengage these muscles from the singing process. Now, after you have placed your thumbs under your chin on the muscles, attempt singing without those muscles tightening up. If they begin to tighten up, apply pressure to them to keep them from tightening up. With those muscles disengaged, your vocal cords are forced to do all the work in producing tone and sound, and therefore you will be training developing those inner muscles of the larynx.

An excellent way to steady your larynx is to repeat the sound "buh" on different scales. This keeps your larynx low and helps steady it as you go up into your range. Don't let your larynx rise as you are doing this exercise. Keep it steady and neutral and you will find high notes popping out of you like never before.

Finally, relax! Tension kills your tone and ability to produce high notes. Sit back, relax, and remember, hard work pays off in the end.

If Speech Level Singing interests you, be sure to check out the websites of Seth Riggs or Brett Manning, top SLS vocal coaches.

1. "The Speech Level Singing Method." Speech Level Singing International
2. "Speech Level Singing." Singing Freedom