Every singer wants to hit better high notes – right? There’s a lot of wisdom in vocal technique to help you do this and today’s article reveals a few of the most helpful ones that have turned around singers voices the fastest.
Before we go over these tips, I want to let you know about my Vocal Freedom Circle. This is a 3-month LIVE online program that is designed to teach you my proven vocal method that can help you achieve your best voice ever!
Want to learn more? Click here to learn how this program can help you master your vocal technique with just 20 minutes of practice per day.
Here are my 5 Quick Tips to Sing Better High Notes
1. Build Your Vocal Strength
In order to hit better high notes, you need to strengthen your voice. A weak voice will have trouble hitting high notes or sustaining them. Build your vocal strength by practicing vocal technique exercises 4-5x per week for a minimum of 30 min, max of 60. You can start with our Singers Gift Warmups that help to open, strengthen, warm up your voice and expand your range. It’s the most important thing to do if you want to hit better high notes first
2. Open Your Mouth More When You Sing
Most people don’t realize that if you just open your mouth more when you sing instead of gripping your jaw or throat muscles so hard, you’ll have more sound and it will flow out easier. It’s a quick trick that works well.
3. Point Your Chin Down
Because high notes are placed higher in a singer’s instrument, the mistake is often made to reach up. While we want the soft palate in the upper back of the mouth to arch up, we don’t want the tongue or especially the chin to lift. Keeping your chin pointed down on high notes will help you reach them with more ease and power.
4. Hold Your Jaw Open
It’s common to close the jaw a bit to reach higher notes, but be careful not to close too much as you can cut off your tone, power and volume. Holding your jaw open until the close of the word (sing on the vowel not the consonant) will give you more volume and power.The best way to do this is to practice voice building exercises.
5. Press the Back of Your Tongue Down
Singers often complain about their high notes sounding too thin or harsh. This is because as you sing higher your throat tends to close, and your vocal muscles get pushed upward making for a thinner, harsher sound. One of several solutions is to press your tongue down in the back of your throat to “anchor” the note.
First, practice the feeling of the tongue dropping in order to use it during singing. Hold your jaw open, keep the tip of the tongue glued to the inside of the lower lip and say “Kah” without moving your jaw. The tongue will reach up to the roof of your mouth (soft palate area) on the “k” and drop down on the “ah”. Practice this to get better control of the tongue. Then when singing high notes try using the technique! Don’t expect the tongue to cooperate instantly, it takes some practice, but some of you will notice an immediate improvement. The tighter the tongue is the more difficult this will be. But practicing this over time will result in stronger, more “anchored” high notes.
Bonus Tips:
- Hydration: Hydrate. Water, green vegetable juices, brothy soups, fresh salads are all proven to increase hydration. Your voice can’t function well without water, especially when it comes to high notes. Dehydration causes dryness, a bumpy break area, loss of high notes, cracking, breaking and early vocal fatigue. Drink 8 glasses of water a day along with the aforementioned juice, broth and vegetables to increase hydration that will help to improve high notes.
- Craft: Practice vocal technique for 20 minutes a day to expand your range and improve your high notes. Grab a set of my Singers Gift Warmups below for an excellent way to get your voice in shape.
- Mindset: Improve your confidence. Work your craft and stay positive.
There is more to singing high notes than we can get to in this article, but we included the most important techniques that can help. We have a great vocal workshop coming up to dive even deeper into up-leveling your voice and hitting those ‘money-notes’ you hear on big records…
To get there even faster, check out my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups rated the best vocal warmups on the planet by many singers and are used by Grammy winners! Experience our transformative vocal warmups to warm up, eliminate vocal tension and free your voice. Comes with 17 vocal warmups on audio and video + cooldowns to condition your voice post-performance.