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6 Answers 6




  • Breathe properly from the bottom of your diaphragm.




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That's a pretty bang on answer but I would worry about the point "use as few muscle groups as possible." being misunderstood, because of course, you want to use your diaphragm effectively. Some would say you want to use your whole body to support the note. A great singing warm up is the stretch your whole body and take breaths to stretch out your upper and lower diaphragms. Try it! You'll feel alive and limber when you start singing. But this comment definitely nailed the main point. Which is not to strain your muscles –  user10893 Jul 26 '14 at 14:32
@user10893 Indeed; by "as few muscle groups as possible", I really mean "don't add tension in muscles that aren't required". –  NReilingh Jul 26 '14 at 17:14


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So I had a lot of trouble with this myself, and the problem that I faced is that Through ears of not being knowledgeable of how i produce tone, I was trying to form notes improperly. Notes are produced by the speed of vibrations in the air. and there are two basic ways this is done in music.

lets look at other instruments to explain. There are string instrument, like a guitar, violin, or piano, which produce notes but vibrating strings at different speeds, and using a solid UNCHANGING acoustic chamber, to amplify those vibrations. This is How the voice should work.

However, woodwinds produce sound differently, they have a constant vibration of the read, and this vibration resonates in the chamber. A larger chamber vibrates more slowly than a smaller chamber, and so by unplugging holes the chamber is reduced in size, making higher notes.

(brass instruments use a little bit of both, by utilizing overtones, however, brass is a lot more on the Chamber changing side of things then the vibration speed side.)

Well the muscles that move your larynx up and down are used very often (when you swallow, it will pull up, then down, or when you yawn it pulls it down.) Whereas, the muscles that control the vocal chords are more finite, and harder to consciously manipulate. Therefor many untrained singers will attempt to produce higher pitched notes in a way that feels more familier to them, I.E. raising the larynx, shortening the resonating chamber.

but the proper way to produce higher pitched notes is more similar to going up the frets on a guitar, as you pinch your vocal chords together it shortens the strings which produces faster vibrations however, when you play higher notes on a guitar, you do not change the size of the acoustic chamber, do you? no, a combination of both of these techniques would be very hard to control the proper pitch.

So when you raise the larynx, you are ultimately trying to make notes by doing both techniques, and furthermore, when you pull up the larynx, it puts strain on the vocal chords, so it just creates a lot more variables than should be involved in producing sound, and also strains the voice. that is why it is important to keep the larynx stationary when singing, and to only change pitch by learning to control the vocal chords.

Now how to do this? yes this is a very good question. You said you do lips rolls up and down scales, Now, do not stop that, lip rolls can be very good at improving the voice, by helping you transition your resonance from your chest to your head, and even mixing the two, but first you must master the larynx stability. what you should do for this is before you sing, give a big Yawn, and have your finger on your Adams apple, fell how comfortable that is? you are lowering your larynx with no strain whatsoever. Now sing up and down a scale using the sound "Mum" so "Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum". and make sure you keep a Doppy "UH" sound in the Mum, especially as you go higher. Keep a finger on the larynx the entire time, and if it starts to rise, check yourself, see what is causing that, and you will probably realize there is tension somewhere. That tension is in the digastic muscle in your neck. Try focusing on relaxing that muscle.

Once you master keeping the larynx down. it is time for those lip rolls. They help you learn how to transition where you let the sound resonate. Lower notes will resonate in your chest, and higher notes resonate in the back of the mouth, and nasal cavity. when the larynx is stationary, you will start to feel and become more noticeable of this resonance. If you are having trouble connecting your chest to your head voice smothly, try doing the "NNNNNNg" sound up and down a scale, like the end of the word "sing. No Vowel. This will make your soft pallet drop, and you should feel it rest on the back of your tounge, closing off the mouth. This allows you to more easily transfer rosonace from the chest through the throat to the back of the mount up into the nasal cavity.

By knowing how the voice works, anyone can start singing well!

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You don't need to use your may also use your chest voice in singing, or singing without raising your neck , larynx and head...i am just only 13 years old..and i discover when i read books about how to position your larynx when singing..... it tells me that i should control it...after two days i try those techniques and when i sing high notes like skyscraper i didn't get strain or falsetto voice and i wasn't be able to raise my larynx..i just straightly postioning my larynx..and i didn't raise it.. So here's the techniques....

  1. Breath properly with your chest that makes you comfortable.
  2. Control your larynx
  3. Don't move your larynx upward. The best technique you should Do :

  4. Push your tummy, Don't push it with your hand, push it with your self, like a balloon that was blown up..or like your tummy is full of food ..or like you eat much..or like pregnant..but don't push it much..just like your full...or not hungry anymore...or your finished eating

  5. Don't push your tummy when you are not singing
  6. You should push your tummy firstly then next sing... 7.Control your larynx, Don't raise it upward....
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This has been a problem for me as well. I started taking vocal lessons to correct a "slow wave" (vocal chords vibrating at different rates due to thyroid surgery). Most of what everyone is saying is dead on in terms of not tensing up the neck which restricts airflow and does not help your cause.

The one thing that I will add is that my teacher has me focused on using the pelvic floor, as opposed to the diaphragm, for being the basis of air flow. I think its the same principle, you want to use your core and lower body to do most of the pushing, otherwise you have the issues with the larynx getting squished as your neck muscles contract.

So what am I truly trying to add? Exercise/massage ideas:

  1. Work on laryngeal massaging by pushing down the larynx (gently!) using your thumb and knuckle from your index finger.
  2. Massage the underside of your chin where the hyoid muscle complex is.
  3. Gently hold your hand on your larynx while you practice singing and see when you engage your tongue to tense that area up. I just recently started working on this.

As far as breathing exercises:

  1. Breathing through a stirring straw, which provides resistance
  2. While getting air through the straw, invoke a tone and make sure that your airflow does not decrease. This will take a while to get decent at, so don't give up!
  3. Inhalation - breathing in, in a manner that makes a tone, also is a technique for getting neck and throat muscles to relax.

These are just some of the things that my teacher has me doing. I wish I was better as describing them. Hopefully with this and a little web searching (or other stack exchangers) this will give you some more ideas. Good luck!

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Sorry to be critical but your answer to 'control' the larynx will not accomplish have to manually be aware of the base of your tongue which is connected thru the hyoid bone to the larynx below it....people freak out when they hear this and that's their problem, they probably still don't have control over their larynx to boot, but the point is you must maintain a slight control of lower tongue with larynx to stabilize it....don't really care what your reaction to this is, all I know is that it works and anyone who disagrees is still living in the land of belief, from books and teachers who do not know what they are talking about. There is no other way to stabilize the larynx.

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