5 High Note Hacks For Singers

What do you think about high note hacks? I think it is pretty easy, all it takes is mastering how to do it right.

Singing high notes refreshes, it brings comfort and can bring life to a dying day. Yes! Humans cannot but appreciate sweet melodies. If you sing well, you are a step higher in this magical field. Your mind is wide opened, and you add to the beauty of the world. You’re always preparing heartwarming messages that thrill and excite your listeners.

But singing is more than mixing works and lines. Your voice is one of the most important things to care about as a musician. Many love singing high notes, but the task of getting their tone to this level is usually fruitless in most cases. Well, if that has been the problem you have been facing for years, I promise this will help ease that problem.

Singing high notes is not rocket science, but it becomes tough if you cannot understand the simple requirements. Singing high notes has a lot to do with efficient resonance, balance, and frequency. The high notes focus solely on fast frequency of vibration in your vocal cord. So, pushing and straining your voice to hit high frequency will yield little success and slow you down instead. So, let’s explore five of the best high note hacks that will make you sing like a pro.

Read: Singing Tips For Beginners

Hack 1: Vowel Shaping

One of the most effective techniques that will help you meet your goal of singing high notes is vowel shaping. As a singer, you have your accent, and this often influences the way you pronounce words while singing. Some accents like the American and Italian accents make singing vowel a little bit easy. But for some other accents, the concept of vowel shaping might be a little bit tasking. One big task many singers face is shaping vowels with tongue, instead of doing this with their thick accent.

Do you notice that some singers effortlessly get rid of their thick speaking accent when they sing? This is the effect of vowel shaping. Since singing and speaking look related but very different, the ability to master the difference will result in you shaping your vowels better.

A straightforward way to start with vowel shaping is you simply alternating between an EE and an AH sound. Try this, and you will notice it sounds like EE-YAH-EE-YAH. Did you notice that your tongue was slightly raised at the back while pronouncing the EE sound? Did you also notice that some part of your tongue featured a lowered and concave shape while uttering the AH sound? Note the differences and apply them while singing; it will help you attain high notes effortlessly.

There are three main vowels shapes in singing that you must know, they include;

The EE- With the tongue up at the back

The AH- With the tongue low and concave

The OO- With the tongue back in the throat and lips forward.

These vowel shapes, when understood well, will help you with your goal of vowel shaping. Apply them regularly when singing to improve your vowel output.

Hack 2: Resonance Space

Having understood the concept of vowel shaping, another thing to ponder on is your high range. There are three main elements vowels carry while singing. The shape of your tongue, the aperture of your mouth, and the resonant space. Wondering what resonance space is right?

Resonance space is simply the way you manipulate while singing and how you allow your high and fast frequency to vibrate easily, so that singing on higher notes become a little bit easier without having to strain your voice.

To do this, sing the shaped AH vowel up toward your first vocal break. Try to push or send your vowels towards the back of your head instead of forward, and if you allow the character of the vowel to slightly change to more of an OH sound that is switching from AH to OH, then you will realize that your vocal break disappears instantly. So, you can now sing moderately high with an AH but with slight OH character. This happens as a result of the resonant space.

To form appropriate resonant space, it is best to learn how to alter each vowel character instead of learning how to pronounce them. This is an essential fundamental trick to singing higher notes without straining your voice. Patience to understand this switching is necessary.

Hack 3: Balanced Onsets

Balanced onset is the third of our high note hacks. Vocal onset is the onset of your resonance; that is the way and pattern you start to sing. Although your voice can balance in numerous ways (leading to varied onsets), you should be concerned more about your voice balanced onset. Balanced onset is when vocal fold closure and airflow meet at the same moment and result in creating an instant, and zero strain resonance.

If you release air before you achieve closure, this results in a breathy or aspirate onset. But with a balanced onset, you will easily initiate resonance while you are singing. And strains created by imbalanced onset like aspirate or glottal will help you achieve your high range. You may need to pay special attention to your vocal onset if you are presently pushing and straining your voice.

Read: Best Trombone Mouthpiece for Jazz

Hack 4: Support is Essential

The importance of support cannot be overstated. But what is support? “Support” in music is the balancing of airflow and air pressure while singing. To further explain this, a tone that is supported will balance airflow and air pressure. An unsupported tone, on the other hand, will have less of airflow. Every other branch of singing entails balance, in the same way, support involves balance. So, you will not want to inhale too much air while singing.

Contrary to popular opinion that “support is only connected to chest voice,” commanding falsetto, a great middle-range voice, and a good chest voice are all dependent on support. Most singers believe that the extent to which they can extend their chest determines support, this is in fact, very far from the truth. So, if you find yourself often pushing your chest out in the name of support, then you might need to learn how to differentiate these two fundamentals of music.

Hack 5: Compression

Without the first four high note hacks, achieving this might be tough as it is an advanced step. Compression is aimed at allowing a connection between your chest and your head voice, and it may first look like pushing or pulling your chest forward. When you get this, you will then be able to sing higher notes without having to strain your voice.  Compression is more of the way you support your voice, and this often requires air pressure that is consistent and limited airflow when singing. One last thing to do is to locate your Supraglottis and make the perfect differentiation between the glottal onset, pushing, and strong compression. Yes! You now have the five essential hacks to attain high note without stressing.

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