It is definitely possible to improve your range with training! We are using different muscles for low and high notes, and when we do exercises, we strengthen those muscles.

However, your unique anatomy might mean that you are better at singing low notes, or that you can extend your range higher than most. But we are talking about a few notes, not full octaves. With proper training, you will be able to sing both low and high notes and sing most songs you want!

As we grow older, our range can become smaller, especially for women after menopause. But it’s still worth it training your voice!

Thank you so much for your question! First of all, let us just assure you that you’re completely normal. Many people feel this way when they start out singing! Here are some tips on how to get around it and start your singing journey:

1. Acknowledge that singing is just making sound. We can make all kinds of sounds with our voice. Goof around and make animal sounds, slide up and down on an O, or hum a simple melody, pretending you’re singing to a baby. Playing around with your voice helps you let go of judgment and just realise that you have a pretty cool instrument that can do lots of things!

2. Get used to hearing your voice by recording yourself and playing it back. The reason why we often don’t like our voices is simply because our brains aren’t used to hearing them like that.

3. Listen to our podcast episode titled What is Good Singing? It will give you new perspectives that can help you feel different about your voice.

4. Book a singing lesson! Even a single lesson is often enough to help new singers come out of their shell and feel more at ease. We’ve seen it plenty of times! As a member, you get 15% off with the code IPB6B2J.

Read this blog post for more tips!

Think about it, does anything we drink actually touch the vocal folds? No. The vocal folds are actually shut tight when we swallow food or drink so that it doesn’t end up in our lungs. We also have the false vocal folds and the epiglottis above them that also close everything off. Food and drink go through the oesophagus, not the trachea. Otherwise we choke. This means that even if hydration is important and it’s possible that some teas have anti-inflammatory qualities, it’s very unlikely that it will make a difference until it’s gone through your digestive system. So even if sipping on ginger tea with lemon and honey makes us feel good, scientists say that it’s just the placebo effect. That being said, if you think something is working, who cares if it’s the placebo effect!

Make sure to have a look at our voice care course for more tips!

I haven’t heard your voice, so I will give a general answer. But please bear in mind that it’s always best to resolve any issues you may have in your chest voice before you work on extending your high range. Send in a file for feedback so we can give you specific tips!

That being said, long scales are often best, because they both allow you to go high but also keep that connection to the bottom so that you train your voice to move between registers. Avoid harsh consonants that are shaped at the back of the throat, such as G and K, and opt for consonants such as F and S, that will encourage air flow (we don’t want to overuse air for our high notes, leading to pushing to hard, and if we let out air by using an airy consonant, we are fixing that automatically.) Vowels such as Ee and O will make it easier to find your headvoice, whereas A and Eh might make it harder.

This is an excellent question. Of course, we do need air to sing, and we need to have good enough air control so that we don’t lose all the air at once. We also want to inhale in a silent way without gasping for air. That being said, breathing has been celebrated as the key to good singing for hundreds of years, long before the science was in place to actually explain how singing works.

However, if we just pause for a second and think about it, you will realise that just because you breathe well, it doesn’t mean that you can sing. Otherwise, all yogis and meditation geeks out there would be amazing singers!

The myth about breathing being the one and only thing that makes or breaks a good singer came from classical singing teachers such as Lamperti, who emphasized breathing because they were trying to recreate what famous singers were doing. Of course, they couldn’t see what was going on at the vocal fold level, nor did they know about what resonance does for the air pressure above the vocal folds (supra-glottal pressure). They just noticed how the singers were breathing and assumed that was the key to good singing. Rumour has it that Lamperti even wrote an apology, explaining that he realised that actually, breathing well doesn’t automatically mean singing well. But by then, everyone had already agreed that breathing was the only thing that mattered.

Nowadays, we know that the voice consists of many different parts working together. And using too much air or engaging your core muscles too much can do more damage than good.

You can learn more about this in the How the Voice Works course.

This is an important question. Belting feels pretty effortless when it’s done right. The volume should come from vocal cord depth and resonance, not from using a lot of air. It should definitely not hurt or feel uncomfortable!

An easy way to check if you are shouting or belting is to look at the volume. If you can’t turn the volume down (diminuendo) while singing, you are shouting. If you’re belting, on the other hand, you will have control of how loud you’re singing and be able to pull it back.

I think we all have experienced this before. But there are some things we can do to make our voices feel better in the morning.

Firstly, it’s important that you drink plenty of water, because your voice is likely dehydrated when you wake up. Drink water right before you go to bed, and keep a water bottle on your bedside table so you can have a couple of sips if you wake up during the night. Also drink water right after you wake up in the morning, and keep sipping during the day.

Make sure to do a gentle vocal warm up, and don’t push your voice too hard.

Another reason why you might experience a tired voice in the morning is silent reflux. Some signs of this is also bad morning breath and a sore throat. Try not to eat late at night and avoid fatty and spicy foods in the evening.

Make sure to check out the course How to Take Care of Your Voice!

That’s great that you want to work on your lower register. Many people only focus on singing high notes, but it’s super important to build your chest voice to have a strong foundation!

When working on our low notes, it’s important not to “scoop down” as if we’re trying to reach something far below us. In fact, it is better that we allow a bit of vocal fry, you know that little creaky sound that your voice does when it’s tired. The vocal fry helps train the muscles responsible for closing the vocal folds, so it can also help if you have a breathy voice, which is pretty common in people who need to train their chest voice.

Using the right sounds can also make it easier to train your chest voice. Do short scales on harsh sounds such a Ga or Ka. And try to use your speaking voice as much as possible, instead of putting on your beautiful singing voice. Let it sound nasty!

Check out the exercises in the Train Your Lower Voice section of the Exercise Toolbox!

This is a much trickier question than you might think! The answer depends on whom you ask, as people use these words differently.

Some people would use the words head voice and falsetto interchangably. Others would say that falsetto means head voice, but for men. And others claim that no, falsetto is the very highest register that is even higher than the head voice.

Many modern vocal coaches don’t use the word falsetto because it causes a lot of confusion. We prefer to categorize your lower register as chest voice, your high, hooty notes as head voice, and the middle as your mix.

In its most technical sense, falsetto is when the vocal folds are as stretched out as they can be, and only the inner margin of each vocal fold is in contact as it vibrates. This means that the sound becomes very breathy.

Check out the YouTube shorts below to see some examples:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/anDfel1NpkE

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DoKwMDwCBj0

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/g_-ONzrQPV0