Increasing Vocal Range (Chest Voice)

DanTelles

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Sooooo I really need to increase my vocal range, because right now it is horrendous. What are your guy's ideas and techniques for doing this because the way that I do it is too slow. (I get maybe a semi-tone or full-tone every few weeks or so.) Thanks a lot guys. =) Oh my range is a C2 (C 2 octaves below middle C on the piano.) to G4 (G above middle C on the piano.). And I would like to pull my chest voice to Tenor C if at all possible. Before I started working my voice my range was only C3 to C4. =( Any help at all is appreciated! =)
 
Relax, drop you jaw, open your chest breathe deep and sing. Stretching your vocal range can only be done with doing it. If your serious, find a voice coach, but give your body time to adjust. Sing beyond your rage, but don't force it.
 
Relax, drop you jaw, open your chest breathe deep and sing. Stretching your vocal range can only be done with doing it. If your serious, find a voice coach, but give your body time to adjust. Sing beyond your rage, but don't force it.

Well how do I know what my max range is, or if there even is such a thing?
 
You need to be vocalized properly by a teacher who is there and can hear you. What Salukulady said is all correct. How it works is that you stand at the piano while the teacher gives you positive encouragement to do just what she said, and the teacher starts with some arpegios, going higher and higher and higher, and probably higher than you ever thought you could do, and then back down again, lower, and lower, and lower than you ever thought you could do.

This is going to be well nigh impossible to do on your own. You need someone there to guide you on doing what Salukulady said. Otherwise, you'll just be hurting your vocal cords.
 
You need to be vocalized properly by a teacher who is there and can hear you. What Salukulady said is all correct. How it works is that you stand at the piano while the teacher gives you positive encouragement to do just what she said, and the teacher starts with some arpegios, going higher and higher and higher, and probably higher than you ever thought you could do, and then back down again, lower, and lower, and lower than you ever thought you could do.

This is going to be well nigh impossible to do on your own. You need someone there to guide you on doing what Salukulady said. Otherwise, you'll just be hurting your vocal cords.

Well I do play Piano and I have done something with arpegios, I just run the 1st Minor 3rd Major 5th and Octave 1st and back down going up in semi-tones from my lowest pictch and then back down again. But I can see what you are saying, that makes sense. I just don't have the time to invest in a vocal coach. That's why I wondered if you had any home remedies. Thanks for the advice though! :)
 
Yeah, there's no home remedy but to relax your body, sing from your legs, don't cave in your chest or crow neck your neck. Keep you body relaxed, drop that jaw, breathe from your legs up and push that air out as if blowing through a straw. It's like learning how to drive a manual transmission for the first time. :)
 
It might be a better idea to increase the quality of your head voice. That will also increase your range dramatically.

Quality head voice begins with good projection. Sing while standing. Fill your lungs by expanding your stomach below the rib cage. Open your mouth wide and let go. A good head voice will sound just like a chest voice, with practice.
 
It might be a better idea to increase the quality of your head voice. That will also increase your range dramatically.

Quality head voice begins with good projection. Sing while standing. Fill your lungs by expanding your stomach below the rib cage. Open your mouth wide and let go. A good head voice will sound just like a chest voice, with practice.

I am trying to decrease the voices in my head....
 
It's different for guys and girls, so I thought, but I thought guys generally didn't have head voice.... that head voice was falsetto, and that everything is all chest voice by default.

Not that it changes the technique of course.

This is why when you get to a certain level, it's better to have a teacher with your voice type. Any guys here with classical training, clue me in here, do guys have head voice??

I thought those who had true head voices, the male contraltos, altos and sopranos, were very rare.
 
Well, there is a lot to say here.

First, head and chest voices are a little imprecise but what it is all about is where your voice is resonating. If you think of it like an ukulele, the string vibrates and that makes the sound resonate inside the body of the instrument.

When you sing, your vocal chords vibrate but you can create resonance in two different parts of your body (at least that is the way we talk about it, the actual science is a little more complicated than that).

Anyway, hit a real deep note and you should be able to feel the resonance down in your throat and almost like its coming from your sternum.

As you move up, you can generally move that resonance up into your head. Try humming rather than singing and you can get a sense of what it means.

These two voices are like registers. If you have ever heard the way a clarinet jumps from its low register to its high register you know what this. As you go up your range you'll feel the jump. When most of us start singing, we usually cling to the chest voice like its a security blanket. It takes practice and technique to learn to use the head voice properly.

falsetto, is yet another register that is even higher than the head voice.

As others have said, a music teacher can help you figure this stuff out. If you want to try covering it by yourself, try the Dummies or Complete Idiots book on singing. Both cover this stuff really well.

I have a couple of questions for you but I'll put them in a separate post as this is getting long.
 
So the two questions.

1. Why are you unhappy with your range? C2 to G4 is two octaves and a bit. That is perfectly respectable.

2. Can you really hit C2? I'm sure you can get down there but what's it actually sound like? Do you have power and control down that low? Cause that's real low brother. I'm a baritone and I can force my voice down to Eb2 but I have very little volume at that level. It's up around G2 that my voice comes to life.

What I'm trying to say here is that range is about more than just hitting the notes. Your range is what you can sing comfortably, with power and, hopefully, with diction and intonation.

A final thought, from what you say, it sounds to me like you are a bass or a baritone and you want to sing tenor. It can be done. Sometimes. But it's a major project and that project will take work. and it will take a music teacher.

If you want to sing mostly pop songs, you could also get it by singing falsetto. It's a respectable technique and lots of pop singers do it.
 
I have very little control of my chest voice past the Bb below C3. I mean, if I'm goofing around at home, fine, it's there and lower even. Put me in a situation where I HAVE to rely on it - nu-uh, no way. It cracks. But I'm a soprano and we're a dime a dozen. :)

I know how it works, especially as a clarinet player who switched to the instrument you always have with you, I just didn't know that it worked the same way for guys as it does girls.

Anyone interested in treating their voice like they treat their favorite uke, read Bflat's post. That pretty well describes what it's about. :)
 
So the two questions.

1. Why are you unhappy with your range? C2 to G4 is two octaves and a bit. That is perfectly respectable.

2. Can you really hit C2? I'm sure you can get down there but what's it actually sound like? Do you have power and control down that low? Cause that's real low brother. I'm a baritone and I can force my voice down to Eb2 but I have very little volume at that level. It's up around G2 that my voice comes to life.

What I'm trying to say here is that range is about more than just hitting the notes. Your range is what you can sing comfortably, with power and, hopefully, with diction and intonation.

A final thought, from what you say, it sounds to me like you are a bass or a baritone and you want to sing tenor. It can be done. Sometimes. But it's a major project and that project will take work. and it will take a music teacher.

If you want to sing mostly pop songs, you could also get it by singing falsetto. It's a respectable technique and lots of pop singers do it.

Alright here goes lol

1.Because I don't want to be a bass, and all of the songs I want to sing are way out of my range. (Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, Rick Astley, etc.)

2.I can hit it fine no cracking but I can't belt it. I can belt the Db just above it though so anything from the Db2 to G4 I can belt. And that G is only on a good day any other day I stop on the F# below it.
 
I wouldn't recommend trying to train yourself up as a tenor.

It's your vocal chords, treat them right because they're the only ones you'll have.

To me it just sounds like, you got whatcha got. My first leading man in my first opera was a bass, and he had a great range too.

Get with a teacher who will listen to your needs but at the same time be honest about what it's safe to do.
 
I wouldn't recommend trying to train yourself up as a tenor.

It's your vocal chords, treat them right because they're the only ones you'll have.

To me it just sounds like, you got whatcha got. My first leading man in my first opera was a bass, and he had a great range too.

Get with a teacher who will listen to your needs but at the same time be honest about what it's safe to do.

Do you still put on operas?
 
In my relatively uninformed opinion, I'm pretty sure you could get more volume (and possibly) range if you sing and play while standing up instead of sitting down. Anyone know if what I'm thinking has merit to it?
 
In my relatively uninformed opinion, I'm pretty sure you could get more volume (and possibly) range if you sing and play while standing up instead of sitting down. Anyone know if what I'm thinking has merit to it?

Yes it does because you're able to provide more air support which allows you to control more air the way you want it to as well as let you increase volume because of the strength of the air behind it.
 
Do you still put on operas?

Not in a long time. My last performance was in '95. No, I'm not famous. :eek:

I had a singing part in a local community theater production last season, but somehow I don't think that counts. If there was such a thing as community opera, I'd probably get with a good vocal coach and be very happy doing that. Some communities do have that. Not in Helsinki though, but I'm very happy with the theater group I'm in. :)

I'd love to find a pro-am choir, but the ones that are of a caliber I'd be interested in are all male only. It's kind of weird actually. Equality is a big deal here, but when it comes to choirs it's all about "tradition." :rolleyes:
 
Not in a long time. My last performance was in '95. No, I'm not famous. :eek:

I had a singing part in a local community theater production last season, but somehow I don't think that counts. If there was such a thing as community opera, I'd probably get with a good vocal coach and be very happy doing that. Some communities do have that. Not in Helsinki though, but I'm very happy with the theater group I'm in. :)

I'd love to find a pro-am choir, but the ones that are of a caliber I'd be interested in are all male only. It's kind of weird actually. Equality is a big deal here, but when it comes to choirs it's all about "tradition." :rolleyes:

Wow, tell me the next time you guys are putting on a Mozart piece and you are playing! Cuz I would totally come see you guys! (Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Le Nozze Di Figaro, etc.)

That's amazing that your community even has a theatre dedicated to classical productions. Quite neat for somebody like me who has maybe a local bar hahaha. My town has maybe 50k people in it lol
 
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