High notes don’t have to be your vocal nemesis. In this episode of Vocal Tips in 10, I break down why high notes feel so tricky—and how to make them feel a whole lot easier. You’ll learn how fear, tension, and even volume might be getting in your way, and how to use movement, vocal tract shaping, and smart technique to sing higher with more freedom and less strain.
Whether you’re aiming for a powerful belt or a smooth mixed tone, this episode gives you practical tips to unlock your upper register and start seeing those high notes as one of your greatest vocal assets.
00:00 Conquering the Fear of High Notes
05:08 Movement Techniques for High Notes
09:58 Embracing High Notes for Vocal Growth
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hello friends, today we are talking about one of the things that scares contemporary singers the most, but is so important for contemporary singing, and I believe any style of singing, and that is high notes, working in your upper register. So I wanna jump into tips and tools and tactics that you can play with in your own voice today to make those high notes feel easier.
and sound better.
So right off the bat, one of the things that makes high notes so tough when you're scared of them is the fact that you are scared of them. That sends the signal to your body, my gosh, this person is in danger and our brain doesn't know the difference between.
Here comes a tiger to attack us. And this is a note I'm not 100 % sure that I can hit. Also, one of the things that makes it tough is we are thinking up. Get up there. I have to hit that pitch. And let's just start with the very basics. Your vocal folds do not move up and down. You have two vocal folds. They connect to make sound. When you go to sing higher pitches, all that happens is the vocal folds stretch and thin out and they vibrate more quickly.
causing higher pitches to our ears. Whenever we sing lower, the vocal folds shorten and thicken. They vibrate more slowly, causing lower pitches to our ears. So our vocal folds aren't moving up. So when we think, my gosh, number one, our body tightens up, and then two, I've gotta get up there, come on, it tightens even more. The vocal folds can't move up, so they're like, I don't know what to do, so the jaw and tongue surrounding muscles go, we're gonna do the best we can, and they just tighten everything.
which does not help us. And then we're already tight because we're scared to death of this sucker. So right off the bat, those two things make it more difficult for us. And I know it's not as easy as just saying, don't be scared of it, right? We've got to have some real tips and tools. So one of the things that I love to use is movement to override that thought of, me get up there. Usually just that makes it feel a lot easier. The singer then has more success.
then they relax a little bit and go, I don't need to be so scared of this. I can hit these notes. So a couple different movements that I like. If you are watching this on YouTube, you can see them. If you are not watching it on YouTube, you can. The link is in the show notes. Every episode is on YouTube, as well as everywhere you listen to podcasts. But hopefully, even if you can't see me, I will explain this enough to make sense for you.
you're gonna put your thumb on the hinge of your jaw, right where the mandible attaches to the skull, where your mouth opens and closes, and you're going to put your hand up. So it just looks kind of like you're showing five fingers with your thumb, gently touching the side of your jaw. As you sing up in pitch, I want you to drop your hand down to tabletop. So your elbow will come up, your hand will drop down to tabletop. So one of the exercises I love,
To work the upper register is just an easy sliding third. It's like a vocal siren.
but on two pitches a third apart. So I'm gonna put it where my upper register is.
sliding third, a nice relaxed forward ooh vowel is a great sound for accessing that upper register, but I'm going to add the movement of taking my thumb, putting it on the hinge of my jaw, hand up, and as I sing higher in pitch, I'm going to drop that hand down to tabletop. ⁓
laughing because I have to tell you I obviously just did it and it immediately feels easier for me and obviously my brain very much knows the vocal folds don't move up and down I've been doing this for decades I talk about this day after day for decades and still there's that little part especially as I go higher and higher ⁓
and I don't necessarily feel as naturally comfy without some work there of my body thinking, let me help her out just a little bit. Let's just do just a little bit of a push or a pull or a squeeze that makes it automatically more difficult. So as soon as I put that movement where my hand was moving down, my brain can't think up and down at the same time, it's gonna go with what the body's doing and it immediately felt.
easier for me. Another great one that you can do that I'm not going to show here because my head would smack right into my camera, but it's the tippy bird. So if you guys have ever seen those plastic birds that you put kind of over a glass of water, I don't know what else they're for other than just like they look funny, but they're a great analogy for this. And they tip and their beak goes into the water and comes back up. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? That head heavy bird that you just watch it tip into the water for a drink and come back up.
I want you to think about that tippy bird and I want you to tip at your hips, not at our waist. We're not looking to squish our respiratory system or get those abdominals that we need to be nice and relaxed for supportive breath to get squished. We're just going to tip at the hips and as you sing higher in pitch, you're going to tip forward. Again, that's a movement where you're thinking down while you are singing up quote unquote, because your vocal folds don't move up. But as you were singing higher in pitch,
So it takes that tendency to wanna push or pull up away, which is great.
So the second thing I want you to think about is how your vocal tract is shaped when you are singing higher notes. I feel like, and I'm gonna make this way simplistic guys, it's not this simplistic, but it kind of is. So just humor me and let's go with this. I feel like when we are in speechy chest dominant sounds, whether that is.
True chest voice, which just means your low notes, whether that is more mixy, more belty. I like to think of the vocal tract as shaped like a 90 degree angle. So the vocal tract is the tube that starts at the vocal folds, it ends at the mouth. I like to think of the sound coming up and straight out. So kind of like a 90 degree angle. I want you to think about that vocal tract shaped more like a candy cane for these higher notes. So we're gonna think about the sound's gonna come up, it's gonna loft up.
hook up like a candy cane and then it's gonna move out in a straight line in front of you. So kind of like a candy cane that has been left in the car in the warm weather and it's kind of melted because the sound, don't want it to go down. Everything is that straight line in front of us, but it's gonna lift up, hook up. We're gonna have some loft and lift on that note, like a hook of a candy cane and then come out. So kind of like with that movement we just did with the thumb on the hinge of the jaw and the hand down, this one works too. You're gonna lift.
and then let it come straight down in front of you. ⁓
just reminding us to lighten up, lift up on the top of that note versus punching it right in its face, right? I hear a lot of contemporary singers that go...
just squeezing and pushing it. So that's not truly working the upper register, that stretching, thinning muscle that we need for not only great high notes, but for great flexibility and agility throughout our voice. But it's throaty, it's weighty, it doesn't feel great, it doesn't sound great. And generally, if that's how you're singing your high notes, that's the only way you can sing them, just full crazy volume. So that's the last tip I wanna give you for better high notes today. When you are working on improving your upper register, cut your volume.
Now, of course, everybody's different. So if you are already a whisper quiet singer, this does not apply to you. You're working on getting a little more full volume and presence and resonance in your upper register. But I have seen so many singers already this week. I'm going to say 10, and it's Tuesday, y'all. A lot that sing those high notes, but only at crazy full volume. So that means several things. One, it means if you've got to push a bunch of pressure underneath the vocal folds,
to get them to connect and stretch to that pitch.
you do not have the baseline coordination and function that you need for good high notes. If you can only do it with really loud volume, you're overworking, it super limits you artistically and very likely because you're doing it with pressure, you're not going to be able to actually stretch up as high as you could. So one of the things I just have singers do is cut the volume by half. Usually the answer is, yeah, I don't think I can hit it if I cut it by half. I'm like, okay, well, let's just try it. So instead of going,
volume in half, right? We're going to think about that movement either our tippy bird, our hand dropping down, and then the vocal tract shaped like a candy cane lift and then out.
If that feels good, I have them cut it in half again and half again. Work to do it as lightly as you can where you can still get good feel and good sound. We always want light and right first versus strong and wrong. I know it's a goofy rhyme, but it's true and it will stick in your brain. You can go strong later, absolutely, but if strong is your only volume, if you only have one gear and it's full force loud,
work on lightening up your volume. If you find that you lighten your volume and you just have a really hard time getting those vocal folds to connect, let's add a G or a C or K sound to our exercise.
Let's do five notes descending on goo goo goo like a baby or coo coo coo much like a baby. Again, with as light as volume as you can. Goo goo goo goo goo goo or coo coo coo coo coo coo. You can hardly hear or tell the difference. Use whichever one feels better for you. Those consonants help you get vocal fold adduction, which is a fancy way of saying they help your vocal folds connect.
without all of that pressure so you can still get a connected sound on those higher notes without pushing a bunch of volume. High notes are your friend, guys. Any singer that I've worked with that says, I don't need to work up there because I sing everything low, I can almost promise you if you are that singer, it's only because you don't feel comfy there. What singer would not want to add more notes to their range, more tonal colors to their palette of colors that they can paint with,
who would not want to have more options. And then remember, working that stretching, thinning muscle, your CT muscle, not only gives you better high notes, it gives you better agility and flexibility throughout your entire range. Start working on those high notes, try some of these tools. Let's not be scared of them, they are our friend, and I hope this is helpful. Like always I have multiple freebies for you,
A free training that gives you so many more movement tools than just these two that I shared today. Movement is such a fantastic way for better function, for better ease, for better sound. 25 movement tools to take you from warmup to workout to performance to cool down.
You can try two weeks of my vocal pro membership for absolutely free. It's one of my favorite places to be. And if you need more one-on-one support than that, or you just need a little bit more one-on-one time for your personal questions, you can book a free consultation with me or with my fab associate coach, Eva Cassel. Thanks for listening And I hope to see you in the next episode.
