Stronger low notes don’t just make your voice sound richer—they give you more power everywhere in your range. 🎤 In this episode of Vocal Tips in 10, Amber Mogg Cathey breaks down why building strength in your lower register is the secret weapon for balance, flexibility, and resonance across your voice.
You’ll learn:
Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned singer looking for that next level of control, this quick episode gives you actionable tools to expand your range and sing with more power from top to bottom.
00:00 Introduction to Low Notes
04:29 Exercises for Improving Low Notes
08:02 The Importance of Movement in Singing
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Hello friends. I did an episode, I think two weeks ago, all about better high notes, sharing tools and tactics to make your high notes, your upper range, feel easier, make them easier to hit and sound better. And I got so many great messages from lots of you saying how helpful that was and then immediately saying, now where's the low notes? So that's what we're jumping into today. How to get better low notes. And remember that low notes are not just
this great lower part of the range and expanding our range and the amount of notes that we can sing and that area that feels good. But low notes are also the powerhouse for your entire voice. So let's get into it.
So just quickly, when I say the powerhouse for your entire voice, what happens to your vocal folds when you go to sing lower notes is they get shorter and thicker. There is more vocal fold tissue connecting, they vibrate more slowly. That is why when I sing a low note, ⁓ it naturally has kind of more power and presence than, genuinely less of the vocal fold tissue is connected when I go higher. As you go higher, they thin out.
So the great thing about working your low end is not only do you get to add yummy low notes to your range
And tell me what singer is going to say no to more notes, to a more expanded range, I hope no singer would say no to that. But they're not just great low notes. As we work that shortening, thickening muscle, the thickening muscle is what gives us power throughout our entire range. So I want you to think about work in your low range as the foundation for everything we do.
That's the very first thing I want to share with you. For good low notes, speech, speech, speechy, speechy, speech. It is based in speech.
And when you work that low end and work those low notes, you are building more thickness of the vocal folds, the ability to thicken up and therefore have more power, not just in the low end, but in your entire range. And when I think about great low notes, I want to point out three key things. The first one I already mentioned.
Based in speech. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, friends. I am talking in a level of chest voice, right? Low end, right now. So based in speech, number one. Number two, there is nothing below us. And what I mean by that is the vocal folds cannot move down, All that happens when we go to sing lower notes is they get shorter and thicker and like I said, vibrate more slowly.
And yet I see even the greatest singers when they go for like a really low note, like you're going for a, you know, T swift low D or something like that. And they immediately kind of tuck the chin and round out the vowel shape. Well, what does that do? Even if our vocal folds could move down, which they cannot, all we're doing is squishing our larynx the home of our voice. And then that rounded shape kind of sticks the sound in the back of our throat. So what I found is it makes singers feel like that they hit their basement, their lowest note.
well before they actually hit their lowest note. So they feel like, I can't go any lower than that amber. And I just have them lift their head back up to neutral. Instead of rounding the vocal tract, let's shorten it. Let's brighten it up a little bit. So that sound pops out right in front of us more forward. And all of a sudden here come a bunch more notes. And then number three, a tool that I highly recommend pretty much for everything, movement.
adding movement as you work your low end, just like I believe as you work your upper end and your mixed voice and anything is going to make it feel easier and sound better. I can pretty much guarantee you, not a one of us listening or watching this ever. If we're by ourselves and so we're not self-conscious, we're not thinking about anybody watching us. If we are singing, listening to music, doing anything musical, I bet your body is moving. Mine sure is.
And then every once in a while, I realize when I get in front of people and my brain's like, Amber, try not to look like, you know, a total crazy person, I start to kind of tighten up. And then I remember one, you don't look like a crazy person. You look like you're into it and that's far more enjoyable to watch. And two, very fortunately at this point in my life, I don't really care if I look like a crazy person,
So just like I did with the higher notes, and if you wanna listen to that episode, I will link it in the show notes below. I wanna give you some real exercises, tools and tactics that you can start to work with right now to make that low end feel better and better. The first exercise I wanna give you is going to include speech, vocal tract shaping, thinking right in front of you instead of down, and movement. Everything I just talked about, we're gonna do yo yo, right? Like you were calling out to somebody,
from across the street. It should not feel weighty, even the t-tiniest bit in your voice. Genuinely, just speak it. Don't put it on pitch yet. Yo, hey, yo, right? I'm just talking to somebody.
And yes, I know I might sound kind of loud, but that's just kind of how I roll. I'm not really a petite flower in any way. I'm a flower, absolutely. But I'm like a really tall one that's kind of, you know, a little louder, a little more colorful. That's just how I'm made. So whatever that is for you, I'm not pushing volume. I'm just talking to somebody across the street. And now I'm going to take that talking to somebody across the street and I'm going to put it on two pitches, a fifth. One, five.
One that just means five notes apart. You're gonna put this exercise, by the way, wherever it feels good in your particular range. And we're just going to speak to someone on pitch across the street from us. Yo, yo, yo. And I want you to get your hand out. And I want you, even take a finger and kind of point it. And I'm gonna move my hand out as I sing the pitch, like I'm pointing to someone across the street. Yo, yo, yo.
Yo, yo, yo. If you start to do this and you find yourself going yo, really kind of vocal folds out, throat out, which is not what I recommend because it is not the most effective resonance strategy by any means. It also creates tension. You're gonna fatigue quickly. It doesn't feel that great. It doesn't sound that great. Just stop. No reason to beat yourself up, right? Stop and just talk again. Yo, yo, yo. Hey, yo.
Add that back to pitches. Yo, yo, yo. Work this as low as you can and then work it up as high as you can because like I said, we want the shortening thickening muscle not to just give us yummy power and good low notes. We wanna be able to take that power up higher and higher into our range.
So one, the yo-yo exercise I love. Two, another one that I wanna give you for your low end, because I feel like it's kind of counter to what a lot of people do, They kind of like to round yo, yo, yo, yo, and kind of tuck the chin and they get this kind of throaty sound and this throaty feel.
I love the exercise va, va, va, like a vat. V, so that's a nice, it's called a fricative, it's nice and buzzy. ⁓
So just think vat means a big container of something. That's it. Five note scale speaking.
And as you go lower and you get that tendency to want to round and drop the chin, I want you to do the opposite. I want you to get extra smiley. I always tell my singers, think of that vat being filled with something that is so good. For me, I always say a vat of chocolate or a vat of cheese.
But I want you to get a little smiley, which just means brighter in your vocal tract shaping, in your vowel shaping.
And then I want you to take your hand and do my favorite movement ever, move it in a straight line in front of you to remind you you're not going down. ⁓
What I also find with this exercise is people will move that finger in front of them and the first note feels doable and then they swallow it by the end. So it kind of sounds like, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba. And they're like, oh, I can't hit that note, Amber. And that's when I remind them, well, it's the same one you hit at the start. So part of that is just how we're thinking about it. So that's where that movement can come in and be helpful. The low end is just so hugely important,
It's the foundation of everything we do. It's where most of us speak. It's where we live. The vast majority of time.
I hope this is helpful you guys. Like always, I got a bunch of free stuff for you all. Down below in the show notes, I've got a link for two weeks to try out the Vocal Pro membership for free. It is the most affordable way to get the most access to me
five days a week, 48 weeks a year, you can try it out for absolutely free. Zero dollars for two weeks. And then if you love it, I hope you stick around. If you don't, just hit cancel and you are done. And then you know what this thing is that I keep saying I love so much. You'll know what it's all about. I also have a free training for you all about movement. 25 movements to take you from warming up to working out to performances to
cooling down. And then if you want a little more one-on-one support, you want to talk about potentially one-on-one lessons or just figure out what the best way to go is for you, you can book a free 15 minute consultation with me or my fab coach, Cassell. Thanks for listening guys and see you in the next episode. Happy singing.
