Among other things, improving your singing ability includes increasing vocal range. Many people who try to sing are not intimately familiar with the mechanics of their own voice and fail to appreciate their potential and limitations. All you have to do is watch American Idol during one of the early shows of the season to see people trying to duplicate what a professional has done in a recording. These contestants don’t understand why it is that the professional can do what they do, and they are usually clueless about how to do it themselves. They simply try to imitate what they hear and are usually unaware of how they actually sound to others because in their own mind, they only hear what they imagine themselves to be doing. In their mind’s ear, they hear the professional recording, and imagine themselves in the spotlight.
Learning to sing and how to increase vocal range is much like being an athlete in training. A professional football player does not just go out and play ball. He spends hours every day working out with weights, running, practicing agility moves, tackling and learning to take hits, etc… These exercises help the athlete become acquainted with their own physical abilities and weaknesses. It shows them where they need work and what their strengths are. Similarly, practice designed to increase singing vocal range involves exercises that progress from accomplishment to accomplishment. It is very important however, to focus on what you can do, and never try to tackle abilities that your vocal cords cannot achieve. This is a good way to ruin your voice and end your singing career before it even begins.
Discover Your Octave
Before you begin increasing vocal range, you first need to discover what your natural octave range is. This is the range of notes that you can comfortably sing without straining. You should be able to hit the high and the low octave notes of this scale range. Using a piano, tuner, or recording, practice singing these notes until you can easily duplicate them without the aid of the accompaniment. Note that the definition of “practice” as it relates to singing is; “Systematic training by multiple repetitions.” You need to allow these notes to become a permanent part of your memory so that you can identify readily and replicate them at will. This is part of your perfect pitch training.
If possible, try to get a recording of the tones in your scale range and practice singing them while hearing the notes through headphones. Record your own voice during the exercises and play it back to hear how you did. Be your own worst critic and listen carefully for flaws. What you hear in the recording will be a far cry from what you hear while singing. It is never a good idea to judge your own performance according to what you think you sound like while singing. Always step back and hear it again from an objective perspective through a recording.
Scales don’t necessarily have to be practiced in the Doe-Rae-Mi format. You can mix the notes up into more melodic patterns after you are well acquainted with them. Once you have mastered your natural octave range and are well acquainted with what you can do, you will be ready to begin increasing vocal range by slowly and steadily pushing the limits of your ability.
