JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Microphone and Vocalist Forum Help With Hitting the Notes

Polly,

It sounds to me as if you are tightening your throat. Try a few little exercises. Make yourself yawn. Try to remember the feeling. Your vocal apparatus moves downward and your throat and the area under your chin open up into a bell like on a trumpet. Clear, high singing likes an open structure like that.

Feel your throat above where the adam's apple would be if you were a man. Then make that yawning feeling. You'll feel, as the apparatus drops, that there is a rounded band of bone above the voice box. Sit at a table and CAREFULLY hold your right index finger pointing from right to left, parallel with your shoulders, with your elbow on the table. Then rest your neck and head on that finger, with the finger between the "adam's apple" and that bone (the hyoid bone). Then supporting SOME of the weight of your head on that finger, slowly move that voice box up and down as if yawning and relaxing, allowing you to raise the weight of your head on the finger by the movement in your throat. This exercises the muscles that hold the voice box down and keeps the vocal apparatus from being restricted. Don't overdo it. Maybe start with twenty times every other day, then increase. Those muscles will strengthen. Gradually this will seep into your singing, practically without your trying. Of course do this exercise carefully, don't strain or hurt. If you feel discomfort, use less pressure of the weight of your head on the finger.

Another thing I noticed is that you sang "Hey" on a higher note than ground. So that note is available to you. A trick some singers use is to think as though they are dropping down on to the note rather than reaching up to it. Keep your head up, but don't tilt it back. Think as though you're a puppet with the string right on the very top of your head holding it up, then think that you are dropping down to the notes instead of reaching up for them.

Finally, warm up before you hit high notes. Sing some easy songs for a while. If you have a gig, sing in the car on the way there, all easy notes.

If you continue having trouble with the note, you might want to drop the key, but listening to your "Hey" I think you've got the note, you just tighten the area up when you hit it. Open up when you hit it.

If you get chronic hoarseness or pain, you might want to see a doctor who specializes in the voice. Of course a vocal coach is always a good idea.

Just for the record, my major was the education of vocal music, I've taught voice for years.

(Remember, you are getting this advice from a virtual stranger on the internet. Proceed at your own risk. It's best to have a vocal coach who can watch you and listen to you in person.)

You sound good, keep at it.

All the Best,
Mike