Want to become a singing god? Learn how to sing high notes without straining your voice.
Every singer can sing higher.
But, many singers strain to hit those top notes. I used to be one of them.
Learning how to sing high notes without straining your voice will impress everyone who hears you sing. Perhaps more importantly, it puts you in control.
What do I mean by that?
When you strain you not only damage your vocal cords, your tone is ruined and you pitch poorly too.
Bottom line though: It sounds awful.
Don’t let those high notes control and change your voice. Get the right technique and start owning the high notes.
Singing high notes with power and precision is an important part of singing regardless of genre – Jazz, Theatre, Rock or Pop, and the fundamental vocal technique is the same.
Like any other muscle in your body, the vocal folds can’t achieve the level of flexibility we need to hit those high notes over night. It takes time, practice and correct technique to learn how to reach high notes.
How to sing high notes without straining your voice
Know your Voice
The standard voice types are…
Women:
- Soprano: typical soprano voice lies between middle C (C4) and “high” C
- Mezzo Soprano: typically A3 (the A below middle C) to A5 (the A two octaves above A3)
- Alto: approximately from G3 (the G below middle C) to F5 (the F in the second octave above middle C)
Men:
- Tenor: tenor voice lies between the C one octave below middle C (C3) to the C one octave above “Middle C” (C5)
- Baritone: second F below middle C (F2) to the F above middle C (F4)
- Bass: second E below “middle C” (E2) to the E above middle C (E4)
We are all made differently.
Just because you’ve always dreamed of belting out Bon Jovi’s “Living On A Prayer” to an adoring audience, doesn’t mean your particular voice is naturally designed to hit those notes.
You can use the techniques we talk about on this website to work towards achieving some big notes over time. But until you have the techniques down, you need to know your vocal limits, so you don’t end up fatiguing or damaging your voice.
Vocal damage can leave you out of work for a few weeks, or worse – you can damage your voice permanently and never sing again.
The simple fact is that most people have a natural range of about an octave and a half to 2 octaves. This means that the physicality of your voice might not allow you to sing high notes without straining.
My comfortable range is about 3 octaves. Top singers like Axel Rose have 4+ octaves at their disposal. We weren’t born this way, we trained.
Knowing your vocal range is an important part of being a singer, and choosing appropriate repertoire and keys will enable you to be the best singer that you can be for now.
As your training progresses you can start pushing the boundaries. It’s a lot of fun.
How to sing higher notes without straining
Warm Up – Exercise
Do this exercise right now: Stand up and try to touch your toes without bending your knees. Pay attention to how far down you get. Now do some stretches. Stretch your hamstrings, your calf muscles and your glutes. Now try it again. Did you get down further?
We all know that stretching is important if you want to touch your toes – so why not stretch when you’re learning to sing high notes? It’s funny that many people would never play sport without warming up – yet don’t even consider warming up their voice before singing.
Your voice is a muscle. This means that the more you use it correctly, stretching it before and after use, the more flexible it will become over time. Just like trying to touch your toes.
If you work at stretching your vocal muscles every day, eventually the muscles get used to being stretched and it becomes easier and more comfortable to sing higher. Makes sense right?
First Steps: How to hit high notes when singing
It takes practice. But I want to show you the first 3 step of how to sing high notes without straining your voice. Follow the steps below and start working towards hitting those high notes cleanly, every time.
1. Facial Relaxation
Some people think that the way to sing a high note is to open their mouth wider, push more air out and just go for it.
Nope! You will only end up hurting yourself. If the veins on your neck are standing out each time you reach for a high note, that’s even worse.
One great way to avoid injury is to learn to relax you face and mouth before singing.
- Place both of your trigger fingers over your chin, with your thumbs placed on the fleshy part under your chin. Softly massage this area to loosen up the muscles.
- Open your mouth and eyes as far as you can, then scrunch your face up as much as possible – do this a few times over.
- Do a big yawn – this is great for stretching your face and jaw
- Give your neck and shoulders a good stretch – you hold a lot of tension here that can get in the way of your singing.
Stretch and Relax
2. How To Sing High Notes: Breathe
I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times before – but your breath is an important part of learning how to sing high notes without straining your voice.
The important thing to remember is that you do not need more breath to hit higher notes. But, you do need to have good breath support in order to create a clean, projected sound.
- Place your hand on your diaphragm (directly above your stomach) and practice taking big deep breaths while staying in a relaxed standing position.
- Remember you do not need to raise your shoulders to take a deep breath. Pull the breath in from your stomach, NOT the top of your chest.
- Take a few large breaths and feel your diaphragm expand.
- Now slowly release the breath on a “shhhhh” sound. Try to do this without having any breaks in the breath. Release a slow, clean, constant shhhhh until you no longer have enough breath to make sound.
This exercise teaches you to have the breath to cleanly support your sound – without needing to push. The more aware of your diaphragm you are, the more you come to realize that a big clear sound does not come from raising your shoulders and puffing out your chest. But from having a strong control of your diaphragm.
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3. Sing higher notes effortlessly in your vocal warm up
Once your face is relaxed and you are supporting your singing with proper breath control, this one killer exercise will show you that you can sing high notes without straining your voice.
Start by humming a “mmmmm” sound. Be aware of where you are making the sound resonate in your head. A clean full sound should be projected forward, and should resonate in your sinuses around your nose and forehead. Not stuck in the back of your throat.
Can you feel the vibration of the sound on your lips?
At the bottom of your range start by singing a note on an mmm sound then open your mouth to an “ahhhh” sound. “mmmmmmm-aaaahhhhhh”. Keep the same feeling of resonance in your head for both the mmm and the open ahhh sounds.
Continue to move up the scale repeating the mmmm aahhhh until you reach your vocal break. Even at your break where you need to change into head voice, try and keep an even, clear tone. Work on having a clean switch between the two.
Move higher up the scale in your head voice until you hit the top of your range. Focus not on how high the note is, but on creating the resonance in your head. If you tell yourself that the note is too high – you’ll psychologically believe it.
Forget the note and focus on a clean crisp sound and resonance as you move up the scale.
You’ll quickly find that you can sing higher whilst practicing this exercise than you can whilst singing a song.
The goal is to learn how it physically “feels” to sing those higher notes so that your muscle memory can then translate that feeling into comfortably hitting the notes.
Once you master the “mmmmm” sound for a high note, and can effortlessly transition that into the “ahhhh” open singing sound, you will eventually be able to hit those notes straight off in a full and controlled singing voice.
Anytime. On stage, in the shower. This fundamental vocal exercise is your foundation for how to sing high notes without straining. It’s truly exciting once you “get it”.
Remember, don’t push, don’t rush it. It needs to feel effortless and you will get it eventually and learn how to sing better.
Keep doing this exercise every day and soon you will find that your higher notes become stronger, clearer and more confident.
I go into a lot more detail about how to dramatically improve your vocal range in my free ebook. Check it out.
Choose a good space to practice your singing
A space with good acoustics will aid you while learning how to sing high notes without straining your voice. Echo and reverberation can help complement the sound of your voice, and make practice an all round more pleasing and pleasurable event – rather than a chore.
Do you sing in the shower?
The shower is great for acoustics. The sound bounces off the tiles which allows you to hear yourself more clearly. You may even find that you can hit higher notes easier and with less strain – the steam works wonders as well at keeping your vocal cords lubricated.
Do you sing in the car?
This is a major no-no for singers. There are zero acoustics in a car, which means that the sound does not bounce around. In fact you will find that you strain your voice more, because you cannot hear yourself as clearly. The space in cars produce dead sound, and you can end up damaging your voice trying to hear yourself better.
Finding a good space to practice is vital for your overall singing health, choose carefully.
Stay Hydrated
Some of the best things in life are also some of the worst things for a singers voice.
Coffee, soft drinks, alcohol – did you know they are bad for your voice?
Why? Ever noticed that after drinking these types of caffeinated drinks, you find yourself needing to go to the toilet more frequently?
That’s because they all act as a “diuretic”. They make you pass urine more frequently, which in turn makes you more dehydrated. As hydration is a vital part of keeping the vocal folds healthy and lubricated, many of these drinks are best to be avoided when you are training to sing high notes without straining.
Good old fashioned, room temperature water is best (as ice water shocks the vocal cords making them less flexible).
Health studies show that an adequate intake for men is roughly about 13 cups (3 liters) a day, and the total for women is about 9 cups (2.2 liters) – so drink up and keep those vocal folds happy and healthy.
Know Your Body
Ever notice that one day you seem to be belting out songs like a pro and the next you can’t seem to hit the high notes no matter how hard you try?
This can be because of changes in your body.
We already discussed hydration, but other things can affect your voice.
Cold and Flu
This can wreak havoc on your voice, so it is best to avoid using your voice if possible until you are all better. Remember even whispering can be bad for your voice while unwell. The breathy tone used in a whisper increases the flow of turbulent air over your vocal folds and increases tension in the muscle.
Give your throat time to rest – it needs it sometimes.
If you do tend to use throat lozenges be careful of the ones you choose, as some can contain substances that numb your throat and your vocal folds. This is an issue if you try to sing, as you will not be able to feel if you are putting too much stress on your vocal folds and damage can occur.
Also, some antibiotics and cold and flu medicine are designed to dry out the mucus. This in turn drys out your vocal folds – make sure you stay extra hydrated when ill.
Menstruation
This is a pretty crap time of the month for women. It also has a big affect on the female voice. Your body goes through a lot of changes during and just prior your period, and this in turn adds additional stress to your vocal folds.
This stress is caused by increased blood supply to the larynx, causing what is known as menstrual dysphonia. You can experience hoarseness, laryngitis, vocal fatigue and less vocal control during this time leading to problems hitting high notes. As always, stay healthy, hydrated and take care of your voice during this time of the month.
Your body is your instrument and your paycheck – look after it.
Take Your Time
Just like regular exercise, it takes time to improve your vocal fitness and flexibility.
Don’t expect miracles to occur overnight. Learning how to sing high notes without straining your voice takes dedication to vocal exercise, and determination to reach your vocal goals.
Have a high note in mind that you want to sing cleanly. Or a difficult song that you want to be able to perform, and work day by day towards this goal. Having a goal to work towards will help you to focus.
Saying you want to be able to sing higher is a good start – but have something to work towards so you can see your progression and improvement. Keep a record of the highest note you can sing cleanly each day.
In fact, I recommend you regularly record yourself so you can hear your improvements. You don’t need any fancy equipment to do this. It’s not about producing Grammy award winning sound. It’s about being able to keep track of your vocal progress. Not many people enjoy listening to themselves, but it really is a good way to mark your achievements.
Vocal Exercises for singing high notes are important but can also get boring if you do the same ones every day. I don’t think I know anyone that actually enjoys doing scales – BUT it is an essential part of being a singer. We’ve got some great vocal warm up exercises on our site.
How to belt high notes
With famous belt artists like Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, Adele or Celine Dion around, you may want to learn how to belt without straining your voice.
Belt is where you power out notes above your vocal break – hitting high notes when still in chest voice. This is a characteristic of some female mezzo soprano singers.
As this can be a difficult skill to develop it is a good idea to seek advice and training from a professional singing coach. In fact if you are wanting to make singing your profession at all – a online vocal training program is a must have to help you progress in your technique. Take a look at some of our favourite Online Singing Lessons.
Many of the techniques you use to hit higher notes are used to belt – you just stay in chest voice instead of moving into head voice. Solid breath support, good posture and practice are the keys to belting. Choose a space to practice where you won’t feel embarrassed, as tension caused by holding back, can stress your vocal folds.
Remember your voice is not designed to belt all day long. Take regular breaks when practicing so you don’t end up with vocal fatigue.
However you do need to be aware of your physical limitations. Not all people are built to belt.
Dramatically increase your vocal range
Just learning how to sing high notes without straining your voice will not lead to a full and controlled voice, you need to work on your whole range. Hitting lower notes without having a ‘gravel’ sound is just as important as belting out a high note.
Having a clean, controlled and confident sound should be your ultimate goal. And this takes dedication, regular vocal exercise and some coaching along the way.
You need to become a vocal athlete.
Let me help you discover the full power of your voice at its best. Get my FREE guide below, to help get you started on your journey to becoming a professional singer.
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