5 Secrets of a Strong and Resonant Singing Voice

5 Secrets of a Strong and Resonant Singing Voice

Building a strong and resonant singing voice is within reach for all singers, no matter where they are on their vocal journey. Whether you’ve trained for years or are just starting to sing, it starts with understanding how the voice works and building a solid foundation.

Real vocal strength comes from a healthy voice foundation, using correct technique and voice-building training that builds the strength, endurance, and power of the voice from the ground up. It’s one thing to belt out your songs, it’s another entirely to belt healthfully with a technique that can sustain those belts over time. 

Vocal resonance comes from a free and strong voice. This is attained by using the correct alignment, breath support, and voice placement. Most singers struggle with tension from using incorrect techniques that end up falling back on the throat ruining the voice over time.

Here’s a quick outline of the topics covered in today’s blog:  

• Vocal strength
• Vocal conditioning
• Decrease tensions that constrict resonance
• Building vocal tone
• Using the body as the main support mechanism

Now let’s take a deeper look… 

1. Acquiring vocal strength

Acquiring real vocal strength is not accomplished by singing louder and belting harder. It is accomplished by learning how to use the voice properly and building a solid foundation for healthy singing.

The voice will start to break down and wear out over years of singing with the wrong techniques.

The laryngeal muscles often get pushed upward with repeated singing. This destabilizes the voice, causes cracking and breaking and vocal problems over time.

There is a natural accumulation of wear and tear that comes with performing professionally. Singers need to practice healthy vocal conditioning techniques to keep their voice from accumulating tension and inflammation.

Protect and nurture your voice with biomechanical vocal technique to ensure a long and fulfilling singing career. Avoid strain, prevent injuries, and keep your voice in top shape for years to come.

Try this:  

• Don’t sing loudly to build strength, instead, learn how to sing with less strain to improve overall healthy vocal production. Start here with my 4-1 hour free workshop The Better Voice Challenge. Learn more here.
• Focus on posture and alignment to support the body instead of singing from your throat.
  • 5 Vocal Techniques That Relieve Strain in the Singing Voice
• Build better breath control to support more vocal strength. When you don’t breathe deep enough, your voice falls back on your throat ruining your voice. Breathing down into the lower triangles of the lungs and then retaining that air is the starting point to building real breath support.
  • 5 Secrets to Improve Breath Control for Your Singing Voice
• Practice daily vocal technique based on healthy vocal production. Singing correctly will improve vocal strength instead of losing your voice from singing without technique over time. Learn my Cole Vocal Method based in 40 years of vocal science here.

2. Practicing vocal conditioning techniques 

As a vocal coach for almost 4 decades out of my studio in New York City, I was the first vocal coach to coin the phrase “vocal cool downs”. Cool downs are part of a conditioning exercise that reduce inflammation of the vocal folds that arises from singing. Cool downs are specific vocal exercises based in vocal science that are performed following performance to thin the edges of the folds and maintain a healthy voice in between performances. 

My cool down series is found inside of my Vocal Rescue Kit. Learn more about cool downs and the Vocal Rescue Kit here. 

Now I have taken that a step further, and am coining the phrase “vocal conditioning”. Vocal conditioning takes the principles of cool downs and builds them out into vocal technique exercises that condition the voice to retain vocal health, proper pedagogy and build a stronger and more resonant singing voice that can withstand the pressures of professional singing. 

Start with the Singers Gift Vocal Warmups to work on conditioning your voice for performance. Learn more here.

To learn more about the Cole Vocal Method (CVM) click here.
To learn the full method (CVM) including the Singers Gift Warmups, click here. 

3. Decrease tensions that constrict resonance

Many singers struggle with a lack of sound, power and endurance in singing. The voice, unsupported by the correct movements, training, technique will only peter out and burn out within a short amount of time with repeated singing. 

The goal is to access more freedom around the vocal mechanism so the voice can vibrate under less tension. This is accomplished by reducing the tensions in the compensatory (or accessory) muscles surrounding the voice and increasing the strength of the support of the voice using proper techniques. 

The key to decreasing strain and improving a strong healthy sound and endurance—is to establish the correct support for the voice. 

Try this:

• Try tipping your chin slightly down on high notes to decrease strain in the throat.
• Try lifting your chest higher to support the voice and not fall back on the throat.
• Try breathing deeper into the lower 4-5 ribs, expanding the breath there to support the singing voice. 

4. Building vocal tone 

Tone comes from timbre or resonance and healthy vocal production. Improving your vocal tone comes from building the voice using techniques that improve the way your voice makes sound. 

Many people, until they train, don’t understand how to build tone until they start experiencing it from training. Most people will “push” sound to get tone, but this only ends up falling back on your throat ruining your voice. 

In vocal technique we improve tone by improving the way your voice makes sound by first stripping away the compensatory muscles that “compensate” for the lack of strength in the core muscles of the voice and constrict the voice (and tone). 

Using specific positions in technique we strengthen the mechanical function of the core vocal instrument improving all aspects of vocal production including tone.

Improvements in tone are a natural by-product of practicing the right vocal technique and voice building methods. 

To learn more about the Cole Vocal Method and how to improve your vocal tone click here.

5. Using the body as the main support mechanism

Too many singers end up not using the right support structures and falling back on their throats and ruining their voices over time.

Learning how to align and anchor the voice with the proper support helps to free up the throat and experience more sound and resonance without strain. 

For most people pushing the sound into the mask gets brighter but can be more nasal or thin sounding. This is because it is disconnected from the resonance of the trunk of the body. When the voice is disconnected singing ensues from the collarbones up which tends to create a thin sound and misses the richness that the body connection brings. 

If you want more “body” in your sound you want to use more “body” in your sound. We look for a “home” placement that resonates in the same place throughout all singing. This is what I call the C-Shape Placement housed at the soft palate. Once you find it—it’s a game changer. 

It’s like an athlete. Imagine that athlete without the right technique or coach to bring them to their HEIGHT in performance and execution? It’s the EXACT SAME FOR SINGERS → Singers are athletes of the small muscles of the voice and breathing and without the right ALIGNMENT or ANCHORING THE IMPACT of the voice in the body—the singer is vulnerable to vocal burnout, hoarseness, and even injury over time.  

A strong and healthy voice that sings without strain at the top of performance starts with improving alignment and using the trunk of the body to support the voice. The goal being to make the right aligned and anchored connections inside the body so the right alignment and muscles will support the sound and provide strength, power and resonance to the singing voice. 

Singing is physically and mentally demanding, and many singers experience tension and strain in their necks, shoulders, and throats. The right alignment can help reduce this tension by releasing unnecessary muscle tension and producing sound in a more efficient, effortless manner.

Good posture is essential for effective singing which leads to better tone, breath control, and a more open and resonant voice.

The majority of people have a slightly forward-placed head and a slightly dropped or dropped chest. This causes vocal strain and disconnects you from the support that comes from the trunk of the body. 

In singing, we need to work on lengthening the back of our necks and tipping our chins slightly down in a neutral position. Balance our heads over our bodies as if they are resting there. At the same time, lengthen the small of our backs to lengthen the spinal erectors that hold good posture. 

Try this:  

Alignment Test

• Stand up. What side is working more than the other?
• Notice your feet – are you standing on the outsides-insides? front-back?
• What areas feel tight? Legs, hips, shoulders, back, neck? “
• Now look at your feet. Just notice. (one hip is torqued – something to work on)
• Are your knees locked? Make a note. Tighten – and release
• Is one hip tight? Make a note. Tighten butt – and then release 

Alignment Adjustment

• Stand evenly in the center of both feet
• Soften your knees so they are not locked
• Scarecrow: Head sitting on top of spine
• Tuck your pelvis slightly underneath you
• Pull up tall out of the waist
• Shoulders at rest (heavy): down and back
• Lengthen the cervical spine (neck)
• Lift the base of your skull towards the ceiling
• The head is level + placed over your body (not in front of)
• The chin is slightly tipped down to achieve a level head position and a long cervical spine
• As you stand in this alignment
• Notice if you feel your body working more on one side?
• Do you feel any tension anywhere?
• Do you feel any muscle pulling or pain anywhere?
• Any areas you feel tension are indicators of shortened muscles and areas that need attention and lengthening.

Next…

• Elongate / lengthen the back of your neck – pick up your hair at the base of your neck and pull upward
• Tip the chin slightly downward – to a neutral position – do you feel that in your back?
• If you feel tension, after you get into position, gently take a step back and soften those areas. Over time this tension will go away. For now, practice this alignment before singing and during singing notice what is occurring and make notes.

Try this Wall Test

• Stand against the wall. Feet hip distance apart and about a foot from the wall.
• Lean your hips into the wall.
• Straighten your spine against the wall.
• Press your lower back against the wall – does your head come forward?
• If so, this is an indicator that the small of your back is compressed and tight which indicates an issue with alignment, breathing and a compressed neck and forward head. When the head is forward you constrict your sound, your range and fall back into your throat singing from the throat.
• Now step away from the wall maintaining that posture. 

Working on your alignment and overall posture will greatly improve your voice. To get an experience of how to decrease strain and improve your overall sound get my free 4-part series here. The Better Voice Challenge 4 part workshop learn more here.