Singers always ask me how to get more power and how to belt without hurting their voices. 

First you need strength. No matter what trick you try, if your voice is weak, you won’t be able to belt. Singers coming out of the pandemic have had a difficult time getting back in performance shape. I have a vocal regimen that will get you back on track and will strengthen your voice in just a few short months. Even in the first week you’ll notice a difference.

The most important thing you can do is to start to work on your voice. Developing a strong daily vocal practice of 20 minutes a day is proven to get great results when you use our technique. See below for more information. 

1. Alignment

It starts with your alignment. We have a lot of neck issues with people slumping forward in our devices culture today. You won’t have any strength or be able to belt with your head in a forward position and your chest slumped. Your neck needs to be lengthened as if you were putting your head back against a wall in order to reach higher notes and belt safely. When you do this, your chest automatically lifts. A high chest position is important to maintain throughout inhalation or exhalation during singing. When the chest is high the pectoral muscles will help to anchor the laryngeal muscles helping you to have more power. 

2. Jaw down 

In order to have more power and be able to belt you will want to work on your jaw moving downward when you sing. 

I demonstrate this in my video here: More Power without Strain.

3. Kah vocal exercises

 

Part of vocal strength and belt is controlling the back of the tongue. 

In the “Kah scales”, Exercise #8  in my Singers Gift Warmups, we work on controlling the tongue by practicing movements that will give you more vocal control specifically over your belt. When the tongue is abnormally high it pulls the larynx up with it. It’s important to note that the tongue goes high on “ee”, “ay” or “i” vowels, but you can learn to keep the tongue a bit lower on these vowels as well to control your sound. 

4. Tongue pull exercises

 

Most people have a good deal of tension in their tongue which causes a lot of vocal issues to do with nasality, hoarseness, range, the break area. In my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups we do yogic style vocal exercises in positions that decrease overall tension in your tongue improving vocal production. 

Learn more about The Cole Vocal Method and the Singers Gift Warmups here.  

5. Position of the soft palate 

The position of the soft palate along with the tongue also determines how much power and range you can sing without affecting the belt voice. 

Try this: Bring a glass to your mouth as if you are going to drink some water. Did you notice your throat open in the back? Now do it again. Do you notice your larynx (throat) moves downward and the roof of your mouth in the back of your throat moves up? That is your soft palate. It’s a subtle movement that singers learn to get control over to have more strength, range and sing high notes with more precision.

In my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups there is an exercise called “Pingah” that helps to lift the soft palate creating more room in the back of the mouth, improving range and sound. You can learn more about the Singer’s Gift Vocal Warmups here.