3 Ways to Hit High Notes Without Cracking and Breaking

Every singer wants to hit better high notes – right? There are a lot of vocal techniques that will help you do this and today’s article reveals a few of the most helpful techniques I use in my lessons from the past 30 years that have turned around singers’ voices the fastest.

1. Think down for high notes

The next time you sing an ascending vocal scale or you sing a high note, try thinking of the way an elevator works. A heavy weight is attached to a pulley and as the weight pulls down, the elevator actually goes up to the higher floors. So, the highest floor is reached when the weight is the heaviest. Similarly, you should think down for your high notes or think of adding weight (resistance) to your highest notes. Click here for more information on how to sing better high notes.

2. Keep your chin pointed down, your neck long and your jaw open

Because high notes are placed higher in a singer’s instrument, the mistake is often made to reach up with your chin. This does the exact opposite of what you want. This motion closes off the back of the throat and pulls the soft palate down. You need the throat open and the soft palate in a raised position to reach your hight notes. Keep your chin pointed down, the spine of your neck long to help you reach high notes with more ease and power.

It is also common to close the jaw a bit to reach higher notes, but that is not helping you. Closing your jaw can cut off your high notes and pull your larynx up closing your throat and making your voice unstable. To get more tone, power and volume on high notes, keep your jaw open as you sing your vowels. The best way to do this is to practice voice building exercises.

Start with my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups – where I walk you through techniques to accomplish everything listed in this article! Use the coupon code 25off to save $25.00.

3. Keep Your Tongue Down in the Back

Singers often complain about their high notes sounding too thin or harsh. This is because as you sing higher your throat tends to close, and your vocal muscles get pushed upward making for a thinner, harsher sound. One of several solutions is to press your tongue down in the back of your throat to “anchor” the note. First, practice the feeling of the tongue dropping in order to use it during singing. Hold your jaw open, keep the tip of the tongue glued to the inside of the lower lip and say “Kah” without moving your jaw. The tongue will reach up to the roof of your mouth (soft palate area) on the “k” and drop down on the “ah”.

Practice this to get better control of the tongue. Then when singing high notes try using the technique! Don’t expect the tongue to cooperate instantly, it takes some practice, but some of you will notice an immediate improvement. The tighter the tongue is the more difficult this will be. But practicing this over time will result in stronger, more “anchored” high notes.

Bonus Tips:

Hydration: Hydrate. Water, green vegetable juices, brothy soups, fresh salads are all proven to increase hydration. Your voice can’t function well without water, especially when it comes to high notes. Dehydration causes dryness, a bumpy break area, loss of high notes, cracking, breaking and early vocal fatigue. Drink 8 glasses of water a day along with the aforementioned juice, broth and vegetables to increase hydration that will help to improve high notes.

Craft: Practice vocal technique for 20 minutes a day to expand your range and improve your high notes. Grab a set of my Singers Gift Warmups below for an excellent way to get your voice in shape.

Mindset: Improve your confidence. Work your craft and stay positive.
There is more to singing high notes than we can get to in this article, but we included the most important techniques that can help. We have a great vocal workshop replay that dives even deeper into up-leveling your voice and hitting those ‘money-notes’ you hear on big records. Learn more here.

Start here with my Singers Gift Vocal Warm Ups. In just 20 minutes a day you will experience a vocal transformation. Eliminate vocal tension, strengthen your voice and free your high notes. post-performance.