5 Vocal Techniques to Sing Without Strain and Improve Volume and Power
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Singing is an athletic event. Singers are athletes of the voice and breathing. The impact of a live concert and the strain on the voice, is irrefutable.
Dr. Peak Woo (an internationally recognized laryngologist, clinical research scientist, and author of Stroboscopy) said that the physical effect of a 45-minute vocal performance is equivalent to a 2-hour football game for a linebacker.
No matter how strong your voice or technique is, there is a natural strain and “wear and tear” on the voice in performance.
Like athletes, is imperative that singers train or they are going to inevitably end up with injuries or issues. You can avoid all of that.
Today’s blog will show you some tools for how to reduce strain and improve your vocal volume and power. Read through to keep your voice in top-performance shape. To avoid strain and burn out start strengthening your voice with techniques that will create a healthy strong vocal instrument. Click here to learn more.
1. How to avoid vocal strain
Vocal strain is the result of the following factors: incorrect vocal technique like putting too much strain on the vocal muscles, tension in the vocal muscles, and dehydration among others.
When the voice has too much pressure at the vocal folds the voice burns out easily and fatigues early.
Here are some of the factors that cause strain:
- Strain can be caused by the speaking voice: Speaking for long periods of time for your job, “yell-speaking” on Zoom, working at a bar or loud venue, or teaching aerobics or maybe you have kids, all of these things cause strain on your voice that affects your singing voice. To learn how to reduce strain and speak correctly check out my Vocal Rescue Kit here.
- Strain caused by the singing voice: Singing night after night without warming up or cooling down or without a healthy vocal technique will cause strain on the singing voice. The voice swells a bit as you sing. With a healthy technique your voice recovers quickly, but when you don’t have a good vocal technique it won’t which over time adds multiplies inflammation and adds up.
- To practice healthy singing techniques:
- For warming up with a healthy singing technique that will improve your tone, range, and endurance: Use my Singers Vocal Warmups. In just 20 minutes you’ll be warmed up and ready for healthy singing!
- For cooling down post show: Use my Vocal Rescue Kit Cool Downs to reduce inflammation post show and keep your voice in great performance condition. Learn more here.
- To practice healthy singing techniques:
- Tension in muscles (see #2 below).
Overall methods to reduce strain:
- Baths 1-2 a week with epsom salts and magnesium to reduce tension in the voice. Get your neck down in the hot water to release tension.
- Proper vocal technique exercises to eliminate strain and improve vocal production.
- Vocal stretches (see #2 below)
- Vocal massage (see #3 below)
- Warm ups that open up your voice (see above)
- Cool downs that decrease inflammation post show (see above)
- Careful with weight lifting – stretch before and after as well as take baths a few times a week in epsom salts with magnesium to reduce muscle contraction and strain.
2. Stretching reduces strain on your vocal instrument
One of the main contributing factors to vocal strain is tension in the muscles surrounding the voice. Contracted, tight muscles surrounding the vocal muscles is one of the main causes of strain on the singing voice. This tension literally “squeezes” the voice causing a thin, piercing or raspy, hoarse sound. Tension in these muscles constricts range and can lead to vocal problems such as early fatigue, vocal loss, and even vocal problems such as nodules or polyps.
- These are the main muscles that are affected:
- Jaw: tension here causes issues with vocal production, limits range, and creates a thin or throaty sound.
- Tongue: tension here causes nasaility or overall vocal issues, difficulties with hitting high notes, chest voice issues, beling, pronunciation
- Neck muscles: tension here causes extra pressure or “squeeze” on the vocal muscles which constricts vocal sound, range, tone and overall production.
- Laryngeal muscles: tension here causes vocal issues, inflammation, pain, early fatigue, overall vocal problems.
- Abdominal muscles: tension here causes constriction in the voice and breathing.
- Upper stomach area: tension here causes constriction in the voice.
- Intercostal muscles that wrap around the ribcage: tension here causes constriction in the breathing.
- Strain caused from lifting weights. Singers have to be extra careful when lifting weights as weight cause contraction of muscles. You can lift weights as long as you stretch before and after your sessions. In addition I would get a full body massage once a month and take baths with epsom salts once or twice a week to help dissolve extra tensions in the body.
Try this to stretch out your neck muscles:
- Stretch your right hand up towards the ceiling alongside your head.
- Grasp your left ear with your right hand.
- Gently pull your head to the right letting your right ear fall into your right arm.
- Take a deep breath and pull a little more to the right while letting your head fall into your arm.
- Repeat on the other side.
- This stretches out the side neck muscles (sternocleidomastoids) helping to eliminate vocal strain. Do daily.
To work on specific stretches for your vocal instrument: jaw, tongue, neck, and work on opening up the ribcage and upper stomach, grab a copy of my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups that come with vocal stretches to release the vocal muscles here.
3. Vocal massage reduces strain and helps the voice recover more quickly after singing
During singing, air comes up from the lungs, hits the vocal folds, vibration and sound occurs. As you sing, this action tends toward pushing the vocal muscles upwards contributing to strain, inflammation and a choked or tight sensation in the throat area. This can also create a “high” larynx which can cause issues with cracking, breaking or early fatigue and hoarseness.
Vocal massage helps to return these muscles to their original position and remediate the extra tension that is accumulating.
Try this vocal massages to help reduce strain in the vocal instrument:
- Wrap your thumb and fingers around the vocal muscles at the top of your throat.
- Start a slight yawn in the back of your throat
- As you yawn, slide your fingers downward gently pulling the throat muscles downward. Do not force – be gentle.
- Repeat 2-3 times each day.
- This vocal massage will help decrease tension in your throat and will help too reduce hoarseness that accumulates from over-singing or yelling.
You will find more vocal massages inside my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups which are designed to eliminate tension, open your range, and free your voice for singing.
For more help with reducing strain see these blogs:
5 Secrets To Make Your Voice Sound Better
How to Sing Better: 44 Tips From a Real Celebrity Vocal Coach
5 Secrets to Improve Your Singing Voice, Vocal Tone and Timbre
4. Tricks to sing with more volume without strain
Oftentimes singers experience strain when they use more volume or sing for a long periods of time. For instance, I used to sing folk songs in coffee shops with no problem. But when I joined a rock band and had to project my voice over the band I started experiencing vocal problems.
My raw untrained vocal instrument couldn’t handle that level of volume to project over the band on stage. This is a totally normal experience for singers. This led me to training my voice and finding my vocal coach which changed my life and my sound. Now decades later I help other artists by teaching these techniques that saved my voice and helped me become an award winning vocalist.
Vocal strain will constrict or limit volume. The more you can train to open up your voice (using my Cole Vocal Method taught in my Vocal Freedom Circle) the more volume and power you will experience in your singing voice.
Try this:
I use this technique inside my method that really helps to improve volume.
- Put your hand out in front of you with your fingers facing your face.
- Lift your chest upwards toward your chin to elevate the chest during singing.
- Sing an “AHHHHH” keeping your chest raised and move the fingers towards you imagining that you are “drinking the sound”.
- Let the sound come “towards you” instead of pushing it outward.
- Do you notice that the sound comes out a little easier?
- This technique is one of the many techniques inside my method that help singers learn how to sing with more volume and sound with less effort.
5. How to sing with more power and reduce strain
True vocal power comes from alignment and breath control. Vocal techniques that use the body instead of the throat for singing produce more power and less strain. Power, similar to volume, is achieved by using the “trunk of the body”— from the collarbones to the pubic bone—to support the sound. The muscles of the pectorals down to the abdominals help to support the singing voice and singing with more power. Activating the pectorals will help to anchor the vocal muscles to give more power without strain.
Try this:
- Lift the chest upwards towards the chin and keep the back flat.
- Activate your pectoral muscles by squeezing the insides of your upper ams to your body like a hug.
- Relax the back of your neck while you do this.
- Exhale while flexing the pectorals without letting the chest fall.
- This is a physical exercise that overtime will teach your body how to not drop the chest during singing. This action will produce more power in the voice.
To learn more about The Cole Vocal Method visit this blog: 10 Steps to Building a Powerful and Professional Singing Voice.
To get started with the Cole Vocal Method get a set of my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups which is the starting point of the method. Learn more here.
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