5 Vocal Techniques to Decrease Strain and Get More Sound
This post helps you get started, but that’s only the beginning. What would it feel like to decrease strain, and get more sound? How about singing your heart out with a transformed voice performing to thousands of people by the end of the year? Come join the thousands of singers who have already transformed their voices with the Singers Gift Warmups. Set your voice free in just 20 minutes a day with these revolutionary techniques found only here! Click here to find out how.
5 Vocal Techniques to Decrease Strain and Get More Sound
Many singers wonder how to improve the sound and production of their voice to decrease strain and get more sound.
Do you sometimes wonder if your voice will perform well or hold up after singing for an hour or two? How do you sing without strain but with power and volume?
Here are my top 5 Vocal Techniques to Decrease Strain and Get More Sound. They will help you step into a freer and more powerful voice without strain and losing your voice.
1. Build vocal strength
The first thing is to build vocal strength. When your voice is weak you will fall back on your throat muscles and sing from the throat increasing vocal strain. The first step is decreasing vocal strain and increasing sound to start building your vocal strength.
The untrained core voice is always weak in the core instrument. As we perform vocal technique we can strengthen the movements and coordinations to build vocal strength, accuracy, and consistency in singing decreasing strain and improving sound.
We practice movements that target the core muscles of the voice and breathing to work together to produce sound that is unencumbered by compensatory tensions. We then practice scales and movements that build strength in the core voice. .
Try this:
- Hold your jaw open 2″ with your hand.
- Let the front of the tongue rest touching the inside of your lower lip.
- Say “Kah” keeping the tongue glued to the lip.
- Try it again.
- Initially the tongue will try to pull away from the lip.
- If you can keep it touching the lower lip, the back of the tongue will reach upward more which stretches the base of the tongue away from the laryngeals.
Why is this important? Because the base of the tongue presses down on the laryngeals to compensate for the lack of strength in teh core muscles in an effort to control the air pressure at the vocal folds. But it doesn’t do this well.
What we want to do is to lengthen the tongue so it doesn’t over-compress the laryngeals which causes vocal fatigue and strain.
This is a movement that is practiced in vocal technique to free the voice and strengthen healthy vocal production.
To practice this movement start here: The Singers Gift Vocal Warmups is Part I of the Cole Vocal Method™ that will reduce tension, strip away the compensatory muscles and open and free your voice for performance. Learn more here.
2. Decrease vocal strain
Tension in the vocal instrument and surrounding muscles will cause issues with strong healthy vocal production and cause constriction limiting range and overall sound.
When your voice is tight or constricted it can’t ring or resonate properly and this creates a thin or tight sound. The muscles surrounding your instrument can constrict resonance and vibration causing problems with sound and volume.
We start by reducing the tension at the instrument and in the surrounding muscles as well as stripping away the compensatory muscles by retraining them to disengage through a series of movements and positions.
Tension in any of these areas will constrict the natural resonance and flow of sound and keep you from striking your natural resonance and placement.
Try this:
- Stand in front of a mirror and watch as you sing looking to identify what muscles are engaging.
- Do you see your neck muscles tightening as you sing? This signifies the over-functioning of the neck muscles.
- Is the jaw clenching or closing when you sing? This signifies the over-functioning of the jaw muscles.
- Is your head or chin jutting forward as you sing? This signifies the over-functioning of the back of the neck muscles in singing.
- Are your eyebrows raising when you sing higher? This signifies the over-functioning of facial muscles.
- Is your tongue reaching forward when you sing? This signifies the over-functioning of the front of the tongue.
Jot down what you notice.
Try singing while engaging one muscle group that is over-functioning less.
The muscles and movements mentioned above are considered “compensatory” muscles that compensate for a weakness in the primary muscles we use in healthy vocal technique. In proper vocal technique we practice movements that open and free the voice decreasing strain and improving sound, volume and fullness of tone. Learn more here.
3. Correct alignment to reduce strain
Next up, we want to align the posture to support correct vocal production, decrease vocal strain and get more sound. Posture plays an important part in reducing vocal strain by clearing the “vocal path”.
Postural alignment affects the “vocal path” of the sound. Poor posture will thwart the vocal path and cause tensions to arise that affect overall vocal production. When posture is slumped or compromised the vocal path is constricted and congested and sound is strained.
Most people have a slightly slumped chest and a forward head. This causes issues for singers as it prevents them from breathing deeper into the diaphragm and causes a disconnection from the support of the chest and torso of the body in singing. With a slumped posture the singer ends up singing from the throat.
A clear resilient tone and sound can’t happen without the right alignment and support for the voice. WIthout it, the voice is tense, strained, and constricted. Too much tension and force on the vocal instrument prevents it from functioning properly.
To set up the right support, the focus starts with alignment first and then engaging the “trunk” of the body to establish the core support for the voice.
Good alignment and support starts at your feet.
Try this:
- Stand with your feet hip distance apart.
- Stand evenly in the center of your feet. Notice if you place your weight more towards your toes or back on your heels, or too much on the inside or outside of your foot. Looking at the soles of your shoes can reveal some information about where you place your weight.
- Straighten the knees and then release them.
- Keep the knees soft and not straight.
- Tuck the pelvis slightly under you.
- Pull up tall out of the waist.
- Shoulders fall back and down.
- Back of the neck is lengthened up towards the ceiling.
- Chest is lifted up towards the chin without arching the back.
- The back is nice and straight with a natural curves.
- Chin is placed slightly down to maintain a neutral position.
Practice this alignment daily right before singing.
4. Strip away compensatory and accessory muscles
To develop true vocal strength and freedom one of the first processes is to identify which muscles are over-functioning to “compensate” for a weakness elsewhere.
Common compensatory muscle patterning is a complex name for a relatively straightforward process. When primary muscles do not work properly in movement, the brain tells other muscles to perform that movement instead.
For example, the jaw may contract when making sound in an effort to control the pitch or tone, when the pitch or tone are not controlled there. So the jaw is jumping in to assist the vocal production because the brain is telling it to.
During vocal training, we strip away the compensatory muscles that constrict and even damage the voice to provide a freer “Vocal Path” for the voice.
Some of the compensatory or accessory muscles that often over-function are:
- Tongue
- Neck
- Jaw
- Laryngeal muscles (throat)
- Abdomen
Try this:
- As you sing, see if you can identify what muscles you are using.
- Is the tongue reaching up or forward in the mouth, or tensing a lot?
- Is the neck tightening and the chin reaching forward?
- Is the jaw tensing when you sing?
- Is the throat tightening when you sing?
- Is the abdomen drawing inward when you sing?
These muscles can constrict the voice and cause problems with vocal production and high notes.
As you train your voice with the Cole Vocal Method™, you will learn how to stop using the compensatory / accessory muscles while then strengthening the core muscles to provide a stronger more consistent voice with a free and open range. Learn more here.
5. Open the throat before singing
When the throat is tight and constricted the singer ends up singing with more tension that limits range and creates a thin sound.
In vocal practice we focus on opening up the throat before singing to help decrease vocal strain and increase sound.
Practicing these positions and movements will help to open your throat and provide the support you need to hit high notes with more ease and consistency.
The position of the larynx affects vocal production a quite a bit. As you ascend in pitch the larynx tends to get pushed upwards. In a well-trained voice, this movement is minimized providing a more stable larynx allowing for smoother register shifts.
Untrained singers generally have little to no control of this area. Even in trained singers I often find higher laryngeal position due to oversinging and a lack of technique.
Try this:
- Place your finger at the top of your throat
- Yawn
- Did you feel the throat slip down?
- Now keeping your finger there, gently pull the jaw open with your hand
- Did you feel the throat slip down?
- Now bring an imaginary glass of water to your lips and pretend to drink
- Did you feel the throat slip down?
- This is a motion you do every day that you want to get in your reflexes
This is a motion singers use before they sing to open the throat and drop the larynx. A deeper position for the laryngeal muscles during singing helps to stabilize the voice during singing achieving smoother transitions in the passaggio.
We practice all of the above mentioned positions and movements inside the Singers Gift Vocal Warmups which is Part 1 of the Cole Vocal Method™.
JOIN ME EVERY WEDNESDAY AT 12 pm Eastern: Join me on YouTube (and Instagram, Facebook)– where I discuss the Blog of the Week followed by a short Q&A where you can ask me questions.
~~~~~~~~~~
Cole Vocal Method™ is taught inside The Vocal Freedom Circle. Grab a seat in my newly formatted Vocal Freedom Circle— an 8 week online vocal program that will show you exactly how to build a world-class level voice. Works with all genres and all levels. Walk away with a complete recalibration of your vocals, a world-class vocal method of over 70+ exercises on audio and video (yours to keep) + 12 modules with full demonstrations and instructions.
Get the support your voice needs to hold up throughout the demands of a professional career—and elevate your performance to astonish your audience at your next show!
Learn more about The Vocal Freedom Circle here.
Share this post
Categories
Hi, I’m Cari Cole.
You’ve got talent, but you want to become great at it. You’re in the right place! My mission is to help you refine your unique artist vision to bring to the world.
INSTANT ACCESS
STEP UP TO THE SPOTLIGHT
6-Week Kickstart Artist Development Program
Win Awards, Gain
Notoriety, and Industry
Recognition.
101
IDEAS TO INSPIRE
YOUR NEXT SONG
Cari Cole’s FREE songwriting prompts to break writers block and free your inner songwriter voice!
About Cari Cole
Cari Cole is the CEO / Founder of caricole.com and CCVM: Label Without Walls. She is a Holistic Vocal Coach, Artist Development Expert, A&R Director, and Songwriter based in New York City helping artists for the past 38 years. She is a mentor for Women in Music and The Association of Independent Music Publishers.
Her latest venture, CCVM a label services company, provides artists with a seamless path from creation to completion. After 30+ years of observing the overwhelm and challenges that artists face, Cari pulled together the best top creative professionals and designed a new approach to supporting our artists.
Disclaimer:
The information provided on Cari Cole's website is informational only and should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease. Those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on Cari Cole's website. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room immediately.