5 Secrets to Increase Your Vocal Range and Power

5 Secrets to Increase Your Vocal Range and Power

Increasing your vocal range and power in your voice comes from learning how to use your voice without falling back on your throat which constricts and limits those two factors. 

Everyone is born with a potential range determined by the length of your vocal cords. Like strings of an instrument, longer vocal cords produce a lower pitch and shorter cords produce a higher pitch.

You can expand your vocal range with the help of vocal technique. As you train, your range will naturally expand higher and lower. 

Singers are athletes of the small muscles of the voice and the breathing. Developing the strength of the voice through vocal techniques that build the voice (like my Cole Vocal Method) will extend your range naturally. 

Vocal range and power is also a function of vocal health and vitality. Since your instrument resides inside your body, your voice is affected by the energy and strength of your physical body as well. 

One of the biggest benefits that comes from training your voice with vocal technique is an expanded range and increase in vocal power, belt and volume. 

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

• Good posture and alignment
• Raise the soft palate naturally
• Oval mouth and long jaw for laryngeal resistance
• Use the body for support
• Breathe into the lower triangles of the lungs

Now let’s dive in. Here are my 5 Secrets of How to Increase Your Vocal Range and Power.

1. Good posture and alignment 

Good posture and practicing the right alignment improves your range and power giving you access to more notes and a fuller sound. 

Start by lengthening the back of your neck and tipping your chin slightly down in a neutral position. Balance your head over your body as if it is resting there. At the same time, lengthen the small of your back. 

When practicing singing use this direction: 

• Feet hip distance apart.
• Knees relaxed and not locked.
• Tuck the pelvis under you.
• Pull up tall out of the waist.
• Lift the chest up towards your chin.
• Lengthen the back of your neck up towards the ceiling.
• Balance over your body
• Tip the chin slightly down to open and free the back of your neck.
• Keep the chest elevated without tensing. 

The better your alignment, the more access you’ll have to your range and the more resonant and powerful your voice will sound. 

2. Raise the soft palate naturally

The soft palate plays an important role in accessing your full vocal range. Until you’ve trained with a good technique, it tends to sit too low, constricting your range and limiting the notes you can hit. 

Soft Palate Exercise 1:

• Trace the roof of your mouth with your tongue starting behind the top teeth. Notice when you come to the place where the hard palate stops and the soft palate starts.
• To access your full range the soft palate needs to lift. This is a gentle motion that needs to be rehearsed to get control over the movement.
• Look in the mirror to monitor the soft palate movement.
  Notice the uvula (piece of skin hanging down that is attached to the soft palate). 
  Keeping your mouth open, begin a yawn.
  At the start of the yawn did you notice your uvula (soft palate) lift? 

Soft Palate Exercise 2: 

The best way to feel the soft palate lift naturally is in a simple movement we repeat throughout the day.

• Bring an imaginary glass to your lips to prepare to drink.
• Do you notice your throat slipping down?
• Put your finger horizontally at the top of your throat and do it again.
• Do you notice your throat slipping down?
• Now do it again and do you notice at the same time the throat slips down the subtle motion on the roof of your mouth lifting? 

This is your soft palate and the subtle lift motion you want to get familiar with. This motion is particularly important to access your range and high notes. 

3. Oval mouth and long jaw for laryngeal resistance 

In vocal technique we use the term “laryngeal resistance” to identify the motion of keeping the laryngeal muscles in a lower position during singing which helps us resist and manage the increase in air pressure when you sing higher and louder. This is tricky because this is a motion that needs to be programmed into the voice with proper technique and is not as effective when manipulated in the moment.

But this motion is imperative to singing strong, reaching high notes—and singing consistently powerful notes that don’t crack or break.

Try this. 

• Yawn with your finger horizontal at the top of the throat. Try to yawn more with the back of your throat vs. your jaw. A little of both is good.
• Watch in the mirror. Do you see your finger and throat slip downward as you yawn?
• Another trick is to bring an imaginary cup of water to your mouth to drink. As you drink do you notice your throat slip downward?
• This is a movement we do throughout the day and is easy to identify. 
  This is a motion you want to get on auto-pilot to use before you sing high notes. Once it is programmed into the body it becomes a natural movement. Don’t overdo it. Everything with the voice is best experienced as small and subtle movements as tense movements will tighten the instrument.

Warning: You can’t force these muscles down. They need to be gently and correctly trained to sit in the right position. Start with my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups that come with full demonstrations. When the larynx sits in a deeper bed (which comes from training) you have more control over your voice and high notes.

Getting control of your instrument is achieved by practicing the vocal technique exercises inside of The Cole Vocal Method. The Cole Vocal Method is a master voice building system based in 40 years of vocal science that improves your voice right from the start. 

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

4. Use the body for support

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.

5. Breathe into the lower triangles of the lungs

Has anyone ever explained to you how to breathe diaphragmatically in a way you’ve understood? If not, you’re not alone! It is often so misunderstood by singers and vocal coaches.

If you’ve been doing my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups for a while, you’re probably a bit ahead of the curve — because we get you started breathing diaphragmatically — I’ll tell you the secret! 

It starts with moving the ribs. This is where it begins. 

Let’s do a quick exercise.  

• Put your hands on your ribs.
• Exhale.
• Now hold your ribs firmly with pressure and breathe slowly into your hands. Do you feel the ribs slowly expand and swing outwards into your hands.
• The trick is to breathe slowly and not too fast and you’ll feel the ribs move.
• This is the beginning of breathing diaphragmatically.

Learning how to breathe deeply into the lower triangles of the lungs involves expanding the lower 4-5 ribs outward in a 360 degree movement. Expanding the ribcage here allows the diaphragm to descend pulling air deeper into the lungs.