How to Sing Full and Resonant High Notes Without Destroying Your Voice

 

Singing full and resonant high notes without sounding thin or destroying your voice, is achievable with the right techniques and methods at your fingertips. 

High notes can be challenging because they require a precise balance of air flow, resistance at the vocal folds, and resonance in the vocal tract.

Using the techniques in today’s blog will help to sing fuller and richer high notes while preserving your vocal health and longevity. 

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

• Keep your chin pointed slightly down
• Think down for high notes
• Open your throat at the top of the phrase 
• Drink the tone to improve resonance and fullness 
• Drop the larynx before big notes to sing richer and full notes

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Let’s dive in!

Singers often experience this tension due to poor breathing techniques, such as chest breathing instead of diaphragmatic support, which fails to provide adequate air pressure for sustained high notes.

Additionally, the larynx may elevate and destabilize during high notes, reducing the resonance space and making it harder to maintain pitch and tone.

Mental factors also play a significant role; fear of failure or overthinking can lead to physical tension and strain, especially in performance settings.

Many singers believe high notes must be hard to hit, which creates a mindset of effort and resistance, counterproductive to the “letting go” and relaxation needed for ease.

Furthermore, the increased space between notes in the upper register makes pitch accuracy more difficult to maintain.

Common issues like overusing the chest voice for high notes, pushing the voice, or allowing the tongue to elevate can further compromise vocal quality and range. These challenges are not due to a lack of ability but rather a lack of proper technique and muscle coordination, which can be improved through consistent practice, vocal warm-ups, and guidance from a qualified vocal coach.

1. Keep your chin pointed slightly down for high notes 

One of the biggest mistakes singers make when singing high notes is lifting the chin up. When the chin lifts the back of the neck is shortened and the soft palate, which needs to lift, instead moves downward creating less space for the high note. Both of these movements restrict high notes. 

Keeping the neck lengthened and the chin slightly downward provides room inside the mouth, keeps the soft palate lifted where the higher note can resonate more fully. 

Try this to improve your high notes: 

• Keep the neck long and lengthened with the oxaput area lengthened up towards the ceiling.
• Balance the head over the spine instead of forward
• Tip the chin slightly downward in a neutral elevation, don’t lift the chin for high notes

When you are able to accomplish this position your high notes will come out easier and more effortlessly!

2. Think down for high notes

 

Think of your voice like an elevator. As an elevator rises up a heavy cable pulls downward so the elevator can rise up through the floors. This is the weighted movement of your high notes. 

Similarly, as the elevator lowers, the cable lifts upwards. These are your low notes. 

As you ascend in pitch, you’ll want to give the voice a little weight to anchor the larynx against the weight of the extra pressure required for high notes. 

We use the technique of reaching downward for high notes to sing them with more power and consistency. This helps the voice achieve better high notes without the strain of lifting upwards.

Try this:  

• Sing a 2 note scale returning to the starting note on UH – 1-2-1 / C-D-C
• As you sing the second note think of your throat opening and the note reaching downward (as you would if you are singing a lower note)
• Use a deeper sounding UH to help. 
• See if you can feel the downward motion of the second note. 
• This starts the process of “anchoring” the laryngeals keeping the voice more open on higher notes. 

3. Open your throat at the top of the phrase 

Tension in the throat or larynx is a major obstacle, as it disrupts the natural vibration of the vocal cords and can push high notes flat or cause pitch inaccuracies.

Try this exercise to open your throat. 

• 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?
• Now,  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. Try using this movement at the start of each phrase to open the throat prior to singing. 

This will create a richer and fuller sound in your high notes while stabilizing the laryngeal position resulting in more consistent high notes.

4. Drink the tone to improve resonance and fullness 

 

One of the biggest mistakes is to reach forward or try to project more for high notes. This tenses the throat as the singer tries to push the sound outward. 

Singers are so focused on getting the sound up and out that they often make the mistake of pushing the air out especially when they want to project or sing loudly. As a result they end up straining and falling back on the throat ruining their voice.

A way to avoid that is to use the visual image of the sound coming in towards you to create more resonance and fullness. 

Try this:  

• Sing an AH on one note imagining the sound coming in towards you. 
• You can put your hand out in front of you and draw it toward your mouth as you sing, imagining the sound filling your mouth and body.
• Try it again. 
• Do you notice more sound? 
• Try it again and use a slight “pulling” sensation to help bring the sound inward to resonate even more!

This is a technique that can accomplish more resonance and sound with less effort and help to avoid strain and fatigue.

5. Drop the larynx before big notes to sing richer and full notes

 

Before singing it helps to open up your throat muscles. We do this with our “Larynx Pull Down” self-massage movement. This opens up the throat before you sing which helps to open the voice and your range. 

The position of the larynx affects vocal production 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?
• Now place your index and middle finger and the thumb of the same hand on either side of your thyroid cartilage (throat) and as you drink gently pull downward to stretch and relax the throat muscles.

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™. 

Watch my demonstration of this on Instagram here.

Learn the Cole Vocal Method to sing full and resonant high notes with ease and consistency. Learn more here.