Why are high notes difficult to sing? High Notes seem to be one of the biggest problems for singers, but why do high notes seem so difficult to sing or are they not? The high note is actually not the problem! When you are singing a high note in a light breathy voice, you will see that it is not that hard to hit the not. The trouble starts when we try to sing a high note strong and loud. For some reason our subconscious mind is supporting the believe that we need to ‘help’ our voice by lifting our cheeks, eyes, shoulders and open our mouth widely, blow a lot of air and cross our fingers that we can hit that note. The thing is though that all these things are contra productive in order to sing high notes or any any notes for that matter. What happens in the larynx when we sing High Notes? In order to sing high notes freely and strongly, a couple of things need to happen parallel. Let's take a closer look at the voice. The vocal folds are made up of elastic membranous tissue and they sit in our larynx. When we phonate or sing the edges of the vocal folds vibrate in the airstream to produce the voice. The two muscle groups which are mainly involved when we sing and are responsible for pitch changes and compression (adduction), are the Thyroarytenoid muscle (TA) and the Cricothyroid muscle (CT). While the TA stiffens the vocal folds and make them shorter and fatter, the CT muscle stretches the vocal folds, making them thinner and raising the pitch. The TA is dominant in chest voice, the CT is dominant in head voice. When we sing, those two muscle need to work together, in our lower range the TA muscle is the dominant muscle, in our higher range the CT muscle is dominant and in our mid range or so called 1st bridge or passagio, the ratio is pretty much 50:50, meaning both muscles engage equally. Finding the Mix for High Notes Coordinating the muscles is one of the main challenges for singers. Why? Well, in order to sing high notes the CT muscle needs to stretch the vocal folds and thin the cord to get the pitch. But because we often do not only want to hit a note in falsetto (which has a very light and airy sound quality), the TA muscle needs to flex at the same time to make the vocal folds fatter, resulting in more contact at the edges of the vocal folds (more adduction). Fattening the vocal folds with the TA muscle creates a bigger sound, however we need to find a balance between those two muscles in order to prevent the TA from over-flexing and therefore jamming the vocal folds or letting go too much and flipping into a falsetto. When the pressure below the vocal folds (subglottal pressure) is too high, the vocal folds will just get out of the way and open up, acoustically we perceived this as a flip. When there is not enough tension on the vocal folds (again that fattening factor, how much tissue of the vocal folds is vibrating), we will end up with a ‘light’ sound. Well trained singer are able to coordinate just enough TA involvement to the note to be able to sing in a strong and free way while maintaining the flexibility of the CT muscle to help them raise the pitch when needed. How to Mix High Notes It is best to gradually increase TA involvement on the high notes, meaning starting lighter and then increasing the amount of TA involvement while maintaining the balance and freedom of the voice. When you practice, start with low volume and then increase the volume gradually. Do you have any questions in regards to singing? Is there’s something you always wanted to know? Just ask us: contact@vocals-on-stage.com Like us on Facebook