A Tale of Two Registers Part 2
The tale of two registers part two.
Hey guys and welcome back to The Singing Studio. Last video we talked about the chest voice which is our lower register. If you haven’t watched that video yet go ahead check it out because it’s a great video to watch before we get into what we’re talking about today.
Check out Episode 8: A Tale of Two Registers Part 1 – Chest Voice
Today we’re talking about the head voice. Our head voice is our upper register. So again, our chest voice is our lower register and our head voice is our upper register. Singing in the head voice can be intimidating for some of us because singing high can be uncomfortable. I mean, I know for me sometimes I can get a little scared if I’m asked to sing something that goes up really high. Well that’s going to change today because I have some pretty awesome exercises that are going to help strengthen that head voice.
Before we dive into some awesome exercises, I just want to go over a few of our goals specifically with these head voice exercises. First off, breath support. Just like with our chest voice, as we’re going up higher into our head voice we can get a little bit squished with the sound because we’re thinking, “Oh no it’s going higher, it’s going higher! I have to squish, I have to squish!” When really that’s not what we should be thinking at all.
Having that good breath support is going to help us with this next goal which is to keep it nice and open. Okay? As we’re going up higher I want you to think like this. I don’t want you to think small. I want you to think open. The higher I go, the more space I’m going to have. It’s kind of a mental trick because sometimes if we’re thinking, “Oh no, oh no! I’m going high! It’s getting smaller!”, then it reflects in our voice. We don’t want to give that sort of energy to our voice. We want to tell our voice, “Hey! We have all of this space that I can sing in this head voice.” So make sure as you are singing that you’re mentally thinking of that nice and open space.
And then finally, we want to make sure that we’re keeping a nice vocal consistency. So you’re probably wondering what that is. That means that we are exerting the same amount of, I guess you could say, power and energy and forwardness to our voice. And we’re keeping that even. So if, for example, we’re singing an exercise and we start off really strong, we want to end really strong. We don’t want to peter out or make it weak or anything. So making sure that we are using that breath support, again, is going to help with that vocal consistency. So openness, vocal consistency, and under all of that we’re having that good breath support. So let’s get started with some awesome exercises.
So the first exercise that we’re going to do are some lip trill jumps. And let me demonstrate it for you so that you can hear what it sounds like.
So I really like this exercise because it really gets our voice prepared to sing up high. I feel like whenever I do lip trills when I’m warming up it really helps warm up my voice. It gets me ready. It also engages my breath support. So I like doing a little bit of these lip trill jumps before getting into any more intense sort of head voice exercises because it really helps engage that breath right out of the gate. And it also helps my voice wake up and be prepared to sing up high.
For our next exercise, we will be doing some “you slides” as I like to call them. I really like doing slides in general in the voice because it really helps me focus on keeping my voice nice and consistent and nice and open. And remember, when we’re singing in our head voice and we’re going up higher we really need to make sure that we are thinking open because as we get higher and higher we don’t want to squish that sound at all. We want to make sure that we’re nice and open. So let me demonstrate a few of these “you slides” for you so that you can kind of get a feel of what it’s supposed to sound like.
And, of course, remember to only go as high as you’re able. Don’t try to force any sound out if you can’t go that high. Again, we are keeping those same principles of having that good breath support, similar to when we did our lip trill jumps. We’re also making sure that we’re focusing the sound almost like a laser beam. As we’re going “you” we are really lasering it in and we’re really focused on that sound being open and forward and straight out there. We don’t want it to get in the back of our throat because then we can cause a lot of vocal strain. So always remember to engage that breath support and make it nice and focused.
The next exercise that we are going to do are some “ooo wee’s”. And this one sort of combines the lip trills jumps and the “you slides” into one exercise. So let me demonstrate it for you so you can hear what it sounds like.
So I really like this exercise because, like I said, it does build upon those other exercises. So when you’re practicing I definitely suggest doing it in that order. Start with the lip trill jumps, then go into the “you slides”, and then do these “ooo wee’s”. So our goal with this is as we’re skipping up to the “ooo wee” we don’t want to get complacent and make it lazy because then we’ll have a tendency of it sitting in our throats and then we won’t be able to reach those higher notes. We need to make sure that as we’re doing that we are engaging that breath support so that as we go “ooo wee” it comes out nice and strong, nice and consistent. So again, using that breath support, we’re making sure it’s nice and open and we want that consistent sound.
For this exercise we’re going to be singing one word and that word is “lovely”. So as we’re singing this make sure to give it that sweet energy, “lovely”. At least that’s how I like to put it so I remember to keep it open and keep it bright and forward. So let me demonstrate it for you.
So as I’m getting higher I’m making sure that I am engaging that breath support. When I’m going to the “lovely”, I’m not going “lovely”, I’m going “lovely”. I like to think of a water fountain spraying the water out. “Lovely”. “Lovely”. So as we’re singing it, think of a waterfall. So really focus on making it that laser focus I keep talking about and keeping it consistent. Especially when we’re going up. It is sometimes normal, especially when our voices are still developing, to feel a little bit of that weakness in our upper register. And that’s just because it may not be a register that a lot of us are comfortable singing in. You know what? That’s okay. That’s why we do exercises and that’s why we work on our breath support so that we can really engage our voice in the best way possible and just strengthen all of those muscles. So as you’re singing “lovely” don’t get too caught up on “oh it sounds quiet” or “oh it doesn’t sound as strong or loud as Carlee in the video”. Don’t even think about that at all. Just focus on keeping your breath support really good, keeping it nice and forward and open, and nice and consistent. If there’s anything that you need to get from this video and head voice exercises, it’s that. It’s the breath support, it’s the openness, and that vocal consistency.
And that’s all for our video today. Be sure to check out the supplemental video that will go along with this one. It will have all of the head voice exercises that we did today. Thanks and have a great day!
I do these videos every other week, but if you still want more musical theatre, check out my newsletter! It’s called “Beyond The Score”, and it just takes a closer look at musical theatre history. You can find that at jskstories.com.
Head Voice Exercises
Hi you guys and welcome to today’s supplemental video, Head Voice Exercises. If you haven’t watched A Tale of Two Registers Part 2, make sure to watch that so that you can get all the tips and goals that we have for these specific exercises. And with that, I hope you enjoy this video!
Head Voice Exercise 1: Lip Trill Jumps
Head Voice Exercise 2: You Slides
Head Voice Exercise 3: Ooo Wee
Head Voice Exercise 4: Lovely
Thank you for watching! These exercise videos are made to guide you through your practicing! Be sure to take breaks if you are feeling tired and make sure to drink water.
Make sure to like this video!
I do these videos every other week, but if you still want more musical theatre, check out my newsletter! It’s called “Beyond The Score”, and it just takes a closer look at musical theatre history. You can find that at jskstories.com.