How to Improve Your Singing Range- Tips and Tricks

One of the most common reasons why singers sign up for voice lessons is to learn how to improve their singing range and for good reason: once you start doing vocal workouts with a quality voice teacher you should very quickly find that your range has improved to some degree. If you’re reading this right now and you’re wondering how that is possible, just consider what I talk about with all of my students: the vocal folds are muscles. If you work out any other muscle in your body, does it not get stronger and more flexible?

Before you begin, you will need to find out what your initial range is. Typically, this is something that is determined in a first lesson in a private vocal lesson. When I’m determining range, I will run a singer through scale patterns with a piano and take them up until we hit their higher comfortable note and then scale back down to the lowest comfortable note. Once your range has been established you can mark your progress! What I normally tell my students is that you get what you put into it. The more you practice the exercises and learn about the mechanisms of proper singing, the more you should gain flexibility and range. Every singer has a physical limit as to how much range they can achieve but as long as you listen to your coach and practice, you should be able to make quick progress. ultimately, a singer’s vocal range is determined by the size of the larynx and the folds.

As far as how much range can be gained, that all depends on where an individual is starting from. I have worked with singers that had no access to their falsetto and head voice range prior to lessons and singers that were shutting their range off prior to their low range as well. These singers stand the most to gain because they have shut themselves off from entire registers at times. Most singers will gain a few notes in either direction. Below I have listed a couple of great exercises that should help you to find more range in your voice today! Don’t forget to sign up for one on one lessons to get some professional feedback! Until then, here are some exercises you can do to expand your range on your own time:

Lip trills are a standard vocal exercise for singers- the vibration from the lips flapping is like a little massage on all the little muscles in and around the larynx as you vocalize. It stabilizes your airflow and singers tend to very quickly gain some rage in either direction as they produce this sound as it loosens up muscles as you vocalize. Tension restricts range, this exercise will release tension.

This vocal exercise has been really helpful in my lessons to help people access their upper registers more easily. Oftentimes singers may struggle to even find their falsetto and head voice ranges. This sound will pressurize the interior and assist singers at finding higher notes. If you already have your upper register, you should find it easier to hit higher notes with this sound.