Fortunately for a bunch of us, we are not in the 19th century anymore and men do not need to be castrated in order to achieve this vocal pitch: good vocal lessons, a few tips on how to improve our vocal pitch as well as plenty of vocal practice will do.
“Adriana, you’re a girl, what does falsetto have to do with you?” you may ask, and there you’ll be right! Although there’s still some space for argument on that topic, falsetto applies only to men, as they have to sing in a high pitch that women “naturally” have. In any case, “falsetto” is just about, how to sing the high notes.
However, as you may already know, I have a boyfriend, David, who gradually caught the ‘singing fever’ thanks to yours truly. He’s been practicing and singing falsetto seemed to give him a hard time. So, from his experience and the words of my wise boyfriend, here are some tips to find the easiest way how to sing high notes.
If You Want To Sing, You Have To Breathe
First and foremost you have to get that breathing right! It has to come in from your lungs to your diaphragm and come out from your diaphragm to your lungs. The circle’s direction is set, what’s next? You have to control the quantity of air you’re using when you sing: too much air would ruin the pitch as bad as not enough of air.
Learn Where to Sing From, Throat or Chest?
Then comes the way you use your voice. Where does it come from? It has to come from the upper throat, NOT the chest. David had a few problems with that part: he kept singing from his chest, which lead to him getting closer to his normal pitch rather than the higher notes he was aiming for.
If you sing from your upper throat, you will progressively train your higher cords. In addition to that, David learned a clever trick from our favorite vocal coach: put your hand on your chest to see if it vibrates, if it does it’s no good, you are closer to your normal range.
Get in Front of A Mirror
And while you’re keeping your hand on your chest like the prince under Rapunzel’s window, don’t forget to note the positions you’re in. Yes that’s right play Narcissus a little bit, take a mirror and note your mouth’s shape when you sing in high pitch. It might be best to even do the scale exercise in front of that mirror, it helped in David’s case.
The scale exercise? It’s that “do re mi…” on different notes, progressively going higher and higher. You have to choose short notes (staccato) at first, to get familiar with those “higher grounds” but then you’ll have to move to legato (what actual notes in songs sound like). There are also good explanations about the staccato exercises from online singing video tutorials, some of them given by… women… Moving on…
This whole process will probably take a long time, and without a coach it won’t be any faster, so try to get a private vocal coach, if you can afford it, or take online singing lessons for better results and more helpful techniques.
My Best Advice – Remember 2 Things Only
Now that we’re done with the technical stuff, here are two simple but important keys for falsetto (maybe even singing in general). One of them is contained in two words: no pressure. Do not push or strain yourself, the voice’s result won’t be that amazing and let’s not even talk about public performances.
Last but not least, prepare your cup of hot tea (or other liquid) to take you through your practice. It relaxes vocal cords and might even spoil you a little if your loved one is the one in charge of the tea supplying.
Of course, as always, believe in yourself, persevere and you will definitely make it!