When learning how to sing a high note there are 5 Major Dynamics that come into play:
1. Before attempting any note, making certain you have the abdominal strength to sustain the note
2. The mechanics of knowing how to get the note
3. The mechanics of correct vowel placement
4. Giving yourself “permission” to hit the note (psychology of singing)
5. The consistency of knowing how to get the first four elements by building muscle-memory, with unconscious competence.
Let’s break each one of these down:
1. Before attempting any note, making certain you have the abdominal strength to sustain the note.
You need to know how to utilize the diaphragm and your entire abdominal cavity as the Engine that drives your car for strength to get to the note you are looking to achieve. I have a huge section on this in my singing course and several great tutorials for free on YouTube.
2. The mechanics of knowing how to get the note.
Once diaphragmatic strength has been established, you need to understand how not to “over-sing” the bottom or the low portion of a scale/passage in a song, and save that strength with “equal resistance” as you rise to hit the note you are looking to achieve (equal resistance, meaning that the higher up you go, the more strength in the abdomen you need to sustain the note).
3. The mechanics of correct vowel placement.
Once the correct amount of strength required is understood, there are correct vowel shapes that need to take place in the throat, which is called vocal tract shaping. A vowel will start very large on the bottom and will need to pare down as it ascends, so as not to pull too much “weight” up in the sound (or too much muscle mass in the throat) when ascending a scale/passage.
4. Giving yourself “permission” to hit the note (psychology of singing).
Believe it or not, people “freaking out” over not hitting a certain note causes the body to lock down into a fight or flight response and inhibits their ability to give themselves permission to hit that note consistently. So we train ourselves psychologically not to think about the high note, but think about the correct amount of strength in the abdomen, the correct vowel placement, and then repetition for consistent reduplication (this includes point 5 as well).
In this video, I touch these elements on how to sing a high note with ease and I hope you find this video informative and useful on your singing journey.
For those interested, I have huge portions of my course that help people achieve this more in-depth.
Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy – Where The PROOF Is In The Singing!
