being used synonymously today and confusing singers everywhere . Women are the losers in this game . Men understand where their full voice starts and stops . They are incapable of making the higher , female range tones without the “ flip ”. But females are capable of singing their entire range with full vocal cord adduction ( closure ). They need only to understand and employ the points I made above . Women have been told they have two voices : a head voice and a chest voice . This robs them of the full color and resonance available to them through a seamless transition from one area of registration to another .
HOW DO I DO THIS ? Since the vocal cords are muscles , they can be strengthened . You may find that there are weak parts of your range where you find vocal cord closure tenuous . These areas can and need to be strengthened through exercise . Once you have full control of those weak areas , you can begin working on your transitions . At this point the transitions are similar for men and women .
( It ’ s only when men reach the top of their full range that they will have to learn to smooth out a shift in the cords . Women should not have to deal with this , when they reach the top of their range that is the end !)
You will have to discover and become competent with various types of tone placement . This is a difficult thing to explain via the written word . I have made multiple instructional DVDs that address this issue . I have put together two bundles for the readers of this column that can help you to better understand the concepts .
Once you have been able to identify and access the different areas you can resonate in , you can learn to apply them in different registers to get the sounds that you want . For a fuller powerful voice in your lower or mid register you ’ ll want to resonate in the chest , throat , mouth or mask area with lots of diaphragm support . For higher notes you ’ ll need to access the higher register by placing the tone in mask , head or nasal ( for more powerful sounds ) areas . Throughout all of these registers its important to keep the vocal cords fully adducted and the larynx low and relaxed in your throat .
These techniques are difficult to achieve without training . This is why , in part , you so rarely hear a singer today with a seamless voice from top to bottom of their range . This is also why we hear so many singers screaming while they ’ re trying to achieve a full voice in a higher range . This can cause untold vocal damage and contributes to the constant breaking we hear in women ’ s voices and the strain we hear in men ’ s voices . Some things are worth investing in . Your voice might be one of them . If you want to learn to sing correctly , you might just have to bite the bullet and get some training ( not on YouTube !)
Sheri Gould Sheri is an internationally acclaimed vocal coach . She ’ s been helping artists and worshipers find their voice for over 40 years . For help and resources visit her site . www . SheriGould . com