I randomly started reading a book called Caruso's Method of Voice Production, and it was blowing my mind by saying all these controversial things like:
- Although breath is important, it is not at all the most important component
- An understanding of Diaphragmatic breathing is unnecessary
- The speaking voice leads and serves as a guide to the singing voice
The book was really interesting for the historical context as well
because apparently in the 1920's it was common for opera singers to ruin
their voices attempting to perform the contemporary repertoire of the
time - composers like Wagner and Verdi (who were alive during the 1800's
but their music still ruled the opera world). These wrecked singers
would have no choice but to become teachers and would spread bad singing
techniques to the next generation of singers - which is why the author
says focusing on the breath and diaphragm is the main concept among
voice studios. The author interviewed Enrico Caruso and other singers,
but unfortunately the common response to why their were so goddamn good
was "I don't really know why - it just happens naturally." This sounds
like a terrible answer, but the author interpreted it to mean that
natural singing should feel like nothing is happening - therefore
unnatural physical motions like pushing out your chest, or holding out
your stomach, and all kinds of exercises are unnecessary. He also took
it to mean that singing should feel as normal as speaking.
Basically he says, the reason why high notes feel so weird is because
you spend 90% of your day hanging around the lower tones of your
speaking voice, but then give the remaining 10% to your singing voice when you practice - with maybe 1% spent on high notes you would never ever use in
normal conversation. So of course your body and psychology are going to
be resistant to it.
So I started reading books out loud instead of warming up at the
piano. I put on a Mickey Mouse voice to see just how high I could speak
and yeah it felt really weird and uncomfortable at first, but I even
started imagining I was a cartoon character and my throat started to
compensate and it started to feel normal again.
This song Snails is sang by Nate Ruess who is in the band Fun, but
used to be in The Format 10 years ago. He sings extraordinarily high
and actually has an extraordinarily high speaking voice if you listen to
him in interviews. I've sang this song for years but always 2 steps
down - and it was still really difficult and quiet / small. Nate sings
it in the outrageous key of E Major which might be OK if you sang it an
octave down, but in E all 3 of the tonic notes (Do Mi and Sol) are right
in the passagio (Italian for passage - meaning the difficult / narrow
part of the vocal range). So after reading a lot I'd try this song in
the original key and after only a few days it pretty much worked! Do I want
to sing other songs that spend the majority of the time up here? NO. But
once you can access certain high notes and have a strategy to get up
there without fear, your normal notes can feel much more secure - at least I hope
so. This has been an exercise in following instructions from a 100 year old text,
and I'm convinced! I used to have trouble singing E, but now I can get
up to high A (5 steps higher). Just to put into context, most classical choral music rarely has high A's in the tenor part - opera will very rarely have a high B-flat (1 step higher) at the most dramatic climax of an aria. There are still intonation issues, but I
gotta believe those will work themselves out over time as I continue to research and
understand as much as I can about singing.
Pro Tips
- If you can't sing high, try speaking up there for a few minutes
until you become acclimated to it. If you feel weird and are convincing
yourself to stop, then it will never normalize - you gotta really
believe in it. Perhaps it will also work if you can't sing loudly - try
speaking loudly. Speak loudly as a character like Gaston from Beauty
and the Beast.
- You can warm up some to blow off phlegm that might be on your
vocal chords, but if you run into notes that feel / sound like a violin
bow pulling way too hard on the strings, you are aggravating the tissues
and more phlegm will soon come. The only option is to rest and drink
slightly warm water.
- Singing and speaking should have the same sensation in the throat - if there is tension, you're doing something unnatural.