Mike Elson: (49:21)
How do you know how big your range actually is?
Matt Edwards: (49:26)
Yeah. It varies, and age is a huge factor in this. Most people start to discover their full vocal range when they get closer to 20. There are always exceptions to the rule. I just worked with a high school singer the other day, a prospective student here. I teach at Shenandoah, and this kid was belting out high Cs and Ds like this was nothing. 17, 18 years old. It’s insane.
Matt Edwards: (49:53)
Then you meet … I work with somebody else who’s 23 who’s struggling with high notes still. So there are variations. The easiest way to do it is to start at a soft volume at the bottom part of your voice and see where I can go how low. Soft, I say, because once we start driving those loudened pitches, a lot of times, they’re just not coming out. Vocal folds are too firmly pressed together, you’re not going to have what you need.
Matt Edwards: (50:16)
For instance, if I’m at the bottom of my range, it would be (singing). The vocal folds are still vibrating on that pitch. If I gave it a little bit more sound … (singing) … I could maybe get some more edge. That’s a sign to me that that might be a little too low. So I’m going to take it up a whole step and see what happens there. (singing) That one has a lot more of that [inaudible 00:50:45] to it. (singing) That seems like it’s getting more into the range that I can actually sing.
Matt Edwards: (50:53)
So more than likely, I’m going to call that my bottom, especially in an acoustic setting. If I’m going for a really breathy microphone singing, I might be able to get a little bit lower on a mic. If I’ve got this guy up close and went (singing), I can start to get that low pitch.
Mike Elson: (51:12)
Low C.
Matt Edwards: (51:14)
But that has to have a mic. It’s not acoustic. So you’re usually looking for a place where there’s still clear vibration, but then the vibration starts to stop.
Matt Edwards: (51:23)
When you’re going up in your high voice, so we’ll first say belt, and men singing where you are, going out to top out on these, stop and adjust [inaudible 00:51:32] mix. If you go up and sing by half steps, you’re going to notice that some pitches are really ringing, everything’s there. For instance, (singing). Free, easy, no problem. It rings. If I take that up a whole step, it might ring a little less on that high note. (singing) That’s still kind of there. Let’s jump up another whole step. (singing) Did you hear all of a sudden that high note went into a different spot than it normally does? It kind of lost some of its core. That sound is a sign that you’re hitting your physiological max. You’re stretching your vocal folds to about the longest point they want to go, and they’re not vibrating as efficiently as they do in the lower part of your range.
Matt Edwards: (52:18)
You have to remember, the more efficiently they vibrate, the more what we call harmonics they produce. Harmonics are what give your voice that nice ringing quality to it. It’s what makes them seem powerful. If your vocal folds are stretched too long, you lose that ability. I can keep shoving my voice high, but what you’re going to notice is they all start to go away even more and more. For rock singers, this can be okay, because it’s often part of their style. But we move up a half step, (singing), hear that high note’s really losing its power? (singing) Now I’ve got to squeeze that note out, and it’s definitely losing any core to it, compared to (singing), where you can hear all of those vibrations on the inside.
Matt Edwards: (53:03)
So I would determine your top note as the last note where you are still getting a good, full set of vibrations. You can keep working above that, and then the next physiological limit is when your larynx is squeezing up so high, it’s starting to get uncomfortable. I could pop out a high D.
Mike Elson: (53:21)
Probably don’t do that.
Matt Edwards: (53:21)
Huh?
Mike Elson: (53:23)
Probably don’t sing that high.
Matt Edwards: (53:25)
Yeah, no, I’m not going to do that because it’s very uncomfortable. When you hit that, don’t do it. If you want to extend that up a range, you want to work on your falsetto, or for women, you’re going to work on your head voice. The head voice, most of the time you’ll know you’re reaching your max because the sound just doesn’t come out. So my head voice, (singing), it’s there. Take it up a half step, (singing), it’s disappearing. And more than likely, this is gone.
Mike Elson: (53:53)
You’ve got one more.
Matt Edwards: (53:53)
(singing) Right? That’s my max. It’s not coming out. You can keep practicing the notes underneath that max, and they might show up. But most of the time, if you’re in one of those head dominant qualities, it’s just going to stop.
Mike Elson: (54:09)
What was the top note you had?
Matt Edwards: (54:11)
That was a G.
Mike Elson: (54:13)
That’s a G4?
Matt Edwards: (54:15)
Yeah. 5.
Mike Elson: (54:16)
G5, sorry. And the lower one? [crosstalk 00:54:18]
Matt Edwards: (54:17)
(singing) The lower one was a D.
Mike Elson: (54:22)
D2. Okay. In that chart that we dropped in there, so we could add Matt’s name to the world’s greatest singers there. D2 to G5.
Matt Edwards: (54:33)
Yeah, that’s a three and a half octave range, essentially. Here’s the thing, because there’s a voice teacher online who likes to talk about his five-octave vocal range. [crosstalk 00:54:43]
Mike Elson: (54:43)
We’ve had him on the show, and show us the five octaves.
Matt Edwards: (54:46)
Yes, we could. But the thing to remember is he’s not singing songs in those five octaves.
Mike Elson: (54:52)
No. Those are exercise [crosstalk 00:54:54], right?
Matt Edwards: (54:55)
Yeah. They’re exercise sounds and they’re party tricks. As a party trick, that would be a lot of fun to hear his five octaves. But when you start seeing things online about somebody’s three or four-octave range, it’s a party trick. There are a few people who make a career of it, Ariana being one of them, Mariah Carey being one of them, Christina Aguilera when she was younger.
Matt Edwards: (55:13)
You don’t have to take a five-octave range. A normal person has about a two to two and a half octave range.
Mike Elson: (55:20)
I will tell you, most pop songs are an octave and a half, maybe two, and most church hymns are only … or religious songs are usually only an octave to an octave and a half because that’s … You wrote them for the average person.
Matt Edwards: (55:33)
Yeah, yeah. You’ve got to remember, you don’t want to be writing songs that have vocals that are so insane that the person in their car listening to it on the radio can’t sing along. It’s fun to have some songs. Dude, I love listening to Freddie Mercury. It’s incredible. He’s stunning. But he is a unique human being. Was. Just, something special touched him.
Matt Edwards: (55:58)
Most people can’t do that. So there are those singers we listen to because they’re vocal Olympians, where they can do these superhuman [crosstalk 00:56:06].
Mike Elson: (56:05)
Sure, right.
Matt Edwards: (56:06)
But especially in a genre like country music, people want to be able to sing along in the car. If you stretch your range so high that no one can say with you, then you’re missing out on part of the fun of listening to music and driving somewhere.
Mike Elson: (56:20)
Sure. I just realized we did question seven but forgot question six. This is the last question, guys, out of order. So this one, how … I’m sorry, oh my gosh, total bad edit again. Let me thank question seven, okay. That’s from Alex. Okay. Question six. How to shape my mouth when singing vowels? Also, types of vocal exercises?
Mike ElsonMike loves to sing and make magic happen with computers and music. After trying lots of ways that didn't work to find his head voice, his voice ended up broken and his concepts mixed up. Before there was Google, he rebuilt his technique from square one with Dr. Joel Ewing, providing him plenty of humility and loads of first-hand empirical knowledge about the inner workings of the voice. Mike strongly believes that "everyone should be trained as a tenor," because of the additional skills required in balancing registration for this specific voice type. He has enjoyed singing in Mrs. Kim Barclay Ritzer's award-winning GVHS choir in Las Vegas, Nevada and with Dr. Dhening's internationally acclaimed USC Chamber Choir in Los Angeles, CA. Mike brings his passion for singing along with his pedigree to bring the voice training industry a new platform to make online voice lessons more successful, help choirs raise funds, and grow better singers. VoiceLessons.com is a way to pay it forward to a new generation of singers who are looking to start their training or take their voices to the next level by searching for options online. Welcome, and enjoy!
Ep 10 Live Q&A - April 24, 2019 Question 7 - How do I shape my mouth when I sing vowels?
Ep 10 Live Q&A - April 24, 2019 Question 1 - How do you control a vibrato that is too fast?
Ep 3 Live Q&A - March 6 2019 - How much breath do you need to support a good belt?
Ep 4 Live Q&A - March 13, 2019 - How do you know your voice is damaged?
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