How to find out Your Vocal range.

Finding your vocal range:

People often ask "what is my vocal range" or "how can I find out my vocal range", to answer this question sing along to the notes played on the video above . Pay attention to the notes on the screen and write down the lowest and the highest notes you can sing. That will give you your vocal range If you need any help finding your vocal range just comment below telling me your lowest and highest noteand I'll reply as to what your range is.

What vocal type am I:

Vocal  fachs

You can use the chart above to find out if you are a

• Bass
• Baritone
• Tenor
• Alto
• Mezzo-soprano
• Soprano

How to sing like Demi Lovato and Hayley Williams

Sing like Demi Lovato

To sing like Demi Lovato or Haylew Williams, the most important step is to first establish a good vocal technique and to always warm up your voice before singing .

Watch below as Haylew Williams warms up her voice by singing scales.

Listen to Hayley Willams talk about how she learn't to sing and the problems she experienced when she was younger with her voice before she found a vocal coach.

Why you shoud Warm Up before you Sing and Warm up techniques

Its incredibly important to warm up your voice before you sing because

• It will relax your voice 
• Stop you from putting undue stress on your vocal chords. 
• Strengthen your singing voice
• Reduce or removes the cracks and  breaks between registers
• Make it easier to reach the extremes of your voice

Tips and explanations by vocal coach to the stars Brett manningof why warming your voice up before singing is so important

Below we have a quotation from The essential voice forum giving some advice on the matter;

Firstly, it's as important to gently stretch your vocal muscles by doing vocal warm-up exercises, just as it is important to stretch before any other form of physical exercise. A vocal warm-up will increase blood circulation to the vocal aparatus, thus enabling it to be more supple and flexible and helps to avoid muscle strain. Imagine trying to do the splits without first stretching your legs...

It's also important that you gently warm-up the entire vocal range. For example, if you are planning to sing a song that has many high notes in it and you only 'stretch' the vocal cords to the extent required to sing low notes (ie warming up using only the lower notes in your range), then the area of the voice or vocal cords that are engaged when singing higher notes, will not be warmed or stretched.
It's like stretching your toes and ankles and not your thighs and calf muscles, when you want to do the splits!

If you have been warming up the entire voice before you experience this strain, then perhaps it is a technical issue. Strain can be experienced for a variety of different reasons. A couple of these are:
1) When you are enagaging incorrect muslce groups or...
- you will feel a tightness or aching around your neck and throat
2) when you are not achieving complete cord closure
- you will hear a breathiness to the tone you are producing and will feel tired or 'achy' in your throat area.
3) When you have warmed-up in an agressive manner
- you will notice vocal fatigue and a huskiness to the tone. Your voice may even cut-out on particular notes.

The best way to warm up the voice is gently and progressively. The best exercises to use are ones that involve humming or singing on an NG sound (as in siNG) and focusing on small areas of the vocal range, from lower notes and then moving gradually up through your vocal range. It is also important to sing gently - ease the voice along and sing at a low volume (but be sure you are not singing with breathy tone).

Men who can sing as high as Mariah Carey

It is possible for a man to sing as high as Mariah Carey does, and to access the whistle Register. Watch and listen to Adam Lopez sing Mariah's "Emotions". He manage to hit all those high tones just as easily as Mariah Carey.

Tutorial on how to sing in the whistle register/ tone/ range

Here are some videos that should help you understand the whistle register a little bit better. There is no quick answer to teaching yourself this technique but its been said that anyone can sing in this register with the correct training and commitment. Adam Lopez- yes it is possible for men to sing whistle notes- said that he taught himself how to sing in the whistle register by practising and building his range slowly over time. The most important thing to remember is if it hurts when you try than you must stop because you are doing it incorrectly.


Brett Manning vocal teacher to the stars shows you even a man can sing those high, whistle, notes. He even explains how he achieves them.

What is Vibrato and how to sing with it

What is vibrato?
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular pulsating change of pitch; think that wobbling sound that Divas like Celine Dion and Whitney Houston  make when they are sing and hold that big note at the climax of one of their songs.

Tutorial teaching you how you can apply Vibrato to your singing:

1 Open the back of your throat. You can do this by yawning. Try to keep that feeling in your mouth while you sing.
2 Relax your muscles completely, if you do not relaxed than it will be harder for you to get a vibrato.
3Remeber to incorporate all the techniques that good singers do;

• Sing with your diaphragm.
• Breath correctly
• Relaxed posture
• Hydrated Vocal chords.

4.Now sing any note but lets say for example a C
5.Next sing the note, or tone, below or above it ie a B or a D if you started on a C
6. Slowly alternate between the two notes, going backwards and forwards between them.
7.As you gain confidence speed up the alternations between the notes.
8. Congratulations You should be singing a note with vibrato!

Watch vocal coach to the stars Brett Manning explain, and show you what vibrato is. He also gives some excellent tips on how to achieve it.

Learn How to "growl" when you sing like Christina Aguilera

Example of a vocal growl
At 4:11 in the above video is an example, by Mariah Carey, of what I am referring to as a vocal, or singing "growl" .

I is important to note it is generally a technique that isn't looked favourably on by singing teachers because it calls for you to put a lot of stress on your vocal chords. So please use it sparingly.

How to growl when you sing:
A quick way to understand how to create the sound is to try and attempt to growl like a dog. You should feel a vibration at the top and back of your throat. Once you can do that you can then apply that same technique to words and ultimately incorporate it into singing.

Video tutorial
Below is a video tutorial explaining, in more depth, how to create that vocal styling. (Although the tutorial below is applying to the Death metal genre it is still the same technique used by singers like Christina Aguilera).

Singing 101: Explanations of the 4 vocal registers (Fry, Modal, Falsetto, Whistle)

The human singing voice is split into 4 distinct registers.

(1) Vocal Fry (the lowest)

(2) Modal

(3) Falsetto

(4) Whistle (the highest)

Each of these four registers has its own vibratory pattern, its own pitch area (although there is some overlapping), and its own characteristic sound. Below I will provide a short summary of each register with an audio example.

Vocal fry:
The vocal fry register is the lowest vocal register and is produced through a loose glottal closure which will permit air to bubble through with a popping or rattling sound of a very low frequency. The chief use of vocal fry in singing is to obtain pitches of very low frequency which are not available in modal voice. This register is not used that often in singing, and both men and women have been known to do so.


Modal:
The modal voice is the usual register for speaking and singing, and the vast majority of both are done in this register. As pitch rises in this register, the vocal folds are lengthened, tension increases, and their edges become thinner. A well-trained singer or speaker can phonate two octaves or more in the modal register with consistent production, beauty of tone, dynamic variety, and vocal freedom.


Falsetto:
The falsetto register lies above the modal voice register and overlaps the modal register by approximately one octave. The characteristic sound of falsetto is inherently breathy and flute-like with few overtones present. Both men and women can phonate in the falsetto register. The essential difference between the modal and falsetto registers lies in the amount and type of vocal cord involvement. The falsetto voice is also more limited in dynamic variation and tone quality than the modal voice.



Whistle:
The whistle register is the highest register of the human voice. The whistle register is so called because the timbre of the notes that are produced from this register are similar to that of a whistle or the upper notes of a flute, whereas the modal register tends to have a warmer, less shrill timbre. Women of all voice types can use the whistle register. With proper vocal training, it is possible for most women to develop this part of the voice.

Listen to Brett Manning demonstrate all 4 registers, as he hits notes in 6 octaves below.

Singing 101: Positioning of the larynx

A really interesting video by WestVoice about the importance of the positioning of the larynx when singing.If you are someone who likes to sing  then this is a really interesting video to watch and learn from. Even if you’re not a singer this video still demonstate’s the good and bad techniques some of our Diva’s have.

This is the transcript of the video if you can not view the embedded video.

The larynx position while singing: The larynx or voice box is located in your throat, which is in you neck. Basically, for males, its at your Adams apple, the bump on your neck. In this video we will discuss why we should our larynx stable while singing, Barbara Streisand is a good example for a neutral larynx.

How do you know when a singer is singing with a neutral larynx?: It’s easy. They[Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey] will sound natural and if you imitate their technique you wont feel like you are pulling, pushing or straining your larynx muscles (neck). Another thing you should know that larynx moves up a bit in vowels like “ooh” and “ee” and moves up and down a bit in vowels like “ah” and “oh”. However there’s a big difference between letting the larynx moves up and down naturally with the vowels and PULLING it up or PUSHING it down.


Singers as they PULL or PUSH their larynx.
When your larynx is HIGH you are not singing with an open throat and your vocal chords are not at rest. To sing with an open throat, you must keep your larynx neutral and lift your soft palate. High larynx doesn’t only take away resonance and make you strain on high notes. It also causes Failure since it is hard to hit high notes when your larynx is high [Christina Aguilera]
Jenifer Hudson’s is also high, hence the strain. When you sing with a high larynx or basically, when you pull your larynx up, you will song like you’re PULLING the note. WORSTCASE SCENARIO of high larynx singing Hudson produces an unpleasant unsustained high belt note]
[Mariah Carey’s performance of you and I] Mariah Carey here started off with a neutral larynx and pushed her larynx down on that vocal run. This does happen sometimes when you try to sing really low. Try to not let it happen. By the way Mariah did awesome in all the other low notes in this song, just to be clear.
However, some singers push their larynx down even they’re not singing low because they want to have a BIG tone. Try to imitate Charice’s singing here and you will notice that you are using your tongue to push your larynx down. Yes pushing your larynx down does make your tone BIGGER but it takes away your vocal resonance and that BIG tone doesn’t sound natural indeed.
Squire Parsons here is also doing it. Another reason why you shouldn’t do this because when you push your larynx down like that, it’s harder to sing lower.
[X-factor contestant] Now this girl is pushing down her larynx like Crazy. Yeah. I will never understand why people do that. Power only comes out when your vocal chords are at rest and your throat is open. You don’t need to have a big fat tone to be powerful.

Enough with the low larynx stuff, this video will discuss the larynx position when belting.
Now watch and learn from Miss Whitney Houston here. She belted ten E5’s, seven Eb5s and one F#5 in 20 seconds! The thing is, when your larynx is neutral, you can sing high notes effortlessly.

Now we will analyse some high clips so the difference between high larynx and neutral singing is even clearer to you.
[example] Pavarotti said when your vocal chords are at rest, you can go to the top very easily...This is really nice! Juan Diego Flores’ larynx is really stable here. Celine Dion has started with a neutral larynx (5.35) now she’s PULLING the larynx up... Leona Lewis did exactly the same thing as Celine Dion... Starting with neutral and ending high. Mariah Carey here maintained power and texture as goes higher[ 6.07] this is because her larynx is stable. She also lifter her soft palate and placed her voice well. Another thing you should know is that when your larynx is not neutral, you’re not supporting from the diaphragm. Shanice Wilson here has a bad larynx [6.23] habit when belting. Focus on how her larynx SHOOTS UP now back to Neutral position. Compare this note from David Phelps [6.39] to Shanice’s. Very Very relaxed! Amazing!
Before I leave you with some notes, lets listen to this great soprano C. She is keeping a stable larynx all the way... Mixing and vibrato also helped her there. Still neutral. No strain..nice nice.