How to Increase Your Vocal Range

Can You Extend Your Vocal Range?

Yes, you can!

You’re not stuck with your current vocal range. In fact, you have more range than you realize; you just haven’t accessed it yet.

Extending vocal range is easy. It’s not some trick that requires blending falsetto with full voice or bridging vocal breaks. The key is to develop better vocal balance by strengthening your voice with ISO exercises (isometric exercises that isolate individual pitches).

ISO exercises increase strength in the muscles surrounding the vocal cords by isolating each pitch so that the voice becomes one seamless instrument from your lowest note to your highest. As you build muscle, your range will increase — plain and simple.

Today, you’ll start extending your range by learning the Siren exercise. The Siren is the exercise that started my career as a vocal coach. First, let me explain how I discovered that ISO exercises were the key to strengthening the voice and increasing vocal range.

The Beginning

My journey began in 1986. While in high school, I was gigging with a bar band as their keyboardist and singing lead on some songs. It was the era of the ’80s rocker. Though I didn’t have the range for many of these songs, we still added them to the set list. I spent many nights straining, belting out notes, and waking up the next morning with a hoarse voice. If we played the next night, I’d often sing in falsetto because my voice couldn’t take another beating. During my falsetto gigs, I sounded weak and muffled, without much power or resonance.

Tired of the vocal roller coaster of straining one night and using falsetto the next, I hired a vocal coach. When checking my range, she said my voice cracked on E above middle C, labeled me a bass, and told me that I was stuck with my range and I’d never sing higher than E in full voice… Yet, I was singing much higher every weekend, albeit straining to hit the notes.

Discouraged with lessons, I picked the brain of a local singer. He said I was not stuck, but rather that the voice was a muscle and I just needed to “work it.”

That very moment, I decided to develop my “vocal muscle.” So, I moved to Hollywood to study voice at the Musician’s Institute, took lessons with Jim Gillette (creator of Jim Gillette’s Vocal Power and Nitro singer), and devoured every book I could find on vocal technique (some dating as far back as the 1800s). Through all of my studies, I finally developed my vocal technique, unlocked my vocal range, and was soaring well beyond E!

I became known as the guy with the high voice. I loved it because I could sing songs by bands like Slaughter and Steelheart. Then, one day, my friend Troy Gregory called and asked if I could teach him to sing higher because he wanted to sing “Pull Me Under” by Dream Theater. His voice cracked on E above middle C, and he couldn’t sing higher without straining. Sound familiar?

I agreed but had no clue what I should teach. I thought about using Jim’s Vocal Power scales. It reminded me of when he let out this crazy vocal slide from his low range up into his soprano highs. I dubbed it a “Siren” because that’s how it sounded.

A light went off! I could use a Siren to increase Troy’s range! Using a pitch wheel (Kratt chromatic tuner) as a pitch reference, we started an octave below middle C (C3), sliding slowly up to middle C (C4) and back down, all on one breath in full voice. We repeated the process, working up pitch per pitch as high as we could go. When we reached E (E4), Troy’s voice cracked. We repeated that Siren again and again, sliding slower until it smoothed out and the break seemed to vanish. Once he conquered the E, we moved to the next note. After 45 minutes of Sirens, Troy had reached A above middle C (A4) — five notes higher than he’d ever reached before in full voice!

The Siren worked! He accessed the range he needed for “Pull Me Under” with one simple exercise! And that is what started my career as a coach — mimicking a siren sound. I continued training singers with Sirens and eventually developed my own training system, the ISO Method, which is based on a three-step technique and three simple exercises:

• Falsetto Slides
• Transcending Tones
• Sirens

These three exercises extended my own range from soprano A to C# (A5–C#6), even increasing my power until I could shatter glass with my voice, as seen on MythBusters and The Dr. Oz Show (thanks to Jim Gillette, but that’s another story).

I prefer ISO exercises over scales because I believe they help extend vocal range quicker and build muscle more effectively than traditional vocal scales. A Siren allows you to slide smoothly from pitch to pitch (even the frequencies between), improving the shift in muscular balance, while scales jump from note to note.

Develop Your Technique

Before we tackle Sirens, you’ll need to learn my three steps for solid vocal technique:

1. Breathing
2. Support
3. Placement

Breathing

Take a breath in front of a mirror. What happened? Did your shoulders rise? Did your chest puff out? Yes, you say? Congratulations, you did it wrong.

Now, lie on the ground and put a book on your belly. As you inhale, the stomach should rise. As you exhale, the stomach should fall. This is how babies breathe. We’re born to instinctively breathe correctly. We just forgot along the way.

Stand up and inhale again. Hopefully, this time the belly expanded while the shoulders relaxed. I call this “lower abdominal breathing,” but it’s really diaphragmatic breathing. Contrary to popular opinion, one does not “sing from the diaphragm.” The diaphragm is the inhalation muscle. The abdominal muscles help streamline air release. So, you really “sing from your stomach.”

As the diaphragm expands, a vacuum fills the lungs and pushes out the belly, back, and ribs, giving you a bloated or “beer belly” look.

Here I am onstage with Hinder. My student Marshall Dutton and I both look like we’ve got major keggers — because we’re breathing correctly.

For those of you thinking, “Jaime, I don’t want to look fat when I breathe,” I say, “Quit being a diva. Do you prefer a long career, or do you want to lose your voice after one tour?”

Correct breathing is key to a healthy, lifelong voice!

Support

Support comes in as soon as you inhale. It is a downward pressure (bearing down, like going to the restroom) that engages the abdominal muscles.

Think of support like pushing down on a gas pedal. The goal is to keep your foot on the gas every time you sing. Support engages the abdominal muscles, tricking the diaphragm into staying expanded. When the diaphragm relaxes slowly, you’ll use less air, streamlining your air release. Less air equals less pressure on the vocal cords, minimizing vocal strain.

Bottom line: keep your foot on the gas pedal and never take it off. Always maintain support by applying downward pressure!

Placement

Placement is simply the act of feeling a buzzing sensation on the roof of the mouth. This buzz is a sign of vocal freedom. If you cannot feel the buzz, then you might be tensing the throat when reaching for high notes.

Many times, singers will tense the throat (like grunting) to “hit the note,” which is a sign of strain that can lead to vocal loss. By focusing on feeling the buzz in the roof of your mouth, you’ll move your main focus from your throat to the roof of your mouth. This alone will help release any unnecessary throat tension.

FYI, we never force placement; we only “focus” on feeling the buzz that is already there.

To feel placement, laugh on ha–ha–ha–ha as you push-push-push-push down on your support pedal for every ha. If done correctly, you should feel each ha “bounce” off the roof of your mouth. If you do not feel it, slightly yawn on the inhale so that the soft palate rises. Maintain the yawn position and laugh again.

I bet you felt it that time. No?

Okay, try once more while moving your head side to side, like shaking your head no, as you laugh. The no movement breaks loose the neck-muscle tension we sometimes experience when reaching for high notes.

I know you felt it that time! Now, onto the exercise.

The Siren

Start by taking a lower abdominal breath, then engage your gas pedal for support. Beginning on C an octave below middle C (C3; males) or on F below middle C (F3; females), slide up one octave and back down in a loud, resonant, full-voice tone on “Yay.” Always use the “Y” at the beginning so that we don’t start the Siren with an abrupt staccato or a breathy attack.

The goal is to maintain a moderately loud Siren in full voice as you slide smoothly from octave to octave. Don’t forget to keep your foot on your gas pedal. When done correctly, you’ll feel a buzzing sensation in your soft palate from correct placement.

Sometimes, the voice will crack or sound like there is a bump as you slide. If this happens, then slow down the slide to gain better control.

Continue your Sirens in half-step increments, working as high as comfortable. If you strain on any pitch or your voice breaks, stop to check your breathing, support, and placement. If your technique was good, then push down a little more on that gas pedal as you slide higher (for more support) and use the no side-to-side movement (to release any neck tension).

Will Sirens Really Increase Your Range?

Well, it’s worked for thousands of students since 1996! Ask my student Brian Burkheiser from I Prevail. Brian had vocal surgery before we met and worried his voice would never fully return. He was struggling to sing A4, the highest note on “Lifelines.” In one day of lessons, he easily reached two notes higher (B4), which you can hear on the chorus for “Hurricane.” FYI — he is now at tenor C (C5) and climbing, and he is proof that you can extend your vocal range!

If you don’t gain five notes in one day like Troy or two notes like Brian, don’t stress. Practice the Siren exercise five to six days per week; and, within a few weeks of dedicated practice, you’ll start noticing results.

But remember, the Siren is but one of my ISO exercises. Think of how amazed you’ll be when you put all three ISO exercises from Raise Your Voice into practice! Still, the Siren is enough to get you started.

To make sure you are performing Sirens correctly, listen to this MP3 from my book Raise Your Voice!

I cannot wait to hear about the success of your range-extending journey!

Until the next lesson,

Jaime Vendera