All the vocalists have been in this situation: the performance is going smoothly. You sing great, the crowd roars, you get ready to hit a high note and give a voice cracking.
Oddly enough, there are several reasons for such a voice break. It’s due to breakdowns and shifts in the vocal apparatus due to physiology, improper use of the soft palate, and, even more often, the transition from chest to head voice and vice versa.
However, there are various choices available. You may avoid cracking by warming up, using your body properly, and taking care of your voice. Are you ready to learn how to sing without voice cracking? Then let’s get started!
How To Sing Without Voice Cracking?
If you experience voice cracks while singing, here are some tips on how to sing high notes without cracking.
#1. Drink Plenty Of Water
Drink at least 64 ounces of water each day to keep your neck moist and moisturized, especially if you live in a desert.
If you sing or talk a lot, drink room-temperature water since cold water might limit laryngeal muscle movement.
#2. Voice Diet
Good:
- Tea and coffee with milk or cream
- Porridge with a slice of butter and cheese for breakfast
- Soup for lunch
- A mug of hot milk with a spoonful of butter before bed.
- Steamed food
- Protein products: meat, fish, eggs
Bad:
- Tea and coffee without milk or cream
- Nuts, seeds
- Chocolate, honey
- Carbonated drinks: soft drinks, mineral water, beer, champagne
- Red and white dry wine, liqueurs, and vermouths
- Too spicy, spicy, salty
- Too hot, too cold food
General recommendations:
You can experience excessive fatigue and tension by keeping your neck and shoulder muscles relaxed. A calm voice comes only from a calm body. A tense body strains the vocal cords, raises the tone of the voice, increases the speed, and turns off the resonance.
Long-term forced use of the voice requires a long rest.
#3. Keep Correct Posture
Good posture is the symmetry of body parts concerning the spine. This posture leads to an unobstructed and comfortable work of the respiratory muscles.
It would help if you remembered that you should always tighten the lower abdomen and buttocks. People with hunched backs, pinched diaphragms, and unopened shoulders can never have a truly beautiful voice.
Posture check and setting:
1. Stand up straight, spring your legs:
Clasp your elbows with your palms behind your back. This exercise is good to do in the morning, before breathing exercises.
The only thing he has is a small minus – without a mirror or a partner, he cannot control that the shoulders have ceased to keep the asymmetrical line.
Because of the curvature of the spine, this often happens. Be attentive to yourself!
2. Stretch your spine:
Bring your palms together behind your back and stretch them as high as possible up the spine. Not everyone succeeds in doing this.
The most common cause is an overstressed, “clogged” section of the upper shoulder girdle. As a rule, such people have a strongly clamped jaw; headaches are not uncommon.
3. Straighten your shoulders:
Now lift your shoulders as high as possible, up to your ears. Then take it back as far as possible. A very enjoyable exercise! You must do it at least four times.
Be aware of your posture, posture. Cultivate the habit of defining your posture by doing your daily activities. Ask yourself, “Am I slouching? Am I straining my neck? Am I raising my shoulders unnecessarily?” Think about your posture!
#4. Proper Breathing
Let’s look at the simplest breathing exercises for singing that a beginner will independently master.
Blow out the candle:
This vocal breathing exercise focuses on developing the diaphragm. To perform, take an upright position, and place your hands on your sides, pointing your fingers to your navel.
The sides should move apart. It means that the diaphragm is working. If only the chest moves, this is a sign of shallow inhalation.
This breathing “defect” characteristic of beginners that we seek to eradicate. As you exhale, release the air in a thin stream, as if extinguishing a candle.
- Reader:
Place your tongue against your upper teeth and take a deep breath. Exhaling without lifting your tongue, try to say loudly, “one-two-three-four.”
- Dog:
Imagine how the dog is breathing and repeating it, making short inhalation and exhalation.
- Exhale for a long time:
This exercise helps the development of breathing is to gradually increase the expiration time due to the depth of inhalation. Over time, the exhalation will last at least a minute.
- Hum:
Take a deep breath of air through your mouth, and as you exhale through your nose, blot out the letter “M”.
#5. Warm Your Voice Up
It would help if you always warm your muscles before exercising, and your vocal cords are within this golden rule. It’s good for the long-term health of your vocal cords to warm your voice before singing or introducing yourself.
And there are several exercises and practices you can try. If you need to sing in front of an audience, warm up your voice at 10-minute intervals several times throughout the day to avoid fatigue and injury.
Most vocal workouts involve creating different sounds with your voice. But it is also important to do exercises that will warm your lungs, lips, tongue, and body to relax and be ready to sing.
Learn how to warm up in this video properly:
#6. Vocal Exercises
For those still unclear about how to learn to sing properly, here are some basic vocal exercises to try.
- Vowel Sounds:
Practice with this order:
“A-O-U-I-E-S A-O-U-I-E-S A-O-U-I-E-S A-O-U-I-E-S A-O-U-I-E-S A-O-U-I-E-S A-O-U-I-E-S A-O-U-I-E-S A-O-U-I-E-S A-O-U-I-E-S A”
When your air is running out, attempt to hold a note. Make sure your voice doesn’t go lower or higher, louder or softer, and don’t take a sudden breath while singing.
- Sing The Scale:
Sing “do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do” ascending and descending scales, beginning with forward and ending with backward. Finding a sound source to travel by is ideal in this case.
The notes should all sound the same and repeat in the same way. If you hit the note right, you’ll get a resonance effect.
To improve sonority and pitch, pretend to be a cuckoo. Take a deep inhale and exhale multiple times, then make the cuckoo sound “Ooh” loudly on the following exhale.
An exercise similar to the last one, instead of a brief “whistle,” try to imagine yourself as a wolf and extend as long as you can.
Let’s return to vowel sounds and scales once again. This time, follow the precise order: “I-E-A-O-U” and make the sounds as short as possible.
As a result, you will transition from high to low sound. Then go through the process again in reverse order.
The voice will grow clearer due to these workouts, and there will be fewer muscular clamps. You may now work on your singing skills by practicing your favorite songs.
#7. Practice The Right Technique
Now you have something to do in your next vocal lesson? Here are some tips on how to apply these vocal techniques to singing:
- If you want to move the listener, whisper the phrase into the microphone with a breath.
- If you do it with a smile, the lyrics will be clear, and the notes will be clearer.
- Want to shake up the audience, “shout” at the audience on top notes! But control the volume and exhalation.
- So that no one notices your transitions in vocals, whine, and be capricious on stage.
- An insidious high note is next, and you feel a lump in your throat, remember something funny. To do this, read a couple of jokes before the performance.
#8. Get Rid Of Stress
Stress negatively affects your voice. So, if you’re asking: “how to not crack your voice while singing”, start with the following ways used to get rid of stress.
Write down everything that comes to your mind:
How is this useful? When you write down your thoughts, your brain will structure thoughts and put things in order.
This creative process is very effective. It distracts you from current problems.
The head is getting cleared, and tension subsides. In the future, you will consider some situations from a different angle.
Relaxation and breathing:
A very relevant and effective way to deal with various stress is the methods of respiratory gymnastics and progressive muscle relaxation.
The principle is simple: there is a strong relaxation after any strong exertion. Therefore, we suggest that you use and master a simple and very accessible method:
- tense your muscles for 10 minutes
- relax them, trying to concentrate on the moment of relaxation
Start with the simplest and most accessible, clench your hand into a fist as tightly as possible, hold the tension, relax.
Alternatively, close your eyes tightly, frown and wrinkle your nose, then relax and concentrate on feeling the relaxation of the muscles in your face.
#9. Constant Practice
It would help if you did the exercise regularly. Learning should be a regular part of one’s life. Every day, spend at least half an hour on technique and breathing.
At first, your lips and tongue may become tired quickly, and your neck may ache. With experience, you’ll be able to relax muscles that aren’t required for execution.
Whether classical instrumental music, jazz, blues, or rock, listen to good music. You must learn to hear the music and sing in harmony without speaking words.
You may use the recorder to make many recordings of your singing style to see how far you’ve progressed. Find the song’s backing track, turn it up low, and sing along.
All that’s left is for you to record your voice. It is necessary to assess what caused the crack. Are you out of breath, for example? Alternatively, you may mispronounce some consonants, resulting in muddy singing performance.
Make a tape containing both the music and your voice to see if you’re hitting the notes. You’ll probably need to change the music you’re listening to since some won’t fit your mood.
The neck pain might be the cause. You don’t have to struggle to “hold out” a low or high note.
#10. Get Some Cough Medication
If you are suffering functional diseases of the vocal cords, it is necessary to consult a phoniatrist and a laryngologist. You may get some prescribed medication, such as sprays, solutions, a drug for vocal cords, or surgery.
Some products containing only herbal ingredients will help protect your voice from excessive stress. The drugs can treat and prevent diseases of the vocal cords.
Final Thoughts
So, we have answered the exciting question of how to sing without voice cracking. You can develop practical singing skills and understand your capabilities by performing simple exercises.
You will stop being afraid of the audience and become much more self-confident. And also, perhaps you will discover a gift in yourself and eventually become a real sin
