Singing on a low tone
Sing Like You Speak® vocal technique answers your burning questions about singing. One question I’ve been hearing a lot from students lately is about how to sing low notes in way that is
healthy for the voice. This article will answer this question in word and in video tutorial.
When you want to sing a low note – possibly lower than you usually sing – people who do not have good training will try going lower into the throat. Unfortunately, going into the throat to sing a low note will never, ever work. All breath and sound needs to follow the same, clear path through the vocal instrument – your body – to be healthy, powerful and free. This is clearly demonstrated in the second video below.
Pitch is never a function of digging down into the throat or pulling up high into the head for a higher note. The confusion around “placing” a pitch comes from traditional voice training. Watch this video from a recent performance of mine where is use very deep tone quality for comedic results.
Concepts of head voice and chest voice cause all sorts of havoc in your singing. Chest voice is usually associated with belting and therefore has a bad reputation in the classical world. Head voice connotes classical or an affected sound and is shunned by other genres. The simple truth is that “high” and “low,” “head” and “chest” are nothing but labels derived from how we physically and acoustically perceive differences in pitch and tone quality. There is no physiological reason for you to use your instrument differently for different ranges. Each word on each pitch is a different expression. Singing “looove” on C4 is a different expression of love than singing “looove” on C5. They have different qualities and rightfully so. A songwriter puts “looove” the pitch that best expresses the meaning of love in the song. A different pitch expresses something different.
The resonance or sound vibration of higher pitches is felt higher in the body – specifically, in the head. Conversely, lower pitches resonate lower in the body or in the chest. Points of resonance are not the same as points of creation. Head voice is not created in the head nor is chest voice created in the chest – if vocalization is free to function naturally.
There is a prevailing thought that head and chest voice must be blended for the ideal “mix.” Sing Like You Speak® does not bother with head/chest/mix but trains the whole voice to function naturally regardless of range. The ‘break’ caused by a head/chest/mix ideal can be pretty much eliminated when the voice is trained as one instrument.
Our focus here is lower notes and deeper tone quality. I’m much better at explaining this with a video. Watch and learn!
There is so much more to learn. And the more you know about the voice, the more choices you will have to sing with freedom. Keep learning about your perfect, natural musical instrument – your singing voice! Sing Like You Speak® is here to help you.
About Sally
Sally Morgan, NYC voice teacher, wrote the book on contemporary vocal technique — literally. Sing Like You Speak™ is specifically designed to restore the effortless vocal production that is natural to the human instrument making your singing powerful, joyful and free. Singing so simple it feels like talking to your best friend without sounding trained. Sally has been successfully teaching people how to sing for more than 35 years.
Sally has helped her clients heal vocal damage, expand vocal range, land a Broadway show, record their original music and tour internationally without vocal fatigue or strain. Besides teaching workshops Sally teaches private voice lessons and has developed online singing lessons – Sing Like You Speak™ Academy.
You can see and hear some of Sally’s clients on Broadway stages, Off-Broadway, in Musical Theater – Regional, on Major Label Recordings, the Conan O’Brian show, A Prairie Home Companion and in Federal Courts, the PA House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate.
Sally teaches singing voice lessons in NYC and worldwide on ZOOM as well as online voice lessons on the Sing Like You Speak Academy.
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