Learn how to properly support your voice for high notes AND how to 'land' instead of reach for them. Join my free course! chrisliepe.com/free-your-voice/
Dang, the "more support!" mistake rings true for me. I've been getting better about it, but I remember talking to a voice teacher about that and hitting higher notes, and she just told me "you're using too much air", I tried focusing on letting the air come instead of pushing it, and the note happened.
I'm a pro singer and over years and years of singing I have somehow "forgotten" how to sing I've found myself struggling with songs I never used to. Time to retrain myself!
Per usual, mind reader Chris knows exactly what im struggling with. My band has me performing eye of the tiger, and staying in that register for too long is brutal.
Even in opera the trick is practicing ‘letting go’, ‘opening up’ and even lightening as much as needed to access the high notes. I still ‘over support’ sometimes and it feels like you’re bringing a ceiling on your voice.
I needed a reminder JUST like this haha Been struggling with high notes recently (and they've been working) but as you said it's totally unsustainable. Thanks for the video!
I can't believe he's putting out so much about high notes lately. This is great I have a difficult spot in my upper falsetto before the whistles which have been coming so much easier lately
Thank you for this. Just signed up for the training. I hope, after learning, I will be able to train our children's choir so they can sing better. Would be very helpful for their future!
might have been a little abstract were it not for your very generous sharing of very concrete demonstrations of approaching the technique. Once again thank you Chris! PS your paid $99 course a couple years ago was the best vocal investment I've ever made for myself!
Really helpful video Chris. As someone focusing on improving my vocals and guitar playing I am definitely falling into the trap of pushing my voice too hard to "fit" with certain guitar tunings / chords voicings / keys of original recordings. Saying "I am only a semitone away" and pushing to get there. This gives me some good perspective on focusing more on where my voice can deliver, rather than striving for an arbitrary note or key
wow, it is wonderful aproach. I love the significance of the home! It is super idea to have home and enjoy it so much as the most powerful place in singing. Thanx a lot!
Chris I've learned SO much from your RUclips videos and your "Discover your voice" course. I've no doubt that in the next few years we'll see some great singers that are great because of you!
❤I don't think I've ever heard ANYONE analyze high notes and transitions this well! 🔥And what a voice you have, Chris!!! Can I like this a million times?!
chris i love your videos, i have no conditions to do vocal/screaming lessons and you just drop some videos that really help me through the process, just thank you.
I find it very similar to playing guitar, just be as relaxed and focused as possible e.g. like Sam Carter. My singing has improved drastically after focusing on spending as little effort as possible for achieving the sound I want
this is the first "normal" voice tutorial i've watched, but it makes me realize how similar it is to learn "regular" singing and "screamo"!! Watched a few videos for this, there's 2(kind of 3) types of "screamos", voice fry and false chords(3rd is by combining both) one comes from the power of your stomach/chest , and the other is from what you call head voice!! never took courses, but used to practice singing a lot(kind of getting back into it), and had already been using both, just never really realized it until i watched this!! 😅I cannot practice the way i'd like where i live rn, because the insulation between me and my neighbor is paper thin, but it made me discover that i could "sing" pretty much quietly, i'm able to keep the volume down while still changing "notes"(that's head voice i guess?) and still make work most muscles i'd usually use except the "power" ones! It's not the same, but it still helps!!
Aye captain! This has been a blast, really appreciate your adventurous explorative attitude my dude! You killed it, and showed us how we can catch a fish for life 😉 we be in touch soon! Gona go through your free vocal training first and see what I can budget, but I'll definitely be hitting you up soon Chris! You a legend brah 😅🙏❤️
Love this whole concept of taking little trips out and returning home to what’s comfortable!! It’s pretty much just a mental trick, but thinking of it this way makes so much sense.. I also love your demonstrations and that you didn’t edit out any error. It feels real, and is nice to know that even great singers like you don’t hit everything 100% perfect, 100% of the time (don’t take that wrong 😅) Overall great video!
I’m a vocalist of 30 years and sing songs by Journey, Shinedown, Aerosmith, Alter Bridge in a band and I can tell you this, RELAX your throat and vocal folds when singing high notes. You don’t force range. Your Michael Jackson imitation in falsetto was really good!
This video was exactly what I needed! I did the free course and the “speaking musically” video definitely helped break the mental block I had which made my singing sound forced/unnatural even when I was using support. Paired with this video, it gave me everything I needed to combine my horn line experience to start singing in the mix and do covers that don’t sound forced or unnatural
This is a great tip. In church I'm playing guitar and singing lead on a song in E mixolydian and the highest note is G above C4, which I can only hit using my mix voice around the break if I'm completely warmed up and actually yelling! If I sing that one in head voice, I can go back into mix on the way back down in that particular phrase! Thanks Chris!
this is very important point, i would say one of the top things that needs to keep in mind before we start learning technical stuff for reaching hi-notes
I started doing this recently I feel like as a singer I have an identity crisis with trying to hit the same and sound the same as the original artists so now I’m trying to sing in how I’m comfortable and my range and I still sound good I gotta stop doubting myself
My 2 Favorite Singers Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston..Very good choice of Artist to use as an example...i would've picked these 2 artists as well to use as a example
I am a professional guitarist..instrumentalist..but l sing for fun..mr coach ..ur materials are tremendously enlightening,rich in content and knowledge...so is ur command of English and voice..all the best mate..greetings from Havana.
It's kind of been a personal goal of mine to try and reach the high note in Fire by Queen Bee even though it's wayyyyy outside my range, and I feel like this might help to at least expand my range higher in that direction. For the record, I'm a baritone :)
Clean, high, mix notes are definitely still my weakest point in my vocal capabilities. I sing so much heavier stuff with screaming that my muscle memory just wants to go in that direction. Thanks for the reminder to keep practicing everything, and to stay multidimensional with my vocals. Also, every time I comment, I have to request for you to check out "A Normal Life" by Marianas Trench. You will love Josh Ramsay's vocals!
I've noticed many times already, when trying to attack a top note (of my passaggio, which is typically F4 /apparently it's D4-F4/), or to sing for longer time on E4-F4, that trying harder what my vocal coach tells me - ie squeeze all my diaphragm, ribs and other muscles to be able to reach that tone or to keep it stable, actually have the opposite effect - my voice drops a lot, at least couple of semi-tones. As I was normally struggling to hit F4 well, squeezing everything I have actually made it much harder to hit even E4 - often even impossible! But recently I got another break-thru. I now can hit F4# & G4 much, much easier, and even feel free enough to make twists. Sometimes I even hit G4# & A4, though it's still mostly experimental. Yes it's not pure chest voice (which was all I had until two years ago, and still IS the range of all the songs I practice, often we have songs transposed even further down, so that I don't have to struggle with F4 or to sing long time in E4-F4 ... fortunately I can drop down to C2-D2 with just a little warmup /like purring-fry or low-sigh/), but it sounds solid enough, not like my pure falsetto; and as long as I mix it at least a bit, I can introduce some "metal" (or perhaps buzzing is more accurate). Last Christmas for our holiday concert I picked the song "You're a mean one Mr. Grinch" covered by Small Town Titans, but since I didn't have the range to sing it as Phil Freeman does, I switched the D5-F5 notes to D4-F4, which was comfortable enough also that I could play with my timbre and change the character of different lines - just like Chris have said before - to play a role (sometimes it helps if you imagine it like animation character). And as long as I managed to warm up my low bass notes to sounds loud enough (when literally touching the mic with my lips :)), and keep the long high notes stable and on pitch I was very happy. But in the last few weeks I noticed that I can actually reach the D4-F4 notes - yes they're not yet usable - they're too thin, weak and unstable, and are pure falsetto w/o any grit - but I didn't have them before at all! Actually about 2.5 years ago I didn't have ANY note above F4! And now while not yet usable in live song, I have a full extra octave to play with :) The way to reach it wasn't very clear. But Chris' advices to first hit comfortable high note and then play with it (as duration or melody with other notes) was extremely helpful to get familiar with that range - and yes it sounded horrifying at first (and it still does the higher end), but it's definitely getting clearer and stronger - I'm quite sure my brain and vocal apparatus are getting familiar with that new turf, now that I can produce some sounds, get the feedback and experiment - and they're doing it without much effort - it's just like opening a whole new room. At first I tried to hit the high notes in few different ways - one was pure falsetto, or initially if I couldn't actually sing the note I could hit it with lip trill. After a little while of lip trill, I could hit it with pure falsetto. Then I experimented with nasal and baby-like cry sound (or duck-quack) - if I got that right it should be the vocal twang, which turns out is the natural way to produce loud and high tones, which babies use a lot (but with time most of us have forgotten about it). And when I can produce a given high note with these methods I start to experiment changing their timbre (as initially didn't like ANY of them :)), and also experimenting to reproduce a given phrase of a song that I couldn't normally sing in original (for example "Out there in the spotlight, you're a million miles AWAY" from "Turn the Page" in James Hatfield cover of Bob Sager). I still can't sing that song in original, but at first we had to transpose it with -4 semi-tones, and now it's only -2. And occasionally (though unreliably) I can hit G4#-A4 with nice timbre (Mixed I assume). Another thing I started to notice when I managed to produce a strong high note is that with becoming more comfortable with it, I actually let more air out, and that makes it much easier. It's of course a bit tricky, as the point is to use just enough air as is needed, but not too much. But it feels like a thing that I can fine-tune with practice. Oh and also my larynx is moving freely, and on the very high notes it goes quite high too. It really feels to me that the classical "keep your larynx low and squeeze with every muscle you have" is only restricting, and keeps a lot completely out of reach!
I agree! anytime we lean into a "should"... especially with the larynx, we limit ourselves. It's best to LET your voice do things and simply notice rather than overthinking and putting would-be possibilities into a confining box!
Learn how to properly support your voice for high notes AND how to 'land' instead of reach for them. Join my free course! chrisliepe.com/free-your-voice/
Analyze Brian McKnight
I tried using the link but it won’t go through…. Help me I want to be a part of the free course🙏
Sing not by expanding range but controlling freedom or even fluidity. A groundbreaking concept for me 👍🏽
🙄
Your imitation of myself pushing for a note is so accurate it's scary!!! Do we know each other ;) ? Thank you Chris, you're the best
Dang, the "more support!" mistake rings true for me. I've been getting better about it, but I remember talking to a voice teacher about that and hitting higher notes, and she just told me "you're using too much air", I tried focusing on letting the air come instead of pushing it, and the note happened.
Yesssss
I'm a pro singer and over years and years of singing I have somehow "forgotten" how to sing I've found myself struggling with songs I never used to. Time to retrain myself!
I LOVE WHITNEY❤
I love how Chris' low notes are always well above my high notes lmao
Per usual, mind reader Chris knows exactly what im struggling with. My band has me performing eye of the tiger, and staying in that register for too long is brutal.
Lol, yea, i tried 'Life is a Highway ".... which is not too bad.... but for the whole song 😮💨😮💨😮💨
When I saw the X across Whitney’s photo I hurried up and clicked ..Like “No way”😂
She’s the greatest female singer of all time❤
Clickbaiting works.
@@MrMcsia Yup…Facts!
Even in opera the trick is practicing ‘letting go’, ‘opening up’ and even lightening as much as needed to access the high notes. I still ‘over support’ sometimes and it feels like you’re bringing a ceiling on your voice.
i didnt even realize there were high notes i could hit in chest voice that i couldnt hit in head voice. helpful! ty
Yess! Learning your tessitura changes everything in singing ::)
A week ago I discovered this technique by trial and error yet the advice given has explained it perfectly . 🙏🏽
This is gonna help my music soo much i am actually becoming more in impressed with my natural voice! thank you!
this actually is so helpful the more abstract the concept the more helpful they tend to be
Whitney having an ❌ is scaring me because thats the greatest singer
Makes u curious right!? Thank you stupid RUclips algorithm for pushing stuff like this on us! :)
Nowadays, they promote weak and noisy voices + yelling and nasal high notes.
Aretha
They said her throat was valid she just destroyed her lungs with crack and sigs that’s why her range diminished
That's not what he meant tho.
Chris, you are just phenomenal. We all owe you so so much for these free lessons!!!
This was very helpful in having me understand how I’m using the ranges of my voice. Thank you!
I needed a reminder JUST like this haha
Been struggling with high notes recently (and they've been working) but as you said it's totally unsustainable.
Thanks for the video!
Chris, your gift for communicating counterintuitive concepts is quite astonishing!! 👌
TANKS CHRIS A LOVE MJ ❤️
I can't believe he's putting out so much about high notes lately. This is great I have a difficult spot in my upper falsetto before the whistles which have been coming so much easier lately
I really appreciate your authenticity and passion in teaching! Well done!
This is some of the best vocal teaching on youtube!
Chris, this vid is pure gold, thanks, it brings a new point of view for me as a singer.
Thank you for this. Just signed up for the training. I hope, after learning, I will be able to train our children's choir so they can sing better. Would be very helpful for their future!
might have been a little abstract were it not for your very generous sharing of very concrete demonstrations of approaching the technique. Once again thank you Chris! PS your paid $99 course a couple years ago was the best vocal investment I've ever made for myself!
Glad to hear the course was a great investment for you!
Really helpful video Chris. As someone focusing on improving my vocals and guitar playing I am definitely falling into the trap of pushing my voice too hard to "fit" with certain guitar tunings / chords voicings / keys of original recordings. Saying "I am only a semitone away" and pushing to get there. This gives me some good perspective on focusing more on where my voice can deliver, rather than striving for an arbitrary note or key
spot on video ! Thank you !
wow, it is wonderful aproach. I love the significance of the home! It is super idea to have home and enjoy it so much as the most powerful place in singing. Thanx a lot!
Chris I've learned SO much from your RUclips videos and your "Discover your voice" course. I've no doubt that in the next few years we'll see some great singers that are great because of you!
Definitely notice the editing quality has stepped up. 👌
Appreciate it!
I love how u use visualization and intención to Naturally flow with the notes easily and without straining❤tysm
Thank you. Perfect explanation.
i thought singing just only sing 😅 my voice sound awful, good thing i found your video to start out.
OMG this is exactly how too sweet by Hozier sounds of him slipping up to the high note then he goes back
❤I don't think I've ever heard ANYONE analyze high notes and transitions this well! 🔥And what a voice you have, Chris!!! Can I like this a million times?!
Thanks for this I have been doing this all along without having a clue that it is beneficial.
chris i love your videos, i have no conditions to do vocal/screaming lessons and you just drop some videos that really help me through the process, just thank you.
Thank you... Good training.
I find it very similar to playing guitar, just be as relaxed and focused as possible e.g. like Sam Carter. My singing has improved drastically after focusing on spending as little effort as possible for achieving the sound I want
Very interesting video. Congrats!👏👏👏
One fthe best voice lessons ever 🎉😊❤
Chris, another great and insightful lesson. Thanks.
This did indeed benefit me
Thank you for sharing .very useful information will try these vocal exercises
Very cool exercise Chris!
this is the first "normal" voice tutorial i've watched, but it makes me realize how similar it is to learn "regular" singing and "screamo"!! Watched a few videos for this, there's 2(kind of 3) types of "screamos", voice fry and false chords(3rd is by combining both) one comes from the power of your stomach/chest , and the other is from what you call head voice!! never took courses, but used to practice singing a lot(kind of getting back into it), and had already been using both, just never really realized it until i watched this!! 😅I cannot practice the way i'd like where i live rn, because the insulation between me and my neighbor is paper thin, but it made me discover that i could "sing" pretty much quietly, i'm able to keep the volume down while still changing "notes"(that's head voice i guess?) and still make work most muscles i'd usually use except the "power" ones! It's not the same, but it still helps!!
Aye captain! This has been a blast, really appreciate your adventurous explorative attitude my dude! You killed it, and showed us how we can catch a fish for life 😉 we be in touch soon! Gona go through your free vocal training first and see what I can budget, but I'll definitely be hitting you up soon Chris! You a legend brah 😅🙏❤️
Thank you so much for this. 🥺🙏🏾
I feel so called out! Great video, thank you so much.
This is an absolutely amazing vocal coach!
that makes actually a lot of sense. great video, thank u!
love it! thanks for sharing
You're amazing pal❤
I really appreciate the content you provide for us and I also find your tutorials pretty useful and practical
Hi Chris ,
So cool 👍
I've been experimenting with my voice a lot more as I've been getting more comfortable with recording. Your videos are a great help with that.
Love this whole concept of taking little trips out and returning home to what’s comfortable!! It’s pretty much just a mental trick, but thinking of it this way makes so much sense..
I also love your demonstrations and that you didn’t edit out any error. It feels real, and is nice to know that even great singers like you don’t hit everything 100% perfect, 100% of the time (don’t take that wrong 😅)
Overall great video!
I wanna hear you finish that MJ song in the range you were using!! Good stuff!! ❤
Good explanation. It is true that it is very duffiiult to go back to chest voice from head and mix
Chris! Can you do a Steve Perry breakdown?
❤🎉awesome information of music...I will apply this techniques thank you 💟
Chris you're really great!
I’m a vocalist of 30 years and sing songs by Journey, Shinedown, Aerosmith, Alter Bridge in a band and I can tell you this, RELAX your throat and vocal folds when singing high notes. You don’t force range. Your Michael Jackson imitation in falsetto was really good!
Wow, interesting concept!! I love it
Watching Myles Kennedy is a great example of this
This video was exactly what I needed! I did the free course and the “speaking musically” video definitely helped break the mental block I had which made my singing sound forced/unnatural even when I was using support. Paired with this video, it gave me everything I needed to combine my horn line experience to start singing in the mix and do covers that don’t sound forced or unnatural
You really proved your class in this video.
This is a great tip. In church I'm playing guitar and singing lead on a song in E mixolydian and the highest note is G above C4, which I can only hit using my mix voice around the break if I'm completely warmed up and actually yelling! If I sing that one in head voice, I can go back into mix on the way back down in that particular phrase! Thanks Chris!
loved this explanation, I will definitely try this approach, it makes sense 🙌🙌
Thank you for the video!!!! I’ve been needing something like this lol I keep pushing
Thanks as always legend. Great examples and ideas 🤘
this is very important point, i would say one of the top things that needs to keep in mind before we start learning technical stuff for reaching hi-notes
Great lesson!! thanks man!
Chris Liepe's guns are on point
I do this naturally when im by myself but when i sing in front of others i tend to get out of body and in my head
Points well made.
Great advice, thank you!
chris, have you heard "i'll write a song by earth wind & fire ? phillip bailey does some crazy high note singing the dude blows my mind
Yes!! Incredible!
I'm a metalhead but I also love listening to Phillip Bailey. He said he grew up singing along to female singers which is how his range got so high
Great stuff Chris!
that 2:00 bit killed me🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
thank you for that awesome video!!!!
I started doing this recently I feel like as a singer I have an identity crisis with trying to hit the same and sound the same as the original artists so now I’m trying to sing in how I’m comfortable and my range and I still sound good I gotta stop doubting myself
Love this 👏 So helpful 🙏
This is so cool! Well explained… I’ve subscribed 😊
Awesome. Thanks!
Great advice thank you
3:11😊 yes mam
My 2 Favorite Singers Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston..Very good choice of Artist to use as an example...i would've picked these 2 artists as well to use as a example
I am a professional guitarist..instrumentalist..but l sing for fun..mr coach ..ur materials are tremendously enlightening,rich in content and knowledge...so is ur command of English and voice..all the best mate..greetings from Havana.
❤❤❤ wonderful ❤
It's kind of been a personal goal of mine to try and reach the high note in Fire by Queen Bee even though it's wayyyyy outside my range, and I feel like this might help to at least expand my range higher in that direction. For the record, I'm a baritone :)
I'm working on Sandy Denny's portion of The Battle of Evermore , this helps immensely , thank you Coach .
Clean, high, mix notes are definitely still my weakest point in my vocal capabilities. I sing so much heavier stuff with screaming that my muscle memory just wants to go in that direction. Thanks for the reminder to keep practicing everything, and to stay multidimensional with my vocals.
Also, every time I comment, I have to request for you to check out "A Normal Life" by Marianas Trench. You will love Josh Ramsay's vocals!
I have the opposite problem, I can't get my voice to introduce grit or break at all 😭
New subscriber.
All you have to do is let Dimash sing it LOL
3 octaves higher
I've heard this somewhere, "if you can speak, then you can sing" which is true.
SO much truth to that statement!
Tq ♥️🎶👌
I've noticed many times already, when trying to attack a top note (of my passaggio, which is typically F4 /apparently it's D4-F4/), or to sing for longer time on E4-F4, that trying harder what my vocal coach tells me - ie squeeze all my diaphragm, ribs and other muscles to be able to reach that tone or to keep it stable, actually have the opposite effect - my voice drops a lot, at least couple of semi-tones. As I was normally struggling to hit F4 well, squeezing everything I have actually made it much harder to hit even E4 - often even impossible!
But recently I got another break-thru. I now can hit F4# & G4 much, much easier, and even feel free enough to make twists. Sometimes I even hit G4# & A4, though it's still mostly experimental.
Yes it's not pure chest voice
(which was all I had until two years ago, and still IS the range of all the songs I practice, often we have songs transposed even further down, so that I don't have to struggle with F4 or to sing long time in E4-F4 ... fortunately I can drop down to C2-D2 with just a little warmup /like purring-fry or low-sigh/),
but it sounds solid enough, not like my pure falsetto; and as long as I mix it at least a bit, I can introduce some "metal" (or perhaps buzzing is more accurate).
Last Christmas for our holiday concert I picked the song "You're a mean one Mr. Grinch" covered by Small Town Titans, but since I didn't have the range to sing it as Phil Freeman does, I switched the D5-F5 notes to D4-F4, which was comfortable enough also that I could play with my timbre and change the character of different lines - just like Chris have said before - to play a role (sometimes it helps if you imagine it like animation character). And as long as I managed to warm up my low bass notes to sounds loud enough (when literally touching the mic with my lips :)),
and keep the long high notes stable and on pitch I was very happy.
But in the last few weeks I noticed that I can actually reach the D4-F4 notes - yes they're not yet usable - they're too thin, weak and unstable, and are pure falsetto w/o any grit - but I didn't have them before at all!
Actually about 2.5 years ago I didn't have ANY note above F4!
And now while not yet usable in live song, I have a full extra octave to play with :)
The way to reach it wasn't very clear. But Chris' advices to first hit comfortable high note and then play with it (as duration or melody with other notes) was extremely helpful to get familiar with that range - and yes it sounded horrifying at first (and it still does the higher end), but it's definitely getting clearer and stronger - I'm quite sure my brain and vocal apparatus are getting familiar with that new turf, now that I can produce some sounds, get the feedback and experiment - and they're doing it without much effort - it's just like opening a whole new room.
At first I tried to hit the high notes in few different ways - one was pure falsetto, or initially if I couldn't actually sing the note I could hit it with lip trill. After a little while of lip trill, I could hit it with pure falsetto. Then I experimented with nasal and baby-like cry sound (or duck-quack) - if I got that right it should be the vocal twang, which turns out is the natural way to produce loud and high tones, which babies use a lot (but with time most of us have forgotten about it). And when I can produce a given high note with these methods I start to experiment changing their timbre (as initially didn't like ANY of them :)), and also experimenting to reproduce a given phrase of a song that I couldn't normally sing in original (for example "Out there in the spotlight, you're a million miles AWAY" from "Turn the Page" in James Hatfield cover of Bob Sager). I still can't sing that song in original, but at first we had to transpose it with -4 semi-tones, and now it's only -2.
And occasionally (though unreliably) I can hit G4#-A4 with nice timbre (Mixed I assume).
Another thing I started to notice when I managed to produce a strong high note is that with becoming more comfortable with it, I actually let more air out, and that makes it much easier. It's of course a bit tricky, as the point is to use just enough air as is needed, but not too much. But it feels like a thing that I can fine-tune with practice.
Oh and also my larynx is moving freely, and on the very high notes it goes quite high too.
It really feels to me that the classical "keep your larynx low and squeeze with every muscle you have" is only restricting, and keeps a lot completely out of reach!
I agree! anytime we lean into a "should"... especially with the larynx, we limit ourselves. It's best to LET your voice do things and simply notice rather than overthinking and putting would-be possibilities into a confining box!
Good, thank's