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This may shock you, but high notes are not always the biggest challenge for singers!

One of the common issues that I see in the bottom of the voice is the tendency to sing with a "pressed" chest voice. Extrinsic muscle tension is causing you to squeeze and press the vocal cords together with too much force.

When we sing with pressed phonation, we:

️ cut off our airflow
️ make it more difficult to get through the middle to the top
️ find ourselves flipping, cracking, and breaking
️ feel like we "grab" or "dump" into the bottom when approaching lower notes from above.

What do we need? Balance.

We need a balance of muscle and airflow. We need to add airflow and we need to reduce a little bit of that squeeze so that the vocal cords vibrate more optimally.

Want some exercises to help with that? I thought you’d never ask.

Try the exercises in this video!

Descending 5-3-1 on FOO and FUH
Descending 5-4-3-2-1 on HUH
Descending 8-5-3-1 on Foo
Descending 8-5-3-1 on HMUH or HMOU with a cry, going towards breathy (but not all the way), and not dumping into the bottom

These exercises use descending scales because they help us increase airflow, and the more closed vowels like OO help us not to grab or dump into the bottom.

REMEMBER: The quality of your chest voice affects the quality of your entire range.

Let me know if you found this helpful, or if you have any questions in the comments below!