Singing Low Notes

Today's question:

Dear Voice-Mentor,
I'm having trouble making my low notes more powerful and "open". Do u have any pointers?
x00x

Dear xoox,

This I can answer! If your air is flowing gently and throat is relaxed, this exercise will extend the vocal range:

~ First, find SOME notes that sound exactly like you want, in your case, powerful and open.
~ Next, sing those notes, really getting the feel of them, until they sound just right to you.
~ Then, and only then, you start to slide that sound down

Adding notes to your range IS muscle training: you get gains by exercising those muscles, not thinking about it. It takes some time to build muscle and flexibility.

~ Take a breath, sing your good note, and slide it a little lower in pitch..
~ KEEP THE SOUND GOOD - don't go so low that the sound and feeling worsen.
~ If the good sound worsens, back up and sing a higher note that you can do well.
~ Be careful on going down. Do it SLOWLY. KEEP THE SOUND GOOD.

If your good sound does not go as low as you want it to go, have patience, it will come with time.
If your sound suddenly goes weak or choked, you've gone too low for now.

~ SING THE LOWEST PITCH YOU CAN WITH GOOD SOUND.

This stresses and trains the the muscles some, but it keeps your technique good. Five to ten minutes on this exercise at a time is plenty. When you get tired doing this, when even your good notes start to soudn worse, take a break, do something else.

~ After a while of singing your lowest good note, and slide it down a little and back up.
~ Very soon, the next lower note starts to sound good, too.
~ Congratulations, you are closer to your goal ~ that new note is your new "lowest note"!

Depending on how far along you are, this whole drill may take only seconds or it might be weeks before your next note appears. If you can't take the good sound lower, then don't. Go back and stick to the higher pitch for now.

~ Practice that new low note a lot.
~ Try sliding into and out of the next lower note from time to time.
~ When the next lower note comes in beautifully, now sing that.
~ Keep adding notes this way until you have all the notes you need.

It's easy to try to go too far too fast, but then you get nowhere. The real, real secret is to make the good sound color you want, THEN stretch farther, but not too far or too fast.

I'm glad you asked that question. I've been meaning to post the answer on this blog. Now, here it is!

Yours, Gary
www.voice-mentor.com