I am just starting out my journey in learning to sing. I've been collecting a lot of info from various sources, and read RYV book at least twice now, and found it to be invaluable! What I learned so far is that the most work goes toward releasing the tension that was built up from accumulating bad habits in singing… I am 33. My voice is quite low. I can sing down to D2, but I really struggle with most of the notes above G3… I am straining a lot pushing for higher notes, and my voice sounds wobbly and weak… One thing I realized is that my larynx would jump up as soon as I get into those higher notes and would choke me off completely.

Reading RYV helped me to get some grip on singing in a much more relaxed way… I know it is not all about larynx, gut I find it useful to use my larynx as an indicator of unnecessary tensions. Just this morning I managed to sing up very lightly to C5 without any strain and without larynx movement. I actually felt like I can keep going even higher, but decided not to… One thing that bothered me is that all the notes above G3 sounded very very light. Is that normal? Is that something that will be remedied with time by doing the Transcending Exercise and Sirens?

You've really just got to set the imagery in your head and match your physical to it. Just ALLOW things to happen. When you are feeling tight and your larynx is going up you are not allowing you resonance to float up into your head tones where you higher range lies - instead you are trying to force the pitches from a high chest resonance and placing too much strain on your chords.

As you sing think of the notes as resonating through your body, as buoyant sound floating from your belly to the top of your head. Like a fishing Bobber floating on top of water, and the water floods and empties your resonant spaces as you ebb and flow up the scales. All the sound this resonation creates you "send" to your palate where it bounces out of your mouth. Don't "lock" into any one vocal position, but instead float among them all.

Also imagine this bobber has a light. Many people will start to raise their larynx and tense up once the "bobber" reaches the floating level of about the base of the tongue - then suddenly they are squeezing, stretching the vocal chord and pushing to go higher. Instead, stay relaxed, pretend as though you can see the light from inside your throat - as the ball rises imagine the angles of light and shadow it casts as it fills your jaw then passes by the opening in the back of your mouth and ascends into your head, maybe splashing some light into your sinus cavities on it's way up - dip your chin down as it climbs if you like as it releases excess strain. The "light" helps with air direction, your air is the light. Just relax and allow the sound to travel, allow the sound to happen. It's at this point you start using Jaime's "Zipper" imagery and start to slowly "zip up" your chords and lighten up on breath pressure - you'll find a balance as you feel your way through it. I like to use Hums for this, then once you feel the proper placement and the sound floating you can switch to lip bubbles to get air consistency flowing effectively.

Don't fight it, you really just have to relax and allow sound production - be natural and confident (even if it's pretend confidence - worry = tension), if at any-time you feel like your larynx or tongue are fighting you or your chords are straining, stop, do some hums, relax everything back down and try again - and this time don't think about what your doing of if it sounds good, just that you are working on that area of your chords and trying to feel out coordination and strengthen them.

As for volume it will improve as strength and coordination improve, JUST AS LONG as you aren't in falsetto - remember that falsetto is a soft, breathy tone - NOT a place - so make sure you aren't in a chest resonance falsetto mistaking it for head voice. Also make sure you're not in falsetto for your head resonance portions of your exercises as you need to build the connected strength for full tone in the higher registers and to be able to float among registers effortlessly. Higher ones will, by their nature sound, thinner (remember the voice as a triangle AND spaces between sound waves get thinner as the frequency raises), but shouldn't be nasal.

I hope this helps and I didn't just confuse you more!

Thank you Diane! Visualizations do help quite a bit!

I have a question regarding the following thought:

For TT's yes - momentarily - the point is to help you connect the chords to strengthen them. You have to make sure you actually connect as you rise and don't just make a louder falsetto tone - if that makes better sense. I have seen many people - prior to RYV - who would talk about how they just "can't get any louder", they "can't increase range" and how "higher notes seem like they just take so much air". What was happening is they would just use the tone they sang in falsetto and push it louder without connecting the chords or increasing resonance. They'd be like this the whole time([ ]) instead of ending like this ( || ). If you do them right not only to they strengthen the chords like an MMA workout, they also allow you to effortlessly slip in and out of falsetto and full voice for dynamics and emotion when you sing without a noticeable "flip" unless intended. You get a nice connection tone consistency throughout your "voicings".

Jaime also warns of swelling falsetto during TT's in RYV. He says: "You must make sure that you are not swelling your falsetto. (That is an entirely different exercise.)
If you swell your falsetto, the sound will be loud and breathy and/or
hooty sounding. Increasing the volume of your falsetto occurs when you add
more volume than resonance; by not fully utilizing the muscles involved in
vocal cord tension, the glottis maintains a more open position, thus allowing
excess air through the glottal opening on louder volumes. A loud falsetto
only dries out your throat and irritates the edges of the vocal cords, if you
don’t know what you are doing.
Your goal is to transcend into your full voice by utilizing the muscles
that control vocal cord tension and glottal adjustment. Full voice should
sound loud, resonant and clean, with minimal breath support. You
shouldn’t notice any breathiness in the sound of your voice. Rely on the
inhalation sensation while vocalizing to minimize pressure." (p.240,241)


There is no falsetto involved in the sirens and these are designed to strengthen cord and vocal coordination.

Think of the RYV exercises this way -

Falsetto slides - help build breath control, tone control and consistency.

Transcending Tones - Build strength, lateral tone/volume control and connections (cord and register). Remember - you're not supposed to push harder for TT's to get louder, you're supposed to balance you volume and resonance to SWELL the sound. Only increase your push as a means of support and balance, not the sole means to increase volume.

Sirens - build strength, linear tone control and smooth out any wrinkles left in the connections.

Hope that clarifies :-)

The yawn sensation exercise (practise yawning) might help you understand how much you are supposed to drop the jaw to create that space for the voice to travel freely to the resonators and add bass to your sound. Feel the openness and easiness in creating that relax opened throat. Singing a the top of your range should feel as effortless as singing at the bottom.

It can be many different things. I need to hear you to make sure you still have chest connection in it. Put an audio sample up and I'll tell you what's going on.

Phil Moufarrege
Grow-The-Voice.com
Youtube.com/PhilMoufarrege