Hi,
I am 19 and I have been taking singing lessons for two years from 16 to 18 and then, sadly, had to stop. I have a range of three octaves and a bit going from Db below middle C to around top E. I can sing with a powerful tone and vibrato through most of my soprano range. I sing for a few hours a day and my voice does not tire or feel uncomfortable, so I suppose I am doing at least a bit right. Every now and then, I try doing some vocal exercises at completely odd moments. Specifically half an hour after waking up, after a hot cup of coffee and without warming up. I just do scales upwards without straining, which does mean that my middle range from around A above middle C to A an octave higher is nearly non-existent, but from there things start to get interesting. I can go up for another octave, which means that I can go a fourth above what I usually reach. I paid attention to the relaxing of throat and jaw and to the breathing and even watched myself in the mirror - there is no strain or anything, it doesn't hurt, the notes are not breathy and sound really like pure
head voice. Like I said, I don't strain my voice, so I'll stop after maybe 10 minutes.
If, however, I do the same exercises maybe 30 minutes later (or any other time of that day, really) I won't be able to sing above E, or sometimes F. Can you tell me why and what I could do to keep those high notes? I don't sing arias like the Queen of the Night, but I know that in the mornings I have those notes, and later I don't and I'd really like to know what I can do about it since I KNOW I have them, I just don't know HOW and it's driving me crazy!
Thanks
The first thing to establish would be if you are producing those notes in a healthy way. Since I haven't heard you I can't say, but assuming they are then we would look to the fact that the voice, like the rest of the body, goes through minor changes during the day. Also as we talk more the voice gets tuned to that which lowers the basic pitch level. It is impossible for me to say with any certainty. I would say don't get too attached to the extreme high notes. If they are coming because of excess air pressure it could cause some problems in the long run. On the other hand, if you are able to sing the extreme high range because your vocal folds are very flexible at that point in the day then you should look at your speaking habits to assess whether that is causing your voice to get heavier during the day. Perhaps you could train yourself to retain the thin adjustment of the vocal folds that allows you to sing that high so that you still have it throughout the day.
