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Updated: Tuesday 21 March, 16:01 (AEST)
Hello, singers! Dr Dan here, and today we’re discussing how to sing louder without straining your voice. Most people don’t give much thought to how their voice sings louder. They just open their mouth and essentially yell in a melodious fashion. However, if you’ve been singing for a while, you’ll know that sustaining that level of effort can wear out your voice quickly. The good news is that singing louder doesn’t have to be this way. You can learn to sing louder without straining your voice, but perhaps not in the way you might think.
Voice Projection: The Common Approach
Many students approach volume production with increased effort, often equating it to voice projection. A quick Google search provides this definition: “Voice projection is the strength of speaking or singing whereby the voice is used powerfully and clearly. It is a technique employed to command respect and attention.” The words “strength” and “command” might evoke thoughts of physical exertion, leading people to believe that projecting their voice requires a lot of effort. However, the excess effort is never efficient.
Achieving Balance
To sing louder without straining your voice, it’s essential to achieve balance first, and then the volume will come. Always put your horse before the cart. Establishing vocal balance can be done through various exercises, such as Dr Dan’s Voice Essentials Exercise Collection, Exercise 39, Diminished Triads.
By practising these exercises, you’ll learn not to over-drive your voice while still producing a powerful sound. Although this level of volume might not be extreme, it is more than sufficient for most performances when amplified by a microphone.
Refined Resonance
Once you’ve established vocal balance, you can reinforce that balance with refined resonance for further increase in volume when needed. In singing, voice production is often equated with acoustic resonance, the concentrated pressure through which one produces a focused sound. Refined resonance will produce the greatest amount of projection available to a voice by utilising all the key resonators found in the vocal cavity.
For contemporary genres like rock, pop, and country that require healthy, sustainable volume, the focus of resonance will come from twang. Incorporating twang into your singing will result in a significant change in volume without straining your voice. By coordinating all four components of the voice (the power source, the sound source, the resonators, and the articulators), you can achieve a sustainable lift in volume.
Understanding Your Vocal System
To sing louder without straining your voice, it’s essential to understand how your singing voice works to produce all types of sounds—loud, soft, breathy, clean—by coordinating the four components of your interconnected biomechanical vocal system. By achieving vocal balance, refining resonance, and incorporating twang, you can sing louder, not harder, and protect your voice for years to come. Keep practising, and as always, sing well!
For more about singing louder, check out this video…
Disclaimer: This blog post was generated by ChatGPT-4, an AI language model, based on Dr Dan’s video script (original work). For a comprehensive understanding of the topic, we suggest watching the original video above.
— TOOLS for SINGERS —
* FREE 7 Day Vocal Technique Detox
* More Vocal Exercises
* Dr Dan’s Online Singing Course