Need to get just a little higher in my tower...

February 22, 2012 6:09 PM

[Singing Filter] I was just cast in a musical. I generally sing alto but the role I'm playing (Rapunzel in Into the Woods) is soprano. I'm having some difficulty getting her highest note - it is one or two notes out of my range, depending on the day. Looking for tips, tricks, advice - anything!

So, yay! I'm doing my first show in a while. And it's Into the Woods!

Not so yay! When we had out first rehearsal the other night, we pretty much started with the highest note I have to sing, which is a high B.

I can comfortably sing a G most days, a high A is questionable, and a high B is a squeaky mess that hurts my throat and everyone's ears. I am going to speak with the musical director for help. Ideally, I would take vocal lessons to improve my range, but I'm having trouble finding an affordable yet quality vocal coach with an availability that matches mine in the area.

So I'm looking for any advice that can help me expand my range in a relatively short amount of time. Mostly I'm afraid of damaging my vocal chords by straining to hit the note and having it sound bad on top of that.

Any help is welcome. Thanks, all. :)

posted by firei to Media & Arts (18 answers total)

Best answer: Warm ups are key. Do good warmups, going slowly and progressively higher. Drink lots of water while you're doing them. Start right below your break and go above your highest note. I especially like ones that jump up and come down (1-5-4-3-2-1, then up on half notes or 1-8-7-8-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, then up on half notes), but only after i do more standard ones that just go up. I can go slightly higher on the jumping ones.
posted by brainmouse at 6:15 PM on February 22, 2012

Best answer: If you're an experienced singer with a well-developed range, I don't know how much you can develop your range in a short amount of time. I have no experience with that - certainly could be possible.

If you're a beginning singer, and you haven't really worked on your range very much, you're going be totally fine. When I took voice lessons, my range (which was about one octave) basically doubled, just from singing every day and making sure to warm up properly before I sang.

Also: Is changing that one note, or changing a couple notes in the song, an option at all?
posted by insectosaurus at 6:21 PM on February 22, 2012

Best answer: Yeah, I think you're going to have to go at this really thin and light, which cannot be natural or good-feeling for you.

If you have a brassy alto, you're using to singing into it hard (think: Neko Case). This is going to be the opposite: pretend you're a countertenor.

A lot of women aren't particularly in touch with their falsetto register; you might be. Strengthening a natural and correctly produced falsetto sound will help you; one thing to do is to practice actually at the low end of your falsetto--singing from what's comfortable on down, without switching into your "normal" or "chest" voice, instead of up. Strengthen that production mode, basically.

Singing way out of your register like this is... not ideal. And you should really absolutely "fake" it, instead of shoving for it: don't go big. Produce the thinnest but most supported, most comfortable sound out of your range and get the hell out of there! It won't feel like you likely, but that's okay. Squeakiness is likely coming from pushing or trying to make sound the way you normally do. Instead, just think about floating. And I think don't visually think about it as going "high"--think about it as going forward, going through.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 6:25 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I was once cast as Christine Daae in the production of the Phantom of the Opera that my high school put on, and I was in the same boat as you - just barely able to hit the high note, sounding squeaky and all that.

Others have suggested warm-ups, and scales, all great advice. I'm going to give you advice for opening night. The best advice I can offer is, relax into the note. The more you push, the more you try to fight for the note, the worse it's going to sound. Do your work beforehand to prepare, but on the night, relax your shoulders, jaw and face, and use your diaphragm to get the note. Come down on top of the note as opposed to striving up for it.

You willl get it! Trust yourself, and it will come!

Good luck!
posted by LN at 6:26 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

food for thought - alcohol doesn't help things. not sure what your habits are, but you might want to reconsider that one.
posted by fingers_of_fire at 6:39 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Not a musical expert here, but one useful piece of advice I got when in the same situation (cast in a singing role that was too high for me) was to picture your scales/vocal range from left to right, like a keyboard, rather than up and down where top=highest note and bottom=lowest note. Purely mental, but it does help.
posted by Miss T.Horn at 7:19 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: DO. NOT. FORCE. IT.

Now that that part's out of the way, I am not a professional singer or a voice teacher or an alto, but I kind of... have no idea why the hell the casting director would make an alto play Rapunzel in Into the Woods? This is NOT a diss on you in any way! At all. Altos are fucking amazing. The thing is, though, Rapunzel's character essentially exists to be a caricature of a soprano, and she's got to go right to that B, and this seems really weird of them because part of auditions should be determining singers' comfortable range, right?

That said, forcing that note repeatedly can and will fuck your voice up. Even one show can do it. So the first thing I would do is go up to the music director and ask if they can transpose your part down a step or two. (Are you singing "Our Little World" or just the random above-the-staff twiddling?) It happens all the time, it's probably preferable to recasting, and chances are you're not the only one who knows something's up.

If that's not an option, you're not going to magically develop a high B with a vocal coach. Voices don't work that way; either you've got it or you don't. That said, you might have the note and just not be able to access it consistently. Everyone's mentioned warm-ups and scales, which are mandatory anyway. The other advice applies 200%, too - no shouting, minimal to no smoking or booze, etc.

I wish I could offer more specific advice but again, I'm neither a voice teacher nor your specific teacher. But yeah, please please please try to get this transposed. Singing should never hurt.
posted by dekathelon at 7:25 PM on February 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Like dekathelon, I'm amazed they cast an alto as Rap, but congrats all the same. My advice: don't do this without a singing teacher. You really don't want to screw up your voice for the sake of one show, or burn out partway through the run because you don't have good technique. If your MD isn't a singing teacher themselves, surely they at least have a few friends in the singing teaching community - can they recommend someone who will teach you for cheap while you guys are rehearsing, perhaps as a favour?

Is there a university in your town that teaches music (classical voice)? They may be able to recommend someone. And if they're too expensive, take fortnightly lessons instead of weekly. Or just have ONE lesson if you really can't afford it. This is a question you should be asking someone who is trained in classical voice teaching, who can physically listen to you and watch what you do when you sing. Singing is a whole-body thing, and technique is so important, especially for sop stuff.

Other than that, be sure to warm up every day, even just up to a G or G# to begin with if an A is going to be a struggle. If you have an iPhone, there's a great app called 'Warm Me Up' (icon is a picture of a sun) that will make custom warm-up routines for you so you have something to sing along to.
posted by lovedbymarylane at 10:31 PM on February 22, 2012

Response by poster: Thanks for the advice (and encouragement!) so far.

Re: the casting - it's a community theatre and I don't know that they got a great turnout. And at my audition I did actually hit the note, some how!

I just found out last night that we are not doing Our Little World (I'm bummed because that I can sing!), just the random twiddley trills.

I'll do what I can to get some voice lessons in - I've got calls out to a couple people.
posted by firei at 3:46 AM on February 23, 2012

There are lots of voice lessons and singing techniques on youtube.
posted by Wordwoman at 7:27 AM on February 23, 2012

Best answer: Please do not force this. It's absolutely not worth damaging your voice, and your instinct is exactly right that forcing it can and will be damaging.

We can't see inside your director's head, so we don't know what was behind the casting decision. But it's the director's responsibility to make sure this is a role you can perform without hurting yourself. That means transposing the part. Please do NOT sacrifice your vocal health for a director who's not doing his/her job.
posted by kalapierson at 8:24 AM on February 23, 2012

Best answer: Having treated several singers with vocal nodules from straining their voices I would strongly recommend that you seek a good classical singing teacher and work with them on the specific music you will be singing. If you are able to develop your range (and you may not be able to) it may involve a lot of technique work. You can damage your voice with a single performance, and definitely when rehearsing for a show and it takes a lot longer to rehabilitate than to do the damage in the first place. Sometimes (very rarely) damage from a single event can be permanent.

If you know you're an alto, I'd be really pushing to get the music transposed down so at least it's within your range, even if it's still high in your range. If it's just you singing in those bits it shouldn't be as complicated as if you have people singing under you.

Good luck!
posted by kadia_a at 8:50 AM on February 23, 2012

Best answer: If transposition is not an option, you can work with whoever is in charge of the music to rewrite the musical line so that it doesn't end up so high. In fact, it used to be common to rework music so that it suited the singers available better. For a situation like yours it may be a possibility.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 9:21 AM on February 23, 2012

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I have a lesson scheduled tomorrow & I'm hoping to speak with the music director over the weekend...

You're all superstars. :)
posted by firei at 3:13 PM on February 23, 2012

I played Rooster in Annie at the Weston Playhouse in VT in the 80s. They cast me based on my looks ignoring the fact that I am not a tenor.

I sang the verses as written and dropped an octave for the choruses. The world did not end.

Alternatively, can they transpose that one number down for you?
posted by wittgenstein at 7:25 PM on February 23, 2012

Oops - see now transposition was already mentioned.
posted by wittgenstein at 7:26 PM on February 23, 2012

Response by poster: Went to see a voice teacher tonight- and I got the note without pain! So I can definitely sing it. I'm hoping with regular warm ups and practice, but no strain, I'll be able to do it comfortably and not have to transpose it.

Thanks again, mefites.
posted by firei at 7:10 PM on February 24, 2012

Best answer: Oh, awesome, you do have the note. I was sort of suspecting you did just by dint of your being cast, but again, I'm not you.

So assuming none of this hurts you at all, and assuming your voice teacher's working on the physical workings, the trick I used to use was mostly psychological: imagine yourself already singing the note before you actually get there. It's really subtle, but it cuts down on the "OMG I have to sing a high D in twelve bars" feeling, which psychs you out and can muck with the singing process. It's kind of a feedback loop, you know? Nerves can affect your singing, which produces more nerves. (It works the other way, too, at least for me - if I'm doing pretty well then I get reassured and do better. So there's that!)
posted by dekathelon at 9:56 AM on February 25, 2012