HOLY JESUS! PLEase help me with my voice! read details!?

Question

Hi, I've been trying to hit the notes on the song vertigo. I can do the entire song but not the "I can feel!" part. It was TOO high. So I practiced like 2-3 months and Now I CAN HIT IT!!!!! I SAT NEXT TO THE PIANO AND I PLAYED THE NOTES AND I SANG WITH THE SONG AND RECORDED IT!! It was right!!!! But does this still mean I'm a baritone? I have to really force my stomach when doing this note!

Answer 1

First off, I'd like to say good choice of song.  I like that song, too. :)

Your situation sounds like how I used to sing karaoke.

It MIGHT be that you need to stretch your voice (which takes a lot of time and should only be done under the STRICT GUIDANCE OF A TEACHER); however, I think that it's most likely that you are not entering head voice/falsetto.

What is head voice/falsetto?

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Excluding "mixed registers", there three main registers (not including the dangerous vocal fry or whistle register) we use in singing: chest voice (for low notes), head voice (for high notes), and falsetto (for anything above head voice).

If you are finding that you can't go above a certain point without straining, try switching registers.  It may sound kind of strange when you first switch, but most of that is just a lack of mixing registers.  First get comfortable with switching.  It takes time to strengthen your head and falsetto registers.  In time, you will also learn how to mix your registers for a smoother sounding transition, and for stronger sounding notes.

Don't worry about voice categorization and high notes

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You can actually be a light baritone or tenor and still unable to reach those notes (unless you use proper registration).  Registration is more important than chest voice range for hitting notes.  Also, even if you are/were a bass, some basses can sing very high; especially with good training (see Tim Stones on Wikipedia for voice range); however, it still sounds like you are probably a baritone or tenor from what sort of struggles you are describing.

A vocal-register car analogy

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Registers are like gears of a car, we often drive in second gear (if you want to call vocal fry first), but we can only go so fast without damaging our engine in second gear.  We need to switch gears to go faster.  With a voice, this applies as the gears being registers and the engine being your vocal cords.

Cautions

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Remember, DON'T PUSH YOUR VOICE, just let it rise up to where it's comfortable, and wait until you can change registers before going higher.  It actually takes less power to hit those high notes once you learn how to do it properly.

Finally remember that there are many types of baritones, basses and tenors.  What makes you a baritone or tenor is not your range, but how deep or light your voice sounds naturally.  I can sing some notes higher than a first tenor with my falsetto, and make them sound powerful, but it doesn't make me a light tenor by any standard.

Most important is just keep working at transitions, and never force your voice (you'll regret it later on if you do).  You will certainly be able to sing Vertigo and more later on with practice and more importantly proper registration.

Plan of attack:

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1.  VOCAL REST - First off, if your voice is hoarse at all (and whenever it is hoarse), rest it for a while with no singing (except lessons) and minimal speaking until the hoarseness goes away.  Also be sure rest it if you tried this forcing your voice to sing Vertigo the day before you start the next steps (you'll need to heal your voice).

2.   FIND HEAD VOICE - Practice finding head voice.  Try the boat noise exercise (making a boat brrr sound - see Eric Arcenaux vocal warmup or any speech level singing stuff on youtube).  There are also many other websites that focus on this; but, this is the example that I've found most helpful.

3.  WHILE NO HEAD VOICE, AVOID STRAIN - Until you can find head voice, just falsetto any part you can't hit with chest voice.  Also never force any note.  As soon as you feel the slightest bit of force, stop, and remember that note, and keep at least 1-3 notes below that note (depending on the level of strain).  The note where you first feel the strain is part of your passagio.  This is where you must enter head voice (and possibly if you enter head voice before this, your transition might be better).  Don't worry if this note seems like a low maximum at first, in time, you can reach many notes above this (you just need to switch gears, the same way a Ferrari does to go over 100 mph).

4.  WORK AT HEAD VOICE AND MIXING - Keep on working on head voice and then start working on the transition.  Spend no longer than 30 minutes a day working on smothing the transition, until the transition becomes smooth.  It might also take a lot of singing and time to get the transition smooth, but the main thing is just learning how to switch without straining in chest voice.

5.  AFTER YOU'VE GOT IT, REPEAT FOR FALSETTO - After you've worked on this transition, you can do the same thing for falsetto, but be more gradual and spend less time working on the transition since it's hard to get the resonance correct.

In the mean time:

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Don't worry about a very rough transition.  Change your voice to head or falsetto as soon as you can, and the transition will get smoother with practice and time.  Just NEVER FORCE YOUR VOICE, and be sure to also consult a voice teacher to help you if you need further help with the transition point.

Choir bonus

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Also if affording a voice teacher is out of your budget (as it used to be for me) or if you just want some practice with a group of experienced singers, be sure to join a choir.  If you join a choir also make sure to ask the choir director any questions you might have about singing, since chances are he's got a lot of experience (and possibly had a lot of lessons) with singing.  A good choir director can help in ways that we can't, because he can hear you sing.  Furthermore, choral singing is good practice and is usually not as hard on the voice, and all singing is related, so choir practice can help a lot with singing U2 or any song in general.  Also don't worry if you are the youngest person in the choir (I'm not sure of your age, but I'm also writing this for a larger audience that might come across this writing); it means that you are around more experienced singers which means more people to ask questions to.  Also, hang around your local university's music faculty and ask if you can sit in on any classes or masterclasses (it will also help a lot, especially as you continue singing).  We will try to answer these as best as we can, but it's always better to hear you sing, so we can hear exactly what you are doing.

Hope this is of some help to you.  If there is anything further I can add or you wish to know about anything I've said, let me know, and I will try my best.  Also feel free to add anything, or summarize what I've said (I do sometimes have a tendency to repeat myself when it's a long body of text)

Graham

P.S. Sorry about the length, I've tried to highlight the key information to make it easier to read quickly.