People ask me this all the time:

• How do I sing falsetto?  Or whistle range?
• How do I prevent my voice from cracking when I go from low voice to high voice or visa versa?

P. Mario Marafioti once said, “The speaking voice is the real mold of the singing voice, in all its characteristics and dimensions; therefore, it must also be the factor for its different pitches.”

A famous European voice teacher from the nineteenth century named Lamperti said that “singing is speech a thousand times refined,” so I take his words and work them backwards. If we use singing to refine speech, we get the best of both worlds.

Both singing and speaking depend on how you use your tongue.

Here are some pointers:

• Don’t think of your voice as having several high and low parts that you relate to in a vertical way
• Think of it as 1 connected line on a horizontal plane from back to front instead of up and down.
• Going from one end to the other is like using a zipper that has all its teeth.  As you go from one to the other, you may feel a place where the “zipper” feels like it’s going to get stuck, kind of like how it feels when you shift gears with a manual transmission
• At that point, you have to use your singing muscles a bit differently just because of physics, so slow way down as you go from one note to another and MAKE SURE you pay attention to what’s going on at the back of your tongue and in your throat area
• If you feel tension in either area and if you feel the tongue pulling backwards, release all that tension and continue going even more slowly to the next tone
• Sometimes yawning through the tight area will help
• Do the Slow Leaky Tire standing up
• Next, do the Slow Leaky Tire lying down plus this:
  • Lie flat on your back with your legs uncrossed and arms at your side, being sure to keep the shoulders down (not hunched up), especially as you go higher
  • Close your eyes so you can concentrate on feeling what’s going on inside of you
  • When you get to the area that wants to tighten, slow down and work only on the 1-2 notes that lead up to where you might have “cracked” or “broken” in the past and the 1-2 notes after that area
  • Don’t push or try to force yourself into the next note. Instead, gently work the few notes around the tricky area until you have trained your brain to figure it out
  • Do this until you stop cracking and don’t go back to your old habits
• IMPORTANT: THE TONGUE IS BIG THING THAT CAN HELP YOU OR HINDER YOU!
• It takes determination to work this out so NEVER QUIT and NEVER PUSH!
• Last and most important: singing is your joy released so have fun with it!