I was cruising around the web today, and I stumbled across a medical Q&A site that had some misinformation regarding upper registers. Specifically, someone was asking how to sing higher after going through hormonal/age related changes. This person used to be able to sing in falsetto as a young teen, and after their voice changed, they could only sing falsetto for a short period of time before their voice went hoarse. The answer the doctor gave was incredibly disappointing to me, as he said that once you go through these hormonal changes, you cannot restore your singing range. This is incorrect. It could not be further from the truth, really. What’s even worse is that this is the opinion of many doctors and vocal coaches and singers, and there are discouraging articles all over the internet regarding this topic.

Everyone thinks that as our voices deepen we lose the ability to sing high. The truth is, yes, your voice changes, but you don’t actually lose your range! You just need to train your voice to keep or gain those sounds. You see, there are two changes that happen because of these hormonal changes: your voice gains the ability to resonate deeper, and your natural bridges shift down. Bridges are the notes that act as a “bridge” between vocal registers (such as chest voice, falsetto, etc). When an inexperienced singer tries to hit these bridge notes, they will either sound strained or their voice will crack, and cracks are actually your voice flipping up into the next register. So think about it this way. A young boy’s natural speaking voice might sit right on his future chest-to-head bridge, and as his voice gets deeper and that bridge lowers to that same spot, his voice will crack because it flips out of chest voice and into head voice for a split second. Over more time, he will unconsciously learn to speak lower because of this, and then mentally he will convince himself his old (well, his younger) speaking voice is “high” and no longer normal or easy to use.

Now as far as actually maintaining and being able to use your youthful range, it does take proper technique, practice, hard work, dedication, et cetera, but IT IS COMPLETELY POSSIBLE FOR EVERYONE. Yes, I said it, and I believe it with all my heart and soul. In fact, I myself can sing over 2 octaves higher than I could before puberty! It’s all in your commitment to your voice. Another great example is Michael Jackson. As a boy, everyone thought he would lose his range and his incredibly powerful boyish voice. After puberty, his voice clearly did change, but he was able to maintain an incredibly young and high sound. Again, and I can’t stress this enough, the proper training and practice will always improve and maintain your high notes and upper registers.

I hope you guys find this helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I’ll answer them here.

Cheers!