Sing Without Straining: 10 Exercises to Eliminate Tension and Free Your Voice

Ramsey Voice Studio
Ramsey Voice Studio
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Published 2020-05-26
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Introduction 0:00
Definition of vocal strain 2:44
Straight and tall posture 5:16
Breathing correctly 6:45
1.5 octave lip trill for males 8:36
1.5 octave lip trill for females 9:06
Tongue Tension 9:30
1.5 octave ng for males 11:20
1.5 octave ng for females 11:42
1.5 octave gee for males 13:10
1.5 octave gee for females 13:27
1.5 octave no for males 14:55
1.5 octave no for males females 15:19
1.5 octave nuh for males 16:00
1.5 octave nuh for females 16:16
Larynx tension 16:31
1.5 octave mum for males 20:00
1.5 octave mum for females 20:23
Narrow the vowel 21:35
Imagine you’re on top of the note 22:53

Do you want to learn how to sing better but feel like you're straining your voice every time you do? The truth is that it's very easy to strain when you're trying to work on your voice, expand your vocal range or hit high notes.

That's because the voice naturally has a little bit of strain when you try to push it to do something that it doesn't do naturally. Just like working out, vocal strain, is the result of pushing your voice to do something beyond its current limits.

Now, while we should avoid vocal strain and eliminate tension as much as possible, that is an ideal rather than reality. The reality is that any time you work a muscle there is a little bit of tension involved. However, the truth is that many beginning singers strain their voice too much when they're trying to improve their singing.

The biggest reason that you want to get rid of vocal strain is that it tends to ruin the vocal tone of your notes. If you learn how to sing without strain however, then you can make those same notes sound really really great.

My definition of vocal strain is anytime the muscles outside of the vocal cords get involved in your singing. It could be too much tension or strain in your tongue, in your larynx, in your neck, shoulders, or your abs. It's very important that you learn how to disengage these muscles from interfering with your singing too much.

So here are my 10 favorite exercises to eliminate tension and for your voice: The first exercise is to use the tall posture. In this exercise, you'll bring your feet to shoulder-width apart and your hips walls to be shoulder-width apart. This will prevent you from slouching or pulling your neck too far back. It's also important that you keep your gaze forward as much as possible.

In the second exercise for singing without straining, you'll learn to sing from the diaphragm. Many singers will raise their shoulders or expand the ribs whenever they breathe in. However this is not the most efficient breath that you can take. Instead, you want to inhale so that the diaphragm expands the stomach muscles. So when you inhale, the stomach will come out, and when you sing, the stomach will come back in.

In the third exercise for singing without strain, you're going to sing an octave and a half scale on a lip trill where you flop your lips together on each note in the octave and a half arpeggio.

In the fourth exercise for singing without strain, you're going to sing an octave and a half scale on a “ng” consonant like you're saying “rung” but holding the “ng” at the end.

In the fifth exercise for singing without tension, you'll sing an octave and a half scale on the word “Gee” as in “Geese”.

In the sixth exercise for singing without tension, you'll sing an octave and a half scale where you replace each word of the scale with the word “No”, as in “note”.

In the seventh exercise for singing without tension you're going to sing an octave repeat arpeggio on the word “Nuh” as in “nut”.

In the eighth exercise for singing without tension, you're going to sing an octave and a half arpeggio but this time on the word “Mum” as in mother. As you're doing this exercise, it's very important that you relax your larynx and make sure that it's not going too high as you sing upwards.

In the 9th exercise for singing without tension, you'll take a phrase of a song that's been giving you a hard time and narrow the vowel. For example, if you're singing the line “of a girl” where “girl” is the high note and you feel that your voice is straining to hit the high note, it would be good to think of a more narrow vowel on the word girl so “gourl”, as in good.

In the final exercise for singing without tension, you want to get into a psychological mindset of believing that you're on top of the pitch rather than reaching up for it.

Learning to sing without tension is probably the most difficult singing concept to master, because you're always trying to push your voice to do more than it wants to do naturally. And tension will always come from that, however it's important that you're using the minimal amount of tension possible.
All Comments (21)
  • @johnsoneviota1802
    i know you wont notice me but you really want to help singers, you are giving without taking or expecting something, you deserve a million
  • @bri-bristhoughts9616
    This is one of my biggest problems. I get scared of high notes and always strain or miss it. Thank you. This is the first day of actually seeking real help. As I am just starting to perform other than church or karaoke. Thank you!❤
  • @luvindaopera111
    Nice job! Voice teacher of 30+ years here. Appreciate you sharing and showing examples. "A singer is as good as the breath they take, then how they manage it."
  • @jesst_a_frog
    This fundamentally changes my understanding of how the voice works. I did not realize that vocal strain is more than and often is outside the voice box. The way I learned to use my voice was with all the focus in my throat on producing sound because that’s where the sound is actually made. But I had to relearn how use my voice to remove that strain, but it seems I have only moved the strain to my core instead of training to remove the strain entirely. This video has taught me more than any teacher or tutor has ever taught me about how to produce vocal sounds without hurting myself. Thank you <3
  • @CamilleGraves-lc2mr
    I really wanna thank you Matt. I'm currently working on becoming a singer. My cousin is actually a vocal coach and she says she would love to help me sing. But she hasn't been able to see me due to other issues. I've been watching you since 2020 and it's 2023. Thanks to you, I can belt, do whistle notes, and somehow hit an A6, and I'm 14. Thank you for everything
  • @isaacokunola9073
    That mental shift of being on top of the note is a great deal for me. Thanks Ramsey
  • @savannahsfairytaleart
    You explained everything so clearly, thank you! Thank you also for all the helpful advice. :D
  • @SofiA-nf7os
    Wow I did not know I was capable of singing like this! Got me crying. Thank you so so soo much!
  • @julieduong7491
    Thank you so much for your voice training today! You're absolutely a gem.
  • @KyOte13
    Wow, man… Thank U… I needed this
  • @GaryWetzel
    Excellent video, thank you, I learned a lot
  • @pepesfrau
    Just found you! First night after 3yrs singing with a choral group. As a soprano my thought was fighting with me and Handel was an accomplis! You helped. Thanks!