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Vocal exercise help!

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1ukky

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Hi! So I just recently started trying to learn how to sing.

Along with a few exercises a friend gave me, I'm working on Anne Peckham's vocal workouts in her "The Contemporary Singer" book (second edition).

I just wanted to ask, is it purposely working the higher parts of my voice? I'm only working on the workouts for low range singers, and I still have to use falsetto on every workout (my break is at the E above middle C). Even these "low range exercises" go up to the tenor C, which is pretty dang high for me. They usually start around the middle C, which is already pretty close to my break.

I was wondering, should I also take these exercises down an octave, or did Anne Peckham purposely write these to cater to my higher range? Since the workout thing is like 31 minutes, I don't really want to waste my time doing each one twice if I don't have to. Is it important that I work my lower range as well as my high range?

Thanks for your time!

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Hi 1ukky,

Is it important that I work my lower range as well as my high range?

Absolutely. If you can get your lower range sounding and feeling free and resonant, the higher stuff will come much more easily. I spent several years trying to do high scales, flipping into falsetto at E above middle C, and it got me basically nowhere.

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I've been using The same workout for over a year now.

I started out about the same as you.

My best advice is to do the workout 6 days a week (choose 1 day to rest).

For me, I do the high workout on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Low workout on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.

In the beginning, I only did the high workout. But I didn't notice any significant gains until I also did the low workout.

Just keep doing them faithfully and strength and range will improve month after month. All the different parts of your voice mature at different levels. So as it improves, you'll feel parts of your chest/throat/stomach that you never felt before.

One year has passed and it feels incredible. My voice feels so agile and flexible now. The best part is that even now it still keeps getting better and better.

Tenor C was impossible for me at the beginning, but it's not a problem anymore.

I would say that my high and low end have grown equally.

So yeah, keep at it.

Btw, I always do the workout first before doing any other exercises.

So I would suggest doing the workout and then do the exercises your friend gave you.

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Eggplant- Okay thanks, I will definitely work on the lower parts of my voice then.

@chamcham- I am doing the low range workout though, it's just the low range workout is still too high. Should I be doing the low range workout an octave below as well as doing it normally? (BTW, I'm the guy who also messaged you on the singers forum :P)

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The instructions in the first track say to "stop and wait for the next track" if the exercise goes out of your range.

Also, you can try singing an octave lower.

I was completely tone deaf when I started. So I had no idea if it was even singing the pitches correctly.

As my voice got stronger, it automatically become easier to perceive pitch. So, if you're tone deaf now, I wouldn't worry about hitting the pitches when doing the exercise. Just focus on not putting tension in your throat and concentrate on the movements you need to make for each sound. I even exaggerated them sometimes.

If you have an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch/Macbook, I use eTuner (I think it's 99 cents, I can't remember).

You sing into a USB mic and it tells you what note you're singing.

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