Single high notes vs. upward scales

[jonpall]

I, like so many vocal students, have done a lot of scales in which the melody travels upwards in pitch. But sometimes when I'm singing an actual song that requires me to START with a high note, I can tense up a bit and feel that the note feels very weighty and that it takes a huge amount of effort.

Well, a way to reduce this might be to simply practise single, high notes out of the blue, random pitches and vowels. What I think - is that this trains you to be able to call on those high notes whenever you're in the mood for it. Many of my favorite singers seem to be able to do this, often in interviews. Steven Tyler and the singer from Steel Panther come to mind. It seems that it's as easy for them as talking. So this exercise kind of trains you to be able to talk with a high pitched, powerful voice.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

[Danielformica]

Of course jonpall one thing about singing is if you always work up the scale you have to balance that and work down. So start say on g4 and take a low breathe hold it for a split second and then say eh or ah or oh all the vowels start with the one thats most comfortable and sing down 54321 legato then to the g#4 54321 etc. then do the same thing going 8531 etc etc. I do this all the time. You have to hit the voice from all directions

[VideoHere]

that's it. if you're building arms and you just do bicep work without hitting the triceps, you build an unbalanced arm.

descending scales (both stacatto and legato) on "koo" starting as high as possible and then working down i took from roger kain's program.

i'm telling ya, that friggin' "oo" vowel is an unsung hero....lol!!!

[Danielformica]

the koo vowel thing is great for working the headvoice falsetto higher. Im talking about working your fullvoice/performing voice here jonpall. so do not slip into falsetto stay grounded for this exercise.

Use what Bob is talking about for warming up the head voice and increasing the stretch

[VideoHere]

the bottom line ...do something....lol!!!

have goals, be consistent.