Will my vocal range develop with age? [Counting Stars cover, male 15)

[josh314]

I'm currently 15 years old, and I used to sing a lot when I was little, and prepubescent.

Now, in the midst of my voice changing, I'm trying to get back into singing, but it's as if my vocal range has been cut off on both sides. My voice isn't as low as it's going to be, but it's way lower than it was 2 years ago. I was wondering if in a few years, once my voice has stopped deepening, would it be easier to sing higher notes, as well with lower notes?

Right now, when I try to use my headvoice, I just can't. I end up cracking and straining my voice. Using falsetto isn't an option either, because my voice just decides to crack.

The song I cover below has a high part, and I've tried to sing the high notes but I can't seem to reach them, so I drop an octave lower.

As of now, I know my voice is very untrained, dull, pitchy, nasally, etc. I hope to work out those problems as well, but for now I'm focusing on my vocal range.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0uskOGfWM8K

(A few tips or exercises to reach that head voice/falsetto sound would be greatly appreciated, as well)

[Owen Korzec]

It will get better with age and also training. I would recommend taking some one on one lessons with a vocal teacher at this point or soon once you have a half decent range to work with, that will really help.

Based on my personal experience, if you have like only one octave usable range and a weird super high squeaky voice crack kind of falsetto you'll have to kind of wait for age to fix that (although training could still help). But if you have about 1 and a half to 2 octaves and access to falsetto in a normal range then you're probably fully past voice change and just need to retrain your "new" voice. To blame it on age at that point would be a cop-out.

So its good to figure out what point of voice change you're at, what your current range is, etc.

Also worth noting you might want to focus more on extending your full voice (without straining) first because the falsetto and head voice can sometimes take longer to settle in after a voice change, it was that way for me.

[josh314]

Thanks Owen. I kind of figured I was at that transitional stage with my voice. So there is nothing I can really do now to expand my vocal range, but I will still condition the voice I have now.

[Lavishous]

I'm 17 yrs old and I have experienced many of the issues you are discussing when I was a little younger. I now have a around 2 1/2 usable chest octaves (B1-F#4) with a bit of wiggle room on the upper and lower sides if I want to go in either direction. I started at 16 barely able to go above middle C without tremendous voice cracks or flipping into falsetto abruptly. I began training what I did have in range carefully and without stressing the parts I couldn't yet reach, and with time and some pubertal balancing I have come a long way. Naturally, there are still moments where I feel as though I'm very limited but it's important to maintain some perspective about your voice, especially at our young, developing ages. I would also recommend you try training your falsetto register a bit; not excessively or to the point of priority, but I found it helpful in establishing the "sensation" of using higher notes than I could initially reach in chest/mixed voice. Hope this helps!

[Bay_Harbor_Butcher]

Hi Josh. My name's Josh too.

You sang a difficult song. I noticed how you lowered the key when you reached the "and I...feel something so wrong by the doing the right thing..." part. You were supposed to sing the line higher with the "I" in full voice then shift to falsetto/head voice. But don't worry. You're only 15 and you're here asking for tips.

What I'm about to tell is based on my experience and not something what a "professional" singer might tell you.

When I was 14, my voice started to deepen and I began having difficulty belting out higher notes. What I did (and I won't advice you to do same thing as I was unsupervised as I did not undergo any sort of training or singing lessons) was I pushed my voice to reach the high notes that I used to be able to sing. Basically, I just kept on singing the same songs that challenged me vocally. Back then, I was singing Brian McKnight and Boyz II Men and some Mariah Carey songs.

By the time I was 16, my voice became thin because I got used to singing in my head voice/falsetto instead of full voice and that alarmed me so much. So I refrained from resorting to head voice or falsetto when I am having difficulty singing songs in higher key and instead, I pushed (like I always did and still do) my voice to sing with full power BUT not abusing it (or maybe I did at one point abuse my voice, LOL).

I'm no expert but I believe that if you have the natural ability to sing outside your range, you can hit those notes as long as you keep on practicing (singing difficult songs) even if unguided. Like what they say, vocal chords are muscles - you need to exercise those muscles. But if your range is limited, it cannot be concealed.

Why don't you record a full version of that song and try to sing the high parts in your high register so we can hear? Keep on singing! ;)

[Owen Korzec]

Thanks Owen. I kind of figured I was at that transitional stage with my voice. So there is nothing I can really do now to expand my vocal range, but I will still condition the voice I have now.

i wouldn't say there's nothing you can do it just might be harder. i didn't train during my voice change, i started seriously learning to sing right afterwards, so i don't know for sure but usually the voice can improve with training more than people think, at any given time, whether you're 5 or 15 or 80. with proper training of course you'll improve. it just may be a little more difficult to while your voice is changing.

[josh314]

Thank you, Lavishous. Yeah, at this point, finding my head voice/falsetto is one of my main priorities. I will keep practicing, but it's reassuring to know that my voice will kind of settle down and I'll be able to hit high notes again.

I'm no expert but I believe that if you have the natural ability to sing outside your range, you can hit those notes as long as you keep on practicing (singing difficult songs) even if unguided. Like what they say, vocal chords are muscles - you need to exercise those muscles. But if your range is limited, it cannot be concealed.

Why don't you record a full version of that song and try to sing the high parts in your high register so we can hear? Keep on singing!

Ah alright. So practice is the best thing I can do.

And maybe I'll try the song again, and it will probably be better since I won't be worried about waking anyone in my house up, haha. Only problem is my voice cracks, and when I try to sing high notes, it kind of sounds like I'm squeaking, and not an actual singing sound is coming out, lol. I will try to push my voice (but I won't strain it) by singing higher pitched songs. Thank you.

And Owen, thank you. I will still try to train my voice.

[ronws]

I could hear no overt nasality in your tone. So, right off the bat, you are not hearing yourself correctly, which is common. Singers, even pros, must realize that they hear themselves differently than others hear them.

Second, quit talking. Instead, sing. That is, when you are singing, quit thinking of it as speaking on extended pitch and note duration. While singing, your voice is a musical instrument, not an instrument of recitation of prose or poetry.

If you can do this, it will help in letting you make notes above your current speaking range. You are not baritone or bass. From the sound of your voice and the weight, you are an untrained tenor, if that means anything.

When you sing words, you cannot do it the way that you speak them. Consonants become softer and not as prominent. Let the vowels form in the back of your mouth, not at the lips.

As for training, there will be times when the voice cracks and flips. Let it happen and move on.

As a teenager, when I would sing "Stairway to Heaven," the high parts were in falsetto. But, in 1988, I learned t smile, just a little. Made a big difference.

[josh314]

Second, quit talking. Instead, sing. That is, when you are singing, quit thinking of it as speaking on extended pitch and note duration. While singing, your voice is a musical instrument, not an instrument of recitation of prose or poetry.

If you can do this, it will help in letting you make notes above your current speaking range. You are not baritone or bass. From the sound of your voice and the weight, you are an untrained tenor, if that means anything.

Thank you ronws. The "talking" and dull sound I've been struggling with for a while, but you made it clearer, thanks.

[donduck12]

Hey dude I am 16 and my voice started changing when i was 12 lol.For the firrst 2 years it was horrible,I couldn't reach anything higher than c4 so I stopped.When i was 15 I started singing again just for fun and discovered that I can actually sing full f4 and f#4,so the change happened very fast and it was surprising.I think taht you should sing eveyrthing that feels comfortable and the notes will come with the time,don't worry .