So you want to sing higher notes without straining.

There's something VERY important that you need to learn - but fortunately it's very simple and easy to apply.

First up, the note that you're singing is a frequency, right?

The speed of vibration of the vocal folds creates this pitch.

Now, the VOWEL that you're singing (or word, if you prefer) is ALSO a frequency that is derived from that same vibration of air between the vocal folds.

You can see where the conflict of interest might be when you're straining to sing higher notes.

Now, if you want to sing higher notes without straining today - the key is to understand that when you sing higher notes, you must ALSO sing a more appropriate variant of your vowel/word at the same time so that the frequencies play nice with each other.

This 'conflict' is the cause of 99% of all strain in your singing voice - you're literally asking for a sound that doesn't match the pitch you're trying to sing, or vice versa. You're trying to sing a pitch which doesn't exist within the sound that you're singing.

The solution is very simple however.

The sound that comes from the vocal folds is not actually the sound that you're hearing when you sing, or at least not the dominant sound or the word and vowel you're hearing.

These are formants, meaning, a derivative of that fundamental vibration created by the vocal folds pulsing and exciting the air passing through and around the folds.

You already CAN sing higher notes that you're able to use currently - however, the formant simply doesn't match the frequency of your pitch in any way, so you PUSH the sound harder trying to MAKE it come out the way you want - this can be a passive or active push (you might not even realise you're doing it!).

When you've got so many little moving parts pulling in all kinds of directions trying to follow your instructions - when at a fundamental level you're asking for two sounds that simply don't match (pitch and vowel), you end up straining and tiring the voice.

Basically, you're taxing the voice every word that you sing without even realising.

Then that high notes comes along and....

SPLAT.

Your voice breaks or you strain to force the sound out.

When instead you should be doing these three simple but practical things to help you sing higher notes without straining: