Singing higher notes doesn't actually take hours up hours of training, straining, pushing - or even that much practice.

You just have to hit the note in the "right way".

And by note, I'm really talking about VOWELS.

That's right, the most important concept and technique that you're ever going to learn about in singing is the VOWEL.

... but what does A,E,I,O,U have to do with singing higher notes?

Well, everything actually.

A vowel is really a combination of frequencies that ring together - an AY vowel like the centre of the word "hey" is about 500hz and 1.8k frequencies combined together.

But you don't care about those details, I'm sure.

However, when you consider that the PITCH that you're singing, the "NOTE" that you're singing - is actually a frequency too, you'll start to understand how and why vowels are the bees-knees when you want to sing higher notes without straining.

So, the pitch of the note you're singing comes from the speed that your vocal folds are vibrating at, right?

And the frequencies that make up your vowel when you sing ALSO comes from vibration of the vocal folds too, right? (technically, this is a harmonic rather than a fundamental frequency).

Oh, oh, we've just found a conflict of interest!

If we're singing an AY vowel, for example, that rings at 500hz and 1.8k respectively - what happens to this sound when you start singing higher and increasing the 'pitch' of your voice by increasing the speed of vibration of the vocal folds?

Exactly - your voice craps out on you.

You either put too much importance on the word you're pronouncing, and you can't hit the pitch you're trying to sing.

Or, you put too much importance on the sheer pitch that you're singing, and it sounds like you're having a stroke when you try to sing an actual word at this pitch.

Ergo, you need to alter the 'colour' of your vowel as you ascend in range to get the frequency of your pitch to play well with the frequency of your vowels.

Let me show you how it's done;