Singing Within Your Range

There is an inborn restraint that should guide all good singing; this means that a singer should understand the guiding principles of good singing. Many singers, for example, are so obsessed with performing high notes that they lose their artistic way, and literally forget about their obligations to the music and to the emotional needs of their listeners. We hear this, for example, with singers who insist on singing in unnaturally high keys to show off their higher register vocal skills.  Operatic baritone Sherrill Milnes once put it this way, “It is one thing to be able to sing a high note, but it is an entirely different matter to live up there.”

Unfortunately singing in unnaturally high keys often distorts vocal quality, undermines vocal ability, causes unhealthy stress and strain on vocal muscles, and can literally strangle the life (and meaning) out of songs. In these circumstances, heart-felt, artistic singing is virtually impossible. Ironically, singing in high keys often subverts the singer’s capacity to sing high notes with comfort and excitement. If a singer is pushing the very top of his range, there is very little room left for spontaneous vocal passages, for instance, because the singer is overly concerned with reaching his high notes. There are also the muscular limitations that come into play when singing in high keys that prevent easy high-note delivery. To add a further irony, singing in lower, more natural keys can give a singer the ability to sing higher notes with greater freedom because his vocal muscles are able to flex, adjust, and stretch more easily when they are not being overly taxed with having to perform in higher keys.

This is not to undermine the natural thrill of witnessing mesmerizing, vocal acrobatics, but only to say that flamboyant singing is artistically justified when it serves the intentions of the music or situation, such as in certain rock, gospel, and operatic repertoires.

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