How to sing high notes softly / Phil Moufarrege @ GROW-THE-VOICE.com

[@douglas.skene88]

Phil's approach to narrowing the vowels is helping me daily to improve with something I have been struggling with for years. The ONLY teacher whose technique has helped with this. The Master.

[@philmoufarrege]

That means a lot coming from a singer and musician as accomplished as yourself. We've both tried a lot of stuff without luck. I'm really happy you've found benefit in these ideas.

[@douglas.skene88]

+Phil Moufarrege if I didn't mean it. I wouldn't say it. We'll catch up for a lesson soon when my schedule dies down a bit.

[@deboraheverette8816]

This is everything that needed to be said ever in life - a studied voice - thoroughly set me straight- where have you been all my life - my voice is like yours loud and big and booming - people love it but I want it all - I want freedom in my voice- thanks a million

[@philmoufarrege]

Hi Deborah, I specialize in teaching people with big, deep voices who are struggling with the typical "just relax your voice!" rhetoric. Check out my website PHILMOUFARREGE.COM I have a free guide there that you will enjoy.

[@saykuus]

killer tips!!! Exactly what i've been trying to figure out when doing my covers

[@philmoufarrege]

Glad you enjoyed it bro

[@WhyArentYouVegan]

Love these videos. I'm pretty happy that I bought your course, and pretty happy that I can use these free videos you create in conjunction with the material in your course. It's cool to know that you're the only voice instructor I'll ever need for the rest of my life.

[@philmoufarrege]

Isn't it a relief when you can stop hunting around and just get down and do the work? That's how I feel, the mystery is gone and it's just about doing it. Cheers dude

[@MegaCityPatrol]

The best thing about your videos is you always actually *sing* something - real examples I can hear and try and apply to my own singing. None of this "mum-mum-mum-gee-gee-gee" nonsense so many other supposed utubular voice teachers go for

[@philmoufarrege]

Glad you appreciate the singing. I do it that way on purpose.

[@diliaofficial3968]

Lol remind me to SLS teachers, even sing in scale they still sounds cracky.

[@dalethegreat5114]

you are an amazing teacher...so glad i stumbled on this,def subscribing

[@corystajduhar]

Great videos. I love how you have worked through the same challenges I have had. I totally know what you're talking about and have come to the same realizations. I realized I needed to stop practicing so much light singing and build my voice at a medium to loud volume. I also used to try to soften my lower notes so I could bridge early. I've also noticed that when you talk about chest voice, you are referring to a more connected, compressed sound and that the more mixed or lighter sound has less compression and resonance in the mouth. When we modify the vowel shapes we are in essence modifying the cord closure which also affects the resonance and placement. It also seems like all of the tricks we use to affect the sound go back to the vocal folds and what they end up doing. Whenever I watch your videos I am pleasantly surprised that someone else has searched the world far and wide to figure out how to make his voice work as I have and still am doing. I even went through the phase of thinking I had to sing like I speak. Lol. I think that whole concept is based on using our natural coordinations. When we speak our vocal folds come together and have some connection. We don't talk airy. When we shout, we have natural support and compression. It can help us find these coordinations, but we can't just try to speak all of the notes. Thinking there is one key that fixes everything is the downfall. I've try tons of courses and they focus mainly on one thing and gloss over others. You bring up lots of different aspects which is great. You also sing examples instead of just talk about singing or do a few scales. It all needs to be applied, and you do that. You're definitely my favorite vocal coach to listen to, Phil.

[@philmoufarrege]

Hey Cory, couldn't have said it better myself, that is such a good point about how a lot of programs/courses focus on one thing as their "magic bullet" and you're right it is a downfall. There's a lot of paradoxes in singing and sometimes you need to do one thing and then later completely abandon it and do another.

[@corystajduhar]

That is so true about paradoxes. I often find myself learning something new and really focusing on it for a while thinking it is "the key" and then afterward I find something else I hadn't been doing and would stop focusing on the previous technique and start to think I was wrong about it. I think what happens is that I try to apply the technique to everything instead of realizing it is just one piece of the puzzle. Once I am able to make it part of my vocal technique I can kind of left go of it, or at least stop having that as the focus. There's definitely a balance. Similar to sports, one has to condition the voice and the supporting muscles. After a while certain things will become automatic. It's impossible to think about many things at the same time, so allowing techniques to become internalized is essential so that we don't try to manipulate too many things at one time. It's a culturing and gradual development of the voice which takes a lot of time, dedication, perseverance, heart, and also "intuition" like you always talk about. Practicing the wrong can really create problems too, so being able to evaluate the situation is very important.

[@philmoufarrege]

A lot of my training is jumping back and forth between opposites. I spend a day trying to make my voice heavier and deeper and louder, then the next day trying to get it thinner, lighter and more agile and free. The two approaches carry over into each other, my louder singing becomes more agile and my lighter singing becomes more full sounding and stable.

[@michaelowens5020]

Wow I am sure you know this already but you are amazing! Thank you! Looking forward to checking more stuff out on your website!

[@philmoufarrege]

Glad you enjoyed it Michael

[@JardaZouhar]

Extremely helpful!

[@isaachutto7177]

I really like these more in depth vids. the vowel modifications are something I really need to work on.

[@philmoufarrege]

cool glad you enjoyed it :-)

[@RICKYDUVALL]

I like this video, nice technical tips. Very simple to understand! Thanks!

[@philmoufarrege]

Cheers Ricky. Take care man.

[@steverinogateserelli]

hello Phil Glad i found you .I'm thinking this may be just in time for me . lets find out for sure thanks

[@rustyfo1]

Great video Phil, as always. This was a huge hurdle for me to realise that I have to practice at moderate to high volumes, to then later be able to bring it down to that bedroom RnB type sound. If I'm being honest, it probably had a lot to do with me being shy about disturbing my neighbours haha :)

[@philmoufarrege]

Hey Rusty, very interesting, thanks for watching

[@meverick]

Awesome vid and demostration Phil. The narrowing has helped me big time.

[@philmoufarrege]

Absolutely, thanks for watching!

[@theophany1770]

Awesome teacher!

[@nikhils4964]

Wow! This is information on a whole new level. Aspects from a whole lot of techniques out there! Thanks very much, my friend. :D

[@philmoufarrege]

Cheers Senatine Jade. I aim to make my free content better than others paid content.

[@nikhils4964]

And a great job at that too! Your videos are so much information compressed in a very understandable and revolutionizing way. Cheers to you to , mate!

[@rodderz5615]

Thanks. Neat analysis.

[@diliaofficial3968]

Hi Phil, why my mix can't clean. There's always a little bit distorted, does this caused by i brokes my voice in the past with wrong technique?

[@into.the.wood.chipper.]

This is a great video, and I'm wondering if you could raise your larynx almost into a swallow to sing the softer stuff. Not sure if that's what is referred to as the "whistle register" or not, but that's how I sing really gently, especially in the first bridge- and what I thought of as "the whisper falsetto" for many years. It does not connect to full voice and can not get very loud, but it works when you have to be very quiet, as long as singing in that manner will not unbalance the voice.

[@philmoufarrege]

I don't mean to come off as rude - a lot of what you are saying makes me think that you may be very confused about singing from watching and reading too many different things. I would highly recommend throwing away all the theory and acting on the following: 1. What do I want to sing? (my own music or covers?) 2. What obstacles am I facing in my singing that prevents me from doing step 1? 3. Who can help me overcome these obstacles? 4. ACTION. Finding a mentor who can give you very simple and direct instructions to act upon is what you need most. The understanding behind singing will come AFTER

[@into.the.wood.chipper.]

Phil Moufarrege I might be confused, but that doesn't mean I'm new to singing or understanding how it works.After recording songs and singing in front of people for 14 years (with a razor thin belting tone), I decided to learn to sing with classical technique and increase the range which started with C2-Ab4 with falsetto extending only to C5. It is generally said that a singer can not learn from just watching KZbin videos and reading books, but I set out to prove just the opposite and after a year and a half, I've got a vocal range of B1 to F5 in full voice. In reinforced falsetto, I've made it up to A5, but not consistently and more hooty than pharyngeal. The range is there, I just haven't figured out how to make my head voice sound fuller- but it's probably because I only took my chest voice up to G4 and let go into a head dominant mix at Ab4. Lately, I've been attempting to fix that, and here's an example of a siren from C2 to E5 (there is audio compression, so you're not getting the full effect of the dynamic volume- but the E5 is piercing and it's hard to record without a hard limiter to keep the levels out of the red.) soundcloud.com/prammaven/9-17-16-vocal-progress By the way, I'm curious if you think I'm a low voice or high voice type. My guess is low tenor, but with a more developed full voice, it could be a low voice (bass-baritone) in disguise. I don't even know where my passagi are anymore- don't remember ever encountering one lower than Eb4.

[@DHWVIDWATCH]

First time I have heard anyone address this question. Thank you for that. So much of pop music and commercial singing is light. It has been very frustrating for me as well because I also have a naturally loud belty voice.. Also if you are a working musician like me in restaurants and hotels people like wall paper so they can talk. You cant sing loud no matter what song you are doing on certain high paying gigs. They want soft. Video Record yourself and picture a couple sitting in front of you having a romantic conversation. You can see how annoying this could be. It is much more valuable to learn how to sing soft and in pitch in the real world. I have discovered that if I give myself less air to sing lighter I am forcing my voice to use only what air I will give it. Psychological warfare. lol. I push all the air out of my abdomen before I start singing. It is much harder to sing soft and in pitch because it requires massive support with virtually no air coming out your mouth. Almost like holding your breath but not all the way. It is almost like talking rather than singing. Great support has nothing to do with more air. The resonance can be controlled in the ung but with great support your resonance will usually happen naturally and will not be nasal. I have a lot more control this way for loud and soft. I have found that too much air and not enough support has always been my problem. Without good connection (support or grounding) however, your pitch will suffer which is the worst that can happen....lol...Thank you so much fore the great tip.

[@philmoufarrege]

Hi Donald, thanks for writing. Like you I also for the longest time wondered why my voice was so loud and struggled to sing softer. What I have found is that there is more to it than just learning to "back off the volume". While this can help, you can only back off the volume to a certain extent until the voice becomes very unstable and collapses into falsetto. If you want to stay in full voice then you have to also experiment with keeping all the vowels closer to an OO and not letting the vowels get big. The bigger the vowel the more volume comes out. The next thing is strategically picking a key. Don't just sing all the songs in the original artists key "just because" - pick a key that suits how your voice sits. For example, if you are trying to sound less loud but the pitches you're singing are up in your high range, your voice NEEDS a certain amount of volume to be up there with stability. Pick a key where it is lower so you can sound less intense. High notes = more intense than lower notes.

[@lukas-force8438]

Thank you so much❤️

[@texholliday]

Great Info - I was recently trying the method of singing lightly thru exercise for 2 weeks did Not grow the voice ! But This info was a very clear approach Thx Thx ! Ill check out your course ..Thx Thx..

[@philmoufarrege]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@minercreepmc]

Man, i can sing high by using this voice but sound so nasally. I jealous with people that have natural thin voice and just sing like this, omg that beautiful

[@philmoufarrege]

There is an entire process to build up to this. First the voice needs to be strengthened loud and big first in a deep way, so that the muscles that keep the larynx stabilized lower learn how to engage. Then over time you can learn to sing less loud while maintaining this solid and stable sound. This is how you learn how to sing softly without going nasal. If you're going nasal it means the voice is collapsing and the larynx is shooting up too high, basically you're losing PRESSURE.

[@saykuus]

uncompressed chest voice is the key bro!! That sound is used so much! I couldnt figure it out until this video!

[@philmoufarrege]

just be careful trying to take it too high.

[@saykuus]

Yea i know what you talking about! I just been noticing on the james brown cover that hes very dynamic in how much he leans into the sound.. So Ive been testing things out and now working more on fading in notes and trying different levels of vocal compression to get that soft sound.. very RNB as Ive been noticing like ya boy bryan mcknight.. RNB got crazy finesse on how you attack each note

[@philmoufarrege]

+jason anderson absolutely

[@ShadowJ7-]

What vocal register is the singer of Kodaline using to sing All I Want? Thank you

[@philmoufarrege]

Send me a LIVE clip of this person singing and tell me the specific timestamp you want me to hear.

[@ДмитрийКончаков-п5ы]

What if I'm gonna practice quietly without air of course, but try to keep tone connected. I found that I can't go quietly above A3 before I practiced relatively loudly. If in the beginning I shouted up to C4-D4 now I can go there more freely but not completely something's still lacking. I have support pretty developed and maybe practicing quietly will help me to figure out how to keep good closure freely. And than I can lean into the sound

[@excatolicoromanoapostolico7785]

So why alot of vocal coaches recomiend the smile for high notes?

[@lee26carl]

thanks for the video. I have a baritone voice thats hard for me to do high notes. maybe I enrich my own voice better to where its range and not force it too much...

[@weirdgumball5551]

hi Phil wher is marnell sample i miss him

[@philmoufarrege]

I talk to him often. Why don't you message him?

[@ANTONYTHEDRAWINGMAN]

thanks for the reply phil...you have a great voice by the way.one thing i wanted to ask you.if you come across a song that you struggle to sing because of the key that it is naturally written in.either too high or too low for your particular voice range is it a case of you may have to give that song a miss or is it a case of you can with practise adapt your voice to finally sing it. has that ever happened to you?

[@philmoufarrege]

Cheers Antony!!! The truth is no song is ever really "easy" they all present their challenges in one way or another. I recommend changing the key of songs to suit YOUR voice *gasp* yep I said it, I know it's not a popular answer but the truth is that the key of the song is there because it suits the original artist, so you want to do the same thing and make it suit your voice and make it your own. You have to find where the song sits in their voice and make it sit in a similar place to your voice, this could sometimes mean you need more range so that you can develop the "part" of your voice where the song sits.

[@ANTONYTHEDRAWINGMAN]

Thanks for the advice Phil your a great singer and a fantastic human being...not very many of those about.your videos have helped me no end.

[@OsmiumStudios]

Phil, how high can I pull my chest voice?

[@philmoufarrege]

check out my website and sign up to the free mailing list on the front page there are some pretty badass free tips you'll get.

[@SAWI666]

My problem is singing "O" (Uh) vowel, example Pupus - Dewa 19 on chorus. Even tough i can mix voice, that song still hard for only A4 note.

[@philmoufarrege]

yes the darker more closed vowels are harder to take up high but they are NECESSARY to learn

[@elja.]

Hi Phil. How do i sing higher notes like the weeknd where his high notes in the 4th octave are very soft and don’t sound like they require effort at all.

[@philmoufarrege]

There is quite a process to get to that point. The voice firstly needs to be built very strongly and loudly first. Then over time you can learn how to soften and reduce the volume of it.

[@elja.]

@@philmoufarrege ah thanks Phil. Is this video by you here the right way to make my voice stronger and louder ? kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4LaZqyapZh6d68

[@VIDEOHEREBOB]

Phil is it possible to make the recording volume a little higher?

[@philmoufarrege]

I couldn't because then the loud parts would clip and distort. I didn't want to use compression either because I wanted you to be able to hear the audible difference between my lighter singing and louder singing. In future perhaps I can make just the speaking louder. Did you enjoy the video?

[@VIDEOHEREBOB]

Yes, we agree on a lot of things. I'm not a fan of the "light and right" approach, although it may work for other vocalists. I feel the voice should be exercised/worked out at a support-engaging level of exertion.

[@philmoufarrege]

+VIDEOHEREBOB ha ha "light and right" I prefer to say "strong and right" ;-)

[@AlooshSABBAH]

every time I sing it feels like my voice is heavy even though I talk in a slightly soft voice. Is there a way to get rid of that heaviness?

[@philmoufarrege]

I need to hear what you are doing to be able to prescribe any kind of advice.

[@BobbyWashingtonvlog]

Are you the Phil that signed Jermaine Jackson to Arista?

[@philmoufarrege]

Haha I wish, I'm a big fan of Jermaine though he is such an underrated artist who was overshadowed by Michael. "Lonely won't leave me" alone and "you're giving me the run around" are two favourites of mine.

[@BobbyWashingtonvlog]

Phil Moufarrege oh yeah. He’s amazing. He has a great ear. I remember him letting Mike know when he was a bit pitchy...

[@najsbajsmedmajs]

When Rodger Hodgson from Supertramp sings "Logical", he sustains multiple G4's with a voice that's incredibly soft and quiet. Is that something that an average tenor can train to do, or does he have a very unique voice allowing him to do that? I mean, I consider myself as having a pretty high voice, and I can pretty comfortably hit notes in the fifth octave, but I can barely even sing an E4 as softly as he sings G4's.

[@jkljkl1945]

How do I do THIS?: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYm3e3WobtmnbrM&ab_channel=TheBeatlesVEVO

[@philmoufarrege]

Depends on where you are. Your question is like saying "how do I get to the top of the mountain?" Well where are you currently? What are you missing currently? What happens when you TRY to do the thing you're trying to do?

[@sgim43]

hey man... maybe run your audio through some melodyne or something before uploading... a little pitchy (and by little I mean lot. Sorry. And these comments secants must be heavily edited cause there's no way I'm the first person to acknowledge this...)