Why Do Singers Lift Up The Chin To Sing?

Have you ever noticed that many singers (maybe even yourself!) lift up their chins to sing high notes? There are reasons why singers do so but it might not be the best idea. Keep on reading or watch the video to find out!

Why Do Singers Lift Their Chin To Sing High Notes? Video transcript (adapted to suit blog post format)

I’m not sure if you notice, maybe in other people trying to sing or in yourself when you try to sing notes that are perceived as higher, that some people tend to attempt that  by bringing the chin up. That seems like the natural thing to do.  Well, spoilers ahead, it doesn’t work.

Not too much either way. So  why do we lift the chin to sing?    There are two main reasons why we do naturally when we are not trained as singers. And the first one is that we somehow perceive that higher notes are ‘higher’. We think that they are somehow up, but they are not.

Everything happens in the same place.  What happens is that the frequencies vibrate faster in ‘higher’ notes, because there are more oscillations per second in higher notes.

So they are FASTER. More energetic, but not higher.

Have you ever noticed that many singers (maybe even yourself!) lift up their chins to sing high notes? There are reasons why singers do so but it might not be the best idea. Keep on reading or watch the video to find out!

Why Do Singers Lift Their Chin To Sing High Notes? Video transcript (adapted to suit blog post format)

I’m not sure if you notice, maybe in other people trying to sing or in yourself when you try to sing notes that are perceived as higher, that some people tend to attempt that  by bringing the chin up. That seems like the natural thing to do.  Well, spoilers ahead, it doesn’t work.

Not too much either way. So  why do we lift the chin to sing?    There are two main reasons why we do naturally when we are not trained as singers. And the first one is that we somehow perceive that higher notes are ‘higher’. We think that they are somehow up, but they are not.

Everything happens in the same place.  What happens is that the frequencies vibrate faster in ‘higher’ notes, because there are more oscillations per second in higher notes.

So they are FASTER. More energetic, but not higher.

The other reason why we do these kinds of things is that for higher notes, we need a smaller space (the vocal cords increase their ‘tension’). So   when we are not trained singers, we don’t have a sophisticated way to do it. And therefore we tend to do that by constricting the space. This is what you’re doing when you bring it. For singing with a good technique and in an efficient way, you need ‘less space’ in the voice production area (vocal cords are ‘stretched’), but you also, if you want to sound with power, you need an open vocal tract.

As I mentioned in other videos, if you have been looking at my videos, I talk a lot about the difference between singing from the external muscles of the larynx and singing from the internal muscles of the larynx. When you are singing without technique or with technique methods that have to do more with instant results, then you are probably going to be approaching singing in a way that it might sound like it works, but long term it can bring voice damage and you also can limit your potential a lot.

So what you have to train when you’re learning to sing is the ability to control the pitch of different notes from the internal muscles of the larynx.  

That way, you can have a healthy, powerful voice going up.

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