Major Scale Exercises For Singers! Improve Pitch And Range
In today’s video and blog post, you are going to find two super powerful major scale exercises for singers, which will improve dramatically your pitch accuracy and your range. Enjoy it!
Major scale exercises for singers – video transcript (modified to suit blog post format)
If you want to master your vocal instrument, you have to not only learn to sound great, but also you have to learn to make music with it. Most songs that you hear on the radio use the major scale. And if you don’t know what it is, I’m going to tell you in this video, but also I’m going to give you a little major scale workout so you can become a real musician with your voice.
My name is Jorgelina, I’ve been a vocal coach for 13 years and I specialize in teaching adults how to sing contemporary music from a holistic and integral approach.
Now stay tuned until the end because I’m going to show you a workout that you can do that is going to expand your range and make those scales much easier for you.
Major scale exercises for singers – what is the major scale?
So I’m just going to assume that you know nothing about music and start from scratch. So what is the major scale? In music, sounds are organized into scales. We have 12 notes and they repeat in different octaves.
So if you look at the piano, for example, that is a very visual way to organize these notes in the space. Between any two notes that are next to each other, we have a semitone.
If two notes are two semitones apart, that is one tone.
The major scale has a specific structure with the order of tones and semitones. The structure of the major scale goes like this. Tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone.
The scale gets its name from the starting note that they have. So for example, if I start that structure in note C, then I’m only going to use the white notes on the keyboard, and this is the only major scale that only uses white keys. And that is the C major scale.
If you wanted to change the key, let’s say it started from, for example, G major, you will have to use one of the black keys because you need to respect the tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone structure. So, the F will be sharp (F raised 1 semitone). Now, at the beginning, if you don’t know anything about harmony, this is a little bit hard to understand.
So I actually have a resource for you that you can download from the description below. It’s a PDF it’s designed to be a four-week introduction to songwriting, and you have all that information there.
It’s very affordable, so you can just go grab it right now, and you can have access to it right away.
Major scale for singers – exercise 1
So the first thing we’re going to do is we are going to try to sing the full major scale, and we’re going to do it slowly. So we can remember all the structure. The first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to show you this scale one step at a time. So in this case, I’m going to use numbers. When you learn a little bit more, you’re gonna move away from the numbers and use the solfeggio system (do re mi). But for now, let’s do it with numbers just because it’s gonna make it a little bit easier to do so today.
So we have eight steps, seven notes, and then the octave is the eighth note. And what we’re gonna do is we’re going to sing the numbers and we’re gonna add one number at a time. So it sounds like this. 1, 1, 2, 1, and then I’m going to go up until 8 and come back. , let’s do that. I will sing and then you repeat on your own time.
And that’s the whole major scale. if that was hard to follow, if you never did that kind of work before, that might be a little bit hard to follow. free to come back and slow down the video, that is going to make it more easily, and then you can repeat it as many times as you want.
Another way that you can use the major scale to train yourself as a musician with your voice It’s, it’s a good resource to learn your intervals.
In music, it’s really important to learn intervals, whatever instrument you do. And singing is no exception. What is an interval? An interval is the distance in pitch between two notes. They have different names according to how many semitones in between they have. So, the intervals that you have for the major scale are Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th, and Perfect 8th. So, let’s do that little workout. I sing the intervals one at a time, I’m going to say the numbers, but I’m not going to state if they are major or minor, but they are, either major or perfect.
Major scale for singers – exercise 2
Another way that you can use the major scale to train yourself as a musician with your voice It’s, it’s a good resource to learn your intervals.
In music, it’s really important to learn intervals, whatever instrument you do. And singing is no exception. What is an interval? An interval is the distance in pitch between two notes. They have different names according to how many semitones in between they have. So, the intervals that you have for the major scale are Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th, and Perfect 8th. So, let’s do that little workout. I sing the intervals one at a time, I’m going to say the numbers, but I’m not going to state if they are major or minor, but they are, either major or perfect.
If you are really new to singing, this was probably not too easy, in which case I would recommend to come back to it, slow it down, repeat it as many times as you want, and as many days as you want. And, in the beginning, in my experience teaching, it’s a little bit easier to go up to 1 – 5 first (Do – Sol ). So that is something you can do if you find it hard, just start small, and then you can build up from there.
Major scale exercises for singers – exercise 3
I want to give you a final exercise to train with your major scale today and a scale using the full scale. We’re going to try to do this with an ‘oo’ sound. we’re going to start with a small but as we go higher we are going to start increasing the space in your mouth.
So, it sounds like this (demonstrates). As you go higher, you want to keep the air pressure as even as you can. Try not to go like this (demonstrates), increasing the pressure, it doesn’t even feel good. If you start increasing the space in your mouth that is going to allow you to keep the pressure a little bit more even and it’s going to make it much easier to sing.
3 exercises to expand your vocal range
If you would like more help with this, you can contact me. I offer private lessons and coaching programs, and I’m also about to release an online course.
Now if you enjoy that but you found that the scale was a little bit too high it was maybe a little bit too hard to get to those higher notes with ease, then I have something for you. If you go to the description below now, you can download for free my three exercises to expand your voice range in a safe, effective, and easy manner.
So go ahead and grab it and I will see you next video!
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