Hey singers of the world! Welcome back to some really practical and helpful tips on singing to the best of your ability. This series is designed for the individual singer and the worship pastor who leads a team of many vocalists. Here you will find some information regarding what we call “vocal tendencies”, and how to improve upon your singing based on these tendencies.

Each of us tend towards a certain sound or imbalance in the voice. This may be airiness in the chest voice (lower tones) or even across the whole voice. We would call this a light chest tendency. You may find that you have a really full, thick, connected sound in your lower tones and then all of a sudden you ‘flip’ into a softer, airy, less connected sound. We would call this a flip tendency. There are four main tendencies that we will be addressing in this series (light chest, pull chest/high larynx, flip, and mix), with some tips on how to grow, no matter where you find yourself.

The ‘Flip’ Tendency

Someone who has a tendency to flip would sing well in their chest voice (lower range) and then ‘flip’ into a softer sound as they approach higher notes. This is sometimes a popular technique for certain genres of music but can limit the power you have in your mid and upper range. If this sounds like you and you want strengthen your voice, have a look at these videos and also try some of these exercises developed by our vocal team!

Also try these exercises from Lara Tenhoorn, who’s one of our amazing singers and vocal trainers at the Hills Campus:

Start with a Nasty Nay on a 1.5 scale first, always starting in chest.

Then Gee Gee Gee on a 1.5 to help the voice balance between bottom and top.

You want to isolate where the flip is and walk a 5-tone scale, up and down directly through it, coming from chest voice and walking up into head voice. You can start by using the edgy vowels Aa and Eee and then add B consonants, then G consonants, N’s and M’s. Then go back to 1.5 to rebalance after all of this high intensity work.

Hope this helps!  We want YOU to be a better singer, so whatever you do, don’t flip out! ?  Stay tuned for our next post on how to navigate the ‘pull chest‘ tendency. 🙂

Chelsea LaRosa
Hillsong College Vocal Oversight – City Campus