I found an exercise that helped me quite a bit, but I give it out with a caveat.

I'm a bass, and most of my comfortable range is below middle C. I can sing down to two octaves below middle C, but it's pretty growly and weak, so I don't rely on it. Anything around or above middle C can get pretty uncomfortable for me. An operatic bass or bass-baritone is expected to be able to sing two octaves, from the F an octave and a 4th below middle C to the F a 4th above middle C, and sometimes even more (Mephestopheles in Gounod's Faust has to sing the G above that). I couldn't hit that high F unless someone jabbed me with an ice pick! My comfortable, reasonable sounding low limit is around F or F# (1st and 2nd frets on the 6th string of the guitar). Or G. G is good. My comfortable, reasonable sounding high is around A below middle C. Bb, B, or middle C is manageable. Depending on how I approach it, sometimes C# or D. So actually, my comfortable range is not all that wide. Frustrating! There are some great songs I shy away from because the range is too wide for me to sing comfortably or that take my voice into areas where it doesn't sound all that great.

Okay. That established. When I warm up, I sing limited scales and arpeggios (not more than a perfect 5th) starting at the low end of my comfortable range (I draw on the exercises that Edna Bianchi had me doing fifty years ago), taking them up by half-steps until I get to the high end of my comfortable range—but never pushing it. Once I'm thoroughly warmed up, I do exercises that span an octave, taking them up and down by half-steps. Then a note beyond an octave (e.g., G A B C D E F# g a g F# E D C B A G)*, also taking it up and down by half-steps. THEN—the stretcher: an arpeggio spanning an octave and a 5th, and coming back down by a slightly different route. (Good breath support, now.) G B D g b d c a F# D C A G. Again, up and down by half-steps, but obviously not very far up and down, 'cause I'm flirting with going beyond the rim of the galaxy here. I find that, surprisingly enough, with this exercise I can go considerably higher than I would have imagined without any particular strain. The big thing is that it builds my confidence that I can do it, and that helps a lot.

BUT—Never, ever, notime should you push it beyond what is comfortable. Stretch your limits a bit, but don't risk straining you voice.

This works for me. I took my first singing lessons when I was about eighteen. During the late Fifties and on into the Sixties (my late 20s and into my 30s) I sang three or four nights a week for four or five hours at a time, and have done plenty of singing since then. I'll be 72 my next birthday, and I'm happy to say my voice feels strong and well under my control, and people tell me it sounds better than it ever did.**

I learned how to take care of it the hard way. On two occasions I developed acute laryngitis, once when I had a very bad cold and kept right on singing, and once when I was working as an operator for the phone company, had a bad cold, and had to keep working. Both times, under the advice of my laryngologist, I had to rest my voice complete (no talking, no whispering, no sound at all!) for six weeks, then begin speaking again under the guidance of a good, knowledgeable voice teacher.

More than you ever wanted to know about me, but other than the laryngitis episodes, I must be doing something right. I hope some of this helps. The whole point: nudge it, but never push it.

All of the above is subject to comment, contradiction, or outright veto by Alice. I know a lot, but she knows a lot more.

Don Firth

*Upper octave in lower case, highest note is boldface.
**To get an idea of what taking care of your voice can do:— Some months ago I saw a film clip of Russian basso Mark Reizen singing Prince Gremin's aria from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin when he was 90 years old! And he was as good as he ever was! Scroll down about halfway, and beneath a photo of him as Prince Gremin, click on the link to Gremin's Aria to hear one of the greatest bass voices to ever sing a note! (The last note is a low F#.)