I usually warm up with some vocal exercises, starting in the low to middle part of my range, humming at first to get the right feel (the vibrations in the sinuses that I mentioned), then vocalize on vowels, keeping the same nasal resonance (again, not "nosey;" big difference). I go up and down part of a scale, usually starting on a low G (6th string, 3rd fret—that's pretty low, but then, I'm a bass), like G, A, B, A, G a few times, then take it up a half-step and do the same thing. Then up another half-step and yet again. I keep that up until it's up to almost where it starts to feel uncomfortable, then I go back down by half-steps. I then expand it a little, say G, A, B, C, D, C, B, A, G and so on, also taking that up a half-step at a time. Then jumps:   G, B, D, B, G and so on. [My neighbors probably think I'm torturing a buffalo.] There are whole batches of exercises like this that are good. Actually, if you know scales and chords fairly well, you can make up a lot of your own exercises.

Once I'm warmed up, I start of singing a few songs with modest ranges. "I Ride an Old Paint" has a range of a sixth—from A (open 5th string) in the key of D, where I feel most comfortable with it, up to an F# (4th string, 4th fret). Just for practice, you could take that, or any other fairly short-range song, sing a verse, capo up one fret (or bar), sing the next verse, capo or bar up another fret, and so on (I would never perform it that way, though).

I'll go from that to songs with a wider range, say up to an octave. Just to keep it in the realm of cowboy songs, "Streets of Laredo" has a range of an octave. Or if you prefer Scottish, "McPherson's Lament" also has a range of an octave.

"Greensleeves" has a somewhat wider range:   an octave and a minor third. I do it in Bm (capo on II, play Am chords). That takes me down to an F# and up to an A. I may do it up a fret (Cm) if I'm feeling energetic.

There is one song I really love to sing, but for me anyway, it's a real monster. "Jock o'Hazeldean." Octave and a fourth, which I can manage okay, but the very first line starts on the highest note in the song and takes you to the lowest! Hitting that first note with a good, clean tone and not sounding like a loon with laryngitis is the trick. A real bitch to sing! But Ronnie Browne of the Corries doesn't seem to have any trouble with it.

I don't know if any of this helps, but I don't know what types of songs you'd be particularly interested in.

It is possible to expand your range some, but there is also a natural limit beyond which your voice just will not go without having to force it some, and that's a royal road to vocal problems. I don't have a really wide range, and I just have to sigh and admit to myself that there are some songs that, no matter how much I like them, I just shouldn't sing.

By the way, opera singers have this same problem. A light, lyric tenor like Juan Diego Flores could ruin his voice if he tried to sing heavy dramatic tenor roles. The Swedish tenor, Jussi Bjorling, died relatively young, but his voice was crystal-pure to the last because he was very careful about what he chose to sing.

Don Firth