Singing: Exercises to improve high notes

Subject: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: NicoleC
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 10:37 PM

Our choir is doing Mozart's Requiem for the next couple of months, and the alto part is really too high for me; not just a few notes but lots of it. Sometimes I can hit those C's and D's (about 10%), but the effort practicing is really straining my voice. When I don't hit it, sometimes it just comes out as a sqeak and sometimes my control is just poor and I don't hit the *right* note. The longer I try, the worse it gets.

I can choose to sing tenor if I want since we're short of them, but even though I can hit all the notes my voice isn't as strong in that range, so I'd rather stick with alto if I can manage it.

Does anyone know exercises that I can do to target that particular problem and strengthen that upper range without working my voice too hard and making it worse?

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: My guru always said
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 02:58 AM

Have you talked to your conductor / director about this problem? Really they ought to be able to help as it is to their benefit after all! Our new conductor has taken our choir in hand in the last 4 months and we are singing better than we have in the last 6 years. Breathing & range exercises should be practiced in all choirs, preferably as a warm-up :-)

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 04:32 AM

Try to find a really good singing teacher. They will know what to do, and can monitor whether you're doing it right (which we can't).
Good luck

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 05:16 AM

Send a PM to Alice - she's a goldmine of knowledge about the voice, and very generous with it. Also, if you trawl through her past posts you'll find a lot of useful info. Whatever you do, don't carry on straining your vocal cords!! Good luck -

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Alice
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 10:14 AM

NicoleC, as you are close to the performance time, it might be a problem. As inncreasing your range takes time, practicing correctly each day and gradually training the muscles involved, you need professional coaching starting now. It's like running a marathon.. you have to build up to it, not just get up one day and do it. I agree with the suggestions to talk to your conductor first and hopefully you will get individual instruction there for exercises. You'll strain your voice by trying to "get there" too quickly, pushing against your vocal cords.

If you can't find a teacher or help from your instructor, you can get a personalized exercise tape/CD from my voice teacher at an affordable cost, $20. Send me a PM and I'll give you the info to get that done.

Alice

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Alice
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 10:19 AM

typo... that should be "increasing".

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: sharyn
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 10:33 AM

Two things: One, yawn as much as possible, whenever you are at a stoplight, waiting in line, whatever. Yawning helps relax muscles that you are straining.

Second, as said above, make sure to warm up. Start in the middle of your range (the most comfortable part, where you like to sing) and sing a few notes down, back through the middle, and a few notes up. Then do it again, adding a few more notes -- just a few. Keep crossing through the middle of your range and go back there any time you get tight. It's sort of like stretching a rubberband. Also, exercising your lower range first will strengthen your high notes. It sounds funny, but it's true.

Good luck

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: NicoleC
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 12:13 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I can't possibly fit another regular lesson and daily practice into my schedule (or budget) right now; nor am I trying to be a great singer. The choir is just fun stuff, but I don't want to hurt myself doing it. In the past I've just skipped over notes I couldn't reach (unless practicing), but there's so many of those high notes in the I don't think I can skip 'em all. I'd at least like to try. Alice's coach may be the way to go.

Individual coaching from the conductor isn't going to happen; I've already tried. Admittedly, she has bigger problems than me to work on :)

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Grab
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 12:39 PM

My singing teacher's advice - it's the side muscles which help you do the high notes. Same principle as breath sustain with the rest of your tummy muscles, but with your sides.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,Claire
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 01:08 PM

Hey Nicole,

Are these notes truly out of your range? If so, yes increasing your range will take time and practice. However, often people have a larger range than they think, but they are afraid of the high notes. Most of my voice teachers have felt that my range extended into what I would call my squeak area.

So much of singing is in your head. Try visualizing going down to those high notes, this will change the shape of the inside of your mouth and will help avoid strain. Don't worry about a full tone on those high notes, either. You may be using entirely your head voice, which is much lighter. The tendancy is to try to bring your fuller chest voice up to hit the high note. Instead work to bring your head voice down to create the smooth transition. Remember, you are singing in a group, not a solo, so you don't have to carry this all by yourself.

Another tip..... As you go up in pitch, imagine the focus of your voice moving to the very front of your face, right into your nose. The high notes focus at the front and trying to sing them at the back of your throat may be throwing you. Excercise this by going up the scale and visualising the pitch focus going from the back of your throat to the front of your face as you rise. Also, relax, stretch, yawn to loosen your top pallette. AND get lots of breath, deep, back filling breaths and practice letting these breaths out in a controlled fashion.

Make sure you are not hitting your consonates too early at the end of your vowel sounds, that will slow down your breath and make it harder to clearly hit those notes. Think about building the energy through the phrase so that when you get to the high note you are still intense.

Hope this is helpful.

Claire

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Deni-C
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 01:21 PM

Relaxation therapy, (just general therapy,) with a tape and deep breathing helped me gain an extra note.


Also, I used chewing gum and yawning and moving my shoulders to dispel tension. Always warmup your voice before trying those high notes.....

good luck with it

deni

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: pattyClink
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 02:10 PM

1. Lighten up. High does not have to be loud and it sounds worse when you 'push'. Back Off.
2. Keep your throat relaxed. 'Drop' your larynx before you start singing and keep your jaw loose and unstressed.
3. Maintain strong breath support. Expand the rib cage, hold it 'open' and keep it strong. Imagine you are pushing outward with your ribs, holding that steady while you do proper diaphragm breathing. (fill the lungs/belly with air, expanding tummy out, then expel the air slowly by pressing inward/upward with your diaphragm.)

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 03:12 PM

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#.)

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Alice
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 03:15 PM

Lift the soft palate (back roof of your mouth). Stay relaxed while you do this. If you aren't used to doing this, it will seem at first that you have no control at all. After awhile you will develop the ability to lift. Look in your throat with a mirror and light. See the uvula hanging down? Lifting the soft palate will make the uvula lift up, creating more space for the sound. It helps alot to be able to do this when singing in the top part of your range.

Alice

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 03:30 PM

Dunno if this will help, but what Mrs. Bianchi had me doing to raise the soft palate was to almost yawn, then lift my upper lip away from my front teeth. Sort if a toothy, open-mouthed grin. It seems to work. It can make a big difference in the sound you produce. Not necessarily louder, but more penetrating. More projection.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: NicoleC
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 09:34 PM

Thanks for all the pointers. I'm going to try these out -- although maybe not all tonight! I do think those notes are in my range, because I hit them sometimes. Hopefully through some of these exercises I can start to figure out the whys of when I do hit them, and then work on making the "whys" normal procedure.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,boobook
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 11:08 PM

By now you must be totally confused! I have been taking singing lessons from a person I consider the best teacher in Australia, and in his view, telling someone to lift their soft palate is worse than useless, because it sets up stress in the person ("am I doing it right, "where's my palate", "is my jaw in the right position" etc etc). In his opinion, the way you learn is to just do it, and when you get the right spot/note/sound, remember how you achieved it and do it again (with a teacher of course, as an impartial listener). He just gives me suggestions and word pictures.

Given you don't have much time, I suggest just sing what you can and give those other notes a miss. It's taken me nearly 4 years to reach the range I now have (around 4 octaves), and that's been achieved through much practise, exercises and encouragement. IMHO choirs are in existence to fill in the gaps - we all sing what we can, and leave out the bits we can't! At the end of the day, you should just have fun and not stress out about it all.

Can I suggest to yourself and the other mudcatters to have a look at the Yahoo group "The Vocalist"? It has great discussions on the physiology of singing, music, and exercises etc for singing.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 01:26 AM

Nicole,

I would certainly trust Don's advice--I've heard him sing, and he's marvelous.

I was listening to an interview recently (January 14) with Paul Bogaev who was the music director for the musical Chicago on Terry Gross' program Fresh Air. He made a point of discussing how he helped each of the actors (who all have singing experience) in the roles reach a broader range than they normally thought they could reach. Might be worth your time to listen to it. Go to the search area and type in "Chicago" and you'll find it easily.

SRS

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 07:33 AM

These days I do have trouble hitting the same Cs myself - but then I'm a tenor. The best advice is always relax, think high, and just hit it. Smiling will help to raise you voice just a little bit - seriously. Enjoy the Mozart - it's a great work - even if some of the music was pinched from Handel !

The piece of choral music which I reckon is the real killer for First Tenors is the Lachrymosa from Berlioz's Requiem. Usually it's best if the singers take turns on who pushes it in each of the repeats. Mind you, later on in the same work during the Tuba Mirum, The Basses (and usually the Tenors as well) have to sing against the biggest wall of sound (huge orchestra + 4 Brass Ensembles + 12 sets of Tymps) that I've ever heard in classical music. You can never succeed in getting over the top - Berlioz was trying to show that nothing could outdo the last trumpet !

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: NicoleC
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 11:19 AM

I had fun with some of the visualizations last night. Nothing consistant, probably because my control is so sloppy in that range, but I had a much higher success rate without feeling any stress. I knew I had 'em in me!

I just tried to go as high as I could without worrying about which note and without pushing too hard, then watched the tuner to see how I did. I even hit an E once!

Not bad for the first day.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Alice
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 11:55 AM

The problem with do-it-yourself training for classical singing is that you can't see and hear what you are doing wrong or have the expertise to evaluate what you are doing right or wrong. This leads to habits that can damage your voice, even if you are hitting the notes you want to hit.

As others on the thread have said, this genre of singing needs the coaching of a good teacher. My concern is for your vocal health. The voice is a delicate instrument. I know of singers in choirs who are certainly hitting notes of the score, but they are pushing to get volume or straining and will eventually develop nodes or other problems. Take care.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,jassen anthony
Date: 12 Jun 04 - 06:07 PM

sometimes i wonder how some artists hit such high notes like christina aguleira song beautiful the part where she sings the sun will alwayz alwayz shine thats so high i want tips how to help me get myself in those high ranges ready for advice

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Jun 04 - 02:28 AM

Picture the note in your head as a wall you want to see over. Work your way up to it slowly, making sure you are well warmed up. The notes on the way up are steps, helping you to see over that wall.

I'm doing Mozart's Requiem in a months' time.... but soprano. That high Bb is starting to look scary! I can do it fine at home, but not in the choir.... Just nervous about not making it in public. Confidence is half the battle.

I suspect that Christina has has extensive vocal coaching and that is a quarter of the battle too.

Of course, picturing Dave Bryant in a dinner jacket and bow tie singing Berlioz makes it all pointless because I can't stop laughing at the image in my head!

LTS

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Jun 04 - 06:55 PM

Since there is no way you can directly control the muscles of the voice, voice teachers tend to use images a lot, and fortunately it seems to work.

I find that one image that works well for me when singing high notes is not to think of the note as "high" and that I have to "reach" for it. I think of my voice as if it were a trombone. With a trombone, to play low notes, you push the slide out. To play high notes, you pull the slide toward you. When I sing a high note, I open my mouth, tighten my abdominal muscles (not my throat!) and draw the note toward me. It works much better for me than thinking I have to reach up for the note. Incidentally, this does not need to contradict the feeling that you are bouncing your voice off the far wall of the auditorium. The tightening of the abdominal muscles is the key. That and keeping the throat open and relaxed. Any feeling of strain in your vocal apparatus is nature's way of telling you to back off.

Incidentally, all this imaging takes place in practice. If you practice it well, when you are performing, you don't need to play with these kinds of images (unless you get into trouble). You think of the song and just do it.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: hesperis
Date: 13 Jun 04 - 08:46 PM

Yeah... it's funny, in playing French Horn I always had trouble with notes that were "out" of my vocal range, even though the Horn was actually a 5th lower than the notes on the page! I could play the exact same range of "paper notes" on a Trumpet even though it was a different range of actual notes and actual places in the harmonic scale than the Horn. Anything above the g at the top of the staff and I'd be having trouble. So visualization really is a large part of it.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,Sollessio
Date: 16 Jun 04 - 10:10 PM

Hey people! Found this on a Google search.

I have to say I'm impressed with Don's advice. I myself seem to be a bass, and my voice tends to give out very quickly, like after three songs. Also, my natural centre note seems to be BETWEEN G and G#...Naturally out of tune! >_<

I also listen to a lot of 80's metal where the singers are crotch-clenchingly high...not good for self esteem. :\ I want to sing like them...is there any way I could?

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Jun 04 - 07:59 PM

Tight underpants?

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: freda underhill
Date: 17 Jun 04 - 09:13 PM

singing softly, quietly and gently during the day before a performance is a great way to get throat muscles ready, excercised but relaxed. Pavarotti uses this technique to get ready for any operatic performance. Using this gentle leadin, he can reach any note.

freda

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 04 - 05:36 PM

i have been told i have an octave range of 3??

and i no nothing bout pianos... but i can hit the 6th note (an e i think_) from the end.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,mark
Date: 07 Jul 04 - 05:42 AM

i want to ask about something ... i'm tenor but i can't get notes sol ., LAb , LA , SIb .... i don't know why ... i do all my best to do it ... my range now is from mi down the middle do to fa# high means about 2 octaves ... and i used head voice in singing high notes it didn't come ... so plz can anyone help and advice me ... thanks

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 07 Jul 04 - 07:32 AM

It's rather unusual to hear an alto complaining about high top notes in her own part. As a first tenor, I've had to hit the same C on the odd occasion - although I'd probably have a problem with a B these days. I've never really thought of the Mozart Requiem as being that high, but people were smaller on average and voices were probably higher during the time of Mozart. From my point of view as a first tenor, probably the highest tessitura is the Lachrimosa of the Berlioz Requiem.

Probably the fact that you are worrying about your top range is not helping - you need to be relaxed before you hit top notes. Many years ago (when I normally sang baritone) I was asked to sing the title role in a production of "Jack & the Beanstalk". It had been originally written for a top soprano "Principal Boy", but she'd had to back out from climbing beanstalks when she found that she was pregnant. The pitch, even though I was singing it an octave down as a tenor, was rather high for me, so the MD transposed it down a tone or two. After that I had no problems with the notes. It was only at the last night party that the MD told me that he had gradually shifted the pitch back up to the original during the rehearsal weeks and that I'd been getting an effortless top B every night of the production - he claimed that he'd been too lazy to transpose all the orchestra parts !
The point is that I'd managed the notes because I wasn't worrying about how high they were. That was what made me realise that I could sing Tenor.

The same trick might help you, although of course you wouldn't be in the dark about it as I was. Try singing through your part a tone down. This will help to give you a feel for the melody and intervals in your part and allow you to sing it without so much effort or trepidation and you will therefore probably learn it better. Then when you feel more relaxed with the part, try singing it back up to pitch. I even used to know a soprano who would have a couple of glasses of wine an hour or so before she tried to rehearse any new high parts and used to reccommend the practice - having heard her hit fautless high Es on several occasions, I can only say that it seemed to work for her.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,r.travell
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 06:06 AM

I worked on Deprovenza for more than a year but could only hit the G#
once. My voice gave out after the first verse. I began study with a teacher in Palo Alto. I believe she was a student with Stenberg. We vocalized with humming only! At first I thought I was wasting my money, but one day after my lesson I returned to my studio and the aria was on the radio and I was overjoyed when I went through the first verse effortlessly, but went on to the second verse without any effort at all! You just do the regular 5-9 scale, think behind the mask and hum the excersise. It really did work for me. Another teacher had me doe excersises in falsetto, and I was very impressed with the improvement through these exercised also.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,mm
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 08:48 AM

I've been thinking about this Nicole and while I agree with much of the sound mudcat advice given on this thread ,the simpler solution would surely be to take along a recording of the piece in question on the night and play it while miming .
Some of your fellow choir members may find that this is "cheating" , a thing I am sometimes accused of when I bring a tape recorder along to trad sessions in my local pub . Against that it can be said that the overall quality of the recording is often of a higher standard than that of the so-called live musicians.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Bernard
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 09:06 AM

One word of caution...

Never drink chilled or iced drinks when singing, as they can have an anaesthetic effect on your voice, resulting in you doing damage because you can't feel the pain!

As for miming to a recording... why stop at an individual singer?! Use a completely different choir, as long as they are good! Even better, use a keyboard with samples of voices, and you can cobble together almost anything!

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,rampine tshidiso
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 08:37 AM

im singing tenor i can"t rich high notes what can i do thanks

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 10:12 AM

do warm up exercises, then gradually extend your range, by singing scales.using an instrument as a guide, find the top of your range then work on trying to improve it by a semitone, check your posture, try and improve your breathing

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 03:31 PM

But never push your voice beyond where it feels reasonably comfortable. Nudge it a bit. But never push it. That way lies disaster.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,999
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 03:37 PM

I don't suppose anyone wants to hear about the Adobe Method? It can increase your range in a trice by three octaves.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Genie
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 08:01 PM

That's kind of hard to believe, GUEST, especially if you already have at least 2 good octaves.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,999
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 11:40 PM

I mean three octaves added to the two good ones. This is no joke.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: The Sandman
Date: 06 Jun 12 - 08:25 AM

YES I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT IT

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Jun 12 - 11:13 AM

I heard about this when it was used by a fellow I knew back in the 1990s. He was doing military service and stationed for a period in a desert region of northern Africa. They'd had to force-march for eleven days across a hot, dry space of about 500 miles. Due to the possibility of satellite detection, they took four camels to carry heavier pieces of ordnance. Because camels require water at least once a week the guys had to find a way to have the camel imbibe an extra four days of water. They did that successfully and were able to complete their assigned task.

Manuel 'Adobe' Cruz was an excellent vocalist and he pondered the situation with the camels and figured that a similar approach would create the same effect on the range of the human voice. He was right.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Genie
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 04:48 AM

GUEST, when I said "especially if you already have at least 2 good octaves," I was referring to voices (like mine) that have a 2 1/2 to 3 octave range but with maybe only 2 octaves that are strong and full enough to be "solo quality."   Adding 3 octaves would give you a range of 5 1/2 to 6 octaves - something I've never encountered.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Genie
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 04:50 AM

Oh, and are you saying the camels increase their vocal range by 3 octaves?

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: GUEST,999
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 08:00 AM

I see I haven't explained very well. I'll try to rectify that.

No, the camels sucked in many extra gallons of water, sufficient to their needs for the forced-march ahead of them.

In preparation for the eleven-day trek across the burning sands the camels were led to a watering hole where they spread both front and back legs to access the water. As they began drinking, one of the soldiers carrying two bricks approached each camel from behind and in a motion much like clapping one's hands together slammed the Adobe bricks together on the protruding bits of the camels' reproductive systems. This caused them to drink very deeply. When it was remarked that it must hurt, Manuel said, "Not if you keep your thumbs out of the way."

I have been thinking that the Adobe Method should work for bass, alto, tenor and possibly soprano singers, also.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Genie
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 10:10 PM

Hmmm. That method might result in everyone singing soprano.

Subject: RE: Singing: Exercises to improve high notes
From: Don Firth
Date: 09 Jun 12 - 01:34 AM

I've never heard a countertenor camel......

Don Firth