If I could only share one tip with every singer in the world, it would be this: straining doesn't help you sing.
But why shouldn’t we strain to sing?
The short answer is probably something you may have guessed or heard before: straining is unhealthy.
This is 100% true!
This is the main reason not to strain when singing - it can actually hurt or damage your voice, and in my own experience before I learned how to sing, it even leads to pulling muscles in your chest, face, jaw, shoulders or neck. (I pulled many muscles in my chest at once after spending an afternoon trying to belt by straining. Yeah. Not cool!)
But the second reason you should never ever strain when singing is because straining doesn’t help you sing!
In fact, straining prevents you from being able to sing!
Think about this: singing is quite literally just exhaled air. That’s all it is—it’s exhaled air that we shape and move in certain ways. Our breath expels from our lungs, and it comes back up through our windpipe, and then gets released through our mouth or nose.
Now, imagine a pipe, say in a plumbing system, with water running through it.
If you want the water to change speed or strength, do you crumple the pipe?
Of course not—you can imagine what would happen. You would actually impede the water flow, and the water gets backed up, is abruptly stopped, etc. etc. Lots of bad things happen. That pipe is now smaller because you crumpled it, so if anything, the water pressure will be slower and weaker.
The one thing that doesn’t happen is better water flow.
From this point on, whenever you feel yourself start to strain, I want you to imagine that you are crumpling your windpipe.
Straining and tension and pushing your voice harshly is doing the same thing that our crumpled water pipe has done. You are impeding your airflow, stopping it, making it harder, and preventing your airflow from being pure and easy.
Well, if we were trying to fix that water flow in that plumbing pipe, maybe we need to fix a leak, or we need to turn on the water higher at the faucet, etc etc.
We do not, however, want to crumple the pipe!
The same thing goes for your voice.
If you are experiencing strain or tension when you sing, it is because of some other factor. Such as:
1. Vocal Placement
Vocal placement is where you are placing your voice in your mouth. For example, Chest Voice is located in the front of your mouth, close to your teeth, but head voice is located in the back of your mouth, under your soft palate.
If you are trying to sing a high note, but your voice is forward in your mouth, it is impossible for it to hit a higher note because high notes are not in the front of your mouth. Therefore, so many people try to force their voice to go higher using strain, but it will always fail because your voice is trying to tell you this isn't where your high notes are!
For example, take a song that you normally strain on. On the part that you experience tension, instead, softly hum it. Notice that your voice can go higher when you hum. Feel where your voice is traveling. You will feel that your voice goes backward and up, as if going out through the back of your head. It takes some practice, but you can learn to find that vocal placement with your mouth open, too.
For a visual, I drew the route that your voice takes when you sing below:
2. Breathing
Another culprit that causes your tendency to strain can be breathing. If you are breathing incorrectly (aka, from your chest and shoulders versus your diaphragm/stomach), it can cause you to strain due to a lack of enough air.
You can learn to breathe with the video below, or the post here!
3. Singing Vowels
Another culprit of straining when you sing is a lack of singing vowels, which is just another term for your mouth shape when singing. If your mouth is not open enough, and doesn't maintain the space needed for your air to circulate properly for singing, it can feel like your voice gets stuck. Sometimes, this can make us strain, when really we just need to open up that space.
You can learn about singing vowels with this video, or this post!
If your voice doesn’t have the strength or the power or the pretty sound you want, it isn’t because you aren’t pushing hard enough. It’s actually the opposite. Your voice actually won’t come out the way you want it to if you push it or strain. Strain prevents you from being able to sing with a pure voice! I will repeat that as many times as it takes for it to sink in: strain prevents you from being able to sing properly!
Instead, if your voice isn’t strong enough or supported enough, make sure you’re breathing correctly! If it isn’t clear sounding, focus on your singing vowels! If it isn’t reaching high notes or low notes, make sure your voice is in the right vocal placement.
However, never strain or push or crumple the pipe.
Let the water, let your voice, run through that pipe freely, and adjust the other factors if need be.
Relax!
Singing is 100% effortless, from soft head voice, to mixed voice, to belting out like Adele or Christina Aguilera. If you are experiencing any problem, I can guarantee it isn’t straining.
The problem very well could be that you are straining to sing!
As always, leave any questions below, and I offer online voice lessons here if you need any other help!
Happy Singing!
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