What changes anatomically to expand vocal range?

GreasyDreams

I've been trying unsuccessfully to expand my vocal range for years. I do the exercises, but ultimately it's been for naught.

But, instead of asking for help, I'd like to know some general information. Specifically I am curious what happens anatomically that lets people expand their range.

What I imagine is: accessing high notes and head voice strengthens the cricothyroid muscle. That in turn adds more pull to the stretch, which over time gradually lengthens the vocal cords. The very slight amount of extra length the vocal cords attain also thins the vocal cords, which allows for a slightly higher pitch to be accessed.

Is this on the right track? I feel like this is basic stuff that's never directly addressed.

DannyOc3an

I do think you're on the right track on the mechanics, while I know Ken usually states that he tries to keep the methodology as simple as possible to address most people without complicating the terminology, I have seen a few posts and a few videos of him talking about this stuff. In fact I think there are something like 9 cartilages dealing with the sound production in there, not only the main muscle groups... It's a bit more complex in reality...

Personally I've found that expanding vocal range has a lot to do with doing the right type of workouts and doing them almost daily for a very very lenghty period of time (months and years).

I don't know if you have access to the course, however I can tell that by using the workouts laid inside, almost every student does expand their range in a quite fair amount of time, if doing the daily workouts correctly and having patience for all this muscle growth and stretching to happen.... Again, I feel it is a series of factors that should be in place in order for this to happen correctly. (Good abdominal support, good ping and cord closure, relieving tension by the use of vowel mods, good resonance and placement by using an open throat position, training only as far as the voice can reach once warmed up and growing a half step at the time... etc)...

Lastly I found a cool YT video on Ken about how the voice works, I find it very useful for digging a bit deeper into the mechanics of the whole process, from support to the sound production and how does it work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD9B2Xok6aE&t=33s

GreasyDreams

DannyOc3an said:

I do think you're on the right track on the mechanics, while I know Ken usually states that he tries to keep the methodology as simple as possible to address most people without complicating the terminology, I have seen a few posts and a few videos of him talking about this stuff. In fact I think there are something like 9 cartilages dealing with the sound production in there, not only the main muscle groups... It's a bit more complex in reality...

Personally I've found that expanding vocal range has a lot to do with doing the right type of workouts and doing them almost daily for a very very lenghty period of time (months and years).

I don't know if you have access to the course, however I can tell that by using the workouts laid inside, almost every student does expand their range in a quite fair amount of time, if doing the daily workouts correctly and having patience for all this muscle growth and stretching to happen.... Again, I feel it is a series of factors that should be in place in order for this to happen correctly. (Good abdominal support, good ping and cord closure, relieving tension by the use of vowel mods, good resonance and placement by using an open throat position, training only as far as the voice can reach once warmed up and growing a half step at the time... etc)...

Lastly I found a cool YT video on Ken about how the voice works, I find it very useful for digging a bit deeper into the mechanics of the whole process, from support to the sound production and how does it work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD9B2Xok6aE&t=33s

Thank you very much for the response! I'll watch that video asap.

I'm very interested in knowing exactly what the exercises are changing, but that's usually kept pretty mysterious unfortunately. Or maybe I'm just not listening closely enough? ;-D