Vocal Tension on stage

Hi Camille, I'm a male tenor and I found your head voice/falsetto exercises very helpful. I have a long struggle that I hope to resolve. I can hit head voice and transition quite well when i'm relaxed and practicing at home. But whenever I'm standing, playing guitar and singing at the same time in my church with the band, I tend to exert and over-stretch my chest voice range quite a bit and I have quite a hard time transitioning to the lighter/head voice. I wonder if this is a combination of stage fright and just the amount of volume I have to put out to hear myself over the band. I'm struggling with the F#, G, G# range which should typically be with the head voice but over a phrase of lower notes, I have a hard time switching to lighter head voice while I'm in the band. I have no issues doing that by myself at home. Any tips to help?? Thanks!

Great question, Peter! Depending on your desired sound quality & volume, those pitches can also be approached with more of a mixed coordination (I'll link some lessons below). My guess is that you're relying on chest voice simply because it's what you're used to, and we "default" to what feels most comfortable! The ability to hear yourself is also huge. Hopefully you can work with the sound engineer to get your monitor dialed in so you can hear yourself. So, it's 2 things: continuing to practice singing in that range so that it becomes second nature and you can trust the feeling (even if you can't hear yourself as well), and making sure that your mix onstage is as clear and loud as needed for you to hear yourself!

https://www.30daysinger.com/tutorial/developing-each-vocal-register/1

https://www.30daysinger.com/tutorial/mixed-voice-101/1

https://www.30daysinger.com/tutorial/vowel-and-vowel-modification/1

Thanks Camille, I'll review those lessons. You are right, I probably default to what feels most natural when I can only half-hear myself and once I over-stretch a few notes it feels like a downward spiral. Letting it become second nature to trust the feeling is also a great tip. I guess there's still hope with more practices. If anybody else wants to chime in to help that'd be great!

Absolutely!

Hi! I am new to this website and I just wanted more tips on what would improve the singing voice!

Please see below, Maysam!

https://www.30daysinger.com/blog/getting-better-fast-when-will-i-hear-improvement-in-my-voice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRKaAYfhZj0