#1 Tip To Sing Higher
You may have seen videos of people singing into straws, doing lip trills, or making funny squarking sound and wondered if they’d lost their minds! But these crazy vocalisations are called SOVT exercises (Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract exercises), which basically means, the mouth is half closed.
From using straws to making “V” sounds, lip bubbles, and “NG” sirens, SOVT exercises can help singers reach higher notes, reduce tension, improve vocal fold contact, and clear mucus.
Which is why, over the next few weeks, I’ll share different ways you can use these exercises to free your voice and expand your range.
This Week’s Exercise: The Classic Straw Phonation:
This is a simple, beginner-friendly exercise that I recommend to everyone (actually all new students to my studio receive a free straw in their initial fit lesson). All you need is a bendy straw (please dear god no metal or glass) and a glass of water.
Here’s how to do it:
- Place the straw in water and sing into it gently, without using too much air or pressure.
- This light warm-up helps release mucus from the vocal folds and relaxes throat muscles.
You can check out the video below for a step-by-step demonstration, along with a PDF guide for you to download.
Working with Different Straw Sizes:
There are several options to consider for straw phonation:
- Smaller straws (like cocktail straws but have you seen them at all in the past few years?!) are more challenging and are great for accessing head voice, as they help focus the air without putting pressure on your vocal muscles. You can use a piece of hollow pasta instead as well.
- Larger straws are ideal for lower or louder notes, allowing more pressure to escape from the mouth rather than the vocal folds and lungs.
Personally, I use a larger silicone straw (Lax Vox) in water. I adjust the water depth—deeper for lower notes and shallower for higher notes. Studies show this exercise has benefits lasting about 10 minutes after phonation, but I use this as what I like to call a “gateway exercise.” I love it, it is easy and my voice is benefiting from the exerise, afterwards I move onto singing without the help of the water and I perform a few other exercises to increase my range.
Homework
This week, try using a straw for 5 minutes before you begin singing and see how it feels.
Do you enjoy working with straws? If you have favorite exercises, please share! I’d love to try them out.
