The elements of singing include: accuracy (being able to hit and hold the pitch you’re going for); developing your ability
to sing whatever high pitches you wish to sing; producing a good tone; and singing long phrases between breaths. Those elements are helped along by different
factors.
In my experience, practice is the single biggest factor in singing success. Sing every day,
as much as you reasonably can. It's certain that accuracy comes with practice
(unless you’re a natural), but so do the other elements.
For high notes, I would recommend the book/CDs “Can You Sing a High "C" Without Straining?” by Thomas Appell. I’ve consumed a lot of material, and this is the single best resource I could recommend.
That book explains the physiology and the theory of how to get the larynx to hit high notes, but actually doing it yourself is often another matter. The way I found out how to make high pitches was through experimenting. If you can find somewhere
very private to experiment (like when you’re driving alone in the car) then you’re going to feel less inhibited. Experiment with raising and lowering the larynx, for example (which makes for some funny sounds). But in my case going through that phase of learning the parameters of my voice (both silly and not silly) was the biggest factor in learning how to get high(ish) notes.
A small change in fitness has a big effect on singing. But it’s hard to commit to being fit all the time. Similarly, being very hydrated is a big factor in how your voice will perform. So, not mixing singing and alcohol (or caffeine) is a good idea, too.
Breathing exercises have a huge effect on the length of phrase you can sing without taking a breath. But they don't have as great an effect on
your ability to hit and hold high notes, I’ve found. You do need a good amount of breath support for high notes, but that's incidental next to what you're able to do with the small muscles in the larynx.
Those small muscles will get tired, so you won’t be able to sing high for
very long at a time until you’ve practiced and practiced and built up the stamina of those small muscles. Often, resting for
just a few minutes will restore those muscles enough that you can sing high again for a while. But it’s really a matter of developing stamina
over days and weeks and longer. The thing to avoid is straining, because that
will make the larynx sore and that'll keep you from practising. Do a little bit
each day, and build up the lengths of your sessions.
Tone (or timbre) is mostly about making enough space in the face/throat/mouth to get the resonance you’re looking for. Your options are always limited by the frequency of the pitch you’re singing, but within those parameters you do have some control over how rich the sound you’re producing is.
Opening up your mouth can make you feel self-conscious but the results are worth
it; and it probably doesn't look as dramatic as it feels, in any case.
More details on all of the above info can be found in the public domain. I’d recommend looking up YouTube videos
that have been made by singing teachers (“lowering the larynx” or “neutral larynx” are good search entry points that will lead to a million other similar videos). There are
a lot of such videos out there, and it’ll take a good while to separate the ones you like and can use, from the others.
I'll get you started with just one video recommendation:
Daily singing exercises for an awesome voice.
Full-voice exercise: A3 up to C5
As you listen, you'll hear me call out the name of a note (a pitch class and its octave number),
and then you'll hear an arpeggio played. When I call out note "so-and-so", that means "so-and-so is the highest note
in the arpeggio you're about to hear".
For example, you'll first hear me call out "A3", and then you'll hear an arpeggio
containing the notes A2, C3#, E3, and A3. So the arpeggio starts an octave
below the highest note, then it moves up a major third, a minor third, a perfect fourth, and lands on the highest note. It's that highest note that you want
to focus on hitting. The other notes are just there to give you a run up to it. If it matters to you, then just be aware of what octave you're singing in.
And remember that vocal score is written an octave higher than you
actually sing; if, for example, you see a C5 on a score then you're
expected to sing C4 (middle C).
Extend your range and find your highest note
Singing along with the exercise above will help strengthen and increase your full-voice range.
If it helps, you can download the mp3
(right-click that hyperlink and click something like "Save link as...") and burn it CD-R.
It's a good idea to practice in the car or wherever you're happy singing loudly and freely.
That exercise can also be used to find your ideal key for a song. That's a two-step process.
Step 1 is to sing along with the exercise and find the highest note that you can sing that you like the sound of (perhaps for reasons of its strength
and control and good tone). There's going to be a range of notes that
you're happy with, so your "highest note" is just the highest note in that range. The very lowest notes that you can sing are
probably not going to be your favorite notes, simply because high notes are, generally speaking, more
interesting and dramatic than low notes. Similarly, the very highest note that you can reach is likely not
to be your favorite, either, because that note is right at your limits so it won't be comfortable. Also, as you
approach the top of your range, unless you train yourself to prevent it, your larynx will tend to raise and your
timbre will thin out and lose much of its richness. You might even identify a set of ranges, for different purposes. Write down
everything you discover about your voice. The entire range, and then any interesting sub-ranges.
Perhaps you like the husky, sexy quality of A3 to D4; the practical, powerful, multipurpose quality of C4 to C5; and A4 to G5 for a song that needs sweet more than it needs powerful.
If you need to record your voice before you can tell what you like, then do that. Call out a note or a range of notes (either a scale or a broken chord)
and then sing them into the recorder and listen back.
Step 2 is to tell the composer of the song the result of step 1, in other words what the highest note is that you're happy singing.
For example, if your highest note is F (the octave number doesn't matter), and the highest note in the song
is 4, then the composer will arrange the song in the key of C.
