What would you say is absolutely essential for a singer? The answer would be, a good and healthy voice. A good voice as in not “just wonderful voice” but as in healthy and well maintained voice which will be a pleasure to listen to while speaking and especially while singing. Voice is very precious and cannot be replaced or repaired easily if damaged. Therefore a great amount of effort has to taken to care for your voice.
The Problem: One of the problems which occur when we try to sing “just that little bit higher pitch” is that our voice cracks. The cracking happens when the transition from one pitch to the higher pitch is not done smoothly. There are three registers for singing namely low, medium and high register. Generally there is no problem with the mid register for any one. But, for low register the chest voice is used and for the high register a mixed voice or the head voice is used. This means there is a transition from your chest voice to the head or mixed voice while singing and vice-versa.
There are “transition points” in your voice where you switch from one register to the other. When you reach the top of your chest voice, your voice needs to adjust itself and move smoothly into your mixed or head voice. If this not done well, your voice cracks and the song will go haywire.
These “switching points” are called “vocal bridges” and let me tell you they are a very narrow bridge indeed. So if you learn how to cross this bridge without falling your voice will not crack and your song will not fall down.
The Remedy: There are some specially prescribed exercises which will help you to overcome this problem. This helps your voice to glide smoothly from one register to another as if they have been bonded together. These are exercises which first strengthen the muscles which support your vocal system. Once the support system is in place the exercise helps your vocal chords to coordinate your voice to flow smoothly from register to register with no cracking or breaking of voice. It will almost feel as if your voice has suddenly become one single instrument.
Voice developing and muscle strengthening exercises are available online and also as a part of learn to sing by yourself singing program software. If your practice these exercise regularly as instructed, you will find your voice developing and flowing smoothly like a river. After sometime you will wonder whether you had a voice cracking problem at all in the first place. One very good thing about our biological system is that once it learns a method to do something, the body memorizes it and reproduces it without fail. So, it is only a question of a little hard work on your part to attain the perfect voice.