Just a few spontaneous thoughts on expanding the upper male range. I believe we have many more tenors walking around here on earth than we think we do!! We just need to know how to teach them to go there and love it!!! :)

I use finger on the Adam's apple on buzzes and mums for helping them monitor a stable larynx. 1-3-5-4-2-7-1 or 2 octaves and back down on the seventh chord.

As they approach the head voice try imagining a pelican pouch under their chin... the feeling of extra weight helps to keep the larynx from jumping when crossing the passaggio. Flare nostrils at the same time to keep the focus in the mask too.

Wrinkle their nose to feel the 3rd speaker....the nasal pharynx...keep pelican pouch and expansion in belly. Feel that the neck also is a like a tiny rib cage and it also stays expanded.

Do puppy dog whines and cries up in head voice range. This helps to close the chords and produce a connected head voice sound as opposed to the falsetto sound where the vocal chords are not vibrating the same way.

Hum with a ring in the nose and 5 notes down. I like the 'Woo' vowel as it keeps the lips forward and the vowel out front (Wookie in Star Wars). Put tone in mask and on bottom teeth with pelican pouch, support, etc.

Hang notes on upper bone of nose. Sing right through that spot.

Use the hissing muscle action first with short hisses and then use the same lower body energy on every note they sing. They have to get out of the pulling of tones in throat in upper range before going into head voice. Focusing more on the abdominal support and the nasal pharynx (Zorro mask, pizza face, etc.) helps take away the focus on the throat muscles and release that tension .

Let's hear it for more tenors in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Linda Spevacek :)