How many times have you been told you need to "relax your throat and everything else" and have "no tension" when singing?  This kind of advice ALWAYS frustrated me when I was first learning to sing because it left me with no actionable step on what to do.

I would sing up to F4 which used to be my highest note...strain and just be told "yeah you're straining, relax more!"  Then I'd just flip into falsetto because I was too relaxed.

I didn't know what to do.  I could only either choke and strain...or flip into falsetto.

The best thing for my brain was removing the word "relax" lol.

So I don't think of trying to "relax" a voice...instead I pinpoint what's weak in the voice, or what coordination is overactive and then I strengthen the weaker side of the coin so to speak until the balance is even.

Singing requires muscular effort.  Heck, even STANDING requires muscular effort.  But when you stand up, because it's so easy, you think "I'm just relaxed".

This is why I don't like the term "rela...

The most common areas you might get stuck with your chest voice range are going to be either:

1. The first bridge (F4 for males / C5 for females)
2. Or the 2nd bridge (A4 for males / E5 for females). 

In this video I'll show you what to do if you're getting stuck at either of those areas with your chest voice.

The way I build voices is in segments.  Before trying to go higher, the first main goal is to build an extremely strong, solid chest voice up to your first bridge (F4 for guys, C5 for ladies).  It needs to be loud, solid and clear.  I go more into detail about this in my last video here.

So that's the first step.  Get really good at your first bridge.  Once you've done that then we can focus on how to approach the 2nd bridge.

If you're getting stuck at the 2nd bridge, then it's likely that your approach from the first bridge up is going wrong.  Just because you can sing up to the notes doesn't mean you're doing it in a way that will take you to your goals. 

This took me many...

Weak mixed voice?  Just continuously "bridging into headvoice" may not fix the issue.  It is only ONE PART of the answer.  If your mixed voice is weak then it is likely that you need to STRENGTHEN your CHEST VOICE.

Here is an email I received:

"Dear Phil,
My mix voice is very weak and has a really bad tone which isn’t changing despite me trying various exercises.

I’m looking to learn how to strengthen this mix voice and make it actually usable when singing above the break.

Is this mix voice a good start or do I need to find a different approach?"

He sent an audio recording which I show in the video above.  What you're doing in this clip is actually NOT mixed voice.  You're going from chest voice and flipping to falsetto.  There is a common misconception that mixed voice is just about "smoothing the vocal break between chest voice and falsetto" but it's not.  Mixed voice is actually just your chest voice extending beyond where your vocal break used to be.

Most people have this be...

Before training with Phil, I was convinced that I was anatomically incapable of singing above a G#4 in my chest voice without strain!  And although it’s an ongoing journey, I am now getting up to B4 and high tenor C5 with increasing consistency and relative ease!

I’ve always felt that my voice was rigid and inflexible, and that the only way for me to sing well was to belt out those notes. Phil is showing me that this needn’t be the case, and I’m now starting to discover a flexibility and freedom in my voice that I’ve never felt before.

I have tried lessons with several singing teachers over the years, and have been extremely frustrated at my lack of progress. When I saw and heard Phil explain his background and the vocal struggles that he had overcome, it resonated with my own experiences, and I felt that he could help me where no one else has been able to...and he has!

Before working with Phil, I really felt that I had plateaued in my vocal development. I was frustrated that I couldn’t...

Since training with Phil Moufarrege, my range, vocal strength and stamina have increased a ton. I feel much more in control of my voice and can confidently sing notes I would have been nervous to even attempt when I first started. I also learned a lot about how my own voice works; I know how to easily access my mixed voice and understand the muscle coordination required as I sing in different ranges.

Before I started training with Phil, I couldn’t sing above an A4 and had a very harsh singing tone. Now I can sing seamlessly past my break and well into the next octave with more strength, compression and accuracy.

I used to have a very unbalanced voice, muffled in one part of my range and too much of a choked nasal sound in another. My voice is now much more consistent and smooth through all ranges. These were problems I couldn’t even hear in my own singing when I started, and never would have fixed had Phil not picked up on them.

I chose Phil as my teacher because I was looking

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If you're a singer who has been stuck with a limited vocal range, or suffers from going hoarse after every practice session then I think you'll enjoy this singing transformation.

I started singing a year ago, and I've been extremely fortunate to have Phil as my first real vocal coach. I'd been looking on YouTube for singing tips for quite some time and ran across one of Phil's videos. The way he broke down how the voice functioned in a clear, systematic, and easy to understand way instantly drew me in. His no B.S, logical, and straightforward teaching style is something that seems pretty rare among vocal teachers these days.

When I first began, my voice was very muffled and dull, and the highest note I could hit was E4, which I would have to shout through. On top of that, I had an annoying vocal cord closure issue - which caused my voice to become hoarse after every practice session.

However, after taking singing lessons from Phil for 9 months, my voice has transformed incredibly! I

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For about a year or so, I’ve been studying singing regularly with Phil Moufarrege.  I can now sing with far more ease than ever before.  He's taught me how to sing without strain through my vocal bridges in full voice, how to avoid the anxiety and negative thoughts that I have always battled, and how to love my voice so that I can keep improving.

Before meeting Phil, I had been training singing for nearly 1 year with other teachers face-to-face.  Although the lessons helped me get started, they could never diagnose the issues in my voice or tell me how to avoid cracking and flipping into falsetto. They'd just tell me “sing LOUD!” and I would end up just yelling and my throat was in pain all the time. I was always just pushing...never singing.

I knew that there must be a way to fix this so I searched online and saw Phil on Youtube and contacted him immediately. I saw immediate results from only taking 1-2 lessons with him.

He can hear every little misalignment in your technique and

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If you're struggling with vocal nodules or fatigue through your sets and don't have the vocal range, ease and consistency you used to have then I can help you get it back and better than before.

Vocal nodules are basically the "end result" of consistent irritation to the vocal cords.  Prolonged misuse of your voice can lead to swelling of the vocal cord.  Constant misuse at this point can eventually lead to a callous/growth on the vocal cord which we call a nodule.  Swelling or nodules can interfere with how your vocal cords work, which make hitting notes harder and more risky.  Because of this, the instinct will be to try and "force" your voice to behave, the only way to do this being through constriction.  It might help you hit the note, but you'll irritate the voice even more.

There are many pro singers who have dealt with this, probably the most famous of them being Freddie Mercury (I talk about how his vocal nodules affected him here).

So if vocal nodules are caused by consi...

In this singing transformation you're going to see how Quentin dramatically improved his voice by working with me.

What Quentin has to say about his singing transformation

Before studying with Phil, I felt like just a typical average singer stuck with my vocal range and tone. My voice sounded OK but nothing special.

I was in a rock band at the time and always wanted to sing like Ronnie James Dio or Chris Cornell, but I couldn't sing any of their songs and had to sing all the high parts in falsetto.  Singing Dio in falsetto doesn't sound cool.

I took singing lessons with other teachers first, and while they helped me to an extent, my vocal range was still limited.  I felt like I had two different voices and was unable to connect them. I lacked confidence with my singing because all my energy was focused on my singing technique - so I'd do weird things live because my technique didn't match my ambitions.

The most frustrating was recieving feedback like "Your voice is ok but you

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Is weightlifting bad for singing?  Depends how you're doing it.  In the video above, I share some tips that you can implement so that your weightlifting doesn't negatively affect your singing voice.

The common belief is that weightlifting will stiffen you up and create tensions in your body that will negatively affect your singing.  Can this really happen?  Yes.  But there is also a way of lifting weights where you can avoid this problem.

There is a lot of dogma and "black and white thinking" in the singing community.  Statements like "weightlifting is bad for your voice!" or "milk is bad for your voice!" etc. are way too simplistic to be truthful.  We have to go deeper.

Yes weightlifting CAN have a negative affect on your singing.  If you are not careful of HOW you lift weights, you can develop tension patterns particularly in the jaw and throat which can encourage you to that same kind of constriction when you go to sing.  If you get jaw and throat constriction while singing th...